At the eye catching and remarkable peach-colored church of Sint Willibrordus turn sharp left. Drive over the three hillocks and pass the flags of the Coral Estate Area on the right-hand side. After just a little more slinging through impressive cacti on your right and left you’re heading straight for Daaibooi Beach.

Try saying “Daaibooibaai” letter by letter. Doesn’t that sound like music? Eventually this jingle was taken literally: At the parking lot of the Baai (= bay in Dutch and Afrikaans), reggae music from the beach kiosk welcomes you. An immediate Caribbean feeling is guaranteed. Daaibooi beach is located at medium altitude in the west of the island. It is easily accessible by car or bus.

Hat on, hat off or under the hat?

Definitely hat off! The beach has a few shady trees, palm trees, thatched hats like big parasols and cabanas that invite you to lay back and enjoy the sound of the sea. In addition, there are the Curacao typical covered table-bench sets, called palapas. They remind a little of our beer sets in Bavaria, only with a roof. These are on Curacao a sometimes more or less crooked and solidly mounted all-in-one solution for the beach stay.

In the afternoon and on weekends around noon, the beach starts to fill up. Locals arrive with coolers, their own grills and music. They eat, talk, and laugh until the sun goes down. It is where families and friends gather. Kids play on the beach, jump into the sea one more time, parents prepare the food, while the grandparents usually rest on the palapa bench in the shade. You could say meeting for BBQ at Daibooibaai is the Caribbean equivalent to the Bavarians’ beloved after-work visit to the beer garden. Daaibooibaai is definitely a family beach!

Typical get-together of locals under a palapa

If you don’t want to sit or lie down directly on the sand, you can rent sun loungers at the kiosk for a small fee. At Daaibooibaai there is no charge for relaxing under the various little hats. Despite the popularity of the beach shady spots become available frequently.

(Leave the) phone home

Stressed out by incoming notifications and fancied ideals of influencers? Put your cell phone aside or leave it at home. This beach is a good smartphone detox place.

Not only will your smartphone report at most an “E” for “Edge” or “End of the World” at Daaibooi but naturally, you won’t find any sockets for charging your phone at the little hats. That’s reserved for the beaches in the luxury hotel complexes, such as Karakter Beach in Sint Marie Bay in the Coral Estate area which is also nearby.

An important asset at Daaibooibaai is Chris. He runs the kiosk in the yellow-painted hut with the blue windows and has stocks of reasonably priced snacks and refreshing drinks including Polar beer that tastes extra good at the beach with your feet in the warm sand. Moreover, there are toilets free to use.

Also, if you do want to bring your phone, you two will most likely become friends: besides cool comments in all situations Chris, very conveniently, offers free WiFi. As described above, connection is a game of luck at Daaibooibaai – nonetheless, should the WiFi not work Chris will restart his rooter for you if you ask him nicely. “Don’t worry … everything’s gonna be alright”

Chillen op de Antillen at the kiosk

In the meantime, you can ask Chris something obvious, for example if he is Dutch; with his funny nature the ice is broken at the latest when he answers something like “Siehst Du hier einen Wohnwagen? (Do you see a caravan here?)”. We recommend to best to ask it – like me – in English and then be happy about the German answer 😉

Chris comes from Luxembourg, is always in a good mood and has never been seen ruffled at all. When there is not much going on, he sits in the middle of his guests, sways to the beat of his reggae music and jokes around in several languages.

Chris from the Daaibooi Beach kiosk

In addition, Chris has a heart for animals, especially for the small, yellow sugar birds, which are cared for under the kiosk porch roof with their favorite food, sugar. His creative side shows through the wooden tables made of folded cable drums at which you can enjoy the beverages and snacks. If you like, you can also spoil yourself in the shade on a massage chair.

Dushi Shower

Between the kiosk and the beach entrance there is, or rather was, a real highlight in the middle of the sand: a freshwater shower! For 0,25 NAF you had the luxury to get rid of sand and salt. That is Dushi, as the Antillans say here. Unfortunately, it is not that simple with the shower. Although every evening the shower head is dismantled and the money is emptied, the shower repeatedly falls victim to thieves… Summer 2021 there was no shower due to that reason.

Natural air traffic

The bushes around the kiosk are teeming with birds. Here, mentioned sugar birds chirp, Baltimoretrupials sing beautiful melodies, and now and then the pretty St. Thomas parakeets drop by in pairs. The latter squawk more than sing and are known as “Unzertrennliche (Inseparable ones)” in Germany. Birdsongs are the natural background sounds at Daaibooibaai.

