I came across a last-minute deal from United for a round trip flight from Portland, Oregon to Bonaire for only 40K points. So, I jumped on it and 4 days later boarded my red eye flight to Newark and then a short layover before pressing on to Bonaire. That flight goes to Bonaire every Saturday morning with a nice arrival time at 1:30pm.
RENTAL TRUCK
I used a new rental car agency for this trip: Bonaire Truck Rental
They were very competitively priced and included full insurance and a 2nd driver.
Additionally, they were super responsive and easy to deal with and you pick your car up at the airport. They texted me a photo of the truck and described where it was located in the airport parking lot. The keys, parking stub and some cash were stashed under the driver side visor. I grabbed the cash and parking stub and walked back to the terminal parking kiosk and paid the parking and went back to the truck and got in and off we went.
We arranged to meet at their office on Monday (two days later) for me to pay for the truck. It was that easy! I made the reservation online, picked up the truck upon arrival without dealing with anyone and made payment at both of our convenience 2 days later at their office near Van den Tweel supermarket.
ACCOMMODATIONS
My wife and I kind of came full circle and decided to stay at Den Laman Condominiums. Our very first trip to Bonaire (well over 300 Bonaire dives ago) was at Den Laman and we have been staying at various other places over the years. Den Laman offered the best bang for our buck for such a last-minute booking: Home - Den Laman
Our booking was actually through Sunwise, who property manages the vast majority of units in the Den Laman complex. They were also super great to work with and correspond with. Due to last minute booking, we were limited as to what was available for the 2 weeks of our stay. There are Studios, 1 bedroom and 2-bedroom units. We ended up in a well-equipped and spacious studio on the 2nd floor. Note: there is no elevator in the 3-story building, just stairs.
The studio came with a full kitchen, king size or 2 double beds, living/dining area and a very spacious outside deck to sit, eat and dry clothes/towels, etc.
Den Laman is waterfront and sits right on the entry to Bari Reef. It is attached/connected to one of the 8 Dive Friends dive shop locations on the island. This location has its own pier for boat pickups and also serves as the shore entry and exit and gear up spot for shore diving. We would just gear up and giant stride off the end of the pier and upon return, walk up the nice easy stairs to the pier. Tanks, fresh water showers and rinse tanks are on the pier for your convenience. Only Den Laman and Sand Dollar (condo complex north and adjacent to Den Laman) have use and access to this pier and entry/exit.
There is an on-site storage area that is well secured after hours to store all gear overnight and a number of Gorilla Carts for hauling gear from the storage area to the pier or to your truck. You have 24 hour access to your secure gear in the storage area. It is locked up between 5pm and 8am, but you have code aaccess.
Also attached to Den Laman is the Breeze and Bites restaurant, which has a great reputation on the island. It is a great place for a meal or drinks at the bar. All open air next to the pier and water and with great sunset views. Thursday night is the burger special night and quite popular.
DIVING
We booked our dive package directly with Dive Friends. We get a 10% repeat customer discount, but you can also get a 10% discount coupon if staying at Den Laman. Our cost came to $190 per week (6 days) of unlimited tanks with nitrox.
The diving was great. 83 degree water temps and outstanding visibility the entire time. The Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) is very prevalent on all dive sites from Oil Slick Leap to the North and all the way south to The Lake. It is a definite eye sore.
North and south of that, it was really not too noticeable. The further southern sites were excellent, particularly everything between Pink Beach and Red Slave. To the north, Weber’s Joy, 1000 Steps, Tolo and Karpata were in good shape.
The entire national park dive sites are off limits, but you can snorkel there. We did have one non-diving day after our first 6 days of diving and spent much of it up in the national park seeing a lot of the interesting things we always miss because we are usually up there to dive. It made for a nice day trip as we drove the long route and took in the various historic and natural sights and had a nice picnic lunch at the Slagbaai beach.
No unusual critter sightings. All of the usual stuff. We had a resident frogfish on our house reef that we frequented regularly, saw the biggest Great Barracuda I have ever witnessed, excellent large squid sightings at Salt Pier, seahorses at Red Slave and massive schools of snapper and a huge school of 20+ midnight blue parrotfish on two different occasions, all at Red Slave. A small spotted eagle ray at Karpata and now that I think about it, I never saw one big green moray among the 40 dives I did- that is unusual.
IN CLOSING
Total cost for this trip was $1410 for the 15 nights at Den Laman, plus $800 for the 15 days of truck rental and $760 for the two weeks of diving. Grand total $2970—so, roughly $750 per person, per week. We spent about $130 in gasoline for the truck over the 2 weeks and prepared all meals at the condo. We did our grocery shopping at the Van den Tweel Supermarket, as well as Zung Khong market which is about .5 miles north of Den Laman.
August is very quiet on Bonaire and probably the slowest month. It is vacation month for locals and the Dutch. As a result, many restaurants are closed for at least a couple weeks during the month and some take the entire month off.
It was nice to be back on Bonaire. Last trip was April of last year. We try to make it once a year. The dive freedom (dive when you want, where you want, how you want) just cannot be beaten. Since our last trip to Bonaire 16 months ago, I have been to Fiji, the Sea of Cortez, Florida, Cozumel 3 times, Guanaja and the Socorro’s. All outstanding trips and yet I always like coming back to Bonaire for its uniqueness. It always brings a smile to my face and I love the pace and rhythm of a two week stay.
It is off to Florida (West Palm and Boynton) next month for Goliath Grouper aggregation season, where I might even run into @scubadada , if I am lucky. Then 3 weeks in the Philippines in November to close out the year. I will post a few pics below. I did a lot of video and will put together a You Tube clip in the week ahead and came back and post that link. That school of midnight parrotfish that we sw on two different occasions is all video. I should have taken some stills- I wasn't thinking.
