looking for rental house for 6-8 people, early Nov 2014

[Lorenzoid]

Well, indeed that listing on Homeaway.com for the Piet Boon property gave an erroneous price, despite plugging in the number of people and dates. Yeah, the reply we received to our inquiry advised us it's more like $6,000 for the seven of us. Too expensive, considering that is lodging only.

We've discovered that things are heavily booked because the first week in November is a holiday in the Netherlands. The Belmar, where we have stayed before and really like, has the Penthouse Suite available for all but our first night. It's tempting to take it and just stay across the street the first night. But a new thought ...

How about Coral Paradise? On the map above, it would be just inland of Hamlet Villa #2, I believe. They meet our requirements of accommodating the seven of us, each unit having a full kitchen, and a convenient pool (and bbq?). The seeming drawback is that they are not oceanfront. Rather, Coral Paradise describes it as "less than one minute walk" to Captain Don's Habitat, or a "four-minute walk or 30-second drive" to Buddy Dive. We would have the option of a dive package through either operation. We've used Buddy's before and have no complaints whatsoever. Buddy's "free" unlimited Nitrox and drive-through are plusses.

- Is the diving from Coral Paradise really as convenient as they imply, despite being set back inland a bit? We don't care about ocean views, but we do care about trudging around with our dive gear or having to go off to retrieve tanks. A short pre-breakfast dive without having to use the truck is one of the things we've loved about Bonaire on past trips when we've stayed at Buddy's or the Belmar. Would we have to get tanks the night before in order to do this?
- Is the closest dive site actually not from Captain Don's Habitat at all but rather in front of Hamlet Villa #2, which I believe is "The Cliff"?
- Where do Coral Paradise guests typically store their dive gear? Does Coral Paradise have a convenient dive locker, or do guests store gear in their units, or at Captain Don's (or Buddy's, if they choose to use Buddy's for diving)?

Coral Paradise's reply e-mail does not mention such details, but Coral Paradise does always seem to get rave reviews, both on SB and Tripadvisor. There seems to be more to Coral Paradise than one would guess from their location on the map. We're intrigued.

I know I can reply to Coral Paradise with these questions, but their "less than one minute" description leads me to wonder if that is a biased estimate.

 

[diversteve]

One other option: Casa Esmeralda - Bonaire Oceanfront Vacation Rental - south past Lighthouse Resort but before the Hooker. $4800 low season + tax. A little far from Buddy's though. Can't get much closer to the water...

Cliff is in front of Hamlet Villas and goes north from there. Check out the 2nd panorama in wwguy's post - as he mentioned the boat is on the ball. The house dive at Habitat is actually the LaMachaca wreck but as I mentioned we dove Cliff from Habitat's dock by swimming north a short distance. It's a pretty good dive, would make my top 10 list near the bottom. If you're going to stay in one of the farther north villas, I'd go in at Dive Friends - it's closer.

 

[uncfnp]

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bonaire/478107-trip-report-coral-paradise-2-7-2-15-a.html

Not much specific to Coral Paradise but may give you a SB contact for good info...

 

[Lorenzoid]

Thanks, uncfnp--I'm pretty sure I found all the Coral Paradise reviews on SB.

---------- Post added July 5th, 2014 at 12:52 PM ----------

Update: One of our couples is frowning on the idea of no ocean view. (This is the same couple that wants a pool.) I wouldn't say Coral Paradise is out, but now we're reconsidering Hamlet Villa #2 or #9. The couple apparently doesn't have THAT much of an issue with using the Hamlet Oasis pool across the street, but not being oceanfront is apparently an issue. Ugh. We like our friends, but there is a reason why my wife and I enjoy traveling without others.

---------- Post added July 5th, 2014 at 04:05 PM ----------

Further update: WE'RE BOOKED ... at Hamlet Villa #9. I guess once we got our priorities straight, we decided the Hamlet Villas have what we need. And #10 (Lamber's place) was unavailable. With 5 bedrooms, it's possible the singles in our group can each have their own room.

I don't believe we've committed to a dive op yet. Does this location make Dive Friends Bonaire a no-brainer? Villa #9 seems to be located about halfway between DFB and Captain Don's Habitat.

Anyway, many thanks to those who offered advice here!

 

[wwguy]

Further update: WE'RE BOOKED ... at Hamlet Villa #9. I guess once we got our priorities straight, we decided the Hamlet Villas have what we need. And #10 (Lamber's place) was unavailable. With 5 bedrooms, it's possible the singles in our group can each have their own room.

I don't believe we've committed to a dive op yet. Does this location make Dive Friends Bonaire a no-brainer? Villa #9 seems to be located about halfway between DFB and Captain Don's Habitat.

Anyway, many thanks to those who offered advice here!

