Things to do in Oranjestad

Start at Fort Zoutman, if only because its the oldest thing standing in the city built in 1798 to keep pirates off the coast, and it still looks the part, low and thick walled and paintec that mustard yellow you will see all over the older buildings downtown. Right next to it is the Willem III tower, which used to double as a lighthouse and the town clock back in the 1868, and squeezed between the two is the Historical Museum, a small one, worth twenty minutes if you want the short version of how the island got from Arawakl settlement to Dutch colony to whatever it is now. On Tuesday nights the fort turns into something else entirely, the Bon Bini Festival takes over the courtyard with live music, dancing and food stalls, and it;s one of the few tourist facing things on the island that dosen’t feel staged. Locals actually show up to it.