Dive in Curacao
with Ocean Encounters!

  We came to Curaçao during lockdown and Jeremiah from Ocean Encounters gave us an amazing time shore diving. He was patient, friendly and easy to communicate with. We’re looking forward... read more to our next visit!
Fernanda Newton Boston, MA USA

  We traveled unexpectedly during lockdown so boat diving was unavailable, but Divemaster Pol did... read more

  We traveled unexpectedly during lockdown so boat diving was unavailable, but Divemaster Pol did everything possible to give us the best shore diving experience we could ask for (including, but... read more not limited to, arranging an Easter egg hunt on the house reef and putting on a special coral restoration education dive). The dive facilities were spacious and made for easy gear set-up and break-down as well as a good place for the group to hang out after a dive. The house reef is extremely healthy with no shortage of coral and reef life (including a seahorse and frog fish!). We were all nervous about our first “covid trip”, especially inadvertently during a lockdown, but Ocean Encounters went above and beyond to make the experience fun, positive, and unforgettable. Thanks Pol and Ocean Encounters!

  We were able to dive with ocean encounters for a whole week even though the island went into... read more

  We were able to dive with ocean encounters for a whole week even though the island went into lockdown the week before we came. We couldn’t go out on boats... read more but the unlimited shore diving never got boring or repetitive. We would go out on a dive and come back to a full tank waiting in our station for our next dive. The lockers and ability to lock up our gear between dives made it so easy on us to not have to lug gear all over the place. We did the coral restoration project that opens your eyes to the incredible amount of work they are putting in to improve the reefs. Thank you so much Pol and ocean encounters for making us have a wonderful trip even under the weird circumstances!

  Incredible Experience My husband and I did the PADI Open water Certification at Sunscapes Ocean... read more

  Incredible Experience

My husband and I did the PADI Open water Certification at Sunscapes Ocean Encounters. The staff was such a pleasure to meet. Our instructor was Luis,... read more he was filled with scuba diving knowledge that went beyond the course outline.
He was very good at explaining in great detail and making sure we were 100% comfortable at all time.

George was also a Hoot, he made renting gear after we were certified a Breeze & made the whole experience that much better.
We really enjoyed our time spent with these two incredible gentleman. We will be back 🙂

  We had the best week ever diving with Ocean Encounters. I'm a semi-avid recreational diver and my... read more