Lambèr's Bonaire Sunset Villa is at Hamlet #13. Hamlet #9 and #10 are owned by others. All share similar architecture, but appear to have been outfitted, decorated, and maintained per the tastes and budgets of their respective owners. An analogy might be the similarities and differences found at Sand Dollar condos.

We prefer DFB over Habitat for our dive op for the following reasons:
- DFB offers a drive-thru tank station, directly accessible from the Hamlet complex. Includes convenient access to shower and rinse tanks too.
- Free EAN upgrade. Habitat charges an incremental fee for nitrox.
- Access to tanks and facilities at any of DFB's 5 locations. Habitat only has the one location.

We only do shore diving on Bonaire these days, so I can't comment on the differences in boat diving. However I do know that DFB's closest dock with dive boats is at the Yellow Sub location, about 5 minutes drive towards town. To do boat dives at Habitat or pick up tanks for shore diving you'll have to load you gear into the truck and drive from your villa also, so the driving issue is mostly moot. You can walk a narrow path along the shore to get to Habitat, but I wouldn't want to lug gear or tanks in either direction along that route. Driving requires going back out to the street, driving south for a few hundred feet (past Coral Paradise) and the turning into Habitat's parking lot.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Thanks, wwguy. We don't bother with boat dives. I'm going to recommend DFB to our group.

 

[boat sju]

I found a link to the properties I mentioned the other day, just in case: El Pueblo Property Bonaire Real Estate: Living, Building Lot, Purchase Villa With Pool For Sale

If anybody goes this route I'd suggest diving through Caribbean Club (Buddy Dive) and renting a truck through AB.

 

[Ldavis4662]

My wife and I just returned from Bonaire 6/27 - 7/6 and rented the Kas Daas house which is three homes south of the Belmar Apartments in Belnem. I can't tell you how happy we were with the home, dealing with Keejan the owner, Adriana the house manager, and the location! It was perfect and the house was beautiful!

We located it on VRBO and everything was then done directly with Keesjan the owner. The home has security and we never had an issue other than the mosquito's that wanted to eat me when we were sitting outside watching sunsets and sipping cocktails. I opted to kill them by putting enough scotch in me to give them alcohol poisoning

The diving right off the deck was great and location to Buddy Dive at the Belmar Apartments three doors down worked out perfect for getting and swapping out tanks.

There are three bedrooms with plenty of room and mosquito netting surrounding the beds. All appliances are Viking and high end. There is a private pool, cabana and plenty of seating on the deck and upstairs veranda. The reef in front of the house has great diving! Getting in and out was easy and the ladder is in great shape. To give you an idea of the reef you can take a look at the video I shot on my last dive....

Unedited green moray dive on the reef in front of Kas Daas house in Bonaire - YouTube

I highly recommend this home and will be putting a glowing recommendation on VRBO soon.

LD

 

[Chasin' Tales]

Ok, in regards to Coral Paradise...I think your party would be quite happy there. My wife and I have stayed there three times now. One of those times was over NYE 2012/2013. At that time there was a group of 3-4 couples that were staying there. The way CP is laid out, if your group has contiguous patios, it would still have a communal atmosphere. Diving from CP...it is very easy access to the Cliff or Don's. We would usually carry tanks and put in at the Cliff and drift down and exit at Don's. That is actually one of our favorite dives on the island. We prefer to get our dive package thru Buddy Dive. Dive gear is stored on the patio or balcony. We have stayed in both upstairs and downstairs units, each having it's benefits, but we don't have a preference. We would bring our regs/computers in at night as the patios/balconies obviously aren't locked. They were talking about adding some gear lockers at the front, but don't know if they have done that yet. The owners, Kenny & Margaret, will bend over backwards to make sure you enjoy your stay. I can't say enough kind words when speaking about them.

We are going back the first week of August with another couple. Instead of Coral Paradise we have rented Villa Ganshi (Kralendijk Vacation Rental - VRBO 379124 - 3 BR Bonaire Villa, Private Oceanfront Beach Villa ,Last Minute Weeks Available in August. Mail Us !) for the week. It looks like it would be able to accommodate 8 folks if the guest house is available. I will write a review upon return if you can wait until mid August to make reservations. The location of Villa Ganshi looks fantastic. We are very much looking forward to the trip, although I feel like I'm cheating on Coral Paradise.

Feel free to send me a message if you have specific questions.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Chasin, thanks for the info on Coral Paradise. I hope it helps someone who comes across this thread in the future. As I said above, we ultimately chose one of the Hamlet Villas over Coral Paradise, because one couple in our group couldn't imagine not having an oceanfront view. My wife and I couldn't have cared less--we've stayed in plenty of places on Caribbean dive trips that were well inland.

The villa looks awesome, but the posting says it sleeps six, which is probably why our group of seven didn't find it on our VRBO searches. I don't know if our seventh diver would have been happy sleeping on a sofabed or doubling up with someone. The villa we ultimately booked enables everyone to have their own room, even the singles.