sullivan
Contributor
We recently returned from spending 10 days in Bonaire and I wanted to share a few thoughts and opinions that may benefit those thinking of visiting Bonaire for the first time. Of all the people we met, all were repeat visitors with some on their 14th year of visiting Bonaire; it was clear that most people are dive veterns and have their favorite lodging, dive sites, etc and everyone we met was happy to give us advice/recommendations. Since most veterans probably have their routine worked out, I'll try to offer some perspective for new Bonaire visitors.
The Island
This was our first trip to Bonaire and we booked it late, the first week of December. We're relatively new to diving but very comfortable in the water. Past diving trips were to the Turks and Caicos and Grand Cayman. We were surprised that most parts of the island seemed run down, had poor roads and dilapidated, old buildings. It kind of reminds me of Provo in 1999 before the highway was built and the island became developed into what it is today. (If I had my choice I'd take something in between Provo and Bonaire) Bonaire seems much less steralized as compared to Grand Cayman. We felt relatively safe and after a couple of days had no problem getting around the island. The non-developed state of the island is part of the appeal of Bonaire but I think the mother country, Holland, should at least make some cosmetic improvements and fix some of the bad roads.
Lodging
In all our trips to other islands, we try to stay in condo type properties and we prefer smaller resorts to larger properties. Having never been to Bonaire, I posted in this forum seeking some assistance and two properties that were recemmended multiple times were Belmar and Den Laman. We ended up staying at Den Laman because we preferred that more northern location versus Belmar's southern location that is near the airport (once on island, we realized the 2 properties are only 10 minutes apart but we were happy to be more northern as we liked that area better than the Belmar area).
The Good on Den Laman:
-Nice location and our oceanfront room had good views and a large patio.
-The interior seemed like it was recently remodeled, had new appliances and an updated bathroom.
-The condos are nicely integrated into Bonaire Dive and Adventure making diving, gear storage and cylinder exchange really easy.
-The reef in front of Den Laman is Bari Reef and was consistently one of our best dives (we did 4 dives there). On 2 separate dives we saw a spotted eagle ray and on one dive, the thing exhibited NO shyness and was within 5 feet. I just hovered and watched it eat an urchin off the bottom which was pretty cool.
The Bad on Lodging:
-Our room came with a full kitchen with the concept being that one could purchase food at the local grocery store and cook a few meals in the room (Van Der Tweel's is a large and modern store that carries most anything one could want). The problem is that the kitchen was significantly lacking even the most basic cooking items. When we go to Provo in the Turks and Caicos and Grand Cayman, we always stay in a condo so we are accustomed to what I call "vacation condos"- not as robustly furnished as one's house but they always have the most basic items. Our Den Laman kitchen had no pans that would even allow for use of the oven (just a couple of stove top pans), no blender, and almost no cups/glasses and very few general items. For about $150, the kitchen could be fitted with some inexpensive items that would give people some of the basic items.
-The place came with a queen bed which was not ideal as we're used to a king bed. We knew this up front but it made for restless sleep when combined with the fact that the bed was VERY uncomfortable. I don't think there was a box spring and the mattress was maybe 5" thick.
-We don't need Ritz Carlton furnishings but the bed linnens were worse than a roach motel in the US. No fitted sheet (the bottom sheet was a flat sheet that someone tried to make fit the bed), the sheets were like sandpaper and had the sheets had multiple holes.
-As several reviewers noted, the couches are the most uncomfortable couches we have ever encountered in 20 years of travelling to many different islands. Both the couch and the chair were almost unusable.
-In summary, the lodging was the low point in this trip and we will be renting a nice villa on our next trip in the fall of 2013.
Diving:
At the suggestion of DiveMaven (Thanks again DiveMaven!), we got Nitrox certified before we left; great call as our dive package included free Nitrox and we definately increased our bottom time and measure of safety with Nitrox. We had one rain out day that restricted diving and our first day on island was laid back as, due to plane delays, we had a 17 hour travel day; thus we only did 18 dives. All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of shore diving and doing our own thing when we wanted. We found that we dramatically improved our skills and overall comfort level with diving, Nitrox, our equipment, planning our dive, etc.
