LimitedSlip7
Contributor
Just got back from our 1st trip to Bonaire a week ago and figured I'd better get a report written before I forget everything. Much thanks to those who gave me feedback on here! It definitely helped us have a great trip. We flew in on March 22nd and flew out on March 31st.
I initially planned on staying at Den Laman or Buddy Dive but both places were booked during the week we wanted to stay so we went with Sand Dollar instead. We staying in the F-19 unit which was about as far from the dock as you can get but the walk wasn't as long as it looked. The unit was clean, fully furnished, and had a fairly comfortable bed. The grounds around the resort were well landscaped and maintained. We booked it through Hotels.com which ended up being about $10 a night cheaper than booking direct and we earned a free night through their rewards program. Next time we might stay at Den Laman to be closer to the dock but I wouldn't hesitate to stay at Sand Dollar again. As an added bonus we had a donkey patiently waiting for us on our patio one afternoon after coming back from diving! I guess his name is George and he frequents the area. We gave him some krakelingen and a bowl of water. Side note - krakelingen makes a great surface interval snack! Randomly decided to try it when picking up snacks at the Chinese market. It's kind of like a cross between a pretzel and a butter cookie.
Topside Pics:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/bzLLYnYEkbMsAKRJ9
We also had a good experience renting a truck from Voyager Bonaire. It was $50 a day with insurance for a 5 speed Hilux, with a free day for renting 7 days, so the total ended up being $350 for 8 days. The truck was in good shape and we had no issues with it for the entirety of our trip. I would definitely rent from then again if we go back. Driving around the island was very easy and laid back.
The food on the island was better than I expected! Strangely, it seemed the cheaper the place we ate, the better the food was. We made a few breakfasts at the apartment but when I'm on vacation I prefer to go out and try the local restaurants. The food is almost as important as the diving...
Kite City - This food truck was amazing. Had to eat here twice. Their tuna platter with seared tuna, tuna tartare, and tuna sushami is a must try, as well as their mahi mahi burger. Their regular burger also had really good flavor, but was quite messy.
La Creperie - Ate here three times for breakfast. If you like crepes or waffles you must give this place a try. Also a great spot on the water to sit and people watch.
Donar Station - I've never had donar meat before but apparently it's really good.
King Kong - Had a burger at this food truck which was good. Their fryer wasn't working at the time so we couldn't try their amazing sounding mosquito repellent fries...
Julian's - Really good (and fast!) food for cheap. Tried barracuda for the first time.
Between 2 Buns - Ate here for breakfast once and lunch once. It was pretty good tasty, although not quite as good as the reviews made it sound. We found the desserts to be better at the Van den Tweel supermarket.
Bobbyjans BBQ - Good BBQ. This place seemed to be the happening spot; very busy. The ribs were a little tough but good flavor. The chicken was really good though! I would come back here and just get a bunch of chicken legs/thighs.
Eddy's - Good food, would eat here again.
Breeze N Bites - Breakfast once and dinner once. Breakfast was simple but good; although we were glad we didn't purchase the daily breakfast option through Sand Dollar. Dinner was decent but overpriced.
Rum Runners - Decided to try this once for breakfast. Didn't realize it was just the resort breakfast buffet for the resort. Had a decent omelette but the rest was very meh and it was $35 for the two of us. If was staying at Captain Don's I definitely wouldn't pay for the breakfast option.
El Bigoto - Decided to give this Mexican restaurant a try on our last night. Don't come here if you don't have 2-3 hours for dinner. It wasn't extremely busy but we waited for 40 minutes before our drink order was even taken. A Mexican trio were seated next to us after about 35 minutes, had their order taken immediately and had both their drinks/food before us, so maybe we were too gringo? It was really the only slow service we had on the island though. Other than the ceviche, the food was really good. I would definitely eat here again.
