We stayed for 16 nights in oceanview one room apartment. The housekeeping service was very haphazard in timing and thorouhgness. Night service ( two pieces of chocolate on your cushion) at 03 hours in the afternoon. Contents of kitchenette rarely cleaned. We did not get frustrated as the lack of organisation etc was compensated by the happy attitude of the maids.
We had most our dinners (one course) around the bar area (as result of the rather silly nonsmoking policy followed in the open air restaurant). Which was just fine, the bar staff went out of their way to make this very enjoyable. The menu is somewhat limited in choice so you have to get out for lunch or dinner which is quite easy if you rent a car.
The ladies at the receptiondesk were very efficient and nice.

This was our 2nd tip to Curacao and to the Lodge. We were there March 2009 and returned for a week at the end of January into early February this year.

The Great.
The views. Our Studio unit in the cliff side hotel overlooks the ocean. It has a cool kitchenette that we made use of for breakfasts, some lunches and a bunch of snack times. That means we had breakfast on our patio (The downstairs have the patio the 1-beds upstairs don’t but some prefer the higher elevation and views) almost every morning. Most evenings we also sat there with a bottle of wine and watched the sun go down.
The Ocean. We came back to the island because we love the shore diving. We rented kit from Go West Diving (formerly Ocean Encounters West) and joined them for 1 boat dive, but mainly just headed out and dived from beaches. Having GWD onsite is a huge plus for the Lodge. The team there is friendly, helpful and knowledgeable.

The Good
The Pool area and the pool bar were fun hang outs. There are a handful of pallapas and we almost always got space in one. My wife LOVED the coffee they made there. The drinks are not cheap (nothing is!) but we got great service with a smile from the bar staff.
The Wi-fi in the rooms was working when we were there. An improvement on our visit 2 years ago. I do hear that others do not get as lucky.
Proximity to Sol Foods (you can walk if you need to, it’s about half a mile) for a part time alternative to the in house food, as you will need one.

The OK
The rooms are beginning to feel a bit tired. There were lots of small marks on the walls, scratches on the woodwork, and a serious lack of outdoor umbrellas on the patios. They blamed a recent hurricane that broke most of them. We did not have one and called about that as soon as we got to our room. We were told that maintenance would get us one. When we checked later we were told that they did not have one. Next door did. When they checked out (the following day) we offered to move into that unit to get one,(or go get it and move it myself) but we were told we would not need to, they would move the umbrella. But before they did this they let another couple check in. After that they would not move it. It just seems that there was a mixture of bad co-ordination and maybe not really caring.

The Downright Awful
The Food. I’m going to exclude the Breakfast Buffet from this. We had that once and it had a nice selection and the omelet’s were well made and not overcooked.
The first night we arrived we just headed to the main restaurant and looked forward to some fish. We shared some nice coconut shrimp to start and for our main courses I ordered the Snapper and my wife the Grouper. Mine was a little overcooked but not too bad. It was not the flaky flavorful treat I had been hoping for. My wife’s grouper was overcooked to the point of inedibility. Dried out and hard. She sent it back. A few minutes later another piece came out. This was totally undercooked, and virtually impossible to cut with the large knife we had. We looked in horror as we realized that the fish was probably frozen. We asked the waiter who told us that it was. That went back as well. My wife was almost prepared to give up and just have her rice and vegetables but the waiter persuaded her to try the vegetable curry that would be ‘very quick’ it arrived a few minutes later and was edible if far from appetizing. That was our last time eating dinner there. This happened on the Monday night. On the Wednesday night at the ‘Manager’s cocktail reception’ we told someone that the food was absolutely dreadful only to discover that the manager was just behind us. He clearly overheard us as for the rest of the trip he avoided meeting our eyes. But despite this he never made any attempt to ask us about the incident or what we meant by our statement.

Our last attempt to eat was at the beach bar on our last day. We were going to try a sandwich and a coke. We waited 5 minutes for a menu while the F&B Manager (it said so on his ID) was too busy clearing the couple of tables that had remains on them (others were empty and clean) to bring us one. When my wife went over to get one he stopped her about a foot away to tell her he would bring them over. He then told us he had no fresh fish, it was ALL frozen and then when we gave up and went for the $18 burgers ($21 when tax and service charge are added) he told us they had no diet cokes. We gave up and headed to the café at Playa Lagun on the way to the airport for great burgers, icy diet coke and pleasant service.

