Curacao boasts the only official gay tourism push in the often-homophobic waters of the Caribbean, an annual gay "Get Wet" party weekend in September, and Dutch ties that bolster the live and let live island mantra. Start any tour with the Punda

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Curacao boasts the only official gay tourism push in the often-homophobic waters of the Caribbean, an annual gay "Get Wet" party weekend in September, and Dutch ties that bolster the live and let live island mantra. Start any tour with the Punda side of Curacao's capital, a cheery gathering of multi-colored 17th-century buildings that pop up in rows along the city's waterfront like an architectural Crayola box. The colorful shopping district of narrow, quaint streets is not only the site of the island's only gay bar and a stop on many gay cruise ship itineraries, but it also contains the governor's residence at Fort Amsterdam, the dramatic stone Waterfort Arches, and Mikve Israel Emmanuel, with its sand floor, the oldest synagogue in continuous use in the Western Hemisphere.

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