We stayed in rancho sobrino most of August 2011 and had a great time. We were looking for a relaxing holiday and to mingle with the locals so west punt is the place to be. With curacao's greatest beaches right around the corner and Willemstad about 45 mins away by car rancho Sobrino is located superbly.

From start to finish:
Book the transfer from the airport to the hotel.... somebody will be waiting for you to welcome you to the island and he will tell you some tips and tricks on the way to the resort.
* Make use of the breakfast! When you are a guest at the hotel you assured of a seat and you can order a wide array of breakfast meals, but do tell them your likings. e.g. scrambeled eggs with ham and cheese, boiled eggs, tuna salad, crab salad are just some examples. All is made fresh and the price is reasonable.
* As Westpunt is the remotest part of the island its good to be a guest at Rancho Sobrino. There are a few restaurants (dont eat at the cinese plases there!!!) which close quite early. Rancho is open the latest. The other restaurant you might try is Jaanchies which is about 5 mins drive away. When you want to spoil yourself you can also eat at the cura Hullanda (accross the street from Jaanchies) but thats quite expensive and the service was a bit to stressed for the island. We had the feeling they tried to improve the turn over per table. The food at rancho is good value for money. You get decent meals for the price you pay, but dont expect lobster, caviar and dom perignoon. If this is your tast, go to the Cura. This goes for the rooms as well. They are decent and clean with a little kitchen and airco, but that's it. This makes that life evolves around the bar and pool area where you will always find some guests, locals or staff for a nice chat or a few drinks. *You can also go to the toko (about 10 minutes by car) and buy stuff for your private BBQ which you can enjoy on the ground of rancho. there is a fully equipped BBQ place.
* Always rent a car: allthough the rancho can accomodate you for quite some time and there are some beaches on walking distance you can only fully enjoy when you have your own car (bus servie is truely caribic). You can visit the islands beaches and sights from rancho, making it the perfect homebase for your explorations. Make sure you climb mount christoffel, visit boca shete, Tula museum (landhuis Knip, beter than the historisch museum besides the way to Willemstad!), Willem stad, ostrich farm (great ostrich sachimi and steak there), little curacao!!, santa cruz (ask for captain goodlife, im not saying anything more, you will find out;-) try is mixed fish dish though), hato caves.....
the staff is friendly and helpfull. Visit grote knip (kenepa), porto mari and kalki beaches at least.
* Balie (waitor/bar man/host/painer/go-to-guy) really improved our holiday. He worked about 12 hours a day doing about everything. He was a very honest and customer focussed guy (+ he prepared a hell of a breakfast). He gave great tips about where to go and he was very honest (forgot my purse on night and he returned it). Basically he was runing around tightning up the knots all day. Some nights he waited the restaurant by himselve (about 10 tables) and if you didn't know better you thought there where more people working. He brought your orders swiftly and gave friendly and proffessional service. Just waking up, talking to him made me smile (fawakaa bratha!!).
*The only minus we had was when returning the rental car. We got a dented and scratched kia pikanto. no problem as the car was quite new it drove ok. But when we returned it a lady stepped out her car looking like a "bumper car" cladded with gold grill and chains, so i thought OK here we go. We walked around the car when i received it and on every panel there was a scratch or dent which where marked on the paper. Offcourse she "found" 2 scratches which where not on the paper.... one of the places was obviously covered on the paper so she said ok, forget that one:$.... then we turned to a (barely visible) scratch on the rear wheel arch. She said she knows this car inside out and that wasnt there before. We kept the car on good parking places and always on the guarded parking of the hotel and i'm sure the scratch was just missed when we walked around it on delivery, but how do you prove that?? So i agreed. Next i pumped gas about 5 minutes away from the airport (last gas station). The meter stopped (always) just before the last stripe on the indicator. And lil wayne said "im sorry sir but the car is not filled". I lost my temper slightly and said "you gave me a dented/scratched car, and now i have to pay $150 for some invisible scratches, ok, but im not paying a penny more, if you would use the money for repairing the car why is it so scratched and dented? so use the $150". She started calling her boss, which was fine by me. I also used my credit card at Schiphol where it worked fine and in their machine it didn't and I had to pay cash with the promise that "if after cleaning the scratches disapeared i would get it back",,, yeah right. It costs about $50 to transfer cash.... i told her that I got the feeling she does this with all tourist which pissed her of obviously, but I'm not a complainer and when I would have damaged the car I would pay immediatly, but I got a very bad vibe from her the minute she stepped out of her car. So, take the all-risk insurance or go to a different car rental service!

Overall very positive about rancho Sobrino!