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Jan Thiel Beach is one of the most practical places to stay in Curaçao if you want everything within reach. The beach is swimmable, beach clubs line the shoreline, and restaurants, small markets, and dive operators are all within walking distance, so you’re not building your day around transportation or reservations. You can walk out, find a chair, get into the water, and stay there for hours without needing to rethink your plan. That ease is what keeps this part of the island busy year-round.
Sonesta’s new resort drops directly into that setting, placing you in a part of Curaçao that already delivers. You’re not relying on the hotel to generate activity—the activity is already outside your room.
The newly opened Sonesta Resort Curaçao brings 196 rooms overlooking Jan Thiel Beach, taking over the former Livingstone property and repositioning it as a more flexible, full-service stay. The opening also marks a return to the Dutch Caribbean for the brand and continues its expansion across the region as Curaçao draws more travelers from the United States.
It’s been more than a decade since Sonesta last had a hotel on the island — it was the former Kura Hulanda that is now an adults-only independent hotel called the Kura Botanica.
What You’re Actually Getting
This is not a single-format hotel. You have standard guest rooms, apartment-style accommodations, and full villas, which gives you options depending on how you travel and how long you plan to stay. That range is one of the strongest parts of the property. A short stay can stay simple. A longer trip benefits from the extra space, especially if you want a kitchen, a separate living area, or a place to reset between time at the beach and dinner.
The property replaces the former Livingstone Jan Thiel Beach Resort, but this goes beyond a rebrand. The resort now operates within Sonesta’s portfolio, including access to the Sonesta Travel Pass program, where you can earn or redeem points. If you already use the brand, that adds a practical incentive.
You’re not choosing this for a single standout feature. You’re choosing it because the location, room mix, and overall ease line up.
The Part You’ll Use Most
There’s a large central swimming pool, along with adults-only and family sections, giving you space to choose how you want to spend your time on property. It’s designed to handle a full resort without feeling crowded, and it works well when you want to stay close to your room.
But the beach is where most of your day happens. Jan Thiel Beach is directly accessible, and it’s one of the most usable stretches of sand on the island for everyday swimming. The water is calm, the entry is straightforward, and there’s enough infrastructure—loungers, food, drinks, rentals—to keep you there without going back and forth.
The resort also includes a five-star PADI dive center, which simplifies the process if diving is part of your trip. You can arrange dives, certification, or excursions without leaving the property. Curaçao’s reef system starts close to shore, and this location makes it easy to take advantage of that without extra coordination.
Water sports and excursions are also available directly through the resort, keeping everything in one place.
Food and What’s Around You
Dining on property centers on a Caribbean-Italian restaurant and bar, with seafood, pasta, and lighter dishes suited to the setting. It’s enough to cover a few nights, especially when you want something close and uncomplicated.
Step outside, and your options expand immediately. Jan Thiel has one of the island’s strongest restaurant and beach bar clusters, and you can walk to all of it. You can head out for dinner, stop for drinks, or spend an afternoon at a beach club without arranging transportation.
That convenience changes the experience. You’re not planning each evening—you’re choosing where to go in the moment.
How It Feels to Stay Here
The layout spreads across landscaped grounds with low-rise buildings, villas, and apartment-style units, giving the property a more open feel than a single hotel tower. You’re not confined to one structure. You’re walking between your room, the pool, and the beach in a way that keeps everything close without feeling compressed.
Rooms are clean and functional, with balconies or terraces in many categories. The focus stays on access and comfort. You’re always a short walk from the water, and that proximity shapes how the stay plays out.
The experience is straightforward. You check in, settle quickly, and spend your time using what’s around you instead of figuring out logistics.
The Beach Clubs That Define Jan Thiel
A big part of staying at Jan Thiel Beach is that the experience extends well beyond your hotel. The shoreline is lined with established beach clubs and restaurants that operate independently, and you can walk between them throughout the day without needing to plan ahead. Zanzibar Beach & Restaurant is the most active, with open-air seating on the sand, regular live music, and a crowd that builds into the evening. Papagayo Beach Club offers a more structured setup, with loungers, a pool deck, and full food and beverage service that runs from daytime into dinner. Zest Beach Café focuses on a smaller, more relaxed stretch of beach with straightforward seafood and shaded tables close to the water.
You’re not choosing one place and staying there. You move between them. Coffee or breakfast in one spot, lunch in another, drinks somewhere else, all within a short walk along the same stretch of sand. That’s what separates Jan Thiel from most Curaçao beach areas—you’re not tied to a single resort setup, and you don’t need to leave the beach to change the experience.
Where Sonesta Fits in the Caribbean
Sonesta’s Caribbean footprint is still concentrated, and that’s part of the story here. The brand’s strongest presence is in Sint Maarten, where it operates multiple resorts in the Maho Beach area, including both all-inclusive and adults-only options in one of the busiest beach districts in the region.
Beyond that, the company’s main Caribbean basin anchor is The Royal Sonesta San Juan in Puerto Rico, a beachfront property in Isla Verde that serves as a key entry point for U.S. travelers heading into the region.
Curaçao adds a new Dutch Caribbean position to that lineup, extending the brand into another high-demand destination rather than spreading broadly across multiple islands.
Who Should Do It
You choose this if you want Curaçao with access built in. Couples can treat it as a walkable beach stay with multiple dining options nearby. Families benefit from the larger accommodations and multiple pool areas. Divers get direct access to equipment, instruction, and guided dives without needing to coordinate off-site.
Longer stays make the most sense in the apartment and villa categories, where the added space changes how you use the property day to day. You’re not confined to a single room, and that flexibility becomes more valuable over time.
If you’re looking for seclusion or a remote setting, this is not that. The appeal here is activity, proximity, and ease.
Getting There
You fly into Curaçao International Airport, which has direct service from several cities in the United States and across the Caribbean basin. From there, it’s about a 20-minute drive to Jan Thiel, keeping arrival simple and efficient.
You’re at the resort quickly, and once you’re there, you can decide how much you want to explore. Willemstad is a short drive away, and other beaches and dive sites are easy to reach if you want to see more of the island.
Why Curaçao Has Been One of the Caribbean’s Hottest Destinations
Curaçao’s surge didn’t happen by accident. A big part of it traces back to 2022, when Sandals Royal Curaçao opened and immediately put the island into a different category for many travelers. It wasn’t just another resort debut—it introduced Curaçao to a wider all-inclusive audience that hadn’t been considering the island in the same way.
That shift carried through. More travelers started looking at Curaçao as a primary option rather than a secondary one, and airlift followed, with expanded service from major U.S. gateways. Since then, the island has seen sustained demand, stronger occupancy, and a broader mix of visitors, from all-inclusive guests to independent travelers looking for longer stays.
What that means now is simple: Curaçao is no longer a niche pick in the southern Caribbean. It’s one of the region’s more active destinations, with steady interest and growing visibility. And new openings like this one are arriving into that momentum, not trying to create it.
The Takeaway
This is a location-first resort with enough flexibility to match different types of trips. You can keep your entire stay within walking distance—beach, dining, diving, beach clubs—or use the property as a base while exploring Curaçao.
The combination of direct beach access, multiple accommodation types, a large pool, and a built-in surrounding scene defines the experience. You arrive, settle in quickly, and spend your time using what’s already around you.
Prices at the New Sonesta
This might be the biggest story. This island isn’t known for having super high prices, but even these are pretty compelling. I found rates as low as $187 per night for a king room in mid April.
The post Sonesta Just Opened a New Curaçao Resort, With Diving, Palapas and 3 Pools appeared first on Caribbean Journal.
