Willemstad

A thin and slender tadpole of an island that forms the mid-point of the ABCs, Curaçao is a Caribbean destination with a difference. Ringed by picture-perfect beaches and craggy headlands clad in the occasional bloom of palms and sea grasses, spiny cacti and divi-divi groves, the terrain isn’t your usual soft sands and jungle. It’s a little more chiselled than that, with hidden coves like Playa Lagun hosting sunbathers between its duo of rocky outcrops and the salt-buffeted Shete Boka park just a vision of the wild tropics.