  We had the best week ever diving with Ocean Encounters. I'm a semi-avid recreational diver and my husband is a dive instructor. Typically the dive companies we go... read more out with in the places we frequent are either super technical and professional....like a corporate feel.....OR....a little local group of people running a dive shop who are super nice and fun, but you wonder if their stuff is maintained properly. Ocean Encounters has the feeling of the smaller dive operations... with super-friendly and hospitable people, but clearly it's also a pretty big operation. Honestly it's my favorite dive shop ever. We've done diving mainly in Florida and throughout the Caribbean. I consider myself to be a "princess diver" because I don't want to be miserable to have a great dive . On most trips, I dive a few times. With Ocean Encounters after my first dive, I went diving every day/mulitple times a day.....until the last hour possible. The reef the dive shop is on is stunning. Beautiful clear water, warm for March, awesome things to see without going too far out or too deep. Also I have a partial knee replacement so I loved the flat shore entry from the beach. It's a lot for me to navigate ladders and steep entries with my knee and all the gear since I'm not a super strong person . The shore diving was just walking in on a nice sandy beach. We stayed at LionsDive which made it really easy to walk over to the shop from our room. My husband went out on the boat, but I only did shore diving. The reef in front of the dive shop far exceeded my expectations. There were so many places to explore. Our main goal this trip was to see an octopus, and we saw 3 of them. One on a night dive was totally putting on a show and we were able to watch it move around and feed for quite some time. We also saw two sea turtles, some squid, a lot of coral, a huge eel, and beautiful fish. On one of our first shore dives exploring we saw the coral trees and found out about their coral restoration program. I had not planned on taking any PADI classes on vacation....but I HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommend ...if you only do one thing in Curacao and you're a diver.....take the coral restoration class. Pol was our instructor for the class and it was incredibly interesting. He is very knowledgeable but also made it fun. The classroom part wasn't too long or boring (that was my main concern because I didn't want to be inside much). I found the entire thing fascinating. Once we got in the water to do the dives it was an incredible experience to clean the trees and work with the coral. I have a whole new appreciation for the underwater world. It was one of those profound, life-changing experiences. My husband also really enjoyed the class....and neither one of us really wanted to take it. Some other people we met on the trip told us about the class and talked us into it. Yes I am trying to talk you into taking the class because it was amazing...even if you're one of those people who hate PADI classes. Although I didn't do any boat dives, my husband did several of them and said the boats are super-nice. I know he really enjoyed the boat dives. I did some of the guided shore dives and they were incredible, but we also went out on our own exploring a lot. We went on a night dive where we saw the octopus and some squid and that was awesome. They have lockers to store your gear in and the on-site dive shop had the few necessities we forgot to pack. One of my big questions was what wetsuit should I take. I wasn't sure how cold it would be in March when temps are at their coldest. I'm the person who always gets cold. I ended up wearing a full 3mm wetsuit with a 3mm vest and it was perfect. My husband dove all week in swim trunks and a rash guard. Overall it really is the perfect place to go diving. Our daughter who is 10 doesn't have much interest in diving, but I can't wait to take her here. This is the perfect place for a beginner to fall in love with scuba because it's such easy shore diving. Overall we had an incredible time diving with Pol and Jeremiah. We are incredibly grateful for the hospitality shown by Jeremiah and his whole crew. We will certainly be back soon! Thank You! Erin &Marco

  Ocean Encounters has a satellite shop at the Sunscape resort. That is where we stayed and will be... read more

  Ocean Encounters has a satellite shop at the Sunscape resort. That is where we stayed and will be to focus of this review. We had 3 days of... read more boat diving before the country shut down and boat diving was canceled. The boat dives were great, big boats, competent staff, and they do put a dive master in the water to lead the dive. Diving was typical Caribbean diving, beautiful blue water, healthy fish populations even with the Lionfish. Then Covid showed up and tried to spoil the fun....again.

This is where Jorge at the OE shop put on his superhero uniform and saved the day. We were a group of 16 with 12 divers. Jorge went out of his way to make sure we had all the tanks we would need for the day or evening when we did night dives. We had a key to a large locker room where we could hang our gear and dive whenever we wanted.

I did enjoy the large boats instead of 6-pack boats and the boat crews were great, but Jorge saved our vacations. I had over 15 hours on the house Reef from 20 feet to a full deco dive to a sunken barge at 165 feet. The Reef is easy enough for first time divers with a hard battom at 20 feet which runs to a wall starting at 40 feet and dropping deeper than most want to go. I could not see the bottom at 160+.

It's people that make the difference in any dive shop a Jorge is one of the best.

  I went on 5 diving trips with Ocean Encounters and what a pleasure it was. A professional and customer friendly environment, with it's high standards towards safety and a keen... read more eye for the best dive sites, they are able to give you an unforgettable experience in the waters surrounding Curaçao.
Make sure you let Jeremiah advise you on where to go and where to dive and you're guaranteed a good time.

  Spent over a week doing mostly boat dives and also threw in a night dive. Highly skilled and friendly crew who make sure everyone has a good time.

  Best dive shop in Curaçao. Super friendly and knowledgeable staff, world class diving sites and exceptionally careful with hygiene during these strange times. Paul is an incredible dive master and... read more everyone else is super nice. We cannot recommend them enough!

  Ocean Encounters are the best caring,cautious and most of all FUNNNNN dive guides .
Such a great experience I went alone and left making many friends under... read more water and on land .
See you soon everyone for another amazing dive trip.