Sugarbirds in the tree at the Daaibooi kiosk

Also, don’t be alarmed if you find yourself eye to eye with a pelican as you resurface in the water. The pelican circles over the bay and likes to take a break on the protruding reef rocks.

Underwater Highlights

The entrance to the sea is very shallow and the sandy bottom reaches into the sea quite long. If you like more variation, you should definitely explore the side reefs of the bay, be it by snorkeling from above or offshore diving from below. Daaibooi beach is home to turtles that usually come to the bay after 4pm. You can watch them nibbling the reef or accompany them swimming through the bay. But please do not touch or feed them – that goes without saying. Some of the turtles are marked on their fins, which means that each one is registered and needs species protection.

Child-friendly, shallow entry into the sea at Daaibooi Beach

The SSI dive center at Daaibooi is called Divers Republic and is located a bit further behind the kiosk on the right side of the bay. It is owned by Bob, another Dutch fellow. The diving equipment and tanks are well preserved in a big metal container.

Sometimes ear-splitting noise emerges from this corner of the beach because since 2019, jet skis have been rented out and driven – much to the chagrin of noise-sensitive creatures, both on water and on land. For some beach visitors, however, loud engine sounds seem to be music to the ears as well.

We consider jet skiing in a bay with fish, turtles and children playing in the water dangerous and harmful to the environment. As the jet skis only run along the right edge of the bay, Daaibooi can still be considered a family beach, children however should stay close to the shore, and one should preferably snorkel on the left side of the bay.

Animal encounters on land

On the way to the dive center, behind the kiosk, you may encounter wild chicken. Their cute hatchlings chirp and pad around and are thus another highlight for children. In the darkness pink and black spotted pigs populate Daaibooibaai. The piggies are former farm animals from the area that escaped at some point and found a new home near the beach. For your safety though you shouldn’t be at the beach anymore at that time.

Better safe than sorry

For several years, there has been a security guard who keeps an eye on beach visitors and their belongings during beach opening hours. Or is he just watching out for Chris and his kiosk?

We haven’t found out yet and will just ask next time we visit. Nevertheless, for your own safety, you should remember a few basic rules to which we have dedicated a separate article.

Conclusion

Wonderful beach scenery, relaxed atmosphere, and as Bob Marley would say “Sun is shining, the weather is sweet, yeah”. We absolutely recommend visiting Daaibooibaai and just chill out with the motto “live and let live”. Therefore, no hard feelings about the jet skis!

Panoramic picture of the Daaibooi bay

Update from our last visit

Bob’s new base

Bob’s dive center is now located on the left side of the beach. It looks great with the wood paneling and also very modern with the solar panel on the side. The use of solar energy is an excellent solution here on Curacao because the sun is shining almost all the time.

Dive center Divers Republic at Daaibooi Beach

For the sake of the environment

Next to the sign at the beach entrance, there is now a shelf with cans that serve as ashtrays. As a smoker you can take an ‘Ashtray for a day’ with you. Do it to preserve the idyll that you are enjoying – that way cigarette stubs don’t end up in the sand, where they would need 10-15 years to rot, but in the residual waste, where they belong.

There were no jet skiers on the beach the last time I visited in late 2021, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any more or that there are any cruising around on other days.

H(a)i Kenneth

Security guard Kenneth only guards the cars. “If you go swimming and get eaten by a shark (=Hai in German), I have nothing to do with it,” he jokes. Now we know a bit more and can reassure you: It is almost impossible that you will meet a shark in Daaibooi Bay. We are also not aware of any shark attacks around Curacao.

Friendly substitute

Chris was unfortunately not on site, he would have been back only the next day. This also explains why there was no reggae playing. Mischelon (we write the name now times as we heard it) is Chris colleague and the can Polar cost 4 Naf. in November 2021.

Loungers at half price

At Daaibooi Beach, a sunbed normally costs 10 Naf. a day. rental fee. But you have the possibility to halve this price. Just carry the lounger back to the kiosk yourself at the end of your visit to the beach. We think this is a fair deal. For you and also for Chris, because he doesn’t have to collect all the sunbeds in the evening. Remember the deadline of 6 pm. Unfortunately, the shower is still out of order.

You can find further information about diving around Daaibooi Beach on our partner website Dive Curacao.