Curacao West Coast Beaches: Knip, Lagun, Cas Abao Guide

Curacao's west coast, running through Bandabou out to Westpunt, is where the island's postcard beaches live. Grote Knip, Playa Lagun, and Cas Abao each do something the others don't: Grote Knip has the cliff jump and the viewpoint, Lagun has the turtles and the fishing boats, Cas Abao has the full resort-style setup for a lounge-all-day visit. Entry is free at the Knip beaches and Lagun, Cas Abao charges per car, and Playa Porto Mari charges per person, so knowing which is which before you set out saves you a wasted stop.

This guide runs through the beaches in the order the route unfolds from Willemstad: Daaibooi and Porto Mari first, then Cas Abao, then the Knip beaches and Playa Lagun out toward Westpunt.

Free vs. paid entry: the quick answer

Two beaches on this route charge an entrance fee. The rest are free public beaches where you only pay if you rent a chair or an umbrella.

Note the car-versus-person split at the two paid beaches. Cas Abao's rate is per vehicle and covers up to four people; Porto Mari charges per person, so the math shifts with the size of your group.

Cas Abao: the full-service pick

Cas Abao is the closest thing on this coast to a proper beach club, built for a whole-day visit rather than a quick stop. It sits roughly 45 minutes (about 40 km / 25 miles) from Willemstad and the cruise port, depending on traffic.

The entrance fee is $6 USD (ANG 10) per car Monday through Saturday, rising to $7 USD (ANG 12) on Sundays and public holidays, and covers up to four people in the vehicle. Each additional passenger costs $1.40 (ANG 2.50). The beach is open daily from 8:00 am to 6:00 pm, though the beach bar doesn't start service until 10:00 am, so early arrivals should pack their own coffee.

A beach chair runs $3 USD (NAf 5.00) and comes with a complimentary shower token; extra tokens are $0.25 USD (NAf 0.50) each. The facilities list is long: secured parking, restrooms and changing rooms, showers, lockers, a beach bar, an on-site PADI operator (B Diving & Watersports), a beach massage service (Sensi Spa), and more than 18 shade palapas.

Grote Knip: the postcard bay and the cliff jump

Grote Knip, also written Kenepa Grandi or called Playa Abou, is the beach most Curacao brochures mean when they say "west coast." It sits between the villages of Westpunt and Lagun, and entry is free, with free parking as well. Stairs lead from the parking area down to the sand, though the beach is also barrier-free: a ramp provides disabled access alongside the steps.

The bay is sheltered, with little to no waves and crystal-clear water, plus a scenic viewpoint above the cove overlooking the whole beach, worth the stop for photos alone. On-site: a snack bar, showers, and chair and parasol rentals. A recent pricing guide lists roughly $5 for a single lounger, $10 for an umbrella, or $15 for two loungers and an umbrella for the day, though rates vary by vendor and some quote in guilders, so confirm before you settle in. Expect it to get busy with locals on weekends.

Cliff jumping at Knip

Grote Knip has a known jumping spot: a small path over the rocks on the left side of the bay leads to ledges roughly 5 meters (about 16 feet) above the water. Jumping is done entirely at your own risk, so check the water below before you commit.

Kleine Knip: the quiet neighbor

Near Grote Knip, Kleine Knip (Kenepa Chiki, "chiki" meaning small in Papiamentu) is the smaller, less touristy cove of the pair, about 42 km and roughly a 50-minute drive from Willemstad, with fine white sand and calm turquoise water. Facilities are minimal by design: no restaurant, so bring your own food and drinks, but palapas, picnic tables, and chair and umbrella rentals are available. Weekdays it's often wonderfully quiet; weekends bring the local crowd.

Playa Lagun: turtles, fishermen, and a lagoon-like cove

Playa Lagun is a long, narrow cove boxed in on both sides by high rock cliffs. The entrance is estimated at only about 30 to 40 meters wide, giving the whole bay a sheltered, lagoon-like feel and unusually calm water. Entry and parking are both free, with a guard on duty during the day, and beach beds and umbrellas can be rented for a fee.

Lagun is considered one of the best spots on the island to snorkel with green sea turtles, which rest on the seabed at 3 to 5 meters deep in the shelter of the bay. Sightings are random, not guaranteed, with your best odds in the morning and outside busy weekends; our turtle snorkeling guide has more on timing a visit. Local fishermen still launch their boats here and sell freshly caught fish from stalls on the beach, and the Bahia restaurant above the cove has a panoramic view over the bay.

Turtle ethics: Lagun vs. Piskado

Lagun's turtles show up naturally, resting in a bay they'd use with or without visitors. Playa Piskado (also called Playa Grandi) is different: a free-to-visit working fishermen's beach where both green sea turtles and hawksbill turtles (an endangered species) gather because fishermen clean their catch on the pier and toss the scraps into the water. The turtles come for the food, not because the bay happens to be calm.