  My family first went diving with Ocean Encounters in July 2019 with our newly certified 13 year old. Being newly certified, our son was a bit nervous but... read more our dive instructor took him under his wing and he was able to get a specialty certification towards advanced diver on his first true open water experience! We loved the island so much that we booked our return trip while still in Curacao for March 2020. My son's dive instructor remembered him and was so welcoming that we were back. The diving was incredible and we were able to go to different sites than previously visiting. Also on this last trip, my 9 year old took a bubble maker class with Cindy and he felt so at ease and enjoyed his experience tremendously. Now, recently turning 10, he will be the youngest in our family to get certified. The owner, Jeremiah, is also amazing to work with. His operation is run by awesome staff members. The boats are very clean and well equipped and the rental equipment is in great shape. There are plenty of restaurants right near the shop so you can enjoy a cold drink after diving. No doubt we will return to see them again!

  I have been diving around the world and I’m currently working on becoming an instructor. I have been to Curaçao this February 2020, I am supposed to go to Belize... read more in about three weeks for a week-long liveaboard dive trip, and we have 3 weeks booked for November this year for a whole lot of diving!

The dive shop is onsite at Sunscapee resort (see my Sunscapee review), they have a nice gear room that is locked at night, and a nice dock with easy access to board the boat. Their main shop is 5 minutes up the road/water where they dock the boats at night, but they go back and forth every day. You can either stay onsite at Sunscapee or any resort nearby and simply transport to their main shop. Easy.

I truly enjoyed diving with the Ocean Encounters dive team. Everyone was nice, the dive team, boat captains, everyone. The boats nice, each had a head, all the appropriate safety gear (first aid, oxygen, etc.), and freshwater shower heads. They help with your gear, and truly try to make your time enjoyable.

The dive masters and captains are very safety minded as well. Always attentive to everyone’s needs, role call when dive is complete before boat pulls away, checking each diver before entering the water (you know, is your air turned on?).

The dives were good, lots and lots of life! Large macro soft coral. Light currents, light surging, simply easy diving.

I enjoyed diving all week with everyone. Enjoyed visiting the shop and chatting, so many nice folks. Cynthia was wonderful. I enjoyed our tugboat dive where we went under the pier and more.

  I recommend Ocean Encounters if you plan on scuba diving during your visit to Curacao.

Our group, RU4 Scuba of Rochester, departed daily from their facility at... read more Sunscapee Resort.

Divemasters Chris and Cynthia did a great job of keep everone safe. They were helpfull in assembling my scuba gear from time-to-time.

The only "ding" was the lack of an O2 analyzer for those divers using NITROX on board the boat. Our group leader insisted on having one.

  I traveled with a group for a week of diving with Ocean Encounters and had a wonderful time. Our dive masters Chris and Cynthia were awesome, lots of fun and... read more very helpful as I had gone a few years since doing my first few dives. They were very knowledgeable and in tune with their ocean- there were a lot of strange currents that week that apparently were very unusual and they noticed every irregularity and adapted when needed, allowing for the best dives. Chris made everything a lot of fun.

  Super outfit. Very professional, well organised. Lovely dive staff, very helpful.. Alot of fun too. Definitely a place I would recommend shame I was not able to dive more. Thank... read more you for memorable time.

  After a bunch of "discovery" dives at various resort destinations, I decided to devote a couple of vacation days to completing my open water diver certification with the great team... read more at Ocean Encounters Diving - Curacao.

Their facility, equipment, and personnel are top-notch. My instructor Ivo was highly knowledgeable and helped build my confidence and skills with each session.

I was able to complete the theory sessions with the online SSI app and completed 2 skill practicing dives in shallow water and 4 open water dives along their house reef. It was terrific. I had only 2 other divers in class and we were able to spend some quality time exploring the reef and the local aquatic live.

Everyone I interacted with at Ocean Encounters went out of their way to ensure I was feeling comfortable and confident. I highly recommend their training center in Curacao for earning your initial diving certification and guiding your dive trip.