Snorkeling at Marazul Dive Resort, Curacao?

by Valerie
(Ellicott City, MD)

We are planning a trip to Curacao for June 2019. So far, I have decided on a 10 day stay, divided between Avila Hotel and somewhere else! I have read some good reviews of Marazul Dive Resort and the snorkeling there. If anyone has experienced the snorkeling from this resort, I would love to hear from you.

We have two boys, 11 and 6 who are great swimmers. I can scuba dive as well, but my husband does not. We love snorkeling!

Advice appreciated!

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Mar 03, 2019
 Marazul Snorkeling Answers
by: PalmettoStateMan

We stayed two weeks at Marazul and really enjoyed the laid back atmosphere. I wrote a story about it on this site.

We snorkeled right in front of Marazul. Marazul sits on top of a 30 foot high cliff and that cliff extends down into the water another 15 feet or so. What we were able to do is swim westward along the cliff wall and see a very good array of sea life, parrotfish, lionfish, puffers, trumpetfish, squid, octopus, eels and others. There were a good number of soft corals, fan, and others, some elkhorn, other hard corals, and sponges. We had a very nice first swim for about two hours. It’s good to be able to snorkel right in front of our condo.

We snorkeled another time from our Marazul location. We went to the east since we went west last time and it was pretty nice. The water is very clear but the clouds were intermittent so the visibility was good on and off. There are a few areas with healthy coral growth and a fair amount of fish. We also saw a squidron of squid and a sea snake.

We also did a night snorkel and it worked out great. The facility has two water entrances that are separated by a few hundred meters. We had snorkeled these areas during the day so it was familiar to us plus going east to west we basically could drift the whole way, so we went for it. We had waterproof flashlights and we got in on the eastern end and started our night adventure!

I will tell you it is a little creepy out in the ocean, even that close to shore at night. We saw so many tiny little transparent organisms floating all around us with illuminated eyes, many tiny little shrimp and a huge pufferfish. We noticed that many of the corals had flowery tentacles out as well as lots of red eye type fish that we didn’t see much of during the day. We also saw many slipper lobsters and sea snakes. If you have the opportunity to night snorkel under the right conditions we highly recommend it.

I hope this helps you out.
Mar 03, 2019
 Great Home Base
by: Sandy Beach

My sister and I spent a week at Marazul in November and loved it. In addition to snorkeling along the wall from one staircase to the other, we followed the wall around its east end to Playa Forti to snorkel both walls of the cove and then swam to Playa Grande, where you can snorkel with sea turtles. We weren’t sure we’d want to swim all the way back, so we carried shoes; had we wanted, we could have gotten out at Playa Forti, climbed up the steps by the restaurant and walked back to Marazul.

The location is great for visiting other beaches—it's a quick drive to Playa Lagun or Playa Kalki. The resort is very well maintained, with some resident iguanas, laundry machines and a nice pool. Make reservations for the Wednesday night barbecue, and you’ll meet others with great suggestions on where to go!
Mar 06, 2019
 Another Good Review
by: Shiela

I see my sister already wrote a review but thought I would add my two cents. This place was great! Loved the fact that we could snorkel right there. Saw a lot of creatures that I had never seen before including a Flying Gunard. This is a YouTube video of him! Saw a lot of eels as well.

Our unit was very clean and well maintained and the pool was very relaxing after a long snorkel. I know I would love to go back to Curacao and if I do I will definitely stay at Mar Azul.

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