Italy in the World - This place was a total disappointment. Looked nice and got good reviews but I think maybe our palettes aren't refined enough to appreciate it or something. The smoked marlin was okay but for the $120 I spent here on two entrees and two appetizers (with water) I was expecting some really good food. The GF said she has had Chef Boyardee that was better. I wouldn't say it was that bad but I did leave thinking about how many mahi mahi burgers I could have gotten from Kit City... They did have an impressive selection of wine though, if you're into that kind of thing. I'm more of a fancy beer guy.
Donna & Giorgios - Ah, so this is this place you come for good Italian. Our cravings for Italian unsatiated the night before by Italy in the World, we gave this place a shot. Much better. Everything was delicious, not to mention cheaper. Would recommend.
Gios & Lucianos - Now for the important part. Gios vs Lucianos. In my opinion... Gios hands down. I thought the flavors and textures were much better at Gios. There was one exception at Lucianos though, which was the Mango Yogurt. That **** was amazing. Overall though, Gios gets the nod.
Now the important part, the diving! We dove with Dive Friends of course since they were right next to our hotel and seemed well reviewed. We also were able to get 10% off with our Voyager Bonaire rental. We mostly shore dove with the exception of one morning 2-tank boat dive to Klein with DFB and a 2-tank boat dive with Bonaire East Coast Diving. We are newer divers and most of our diving has been at Cozumel. Our first impressions with Bonaire diving was that it was not nearly as good as Cozumel. That was just the first impression though but as the week went on and we learned to relax and slow down it got much better.
Shore dives - Karpata, Tolo, 1000 Steps, Oil slick, Webers Joy, Hilma Hooker, Bari Reef, Angel City, Red Beryl, Invisibles. We started off diving the Northern sites and working our way down the coast. Our favorite dives were Salt Pier, Invisibles, and Bari Reef. I particularly like Invisibles and wish I had done it earlier in the week. It seems like a place you could do several dives in a row. Salt Pier was also amazing. My least favorite dive site was Angel City; we saw little life there and there was a lot of barren reef. I was also very distracted on the Angel City dive though, so that might have been part of the problem. We did a few night dives at Bari reef and the tarpons were awesome! Kind of scare the crap out of you the first time seeing them.
Speaking of night dives, we did attempt the ostracod dive. After scoping out the sites mentioned on here I tried to just book a boat dive through DFB but they were all full. Oil slick it was! We went in after dusk, set a light up on the ladder, then set our depth at 30ft using my DSMB after it started to get really dark. We floated in the darkness for 25 min and the clouds of bioluminescence was pretty cool whenever you moved in the water. However, we didn't see what was described as the ostracods so maybe we went in too early or too late. We surfaced to almost complete darkness except for a few house lights up on the hills, with no sign of our ladder light! Crap, should have tied by SMB off at the bouy... drifted quite a ways and the GF is starting to freak out. Have a 20 min surface swim (in what I think is the correct direction) while trying to keep the GF calm, before we finally get past an outcropping and can see our ladder marker again. Next time I think I'll do this via boat or with a guide.
Klein - Southwest Corner & Carl's Hill. We wanted to do at least one boat dive out at Klein to see how it differed from the main island. The first site, Southwest Corner, wasn't very impressive. The 2nd dive, Carl's Hill, was excellent though. I really liked the wall and we saw quite a bit of life including a Hawksbill chowing down on some sponge, completely ignoring our presence.
East Coast - Unknown first dive site, Turtle city 2nd dive. This is a must dive. If you like stingrays, eagle rays, sharks, morays, octopus, and more turtles than you can count, that is. The ride out to the reef is interesting in the large swells but the boat is well set up to handle it. If you get seasick you may want to make sure to take some meds. Once on the bottom though it was a never ending stream of eagle rays, turtles, and sting rays, with the occasional reef shark and large moray. On the 2nd dive safety stop, there were 7! eagle rays circling below us. We probably saw at least 20-30 turtles at Turtle City. They said we saw more life than usual that day but it would worth it if we had seen even half as much. At $120/pp for a two tank dive it's definitely a bit more expensive but it was well worth it for us.