It's easy to look at the various dive guides and get caught up in trying to over analyze the various dive sites and the marine life that the guides say you "may see"; we found these guides not particularly helpful in terms of marine life you may see. The guides are helpful when trying to figure out where to park, best way to enter the dive sight and the layout of the reef. Maybe it's because we are not super experienced divers, but many dive sites seemed the same. Bonaire seems to be surrounded by one giant reef and the different "sites" run into one another.
-We made the long drive to Karpata and were not particularly impressed (partly because, after the dive you need to make a long drive back through Rincon as the road to Karpata turns into a 1 way road part way there.)
-Our worst dive of the week was 1,000 steps; a lot of work to get to/from shore, and not a lot of marine life.
-We had really good dives on the southern sites, specifically Invisibles, Angel City, Alice in Wonderland and the Lake (VERY good).
-Oil Slick was fun and a good dive.
-Cliff is a great dive with a nice mini wall; was so good we did it twice; very easy to access with Hamlet Oasis right there.
-Bari Reef in front of Den Laman was good on every dive.
-We dove the Hilma Hooker and it's good to do once but we will skip on future trips. Not much to see. We had heard the site can get crowded so we made a point to get there early. We were in the water at 8:30 and a group was exiting the water as we arrived. Half way through our dive, 2 dive boats arrived and 20 plus divers descended on the site making the dive crowded. So, it seems you need to arrive early or go late.
Our package deal included unlimited shore diving with the dive shop attached to Den Laman, Bonaire Dive and Adventure "BDA". We really liked the set up of BDA which made it real easy to get cylinder refills; just back your truck right up and load your dive gear and get new cylinders. BDA provides Nitrox at the same price as air. We never had any problems getting full cylinders and BDA always had a large supply of full cylinders.
Car Rental:
Our package came with a truck from Total. Our truck sounded terrible, shook when in 4th gear and was the worst rental I have ever had on any carribbean island. All Den Laman packages include a truck rental from Total so, at night, the Den Laman parking lot had about 8 trucks with the Total sticker. A few trucks looked to be newer but most looked as beat up as our truck. Next trip I will be renting from one of the companies that guarantees a vehicle no older than 18 or 24 months. Getting the vehicle at the airport was easy and returning the vehicle was just as easy. Total's location, like most car rental companies, is about 200 yards outside the terminal so very easy to coordinate with arrivals/departures.
Food:
Because, Christmas/New Years period is one of the busiest times of the year (so we wer told), we were unable to get into At Sea and we could only get one reservation at Capriccio. I will not go into lots of detail on each restaurant but I'll give a few details:
-Cafe de Paris: Ate dinner here one night and my meal was not good; the wife's meal was average. Based on the first experience, we did not return.
-Gio's: Great place for a late night coffee and some really good Gelato.
-Unbelievable: Our most expensive meal but really just average. The steak is advertised as "Prime" but not even close.
-Capriccio: Best meal on the island, really nice atmosphere and the warm chocolate cake was one of the best deserts I have efver had. Unfortunately, we could not get any more reservations as they were booked solid through the end of our stay.
-Paradise Moon: Low end place for a cheap dinner; I got the filet but it was more like a cheap cut of meat overseasoned with spices to try to mask the tough cut of meat. Place kind of reminds me of an Applebees type place.
-It Rains Fishes: Nice atmosphere but both our dishes were average.
Based on getting consistently average meals, I'm convinced that Bonaire is all about diving and dining is really an afterthought. The next trip we'll make 2 reservations at Capriccio, get pizza one night at Pasa Bon (we never tried it but were told by several people how good it is), hit It Rains Fishes one time and then cook the remainder of our meals on the grill that will come with whatever villa we rent (a grill will be a requirement).
