On a bus at Boston’s Logan Airport a heavily bundled woman asked my 6-year-old daughter to trade her plane ticket to the Caribbean for one to Washington, D.C. The woman explained with a smile that she was fed-up with the cold and snow and would welcome the change. My daughter Colleen, who had recently developed her own dislike for below-zero temperatures, gave a violent shake of the head to turn down the offer.

It would be the first trip to the Dutch island of Curacao for Colleen, her younger sister Molly and myself. But my wife was returning for a family gathering to the island where she was born and where she spent much of her childhood before leaving for 19 winters in the Northeast.

Curacao sits in the Caribbean Ocean 37 miles off the coast of Venezuela, between Aruba and Bonaire. Although it has never been among the most popular Caribbean destinations for Americans, the Dutch island is attracting more tourists seeking an alternative to other more crowded Caribbean destinations, according to recent reports.

This is hardly surprising. Only 38 miles long and between 2 and 8 miles wide, Curacao’s southern coast is dotted with beautiful public and private beaches. Of the nine we visited, none were overly crowded. Every day is a beach day because Curacao is sunny year-round with temperatures that are usually in the 80s and 90s. The heat is tempered by a pleasant breeze that sweeps the island most of the year.

Like so many Caribbean islands, Curacao’s azure waters are crystal clear and rich with fish and marine life in almost every conceivable color. Snorkeling is a delight, not only because of all the sea creatures, but also because the water is saltier than what we’re used to in the Northeast and therefore more buoyant. We could float over the coral effortlessly for hours. Just make sure to use ample sunscreen to beat the tropical sun.

Curacao has an aquarium for those wanting to look at this world without jumping in with the fish. In addition to tanks inside buildings, the seaside aquarium keeps sharks, turtles, dolphins and other fish in large natural holding areas walled by nets or man-made barriers.

The children particularly liked a stationary boat tied up to a dock between two of the larger enclosures. Below decks is an observatory with windows running around the hull and seats affording comfortable views of the fish.

On shore, Curacao is a dry landscape with some hills and lots of cactuses, wild goats, iguanas and tiny lizards. No streams or lakes grace the land, so the billions of gallons of drinking water used on the island are distilled from seawater at a plant in Willemstad.

Willemstad, the capital of the Dutch islands known as the Netherland Antilles, is separated into two sections by a natural, deep-water canal extending about a mile from the ocean to a huge bay. It is amazing to stand alongside this canal and see a supertanker come in at a good clip and pass through this channel that’s not much wider than the ship. These vessels travel up to the refinery, which sprawls around the harbor behind two hills. The refinery, an important part of the island’s economy, is largely invisible from the city’s main streets.

A pontoon bridge, which opens and closes for each passing ship, connects the capital city’s Punda and Otrobanda sections. Standing in the middle looking at Punda, you see so much Dutch architecture that the city has a bit of a European feel. But Curacao is a melting pot of cultures. Its 160,000 residents come from 50 different cultures. Although Dutch is commonly spoken, most natives prefer Papiamento, a mix of old Portuguese, Creole, Spanish and Dutch. Spanish is also commonly spoken.

Along a small slip in Punda near the customhouse, fishing boats from Venezuela line up every morning to display stacks of freshly caught red snapper and other seafood. Further along the open-air market are stands of fruits and vegetables grown in Venezuela. The local currency, the Netherlands Antillean guilder, is pegged at a stable rate of 1.77 guilders to $1 U.S. Americans enjoy an exchange rate roughly similar to that available now in Canada.

There’s rarely a rainy day to take in museums and other cultural attractions in Curacao. But it’s worth coming out of the sun for an hour to tour the Kura Hulanda Museum in Otrabanda. The museum, opened in 1999, documents the role of the island in the slave trade of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. The well-done exhibits spread over a number of small buildings.

The museum is part of the Kura Hulanda Hotel renovation project in which a section of city was walled off and closed to cars, with original buildings renovated into hotel rooms, restaurants and stores connected by narrow cobblestone streets. Pools and historic displays are woven into the streetscape.

Around the country, one also sees landhuizen, or land houses. These are original colonial plantations with tile roofs and walls painted a distinctive mustard-yellow color. Though many have been publicly or privately renovated (the government pays a portion of upkeep just like Vermont does for its distinctive red barns), many derelict landhuizen dot the dry landscape.

Soon the fish, landhuizen and azure waters were behind us as we flew via Miami to Boston.

Curacao had proven a fantastic place for our children to play in the sand and water. They were disappointed that winter hadn’t broken upon our return. As we desperately donned coats, mittens and snowsuits to meet the Boston chill, 4-year-old Molly made an observation we knew was all too true.

“Colleen, we’re not in Curacao anymore.”