Klein Curaçao: a full day on the deserted island

Seen from Curaçao's east coast, it is nothing more than a pale line on the horizon. Up close, Klein Curaçao (literally little Curaçao) is a flat coral islet of 1.7 square kilometres, almost bare of vegetation, lying some ten kilometres southeast of the main island. Nobody lives there. You come for one reason only: to spend a full day on a genuinely deserted island, with a white-sand beach that seems endless and water so clear you can see the boat's anchor from the deck.

The crossing, the day's first adventure

No scheduled ferry serves the island: Klein Curaçao can only be reached on an organised day trip. Boats leave early in the morning and take roughly one hour forty-five minutes to two hours, heading southeast across open sea. The outbound leg runs against the swell and can get rough: if you are prone to seasickness, take your precautions before boarding and keep your eyes on the horizon rather than on your phone. The return, pushed along by the trade winds, is usually far more comfortable. Book several days ahead: departures fill up fast, especially in high season.

The pink lighthouse and the shipwrecks

Two silhouettes punctuate this bare landscape. At the centre of the island stands the lighthouse, first built in 1850 and rebuilt after the hurricane of 1877: a tower of some twenty metres whose coral-pink paint, faded by salt, has made the island a photographer's favourite. The keepers' quarters, abandoned for decades, can be explored freely, about ten minutes on foot from the beach. On the windward side, the rusty hull of the tanker Maria Bianca Guidesman has been breaking apart on the reef under the pounding waves since the late 1980s, not far from a more modest stranded sailboat. Watch the wrecks from the shore: this exposed coast is no place for swimming.

Turtles, white sand and snorkelling

The leeward coast, where the boats anchor, offers the exact opposite: a long white-sand beach and calm, limpid turquoise water. This is where you snorkel among the fish, with a good chance of meeting a sea turtle; the island is also a nesting site for green, hawksbill and loggerhead turtles. If you enjoy the encounter, turtles can also be watched from the main island's shore at Playa Piskado.

An island with nothing: bring everything

Klein Curaçao has no shop, no restaurant, no running water and no real natural shade. Everything you need arrives by boat: the operators who organise the day, such as Mermaid or BlueFinn, set up palapas and serve breakfast and lunch on board or on the island. Practical details and booking links are on our Klein Curaçao page. Three essentials for your bag:

• serious sun protection: reef-friendly sunscreen, a hat and a rash guard, since shade is limited to the operators' shelters;
• extra water on top of what the boat provides;
• something for seasickness if you are sensitive to the swell.

A day on Klein Curaçao fits neatly into a week on the island, keeping the beaches of the main island for the days that follow. The hardest part, when it is time to climb back on board, is leaving behind a silence broken only by the wind and the waves.