Curacao’s Best Scuba Diving Courses

  I did a double boat dive with Ocean Encounters at Barracuda Point / Beacon Point. First of all, booking was easy though Whatsapp and then at the shop but... read more with all the info needed. The team is very professional, briefing is more than enough and the guides know very very well dive sites and marine life. On top of this, the sites are beautiful, marine life abundant and the reef & coral very healthy. I ve not done shore dive, but the boat dives with Ocean Encounters were great ! …

  We picked this place to call home for two weeks staying at the Lion’s Dive because of the resort being linked to Ocean’s Encounter. What a beautiful and amazing time... read more we had as we dived 8 days out of the 14 days we were in Curaçao. From the first morning every person working for this shop greeted us with nothing but smiles and eager to help. Not used to the early morning and having my coffee grumps I quickly disguarded my mood and was overtaken by their genuine excitement and knowledgeable that all members of this team were with everyone. From Remy, our wonderful captain that took us out many a mornings giving us Curaçao history and helping me pull my tank up the stairs to the boat, to some of the instructors that spent their time sharing beautiful creatures and lasting memories…Vivanna, Charlotte, Jorge, Sean, Raul, Lena for being amazing snd setting up our dives, Jeremiah sharing his personal weights for us to dive with. We also got our Nitrox certification with KM helping us. They were a extreme delight to dive with and complete 17 dives with them including a night dive showing their coral restoration program. I’d give them 20 stars if I could. A pleasure to dive with

  We picked this place to call home for two weeks staying at the Lion’s Dive because of the resort being linked to Ocean’s Encounter. What a beautiful and amazing time... read more we had as we dived 8 days out of the 14 days we were in Curaçao. From the first morning every person working for this shop greeted us with nothing but smiles and eager to help. Not used to the early morning and having my coffee grumps I quickly disguarded my mood and was overtaken by their genuine excitement and knowledgeable that all members of this team were with everyone. From Remy, our wonderful captain that took us out many a mornings giving us Curaçao history and helping me pull my tank up the stairs to the boat, to some of the instructors that spent their time sharing beautiful creatures and lasting memories…Vivanna, Charlotte, Jorge, Sean, Raul, Lena for being amazing snd setting up our dives, Jeremiah sharing his personal weights for us to dive with. We also got our Nitrox certification with KM helping us. They were a extreme delight to dive with and complete 17 dives with them including a night dive showing their coral restoration program. I’d give them 20 stars if I could. A pleasure to dive with …

  My wife and I just wrapped up a great week of diving with Ocean Encounters. We enjoyed the diving in Curaçao - many of the reefs are extremely healthy and... read more full of life and interesting fish - saw our first chain moray and our first sharptail eel. Ocean Encounters is a great shop - the boats are comfortable and the staff is just great. Two dive masters lead two teams of divers (about ten each while we were here) so we never felt overcrowded and always felt we had personal attention. The dive masters are excellent spotters of fun critters but most importantly they are focused on your safety and comfort. They will help set up and change gear for you, and Luis even offered my wife some helpful tips. We also really admired the attention and ease with which they accommodated a couple divers who needed extra help getting in or out of the water. It’s a great team - come dive with them if you’re thinking of a trip to Curaçao!

  This dive operation is great. You are going to love diving with these people. PADI should seriously send low performing shop owners here to work with this crew... read more to see diving done right. The boat dives are perfectly designed so you do your safety stop in the shallows on the way back to the boat. No floating aimlessly in the sea at 15 feet for three minutes on most dives. Dives are almost always 60 minutes or more. (The reefs and sea life in Curaçao are amazing and healthy.) If you are experienced, they do not treat you like children, they let you do your own thing as long as you keep up with the group enough so they can see your bubbles. Never once in 26 Dips was I asked what my tank pressure was. The only requirement is that the 1st person to hit a half tank lets them know and we turnaround and head to shallow water. (The shallow water diving is great and teeming with marine life.) I find dive leaders who ask your air pressure every 10 minutes to be a distraction and a bore. If you are new to diving, they keep an eye you without you realizing it. You will have the illusion you did the dive by yourself. They have well maintained boats and equipment. If you want to rent a car and shore dive they are great in helping you pick spots and plan your dives. They are all enthusiastic about the sea and Curaçao, very friendly and competent. I think this is a reflection on the manager Jeremiah an really great leader. They have a divemaster, Remy, who should be in the SCUBA hall of fame for his excellent dive leading ability. The shore crew, Chrissy, George and Elaine are efficient and wonderful. We will come back and dive with this outfit again. …

  Excellent service! Engaging crew and best access to some of the hottest dive locations on the island! Highly recommend!

