CuraçaoCar Rental in Curaçao

You drive on your national licence. Most companies want you to be twenty-one or over to rent, with a surcharge for younger drivers where they allow it at all, and a credit card in the driver's name for the deposit. An international permit is rarely required but never hurts if your licence is not in a Latin script.

Carry the registration and inspection papers that come with the car, since you are expected to have them if stopped. Right-hand-drive vehicles exist on the island privately but are not used for rentals, so you will get a left-hand-drive car driven on the right.

An economy car covers most of the island perfectly well. Every paved road, every town, every serviced beach, and the whole west-coast run to Westpunt. If your plan is beaches with car parks and a couple of restaurants, that is all you need.

A 4x4 or something with real clearance changes what is reachable. The San Juan plantation coves, the unpaved tracks down to the quieter western bays, and the rougher approaches on the north side all want ground clearance and forgiving suspension. Note the limit: no rental agreement covers genuine off-road driving, and the plains and north-coast routes that off-road tours run are out of bounds in a rental of any kind.

Traffic runs on the right and the rules will feel familiar. Speed limits sit around sixty in town and seventy outside it, seat belts are required for everyone, and small children belong in the back. At a T-junction, the road that ends gives way.

What is less familiar is the enthusiasm with which limits are treated by some local traffic, and roundabouts, where the theory is that you yield to whoever is already circulating and the practice is that you watch carefully. Roads become slippery after rain, more than the rainfall justifies, because the dry surface holds oil and dust. Fuel stations cluster around Willemstad and thin out heading west, so fill up before a long run rather than assuming there is a station at the far end.

Parking is free and easy nearly everywhere outside central Willemstad, including at almost every beach on this page. In town, use the garages around Punda and Otrobanda rather than hunting for a space.

Two local habits worth adopting. Park under a light at night. And when you leave the car anywhere remote, take everything with you and leave the glove box open so it visibly holds nothing, which is standard practice here and does exactly what it looks like it does.

Rental here follows the pattern everywhere: the headline rate is not the number you pay. Check the deposit amount, the excess on the insurance, whether a second driver costs extra, and the fuel policy before you commit, because the cheapest advertised rate often carries the largest excess.

Book ahead between December and April. High season genuinely empties the island's fleet, and the cars still available in February are the expensive ones. Photograph the car properly on collection, all four corners and the roof, since existing damage on a well-used island fleet is the single most common dispute.