Parque de Manguezais Rif

This is a peaceful and lovely place inside a busy city. This is not a good place for young kids because they are not usually quiet or patient. If you are loud or impatient you will miss a lot of beauty. Bring your binoculars especially for the tower and for bird watching. The walkways are so easy to walk on and if you go early or later in the day you can avoid crowds from the cruise ships. Some things that could be better/attract more tourists: 1. They would benefit from blocking out the view and sounds of the city. Some kinds of screen/wall and sound of water moving would help. 2. Portable bathrooms are ok, but real bathrooms are better. At least have a place to wash hands. 3. A pamphlet with what to look for would be nice. You could even make that a scavenger hunt with pictures of nature and wildlife. There were cool jellyfish, upside down jellyfish, birds, and fish. You go about 1/2 way before you see anything that talks about the wildlife. That's a bummer because you may have missed a lot. We did find that stopping and staring at the water for a while allowed you to see more. 4. This is such a natural place to add artwork from the locals. I could see some cool sculptures/garden art in the area as a big plus. You can attract more people if they have something to take selfies with on the gram.

Curacao was one of the stops on a recent cruise and we opted to do our own thing rather than an excursion. First stop was the Curaco Rif Mangrove Park - its a wonderful place to spend some time . You can opt to walk or kayak, we walked and it is set up as a series of board walks it takes you in and around the entire park -either option gives you a great experience. Excellent place to spot birds, marine wild life and tangles of mangrove trees. The park has several small displays that talk about the history of the island, mangroves, flora/fauna. We got their early and were able to take our time. Even though the location was close to roads we didnt hear a lot of street traffic just music from a local church. There is an admission fee - can not remember the exact price

We had a fantastic time with my family with 2 young kids (6 and 8) during the kayak trip through the Mangrove park. Our guide Long, did a great job with our group, sharing his own stories about how he played/swam in the Mangroves as a child and how preservation and lot’s of efforts have converted the Mangroves into one of the world’s best. We learned a lot about the ecosystem of the Mangrove.