  My wife and I just wrapped up a great week of diving with Ocean Encounters. We enjoyed the diving in Curaçao - many of the reefs are extremely healthy and... read more full of life and interesting fish - saw our first chain moray and our first sharptail eel. Ocean Encounters is a great shop - the boats are comfortable and the staff is just great. Two dive masters lead two teams of divers (about ten each while we were here) so we never felt overcrowded and always felt we had personal attention. The dive masters are excellent spotters of fun critters but most importantly they are focused on your safety and comfort. They will help set up and change gear for you, and Luis even offered my wife some helpful tips. We also really admired the attention and ease with which they accommodated a couple divers who needed extra help getting in or out of the water. It’s a great team - come dive with them if you’re thinking of a trip to Curaçao! …

  I did a 2-tank boat dive and the fluorescent night dive with them. They were really fun and did a nice job in handling the dives. They let the divers... read more dive to their greatest extent. Both boat dives were over an hour in dive time. The DM did a nice job of letting us dive as we wanted and explore the reefs.

I would pass on the fluorescent dive and just stick to the standard night dive. Most of the divers I was with had issues with the yellow shield and there just was not that much to see.

  Modern, Efficient and Close In Diving

Ocean Encounters diving in Willemstad Curacao is a beautiful, modern and efficient dive shop. The business is plainly built for large groups... read more with a huge rental office, numerous boat slips and a large staff of highly trained dive professionals. This is a great place to get certified. My son did and he was very happy with his training. Even though it was the end of the pandemic, we had a full boat with two dive masters and an underwater photographer. We had two excellent boat dives with our group. The dive masters made sure we saw the highlights – moray eels, barracuda etc. The boats were clean and well organized. We had plenty of space even with 17 divers. Ocean Encounters is easy to reach; it is basically in the center of Willemstad. Plus, they have a terrific selection of T shirts. If you are going to dive in Curacao, Ocean Encounters is a good bet.

  I did a 2-tank boat dive and the fluorescent night dive with them. They were really fun and did a nice job in handling the dives. They let the divers... read more dive to their greatest extent. Both boat dives were over an hour in dive time. The DM did a nice job of letting us dive as we wanted and explore the reefs. I would pass on the fluorescent dive and just stick to the standard night dive. Most of the divers I was with had issues with the yellow shield and there just was not that much to see. …

  Modern, Efficient and Close In Diving Ocean Encounters diving in Willemstad Curacao is a beautiful, modern and efficient dive shop. The business is plainly built for large groups... read more with a huge rental office, numerous boat slips and a large staff of highly trained dive professionals. This is a great place to get certified. My son did and he was very happy with his training. Even though it was the end of the pandemic, we had a full boat with two dive masters and an underwater photographer. We had two excellent boat dives with our group. The dive masters made sure we saw the highlights – moray eels, barracuda etc. The boats were clean and well organized. We had plenty of space even with 17 divers. Ocean Encounters is easy to reach; it is basically in the center of Willemstad. Plus, they have a terrific selection of T shirts. If you are going to dive in Curacao, Ocean Encounters is a good bet. …

  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

  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

  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.

  Ik heb 5 duiktrips met Ocean Encounters gemaakt en wat een genot was dat. Een professionele en klantvriendelijke omgeving, met hoge veiligheidsnormen en een scherp... read more oog voor de beste duiklocaties, zijn zij in staat om u een onvergetelijke ervaring te bezorgen in de wateren rond Curaçao.
Laat Jeremiah je adviseren over waar je heen moet en waar je moet duiken en je hebt gegarandeerd een goede tijd.