Underwater Pics:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/G2S3oZ9r3PfD9U9T9
I initially planned on staying at Den Laman or Buddy Dive but both places were booked during the week we wanted to stay so we went with Sand Dollar instead. We staying in the F-19 unit which was about as far from the dock as you can get but the walk wasn't as long as it looked. The unit was clean, fully furnished, and had a fairly comfortable bed. The grounds around the resort were well landscaped and maintained. We booked it through Hotels.com which ended up being about $10 a night cheaper than booking direct and we earned a free night through their rewards program. Next time we might stay at Den Laman to be closer to the dock but I wouldn't hesitate to stay at Sand Dollar again. As an added bonus we had a donkey patiently waiting for us on our patio one afternoon after coming back from diving! I guess his name is George and he frequents the area. We gave him some krakelingen and a bowl of water. Side note - krakelingen makes a great surface interval snack! Randomly decided to try it when picking up snacks at the Chinese market. It's kind of like a cross between a pretzel and a butter cookie.
Topside Pics:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/bzLLYnYEkbMsAKRJ9
We also had a good experience renting a truck from Voyager Bonaire. It was $50 a day with insurance for a 5 speed Hilux, with a free day for renting 7 days, so the total ended up being $350 for 8 days. The truck was in good shape and we had no issues with it for the entirety of our trip. I would definitely rent from then again if we go back. Driving around the island was very easy and laid back.
The food on the island was better than I expected! Strangely, it seemed the cheaper the place we ate, the better the food was. We made a few breakfasts at the apartment but when I'm on vacation I prefer to go out and try the local restaurants. The food is almost as important as the diving...
Kite City - This food truck was amazing. Had to eat here twice. Their tuna platter with seared tuna, tuna tartare, and tuna sushami is a must try, as well as their mahi mahi burger. Their regular burger also had really good flavor, but was quite messy.
La Creperie - Ate here three times for breakfast. If you like crepes or waffles you must give this place a try. Also a great spot on the water to sit and people watch.
Donar Station - I've never had donar meat before but apparently it's really good.
King Kong - Had a burger at this food truck which was good. Their fryer wasn't working at the time so we couldn't try their amazing sounding mosquito repellent fries...
Julian's - Really good (and fast!) food for cheap. Tried barracuda for the first time.
Between 2 Buns - Ate here for breakfast once and lunch once. It was pretty good tasty, although not quite as good as the reviews made it sound. We found the desserts to be better at the Van den Tweel supermarket.
Bobbyjans BBQ - Good BBQ. This place seemed to be the happening spot; very busy. The ribs were a little tough but good flavor. The chicken was really good though! I would come back here and just get a bunch of chicken legs/thighs.
Eddy's - Good food, would eat here again.
Breeze N Bites - Breakfast once and dinner once. Breakfast was simple but good; although we were glad we didn't purchase the daily breakfast option through Sand Dollar. Dinner was decent but overpriced.
Rum Runners - Decided to try this once for breakfast. Didn't realize it was just the resort breakfast buffet for the resort. Had a decent omelette but the rest was very meh and it was $35 for the two of us. If was staying at Captain Don's I definitely wouldn't pay for the breakfast option.
El Bigoto - Decided to give this Mexican restaurant a try on our last night. Don't come here if you don't have 2-3 hours for dinner. It wasn't extremely busy but we waited for 40 minutes before our drink order was even taken. A Mexican trio were seated next to us after about 35 minutes, had their order taken immediately and had both their drinks/food before us, so maybe we were too gringo? It was really the only slow service we had on the island though. Other than the ceviche, the food was really good. I would definitely eat here again.
Italy in the World - This place was a total disappointment. Looked nice and got good reviews but I think maybe our palettes aren't refined enough to appreciate it or something. The smoked marlin was okay but for the $120 I spent here on two entrees and two appetizers (with water) I was expecting some really good food. The GF said she has had Chef Boyardee that was better. I wouldn't say it was that bad but I did leave thinking about how many mahi mahi burgers I could have gotten from Kit City... They did have an impressive selection of wine though, if you're into that kind of thing. I'm more of a fancy beer guy.
