Has Anyone Been To Hato Caves?

[vacation fool]

Looking for info on a tour to Hato Caves and do not see much posted about it? Has anyone been there? How far is it and was it worth the trip? Am looking to do a morning excursion with the ship but want to see if i can fit this in for the afternoon? Will be in port til 6pm. Any input appreciated.:)

[MIDOSCAR]

We just came back from our cruise on 8-12 and we were in Curacao on 8-8. We didn't have anything planned for the day but my son who is 16 wanted to go the Hato Caves. The rest of us weren't sure but decided to try it. My husband was very very hesitant about going there because it is about a 20-25 minute ride and he thought we would get stuck there without a ride back. We got off the boat and headed for the line of taxis. Lucky for us, we got a wonderful woman who said she would take us out there for $25--there were 4 of us. I thought this was a little high but what choice did we have. She said she would come back for us and when my husband continued to questions her, she said she would definitely be there for whatever time we needed her as she didn't want a bad review on cruise critic. We all thought that was funny. Anyway, she took us out there, told us all about the island and sights along the way. We had a great ride out there and when we got there she walked us into the building to get our tickets, talked to some of the people there and we were on the next tour which left right away. She said she was going tto wait right there for us and would be there when we got out. We went on the tour. It was really nice to see the insides--it is a little dark and there are bats there which was why the 3 of us didn't really want to go--but they don't bother you at all. The tour takes about 40 minutes and we went around 10 am and it was really hot in there. It is like a sauna. I am not sure if it is worse in the afternoon or not. Just a word of advice. We got some great pics in the area around the caves of Iguanas which my son loved. They have hundreds of them living there. True to her word, our taxi driver was there and she took us back going in a different directions and thereby giving us another look at the island. The cost of the caves is $7 per person. The taxi back costs another $25 so all in all the tour cost us $78 which I thought was a little much but we had a really good time.

 

Our original plan was to go to the caves and then the beach. Our driver told us a nice beach to go to out by the caves but we didn't have our swimming stuff with us. Dumb move on our part because we could have saved some taxi fare by having her take us right to the beach. We ended up going back to the boat, getting changed, getting another taxi to Kontiki Beach for $15. We spent about 2 hours there and it was beautiful--it cost us $2 per person there. Probably the best beach we were on between the 4 islands. We then took another taxi back to the shopping area for $12. All in all a pretty expensive day but we had a great time and my family liked this island the best out of the 4 with St. Thomas a very close 2nd. We had no problem getting a taxi anywhere--just very costly. Hope this helps. The caves were very cool to see so if you get the chance, go to them but just be aware that it may be hot in the afternoon. I have the woman's card who gave us our taxi ride out there but I am at work and I don't have it with me. If you are interested in contacted her, let me know and I will post it. Have a great trip.

[MIDOSCAR]

As a follow up to my previous e-mail, the woman who was our taxi driver was Dr. Cheraldine Osepa and she runs a place called Coast 2 Coast. Her card has the following info.

info@coast2coastcuracao.com

www.coast2coastcuracao.com

 

Good luck on your cruise and the caves.

[vacation fool]

As a follow up to my previous e-mail, the woman who was our taxi driver was Dr. Cheraldine Osepa and she runs a place called Coast 2 Coast. Her card has the following info.

info@coast2coastcuracao.com

www.coast2coastcuracao.com

 

Good luck on your cruise and the caves.

 

Thankyou:)