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Clare Vooght takes a first look at Sandals’ debut resort outside the British Caribbean, on the island of Curaçao


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here’s that?” is most people’s response when you mention Curaçao – a


name usually more closely associated with the sweet blue liquor than the holiday destination. The tiny Dutch Caribbean island isn’t a well-known spot for the UK market, but that’s something Sandals is hoping to change with the opening of its 44-acre resort on the south coast. The 351-room property – a seafront oasis with a double-decker infinity pool at its centre – comes complete with heart-shaped beach loungers and swim-up suites, as well as the brand’s familiar blue and white beachy decor and all-inclusive offering.


It is the first Sandals resort to open outside the English-speaking Caribbean. And for Sandals’ executive chairman, Adam Stewart, the location really matters: having visited Curaçao as a child, it was his family’s dream to open a property here. “Every time we come to Curaçao we fall


more and more in love with this destination, because of all of those things coming together – the Dutch culture, the swag of the Caribbean, South America being just 40 miles away – all of which make it not a normal place, and an undiscovered place,” said Stewart, at the resort’s launch weekend in June. “Sandals is going to change Curaçao for the better.”²


Sandals Royal Curaçao PICTURE: Corey Hamilton/Sandals Resorts


8 SEPTEMBER 2022 travelweekly.co.uk


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