Attractive for many an off-season Caribbean holidaymaker for its position away from the central belt of Hurricane Alley, Curaçao offers a dose of year-round sun and sultry temperature more akin to the dusty desert lands of its near neighbour, Venezuela. But that’s not much-loved C’s (of the ABC Islands) only pull. Not a chance. There’s the ice-cream-coloured Dutch architecture and curiously Flemish rises of Willemstad (now UNESCO tagged) to see, where Papiamentu the local lingo drifts on the trade winds past Viennese beer halls, waterfront eateries and floating fish markets. Creole cuisine packs a punch in the eateries too; be sure to ask your Curaçao tour guide for the best ayaka tamales in town. The colonial forts and excellent museums here give way to a coastline of palms and divi-divi trees, spiked cacti and undulating dunes, where the acclaimed beaches of Blue Bay, Boka Saint Michiel and postcard-perfect Kenepa beckon snorkelers and sunbathers by the bucket load. Further in country, hiking trails crisscrossing Christoffel National Park reveal exotic wildlife, and the island’s unique local flora and fauna extends to its Mushroom forest of corals underwater too.