All marine turtles in Curacao's waters are fully protected under the Eilandsbesluit bescherming zeeschildpadden (Island Decree of 19 June 1996), and catching them is illegal. Protection on paper hasn't stopped feeding and harassment at Piskado, though: enforcement remains weak, and a Change.org petition launched in February 2025 gathered over 3,700 signatures asking Curacao's Ministry of Health, Environment & Nature to stop irresponsible feeding and strengthen enforcement.

The responsible approach anywhere on this coast: never touch the turtles, keep at least 2 meters (6 feet) of distance, don't feed them, skip flash photography, and stay off the fishing pier at Piskado. Lagun is the better choice if you'd rather see turtles behaving naturally than clustered around a feeding spot.

Daaibooi and Porto Mari: two more worth the detour

Daaibooi makes a good first or last stop on a west coast day. It's free, open at all times, with a large unpaved parking lot, a snack bar, restrooms with simple changing rooms, picnic tables under palapas, and barbecuing allowed; it fills up with local families and groups on weekends. Sunbeds rent for 10 guilders per cot, with 5 guilders refunded when you return the bed.

Playa Porto Mari is the closest thing on this list to a wildlife-encounter beach beyond the turtles: it's known for resident wild pigs that roam the sand. The operator doesn't chase the pigs away or exploit them, and asks visitors not to feed them, since human food can harm their health. The pig family has grown from the original two, Willy and Woody, to six per 2024 reporting; sightings depend on luck. Porto Mari is open daily from 9:30 am to 6:30 pm, closed on December 31 and Carnival Sunday, and entry costs $3 per person with children up to 4 free. Beach chairs rent for $3.50 and can't be pre-reserved, but people come and go all day, so chairs are almost always available. The beach is also famous for its double reef, widely considered one of the best dive and snorkel sites on the island.

Cliff jumping at Playa Forti, and shore diving at Kalki

Near the village of Westpunt, Playa Forti has a well-known cliff jump close to the restaurant. Jumpers leap roughly 40 to 45 feet (about 12 to 13 meters) into the sea, considerably higher than the ledge at Grote Knip. Playa Forti Restaurant is explicit that it does not encourage or support the jumping, a policy posted on visible signage on the property. Anyone who jumps does so entirely at their own risk, and the restaurant's own disclaimer notes the closest hospital is 60 minutes away.

If diving matters more than sunbathing, Playa Kalki in Westpunt is worth the detour. It's home to the "Alice in Wonderland" house reef, a sandy-entry shore dive and snorkel site with coral gardens, reef fish, turtles, moray eels, and occasional eagle rays, and it consistently ranks among the island's top shore-diving sites. GO WEST Diving operates on-site, so divers and snorkelers can gear up right at the beach and step straight into the sea. Pair it with Kalki Beach Bar and Grill for lunch after, and see our shore diving guide for the rest of the island's entry points.

Several west coast beaches, Lagun and Kleine Knip among them, have rocky, shell- or coral-strewn entries where sea urchins hide among the rocks and coral. Water shoes are worth packing for the whole trip, not just one stop.

Stringing 3 to 4 beaches into one day

The Westpunt beaches at the far western end of the island sit roughly 45 minutes to an hour from Willemstad by road, about 40 to 45 km depending on traffic, so a west coast day means committing most of the day to the drive and the beaches. A workable route:

1. Start at Daaibooi or Porto Mari for an early swim. Porto Mari's 9:30 am opening and Daaibooi's round-the-clock access both work for an early start.
2. Cas Abao mid-morning, after the beach bar opens at 10:00 am, for a proper lounge session with full facilities.
3. Grote Knip in the early afternoon for the viewpoint, a swim in the sheltered bay, and the cliff jump if you've sized it up.
4. Kleine Knip or Playa Lagun to close the day, either the quiet cove next door or the turtle-and-fishing-boat scene at Lagun, with dinner at Bahia above the cove or a stop at Jaanchies Restaurant on the way back.

Four stops is realistic if you keep each visit short and skip backtracking, but three unhurried stops (Cas Abao, Grote Knip, Lagun) is the more comfortable version. For a broader framework, see our 5-day Curacao itinerary.

Practical notes before you go

• Carry small bills in guilders (ANG) or US dollars. At Grote Knip, chair and umbrella prices vary by vendor and some quote in guilders, so having both currencies helps.
• Fees and hours listed here come from each operator's published information; confirm current pricing at Cas Abao and Porto Mari before you go, since rates change.
• Both cliff jumps, the 5-meter ledge at Knip and the 12-to-13-meter drop at Forti, are strictly at your own risk.
• If cliff jumping isn't for you, both Knip and Forti are worth visiting for the swim and the view alone.