Curaçao International Airport (CUR) — Hato to everyone on the island — runs one open-air car park of nearly 300 spaces beside the terminal, and it is fully automated: a ticket from the dispenser at the barrier, a pay station on foot, no attendant in the loop. The first 15 minutes are free, which covers a kerbside drop-off, and the meter never climbs past a daily ceiling of XCG 21.50 however long you leave the car.
The tariff, hour by hour
| How long you stay | Charge |
|---|---|
| Up to 15 minutes | Free |
| 15 to 30 minutes | XCG 4.00 (~$2.25) |
| 30 to 60 minutes | + XCG 1.00 (~$0.55) |
| Each additional hour, to a maximum of 16 | + XCG 1.00 |
| Beyond 16 hours | Daily rate, XCG 21.50 (~$12) |
Prices are in the Caribbean guilder (XCG), which replaced the old Netherlands Antillean guilder (ANG) on Curaçao in 2025 and kept the same peg to the dollar, so the conversions above hold steady whatever the machine's display calls it. Read the middle rows carefully: an hour costs XCG 5.00 all in, and the banded rate then steps by a guilder an hour. Sixteen hours adds up to XCG 20.00 that way, and only past that point does the XCG 21.50 day rate take over — so the ceiling sits just XCG 1.50 above the longest banded stay.
Two packages, and what they really save
For longer trips the car park sells two fixed products, and the airport states their logic plainly: park seven days and pay for six — XCG 129.00, or park ten days and pay for nine — XCG 193.50. Both numbers are exactly the daily rate multiplied out, so the arithmetic is worth doing before you assume a package is a bargain:
| Stay | Day by day | Package | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7 days | XCG 150.50 | XCG 129.00 | XCG 21.50 — 14 % |
| 10 days | XCG 215.00 | XCG 193.50 | XCG 21.50 — 10 % |
So each package is worth exactly one free day — no more — and in percentage terms the ten-day deal is the weaker of the two. Useful, not transformative: on a fortnight away the saving is still a single day's parking, roughly four return rides on the Konvooi bus into Willemstad.
Buy the package at the machine, not at the barrier
This is the part that catches people out. The packages are not sold online and not at the entry boom — you buy them inside, at a pay station, after you have driven in. The sequence the airport publishes is six steps: insert your parking ticket, choose product selection, pick the seven- or ten-day package, pay the amount shown, take your ticket back, and go. Do it on the way to check-in, not on the way out, or you will simply be charged by the hour.
Where to pay and how
There are three pay stations, and they are worth locating before you need one: one outside the check-in hall, right beside the MCB cash machine, and two at the entrance to the arrivals hall, on your right as you come in. They take guilders in coins or notes, US dollars in notes only, and debit or credit cards by swipe or tap. After you pay you have 15 minutes to reach the exit, and the ticket itself lifts the boom, so keep it in your hand rather than in the boot.
Each ticket is tied to your number plate — the plate is registered on it at entry — which is why a lost ticket is a solvable problem rather than a disaster: the Car Park Office on the lot will sort it out with you.
Meeting a flight
For a pick-up, the free quarter-hour is usually enough if you time the run to the arrivals board rather than the scheduled landing. Overshoot it and half an hour costs XCG 4.00, an hour XCG 5.00 — cheap enough that waiting in a bay beats circling the access road, and far cheaper than the alternative of a second trip. Willemstad is 12 km away, a 15 to 20 minute drive, so a mistimed run costs the better part of an hour.
- Returning a hire car goes to the company's own desk in the arrivals hall, not into a public bay — the car hire page has the handover details.
- Landing in the December to April high season, allow for a fuller lot: the island is busiest then and the spaces nearest the door go first.
- Not driving at all? Zone taxi fares, the Konvooi bus and pre-booked cars are compared in our transfers guide.
- Flying out at dawn? The hotels five minutes from the terminal can be cheaper than a week of parking — see hotels near the airport.
Rates above were checked against the airport's own parking page in September 2026, and the operator revises them from time to time, so confirm before a long stay. What happens between the aircraft door and the car park is set out in our arrivals guide.
