Den Laman-any new reviews?

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Darcey

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I've never been to Bonaire so I've been sifting through old threads about Den Laman and the area and most are almost two years old so I'm wondering if anyone has stayed there recently? We're staying there Feb. 13-21st (we have 5 people/divers and 2 oceanveiw 2-bedroom units...one preson bailed on us) Is the restaraunt at Laman any better than what everyone was saying before? Rooms still great and kitchens still fully equiped? I know they advise not wearing wet wetsuits up to the rooms for safety reasons...but I understand that people still do...so anyone have any issues wearing damp (not soaking wet) wetsuits up to the rooms? Like getting chewed out for it? LOL Any issues with the dive shop? Gear storage issues? (Other than their hours?) How about restaurant and bar reccomendations? My boyfriend and I will be going out to dinner on Valentines Day and would like to go somewhere great but still reasonably priced. (And who knows...maybe he'll finally pop the big question while we're down there!:popcorn:)

Thanks in advance!
 
Oh you're a funny one DeputyDan! :rofl3:

Of course "is this Dutch". I mean, is there any other BIG question he may pop? Jeesh. :cool2:
 
I've never been to Bonaire so I've been sifting through old threads about Den Laman and the area and most are almost two years old so I'm wondering if anyone has stayed there recently?

We were there last summer for 2 weeks, is that recent enough? :wink:

We're staying there Feb. 13-21st (we have 5 people/divers and 2 oceanveiw 2-bedroom units...one preson bailed on us) Is the restaraunt at Laman any better than what everyone was saying before?

We found the restaurant to be good. Lunch prices were very reasonable for burgers, but the portions on some other items were on the small side. We didn't eat there for dinner as we thought it was a bit more than we wanted to spend.

Rooms still great and kitchens still fully equiped? !

We were in a 1-bedroom ocean-front last summer and it was fully equipped and gorgeous. Clean, in good repair, and the kitchen was perfect.

I know they advise not wearing wet wetsuits up to the rooms for safety reasons...but I understand that people still do...so anyone have any issues wearing damp (not soaking wet) wetsuits up to the rooms? Like getting chewed out for it? LOL !

The stairs and floor get very slippery when they're wet, so you're strongly discouraged and might get scolded for going upstairs dripping wet. We simply put our wetsuits in the gear storage room during the day and after dinner brought them back to our condo when they weren't dripping wet. If you night dive, you might want to wait until it isn't dripping before going upstairs for safety sake.

Any issues with the dive shop? Gear storage issues? (Other than their hours?) !

Andre (the owner) has a pretty strong reputation for being rude, but we haven't had any first hand experience. If there are a lot of divers, the gear room gets pretty full and you might have to share a peg, which is a pain. Like I said earlier, we always bring our gear up to our condo after dinner and let it dry on the lanai over night. A bit of a hassle to walk it upstairs, but very convenient for leaving to dive at 7am!

How about restaurant and bar reccomendations? My boyfriend and I will be going out to dinner on Valentines Day and would like to go somewhere great but still reasonably priced. (And who knows...maybe he'll finally pop the big question while we're down there!:popcorn:)

Here's a link to our website. If you go to the Bonaire tab you can read our trip report from last year with pictures below it. I wrote a bit about the restaurants and dive sites we went to, so that might be helpful to you.

http://divetraveladventures.site.shutterfly.com/

Have a great time! We'll be returning to Den Laman and Bonaire in July for another 2 week visit this year and can't wait!
 
I went last year (and booked again this year). I am sure Herman will add some info as he has stayed there a couple of times.

The gear room was a tad crowded-but I was also in the corner, if I wasn't in the corner, there was plenty of room. We would let the wet suits drip in the storage area, and then when they were not dripping, but still damp, take them upstairs and let them dry on the lanai. If you have one on the second floor, you can always just have someone toss it up to you (since you may have timing issues with a night or early AM dive. We got scolded a time when they saw us just dripping wet walk up the stairs, but, then again, we kinda deserved it because the stairs can get slick when wet.

Rooms were great in my opinion, lots of dishes if you like to eat/cook in, which we would for breakfast and lunch. I like the restaurant, I thought it was typical in price and portions to what we get back in the states, I think we ate their twice. Herman knew all of the other good places to explore so we went along with his guidance.

The dive shop did everything we needed them to. They stop having nitrox available around 5ish, and they have air available until 8 or 9 at the dock. We would usually stash a couple of tanks in the lockers (they are unlocked but if a tank is there they are "spoken for") for a night or early am dive. If you end up not using them, the dive shop will usually clean them out and take the, back to the dock. Nitrox is availalbe for no extra cost, so obviously we would take advantage of that. They have tanks available by the parking lot to load up your truck, and by the dock when doing a dive on their house reef "Bari Reef".

