Jaunted

The brainchild of Dutch philanthropist Jacob Gelt Dekker, Kurá Hulanda means "Dutch courtyard" in Papiamento. In the late 1990s, Dekker purchased a small neighborhood of decaying colonial buildings in Otrobanda. He renovated and reconstructed them, ending up with an eight-block complex of buildings.

The gem of the complex is the Kurá Hulanda Museum. It is devoted to a range of subjects: the Middle Passage, the history of slavery and abolition in the Americas, West African empires, ancient Mesopotamian artifacts, and many objects of specific relevance to Curaçao. Dekker's photos of himself in various places in the museum sometimes makes the museum more like a collection of its founder's treasures than a concept-driven museum, but it is an interesting place on the whole.

The complex is spread out over a significant expanse of 18th and 19th century buildings painted the trademark bright colors of the southern Dutch Antilles. It's surrounded by the funky Otrobanda neighborhood, which is more interesting (and less postcard-ready) than the cruise ship passenger-primed Punda neighborhood across the water. Breedestraat, just down the hill from Kurá Hulanda, sports shops and street food booths frequented by locals, not tourists.

Then there's the hotel itself. Kurá Hulanda's standard rooms are amenity-rich without the overdetermined, exhausting clutter of so many American business-class hotels. Two swimming pools are surrounded by jungle-like foliage, a setting that renders nighttime swims sublime.

The least expensive room at Kurá Hulanda runs $238 (taxes included) per night.

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