In summary, I can see why people who like to dive visit Bonaire. Great island to get lots of diving each day; the dive ops and STINAPA are set up to make it easy to find sites, park, get gear and dive your butt off. It can be hard to get to Bonaire but it is a nice change from the dive vacation that requires daily boat diving.
The Island
This was our first trip to Bonaire and we booked it late, the first week of December. We're relatively new to diving but very comfortable in the water. Past diving trips were to the Turks and Caicos and Grand Cayman. We were surprised that most parts of the island seemed run down, had poor roads and dilapidated, old buildings. It kind of reminds me of Provo in 1999 before the highway was built and the island became developed into what it is today. (If I had my choice I'd take something in between Provo and Bonaire) Bonaire seems much less steralized as compared to Grand Cayman. We felt relatively safe and after a couple of days had no problem getting around the island. The non-developed state of the island is part of the appeal of Bonaire but I think the mother country, Holland, should at least make some cosmetic improvements and fix some of the bad roads.
Lodging
In all our trips to other islands, we try to stay in condo type properties and we prefer smaller resorts to larger properties. Having never been to Bonaire, I posted in this forum seeking some assistance and two properties that were recemmended multiple times were Belmar and Den Laman. We ended up staying at Den Laman because we preferred that more northern location versus Belmar's southern location that is near the airport (once on island, we realized the 2 properties are only 10 minutes apart but we were happy to be more northern as we liked that area better than the Belmar area).
The Good on Den Laman:
-Nice location and our oceanfront room had good views and a large patio.
-The interior seemed like it was recently remodeled, had new appliances and an updated bathroom.
-The condos are nicely integrated into Bonaire Dive and Adventure making diving, gear storage and cylinder exchange really easy.
-The reef in front of Den Laman is Bari Reef and was consistently one of our best dives (we did 4 dives there). On 2 separate dives we saw a spotted eagle ray and on one dive, the thing exhibited NO shyness and was within 5 feet. I just hovered and watched it eat an urchin off the bottom which was pretty cool.
The Bad on Lodging:
-Our room came with a full kitchen with the concept being that one could purchase food at the local grocery store and cook a few meals in the room (Van Der Tweel's is a large and modern store that carries most anything one could want). The problem is that the kitchen was significantly lacking even the most basic cooking items. When we go to Provo in the Turks and Caicos and Grand Cayman, we always stay in a condo so we are accustomed to what I call "vacation condos"- not as robustly furnished as one's house but they always have the most basic items. Our Den Laman kitchen had no pans that would even allow for use of the oven (just a couple of stove top pans), no blender, and almost no cups/glasses and very few general items. For about $150, the kitchen could be fitted with some inexpensive items that would give people some of the basic items.
-The place came with a queen bed which was not ideal as we're used to a king bed. We knew this up front but it made for restless sleep when combined with the fact that the bed was VERY uncomfortable. I don't think there was a box spring and the mattress was maybe 5" thick.
-We don't need Ritz Carlton furnishings but the bed linnens were worse than a roach motel in the US. No fitted sheet (the bottom sheet was a flat sheet that someone tried to make fit the bed), the sheets were like sandpaper and had the sheets had multiple holes.
-As several reviewers noted, the couches are the most uncomfortable couches we have ever encountered in 20 years of travelling to many different islands. Both the couch and the chair were almost unusable.
-In summary, the lodging was the low point in this trip and we will be renting a nice villa on our next trip in the fall of 2013.
Diving:
At the suggestion of DiveMaven (Thanks again DiveMaven!), we got Nitrox certified before we left; great call as our dive package included free Nitrox and we definately increased our bottom time and measure of safety with Nitrox. We had one rain out day that restricted diving and our first day on island was laid back as, due to plane delays, we had a 17 hour travel day; thus we only did 18 dives. All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed the freedom of shore diving and doing our own thing when we wanted. We found that we dramatically improved our skills and overall comfort level with diving, Nitrox, our equipment, planning our dive, etc.