I think I did probably 12 dives on the dock, and 10 at other sites. Bari reef is known as having the most diversity of life of any reef in the carib according the the shop. There was a lot of diversity, and it was a great dive.

The condo's have lockng doors to get up to your room from the outside of the building, so remember to take your room key with you when you go diving (it is waterproof).
 
Oh you're a funny one DeputyDan! :rofl3:

Of course "is this Dutch". I mean, is there any other BIG question he may pop? Jeesh. :cool2:

I've been married 30 years. I don't remember back that far!!!
 
The dock table at Richard's would probably be the most romantic spot for Valentine's and a great place to prompt him to get on his knees and ask. Unfortunately it's probably been reserved for a year now, but it can't hurt to try.

There aren't many other places where you can sit on the ocean and eat besides Richard's and the restaurants at Den Laman, Buddy Dive, and Capt. Don's. All the oceanfront restaurants in town are really across the street from the ocean. Of those, Bambu is nice, being located a bit south of town where it's quieter. Also, La Guernica has a few tables that are pretty close to the water. Oh, and Patagonia too: It's located at a boat harbor with lots of waterfront tables.

If you don't mind being off the water, the courtyard and the food at Wil's are sublime. You can't go wrong there. Dining indoors at Mona Lisa also feels more than a tad romantic to me, very European, and excellent service and food there as well.

We were at Den Laman last in Sept. '08 so I can't give you a recent update, but everything was great there during our trip. The kitchens with all the fancy appliances are a wonder to behold compared with the often rundown fare that other Bonaire apartments offer, and the full A/C (versus bedroom-only in many Bonaire accomodations) means you don't have to take a sauna when sitting on the toilet and you can hang out and dine comfortably in the living room on hot days without having to get naked (not that getting naked would necessarily be a bad thing if you're trying to get him to pop the question :wink:).

I like Kirk and both his restaurants (he runs the restaurant at Den Laman and the dinner restaurant at Buddy Dive), with excellent quality of ingredients, and a menu filled with choices to please most anyone along with theme nights most nights of the week (i.e. "lobster night"). One really could eat there every night of the week and not get bored, but what would be the fun in that with all the other excellent choices on the island. Still, for a Valentine's dinner, you could hardly go wrong by "staying home" and eating right at Den Laman (or get takeout to your room if you desire more privacy - candlelight dinner on the balcony, perhaps?)

Please be careful on the steps to the room as they can get slippery. Trust me, Bonaire is not a place where you want to break a limb, especially since Den Laman doesn't have an elevator and your room becomes inaccessible if you can't navigate the stairs on crutches (speaking from near personal experience).

I view helping keep the stairs dry more a matter of respect for others and their personal safety, not a matter of getting away without being scolded. Sure, sometimes it's really hard not to drip, but then you could always run back down with a paper towel and dry it up. (No, the broken limb wasn't from wet steps on that trip, but I could certainly foresee that happening to someone else.) We've never had a problem with the gear storage area, except that the pegs can sometimes be weak so you don't want to hang anything too heavy on them.
 
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/abc-islands/318672-bonaire-report-trip2-good-bad-ugly.html

Here is a link to our report from Christmas. understand that this was our second trip and Christmas was very very busy.
We had a much better stay at Belmar. Not so many rules such as gear in the rooms and hours of operation.
The service at the Sunset was simply horrible but the food was ok.
Our room was on the 3rd story and over looked the parking lot.
I think Belmar may have tainted our view but I was not impressed at all with Den Laman (Casa Ikea).
If you are used to large resorts then Den Laman will be great. The Dive op, other than having restrictive hours and less than extatic DM;s, can get very busy. It is shared with Sand Dollar resort that has about 14,000 rooms. Belmar shares its dive op and house reef with, well, no one.
We wont be back.
 
Having stayed at both the Belmar and Den Laman they both have their pluses and minuses.
My wife liked Belmar better - the dive op with Belmar is Buddy Dive - the diving in front of Den Laman (as well as the snorkeling) is much better. Parking is skimpy at Belmar
Just my 2 cents.
 
Like everything, there isn't ONE choice that will make everyone happy. Its a matter of finding the one that fits your needs.

Can't disagree about the restricted hours at BDA, but we simply keep 6 full tanks in our truck and take our gear up to our room after dinner. Easy and convenient and it dries better on the lanai than likely in any gear room on the island. :wink:
 
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