I want to take make a dive trip to Bonaire

[Derek S]

Hi.

I'm a new member, but have been diving since 1975. Last year I took my 14 year old son to Cozumel and he finished up his PADI certification. We had a blast. We would like to take our next trip to Bonaire and I would like some advice. We are always on a limited budget so any ideas on doing the trip real cheap are welcome. We will be flying out of Denver. We don't need a nice hotel room, but need some way to get inexpensive meals so I guess we either need a car or to be near cheap places to eat. We prefer shore diving over boat diving, so it isn't important to us to make a bunch of boat dives.

Thanks

When abouts are you planning the trip? I'm looking at going somewhere in March, and Bonaire definitely seems to fit the bill. PM me or post here if you're interested.

Derek

 

[diversteve]

That had to be Bobbie Jan's.
They are only open on the weekends. Besides takeaway, they also have a small eating area located in a courtyard . You have to pass the grills and the kitchen to get to it. Just go early, the food is great but the small eating area fills up fast.

We parked to the north of it rains fishes and it was across the street. Same place?

Was probably a heck of a lot cheaper too...

Steve

 

[herman]

Yep, that's Bobbie Jans.

 

[Wijbrandus]

Anyone know of a good place on BonAire to get krokets, pannekoeken, or uijtsmijters?

Or even a good Indonesian restaurant?

 

[El Orans]

Anyone know of a good place on BonAire to get krokets, pannekoeken, or uijtsmijters?

Or even a good Indonesian restaurant?

Have a look at www.bonairetalk.com for the right restaurant to get kroketten, pannenkoeken or uitsmijters...

Laurens

 

[Tom Smedley]

The Delta connection to Bonaire IS Air Jamaica. They have duel flight numbers and a certain number of seats are set aside for Delta reservations. The AJ flight MBJ to Bonaire is not every day. Check on flight days and you should have no more than a four hour layover in MBJ - most flights you have to run from one plane to another.

Divi Flamingo is on the south side of Kralendijk and is near the airport. Truck rentals if not included with your room package average $240 for the week and if you are smart you will get the insurance for about $10 per day. Gasoline is just under a dollar a liter and the little trucks hold about 40 liters.

There is also a minivan which is the cheapest - they look like little toys. I don't know how you are at walking but the Divi is quite a hike (about 3/4 mile) to town.

The enjoyment that you will get from your trip to Bonaire is dependent on how much you see and how much you do while there. Freedom of being able to shore dive and be on your own schedule is the absoutely best part. Don't be too budget conscious when planning your trip.

Hi budgetdiver,

My husband & I are currently doing the same thing. I have been doing a lot of reseach on the net. For the money we are leaning towards a place called the "Divi Flamingo Beach Resort". For the $$ they offer a few different packages with 1 to 2 boat dives and unlimited beach diving. Looks like a nice place. While they do not offer a truck to get around, they do have a Hertz on the premis. I am looking into the cost of rental truck right now. From what I'm gathering, the town is very close by, walking distance. Round trip transportation to & from the ariport is included. Also offer breakfast & diner. I have also found that Delta Airlines seems to be the most inexpensive flight offered. As we will be leaving out of Phoenix, going to Miami. Delta too flys into Bonaire. The Delta flight is $20.00 less per person, from Jamacia Air. I looked up filght info. on Orbitz. They seemed to have the best prices. Seems to me that no matter how you go, you should be prepared to stay 1 night in Montego Bay, Jamacia. if this is the case for you as well, here are a few lower priced hotels..`Tobys Resort, Buccaneer Beach Hotel & Gloustershire Hotel. Have never been there but it by far beats paying up to $200.00 a night in other places I have found.
September is also the better time of the year to go as far as prices go.

Be glad to hear from you & any information you find out.
Best of luck.

Sincerely, AquaMonkey!!

 

[dvrliz1]

Robert,

Actually Bongo's has great finger foods that include mini krokets, etc on Friday nights. I love the Krokets at the airport bar (the one without airco, but a great breeze. When you land, come out after picking up your luggage walk about 20 paces and you will see a window to your right...grab a kroket!

Liz

 

[Bison]

Planning our past trip to Bonair we paid a little extra for the Sand Dollar Resort since it offered breakfast daily, a truck, and it is right off a nice reef, which made shore diving more enjoyable. We walked from our Condo picked up our tank and we were right off a very nice reef for an easy shore dive. Our package offerd unlimited shore diving and 12 single boat dives, but we didn't come close to using our boat dives. There were so many nice shore dive sites we visited with the truck that the few boat dives were used to explore Klien. Like the others have said you can forget the boat dives since there are so many nice shore dive sites. When we were on our trip we only slept in the Resort, we spent almost no time at the resort, and the durantion of our trip was driving around exploring shore dive sites planning our next group dive. No matter how you plan your trip to Bonair, once your there in the H20 nothng else matters. The women insisted on some dinners in town, but the guys in our group were happy diving, eating PBJ, little sleep and more diving! Just have fun!