Playa Piskado, Curacao

If you want to snorkel with sea turtles, you've got to go to Playa Piskado on the northwest side of Curacao.

This beach is also known as Playa Grandi.

There are two parking lots to choose from. Both are free parking. There's a small parking lot when you drive in to the beach. The other parking lot is much bigger, but is up the road and there is a staircase that will take you down to the beach.

As you pull up to Playa Piskado, you will see a sign on a tree and then a tree that they painted an octopus on. You can turn down that road and park on the side of the road or at the parking lot at the end. If there is no parking there, you can drive up the road to the bigger parking lot and take the stairs down to the beach.

As you get to the beach, there is a boat ramp and pier. The turtles are usually swimming on the right side or north side of the pier.

You can also rent beach chairs and umbrellas or just lay out your towel. Most of the beach is coral so make sure you have some flip flops or water shoes to wear.

They do have a snack bar and bathrooms, but this is only open on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

These are some aerial views of the beach and the crystal clear water.

Then we got into the water to snorkel with the turtles. There are typically turtles here because the fisherman feed them with the leftovers from cleaning their fish on the pier.

You can see from these drone shots that the snorkelers go way out to follow these turtles.

Overall, we loved Playa Piskado. It was so fun to snorkel with lots of sea turtles. We would highly recommend this on your next trip to Curacao.

Note: There are excursions that you can pay to take you there, but you can also just go on your own for free. That's what we did and we loved it. We did bring our own snorkel gear.

(Click on the map above to go to a Google Maps larger view.)

Visiting Playa Piskado is free. You will need $3 to rent a beach chair and $2 for a beach umbrella or you can just lay out your towel on the coral. That's what we did so our total cost was $0.

Total Cost: $0

These are the checklist items I recommend:

• Bring a hat to keep the sun off of your face.
• Bring sunscreen
• Bring your own snorkeling gear
• Bring some cash is you want to rent a beach chair and umbrella.