RENTAL TRUCK
I used a new rental car agency for this trip: Bonaire Truck Rental
They were very competitively priced and included full insurance and a 2nd driver.
Additionally, they were super responsive and easy to deal with and you pick your car up at the airport. They texted me a photo of the truck and described where it was located in the airport parking lot. The keys, parking stub and some cash were stashed under the driver side visor. I grabbed the cash and parking stub and walked back to the terminal parking kiosk and paid the parking and went back to the truck and got in and off we went.
We arranged to meet at their office on Monday (two days later) for me to pay for the truck. It was that easy! I made the reservation online, picked up the truck upon arrival without dealing with anyone and made payment at both of our convenience 2 days later at their office near Van den Tweel supermarket.
ACCOMMODATIONS
My wife and I kind of came full circle and decided to stay at Den Laman Condominiums. Our very first trip to Bonaire (well over 300 Bonaire dives ago) was at Den Laman and we have been staying at various other places over the years. Den Laman offered the best bang for our buck for such a last-minute booking: Home - Den Laman
Our booking was actually through Sunwise, who property manages the vast majority of units in the Den Laman complex. They were also super great to work with and correspond with. Due to last minute booking, we were limited as to what was available for the 2 weeks of our stay. There are Studios, 1 bedroom and 2-bedroom units. We ended up in a well-equipped and spacious studio on the 2nd floor. Note: there is no elevator in the 3-story building, just stairs.
The studio came with a full kitchen, king size or 2 double beds, living/dining area and a very spacious outside deck to sit, eat and dry clothes/towels, etc.
Den Laman is waterfront and sits right on the entry to Bari Reef. It is attached/connected to one of the 8 Dive Friends dive shop locations on the island. This location has its own pier for boat pickups and also serves as the shore entry and exit and gear up spot for shore diving. We would just gear up and giant stride off the end of the pier and upon return, walk up the nice easy stairs to the pier. Tanks, fresh water showers and rinse tanks are on the pier for your convenience. Only Den Laman and Sand Dollar (condo complex north and adjacent to Den Laman) have use and access to this pier and entry/exit.
There is an on-site storage area that is well secured after hours to store all gear overnight and a number of Gorilla Carts for hauling gear from the storage area to the pier or to your truck. You have 24 hour access to your secure gear in the storage area. It is locked up between 5pm and 8am, but you have code aaccess.
Also attached to Den Laman is the Breeze and Bites restaurant, which has a great reputation on the island. It is a great place for a meal or drinks at the bar. All open air next to the pier and water and with great sunset views. Thursday night is the burger special night and quite popular.
DIVING
We booked our dive package directly with Dive Friends. We get a 10% repeat customer discount, but you can also get a 10% discount coupon if staying at Den Laman. Our cost came to $190 per week (6 days) of unlimited tanks with nitrox.
The diving was great. 83 degree water temps and outstanding visibility the entire time. The Stony Coral Tissue Loss Disease (SCTLD) is very prevalent on all dive sites from Oil Slick Leap to the North and all the way south to The Lake. It is a definite eye sore.
North and south of that, it was really not too noticeable. The further southern sites were excellent, particularly everything between Pink Beach and Red Slave. To the north, Weber’s Joy, 1000 Steps, Tolo and Karpata were in good shape.
The entire national park dive sites are off limits, but you can snorkel there. We did have one non-diving day after our first 6 days of diving and spent much of it up in the national park seeing a lot of the interesting things we always miss because we are usually up there to dive. It made for a nice day trip as we drove the long route and took in the various historic and natural sights and had a nice picnic lunch at the Slagbaai beach.
No unusual critter sightings. All of the usual stuff. We had a resident frogfish on our house reef that we frequented regularly, saw the biggest Great Barracuda I have ever witnessed, excellent large squid sightings at Salt Pier, seahorses at Red Slave and massive schools of snapper and a huge school of 20+ midnight blue parrotfish on two different occasions, all at Red Slave. A small spotted eagle ray at Karpata and now that I think about it, I never saw one big green moray among the 40 dives I did- that is unusual.
IN CLOSING
Total cost for this trip was $1410 for the 15 nights at Den Laman, plus $800 for the 15 days of truck rental and $760 for the two weeks of diving. Grand total $2970—so, roughly $750 per person, per week. We spent about $130 in gasoline for the truck over the 2 weeks and prepared all meals at the condo. We did our grocery shopping at the Van den Tweel Supermarket, as well as Zung Khong market which is about .5 miles north of Den Laman.
August is very quiet on Bonaire and probably the slowest month. It is vacation month for locals and the Dutch. As a result, many restaurants are closed for at least a couple weeks during the month and some take the entire month off.
It was nice to be back on Bonaire. Last trip was April of last year. We try to make it once a year. The dive freedom (dive when you want, where you want, how you want) just cannot be beaten. Since our last trip to Bonaire 16 months ago, I have been to Fiji, the Sea of Cortez, Florida, Cozumel 3 times, Guanaja and the Socorro’s. All outstanding trips and yet I always like coming back to Bonaire for its uniqueness. It always brings a smile to my face and I love the pace and rhythm of a two week stay.
It is off to Florida (West Palm and Boynton) next month for Goliath Grouper aggregation season, where I might even run into @scubadada , if I am lucky. Then 3 weeks in the Philippines in November to close out the year. I will post a few pics below. I did a lot of video and will put together a You Tube clip in the week ahead and came back and post that link. That school of midnight parrotfish that we sw on two different occasions is all video. I should have taken some stills- I wasn't thinking.
