5 Curaçao Rainy Day Activities

It’s rainy season in Curaçao which means day after day of downpours. Want to know what to do on this Caribbean island when the weather is bad? Here are 5 Curaçao rainy day activities, so you can still have fun without the sun.

Curaçao Museum

Housed in a pretty former hospital building in the heart of Willemstad’s UNESCO historic district, The Curaçao Museum‘s collection honors the island’s history.

Art, crafts and furniture fill up the main building, but the highlight of the museum is the old airplane in the hangar in the back. So either bring your umbrella for the run through the raindrops, or find a break in the rain because you want to see the tiny aircraft in the shed. The Snip carried 4 crew and Christmas mail from Europe to the Caribbean in the 1930s, marking the first KLM trans-Atlantic mail flight, which took 8 days. They had to take off the wings to fit it in the barn, but it’s a cool exhibit and story.

The Curaçao Museum is located in Otrabanda Willemsted.

Landhuis Bloemhof

One of my favorite places on Curaçao, the Landhuis Bloemhof offers history, art and nature all in one magical spot. The hiking trails are more like fairy paths, with whimsical art and charming signs strategically placed along the way.

The highlight of the Landhuis Bloemhof is the Cathedral of Thorns, an art-filled labyrinth structure made of the titular thorns endemic to these islands. It is a beautiful piece of art, and you could spend hours marveling within it, created by Dutch artist Herman van Bergen, who apparently is in residence frequently and happy to talk about his work. This is probably my top of the 5 Curaçao rainy day activities because of this amazing piece.

Landhuis Chobolobo: Curaçao Distillery

Learn about the history of the island’s eponymous liquor through a tour and tasting at Landhuis Chobolobo. Your guide walks you through the stages of making the orange flavored beverage, with samples along the way, so you’ll learn and get buzzed.

At the end, relax in the bar and enjoy the tour’s complimentary cocktail of your choice! You can skip the tour and visit the bar and gift shop, but for $15, drink included, you’ll spend an entertaining 45+ minutes learning about Curaçao’s most famous export.

Kura Hulanda Museum

Also known as the slavery museum, Kura Hulanda is a private anthropological museum within a resort in the downtown Willemsted area of Otrabanda.

While not as modern and well-organized as the Memorial Acte in Guadeloupe, The Kura Hulanda Museum represents and reveals the diverse cultures and history of Curaçao and its people. Founded and funded by one local philanthropist, the museum includes art and relics from the multiple cultures which comprise the backgrounds of modern day Curaçao.

It is known as the slavery museum and parts of it are grim. There’s a life size representation of a slave ship with very little space for the hundreds of people on board. This is history; it’s real, and it’s grim.

Kura Hulanda is spread across an impressive assortment of buildings and an outdoor sculpture garden, in a beautiful part of the city. Make sure to walk through the courtyard of the hotel and restaurants for the entire experience.

The Maritime Museum

The three-story building in downtown Willemsted is a great way to while away a couple of hours on a rainy day. Make sure you go in the morning because the museum closes at either 1pm or 2pm, depending on the day.

A visit to The Maritime Museum is a great Curaçao rainy day activity. You’ll learn about the history of the island’s maritime traditions, including shipping, pirates and military. Your experience begins with a short movie about this history, and then you are free to explore the museum, which naturally has a lot of ship replicas, instruments and navigation tools. All of this memorabilia is interesting to boat dwellers and history buffs, and it’s dry in the museum.

Conclusion: 5 Curaçao Rainy Day Activities

Obviously, you can try these 5 Curaçao rainy day activities on a sunny day, but won’t you be swimming, snorkeling or on the water? As you can see from my map, these sites are all located in or near the main city of Willemsted and some can be combined and visited in the same day. Most admissions were $10 USD or less, except for the distillery tour, which was $15 and included a cocktail. Covid restrictions, like using hand sanitizer and keeping 2 meters apart, are enforced. There aren’t many tourists here so maintaining social distancing is generally easy.

If you have more rainy day activities to recommend in Curaçao, please share in the comments. We’ll be here for several more weeks, and it will probably rain again, so we’d love suggestions!