Willemstad in a day: Punda, Otrobanda, Pietermaai and the pontoon bridge

Willemstad is the reason Curaçao looks like nowhere else in the Caribbean. The pastel Dutch gables along the Handelskade are on every postcard, but the city is much more than that view: four historic quarters, a floating bridge that swings open for ships, a serious slavery museum and the liveliest street art on the island. It is fifteen minutes from the villa, so you can do it in a day — or in two half-days, which in this heat is wiser.

Morning: Punda

Park near the Waaigat and start in Punda, the oldest quarter. Walk the Handelskade early, before the cruise crowds, for the classic photograph across the harbour. Behind it lie narrow shopping streets, Fort Amsterdam (the seat of government, with a cannonball still lodged in the church wall) and the Mikvé Israel-Emanuel synagogue from 1732 — the oldest in continuous use in the Americas, with its famous sand floor and a small museum.

Walk on to the floating market on the Sha Caprileskade, where Venezuelan boats have sold fruit and fish for a century (the number of boats varies these days), and to the round Marshe Bieu (old market) behind it, where local cooks serve stewed goat, fish and funchi at long tables. This is the place for lunch if you want to eat like a Curaçaoan.

Midday: across the bridge to Otrobanda

Cross the Queen Emma bridge, the "Swinging Old Lady" — a pontoon bridge from 1888 that swings aside whenever a ship enters the harbour. If it is open, a free ferry runs across. On the other side, Otrobanda is grittier and more local: the Rif Fort with its restaurants and views, and above all the Kura Hulanda Museum, a moving and unmissable museum of the transatlantic slave trade set in restored merchants' houses.

Afternoon: murals and Pietermaai

Back on the Punda side, walk through Scharloo, once the quarter of wealthy merchants and now home to the island's best murals, and on to Pietermaai. This strip of restored colonial houses along the sea is where Willemstad eats and drinks: coffee bars, cocktail bars, restaurants from casual to fine dining, and live music at weekends. It is the natural place to end the day — stay for sunset and dinner and take a taxi home, or drive the fifteen minutes back to Jan Thiel.

Good to know

• Start early; the city is hot and shadeless from eleven to three. Carry water and wear a hat.
• Cruise ships dock at the Mega Pier in Otrobanda; on days with two or more ships, Punda is crowded until mid-afternoon.
• Shops in Punda close on Sundays and in the early evening; Pietermaai comes alive after dark.
• Landhuis Chobolobo, where the original Blue Curaçao liqueur is distilled, is a ten-minute drive from the centre and makes a good stop on the way home.
• Card payments are accepted almost everywhere; carry a little cash for the market.