GLOWIMAGES/GETTY IMAGES (THE EXUMAS); BRIAN DOBEN (JAMAICA); AL ARGUETA (CURAÇAO)
SEEINGWILLEMSTAD
for the first time can be a
startling experience. Curaçao’s capital city looks as
if it’s been built out of oddly shaped Lego blocks.
The streets are lined with 17th- and 18th-century
Dutch-style buildings in a dizzying variety of reds,
greens, blues, pinks and yellows, their prominent
gables, variable windows and gingerbread details
adding to the dreamlike effect. The city as a whole
is just as colorful—a happy tumble of cultures and
their attendant sensibilities, with attractions rang-
ing from the famous “floating market” to the funky
restaurants of Punda. And if all this isn’t enough
exuberance for you, every January and February
Curaçao puts on a very large, very crazy Carnival.
CURAÇAO
WE ALL KNOWABOUT
the beaches, resorts and history
of Jamaica, but the island is also notable for the number
of celebrities who have called it home. Before he died in
2003,
Johnny Cash lived part-time in stately Rose Hall on
Cinnamon Hill, which is now open to tours—as is Firefly,
former home of playwright and bon vivant Noël Coward,
which played host to, among others, Queen Elizabeth II.
And after it was a coffee plantation and before it was a
boutique hotel, the Strawberry Hill estate, located 3,100
feet above sea level in the Blue Mountains, was the resi-
dence of one Chris Blackwell, founder of Island Records.
On breaks from popularizing Bob Marley, Blackwell invited
everyone from The Rolling Stones to Marianne Faithfull to
Willie Nelson to his respite on a hill.
JAMAICA