Donna & Giorgios - Ah, so this is this place you come for good Italian. Our cravings for Italian unsatiated the night before by Italy in the World, we gave this place a shot. Much better. Everything was delicious, not to mention cheaper. Would recommend.
Gios & Lucianos - Now for the important part. Gios vs Lucianos. In my opinion... Gios hands down. I thought the flavors and textures were much better at Gios. There was one exception at Lucianos though, which was the Mango Yogurt. That **** was amazing. Overall though, Gios gets the nod.
Now the important part, the diving! We dove with Dive Friends of course since they were right next to our hotel and seemed well reviewed. We also were able to get 10% off with our Voyager Bonaire rental. We mostly shore dove with the exception of one morning 2-tank boat dive to Klein with DFB and a 2-tank boat dive with Bonaire East Coast Diving. We are newer divers and most of our diving has been at Cozumel. Our first impressions with Bonaire diving was that it was not nearly as good as Cozumel. That was just the first impression though but as the week went on and we learned to relax and slow down it got much better.
Shore dives - Karpata, Tolo, 1000 Steps, Oil slick, Webers Joy, Hilma Hooker, Bari Reef, Angel City, Red Beryl, Invisibles. We started off diving the Northern sites and working our way down the coast. Our favorite dives were Salt Pier, Invisibles, and Bari Reef. I particularly like Invisibles and wish I had done it earlier in the week. It seems like a place you could do several dives in a row. Salt Pier was also amazing. My least favorite dive site was Angel City; we saw little life there and there was a lot of barren reef. I was also very distracted on the Angel City dive though, so that might have been part of the problem. We did a few night dives at Bari reef and the tarpons were awesome! Kind of scare the crap out of you the first time seeing them.
Speaking of night dives, we did attempt the ostracod dive. After scoping out the sites mentioned on here I tried to just book a boat dive through DFB but they were all full. Oil slick it was! We went in after dusk, set a light up on the ladder, then set our depth at 30ft using my DSMB after it started to get really dark. We floated in the darkness for 25 min and the clouds of bioluminescence was pretty cool whenever you moved in the water. However, we didn't see what was described as the ostracods so maybe we went in too early or too late. We surfaced to almost complete darkness except for a few house lights up on the hills, with no sign of our ladder light! Crap, should have tied by SMB off at the bouy... drifted quite a ways and the GF is starting to freak out. Have a 20 min surface swim (in what I think is the correct direction) while trying to keep the GF calm, before we finally get past an outcropping and can see our ladder marker again. Next time I think I'll do this via boat or with a guide.
Klein - Southwest Corner & Carl's Hill. We wanted to do at least one boat dive out at Klein to see how it differed from the main island. The first site, Southwest Corner, wasn't very impressive. The 2nd dive, Carl's Hill, was excellent though. I really liked the wall and we saw quite a bit of life including a Hawksbill chowing down on some sponge, completely ignoring our presence.
East Coast - Unknown first dive site, Turtle city 2nd dive. This is a must dive. If you like stingrays, eagle rays, sharks, morays, octopus, and more turtles than you can count, that is. The ride out to the reef is interesting in the large swells but the boat is well set up to handle it. If you get seasick you may want to make sure to take some meds. Once on the bottom though it was a never ending stream of eagle rays, turtles, and sting rays, with the occasional reef shark and large moray. On the 2nd dive safety stop, there were 7! eagle rays circling below us. We probably saw at least 20-30 turtles at Turtle City. They said we saw more life than usual that day but it would worth it if we had seen even half as much. At $120/pp for a two tank dive it's definitely a bit more expensive but it was well worth it for us.
Underwater Pics:
https://photos.app.goo.gl/G2S3oZ9r3PfD9U9T9
