Willemstad

Willemstad is the part of Curaçao that fits on a postcard, and the part that goes far beyond one. The pastel waterfront — the Handelskade — was painted that way, the story goes, because the governor's eyes ached from the white glare; what began as a remedy became one of the most photographed skylines in the Caribbean.

Behind the facade is a city that takes itself seriously. The Pietermaai district, once derelict, has been quietly restored into a string of chef-led restaurants, small galleries, and design hotels carved out of nineteenth-century townhouses. Otrobanda, on the other side of the floating bridge, holds the island's strongest cultural institutions — the Kura Hulanda museum, the Jewish synagogue (the oldest in continuous use in the Americas), and the markets where breakfast costs three dollars and tastes like memory.

Stay in Willemstad if you want a city as much as a beach. The water is fifteen minutes away in any direction; the culture is at the door.