It's easy to look at the various dive guides and get caught up in trying to over analyze the various dive sites and the marine life that the guides say you "may see"; we found these guides not particularly helpful in terms of marine life you may see. The guides are helpful when trying to figure out where to park, best way to enter the dive sight and the layout of the reef. Maybe it's because we are not super experienced divers, but many dive sites seemed the same. Bonaire seems to be surrounded by one giant reef and the different "sites" run into one another.
-We made the long drive to Karpata and were not particularly impressed (partly because, after the dive you need to make a long drive back through Rincon as the road to Karpata turns into a 1 way road part way there.)
-Our worst dive of the week was 1,000 steps; a lot of work to get to/from shore, and not a lot of marine life.
-We had really good dives on the southern sites, specifically Invisibles, Angel City, Alice in Wonderland and the Lake (VERY good).
-Oil Slick was fun and a good dive.
-Cliff is a great dive with a nice mini wall; was so good we did it twice; very easy to access with Hamlet Oasis right there.
-Bari Reef in front of Den Laman was good on every dive.
-We dove the Hilma Hooker and it's good to do once but we will skip on future trips. Not much to see. We had heard the site can get crowded so we made a point to get there early. We were in the water at 8:30 and a group was exiting the water as we arrived. Half way through our dive, 2 dive boats arrived and 20 plus divers descended on the site making the dive crowded. So, it seems you need to arrive early or go late.
Our package deal included unlimited shore diving with the dive shop attached to Den Laman, Bonaire Dive and Adventure "BDA". We really liked the set up of BDA which made it real easy to get cylinder refills; just back your truck right up and load your dive gear and get new cylinders. BDA provides Nitrox at the same price as air. We never had any problems getting full cylinders and BDA always had a large supply of full cylinders.
Car Rental:
Our package came with a truck from Total. Our truck sounded terrible, shook when in 4th gear and was the worst rental I have ever had on any carribbean island. All Den Laman packages include a truck rental from Total so, at night, the Den Laman parking lot had about 8 trucks with the Total sticker. A few trucks looked to be newer but most looked as beat up as our truck. Next trip I will be renting from one of the companies that guarantees a vehicle no older than 18 or 24 months. Getting the vehicle at the airport was easy and returning the vehicle was just as easy. Total's location, like most car rental companies, is about 200 yards outside the terminal so very easy to coordinate with arrivals/departures.
Food:
Because, Christmas/New Years period is one of the busiest times of the year (so we wer told), we were unable to get into At Sea and we could only get one reservation at Capriccio. I will not go into lots of detail on each restaurant but I'll give a few details:
-Cafe de Paris: Ate dinner here one night and my meal was not good; the wife's meal was average. Based on the first experience, we did not return.
-Gio's: Great place for a late night coffee and some really good Gelato.
-Unbelievable: Our most expensive meal but really just average. The steak is advertised as "Prime" but not even close.
-Capriccio: Best meal on the island, really nice atmosphere and the warm chocolate cake was one of the best deserts I have efver had. Unfortunately, we could not get any more reservations as they were booked solid through the end of our stay.
-Paradise Moon: Low end place for a cheap dinner; I got the filet but it was more like a cheap cut of meat overseasoned with spices to try to mask the tough cut of meat. Place kind of reminds me of an Applebees type place.
-It Rains Fishes: Nice atmosphere but both our dishes were average.
Based on getting consistently average meals, I'm convinced that Bonaire is all about diving and dining is really an afterthought. The next trip we'll make 2 reservations at Capriccio, get pizza one night at Pasa Bon (we never tried it but were told by several people how good it is), hit It Rains Fishes one time and then cook the remainder of our meals on the grill that will come with whatever villa we rent (a grill will be a requirement).
In summary, I can see why people who like to dive visit Bonaire. Great island to get lots of diving each day; the dive ops and STINAPA are set up to make it easy to find sites, park, get gear and dive your butt off. It can be hard to get to Bonaire but it is a nice change from the dive vacation that requires daily boat diving.