We were saved by eating twice and Landhuis Misje. Sadly the chef/owner is closing to move off the island and will be gone by the end of the month. The area is crying out for a good food option week round. The lack of one may be the main reason we are very hesitant to return.

We spent 5 nights at the lodge (after 2 at the KH Hotel in Willemstad) and enjoyed it very much. The diving at the west end of the island is great. Although the restaurant options are limited with a car there are sufficient great options nearby to last a week (the lodge restaurant isn't one of them). Car rental is about $8-12 per day more expensive than in Willemstad so you might want to rent a car there.

The ocean view rooms have been recently updated and are far superior to the garden view rooms which are looking a bit old and tired. Beach is small but lots of room for the few guests who use it. Service is hit and miss; there are some excellent employees and others who just want to do the minimum (or less).

Overall I gave it a four because we really enjoyed our stay but there is still plenty of room for improvement.

I've just been looking at some of the comments left by the other reviewers. For the most part, I can't take issue with many of the negative comments.

Having said that, though, we had a great time at this hotel and would probably stay there again if we were to return to Curacao.

The location IS remote. It's definitely in the country, very quiet, isolated from the rest of the island. If that doesn't appeal to you, don't stay there. We loved being out of the hustle and bustle and liked the easy pace of the area.

You definitely need a car!

I would agree with others that the food was just okay and well overpriced. For the record, I am okay with paying high prices for a high quality meal. I'm not okay with paying high prices for an entree of chicken thighs or pasta. We were there over Christmas and there were quite a few nights that had a set menu (only two options for a fixed price.) These menus were the worst offenders. The regular menu had good and appropriately priced options.

I have a gluten allergy. Although some of the wait staff was a bit clued out in dealing with it. For the most part, I felt comfortable eating at the hotel and felt that they understood and respected my concerns.

There was one incident on Christmas eve that bugged me; it was the night of our arrival, and the restaurant was offering only a menu with two choices of app, two choices of entree and dessert. Because of my allergy, I could only choose one of the apps, one of the entrees and no dessert. I was still quite hungry after my meal and it hadn't been served with any starch, so I asked for a small serving of rice. Anyway, I was really disappointed when they charged me $7 US for that bowl of rice. My husband thinks I should have just gotten over it, but it really bugged me. All this to say, the restaurant is good not great and until they become great, it's irritating to pay "great" prices.

Get some coffee, eggs, yogurt, fruit etc on your way in so you can have breakfast in your room a few times. The breakfast buffet gets boring after a while.

We did eat at the Landhuis nearby and LOVED it. Ate there twice and probably would have eaten there more, but they were only open a few nights a week. Go there for sure!

We also ate at Sol Food. The people are nice and the atmo is cute but the food seems to be mostly processed food that they buy and re-heat and I'm just not used to seeing that in a restaurant? I think you can give it a miss but lots of people liked it, so who am I to say?

The rooms are not updated, but they are comfortable enough. We had an ocean view room and were happy with it. The grounds of the hotel are lovely and we'd often go on an iguana safari and spot a dozen or so on the walk back.

The beach was small. I don't think it was particularly rocky, didn't have those little shoes and didn't think we needed them. You can snorkel right off the beach and see tons of gorgeous fish. While we were there, there was service on the beach. They would also come around and bring you cold water many times throughout the day.

My only complaint about the beach was that it was small and while it is supposed to be for hotel guests only, it wasn't adequately policed. It's a drag to not find beach chairs, more of a drag when they are occupied by people staying elsewhere.

Check out the Playa Cas Abou. They have chairs, washrooms and a restaurant. The beach is big and beautiful, we had a great time here.

I agree that it isn't up to the standards of other hotels with the SLH designation, but it also is a lot cheaper than other "luxury" hotels we've stayed at and I do believe you get what you pay for.

We visited the Hyatt and had a drink there. While it looked gorgeous (and gigantic) The beach was uninspiring, kind of on a river versus the ocean. Talk about isolated, it must be at least 2km from the entrance to the hotel itself....

In general, Kura Hulanda is probably the nicest place to stay at the end of the island. Go with no expectations, rent a car, get an ocean view room and you'll have a nice holiday.