Must Do's in Bonaire?

[vjongene]

Captain Don's is very nice ... they have condos, cottages, and villas ... all of which are definitely a cut above the normal diver's dive.

Just for a different perspective: we rented a "luxury appartment" from Captain Don's over the Xmas holidays, at well over $200 a night. It was a dump. The appartment was huge, but very badly located, and badly maintained. The kitchen implements were totally inadequate. There was hardly any furniture. There was no telephone or TV. The stove and refrigerator were filthy. It may have been acceptable as a diver's dive, but definitely not as a "luxury" appartment. IMHO, Captain Don's has absolutely nothing to recommend it.

On Curaçao, we stayed a few nights at the Papagayo Beach Resort. The contrast was striking. For $100 less a night, this was a very well-appointed condo, clean, comfortable, and visually appealing.

On Bonaire, you can certainly do a lot better, and for less money, than Captain Don's.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

We also enjoyed Papagayo Beach resort on Curacao - I'm convinced we were the only Americans staying there though. This didn't present any obstacles - everyone was happy to use English with us and accept US$. Did our diving with Scuba Do who were headquartered at Jan Thiel beah. It was nice, but either the resort or the dive shop should set up dive equipment lockers / drying facilities. Scuba Do indicated that was in their plans. I liked the shore diving on Curacao as well as on Bonaire.

On Bonaire, we stayed at Bellafonte Chateau de la Mer - I highly recommend this spot! We were the only divers staying there during the week we were on Bonaire, and had their drying room to ourselves. The reef right behind the property has a scientific study grid that makes a great navigation reference too, and is very healthy with a lot of biodiversity. It's just south of the airport. The accomodations and service were top-notch. Our dive shop operator was Photo Tours, the pink Dive Bus was broken with no ETA to repair, so if you're counting on using that service, better e-mail them first. Picked up tanks etc. at their location just north of the airport - caribbean Court(?) if I remember the name right.

Most memorable dive for us was doing Angel City and Hilma Hooker combined in one dive - entered at Angel City, swam to the outer reef of the double reef system, watched for anchor chains as directed by Bas from Photo Tours. Once we saw the chain we were supposed to turn at, turned parallel to the chain and towards shore - after a few minutes swim across the sand flat between the double reefs the Hilma Hooker began to loom out of the blue - great image! I did this on independant doubles, and there was zero current the day we tried this dive. Don't try this if you have issues with gas management or if there's a current.

The outer Angel City reef had larger & more variety fish life in my opinion than the shallower inner reef.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Just for a different perspective: we rented a "luxury appartment" from Captain Don's over the Xmas holidays, at well over $200 a night. It was a dump. The appartment was huge, but very badly located, and badly maintained. The kitchen implements were totally inadequate. There was hardly any furniture. There was no telephone or TV. The stove and refrigerator were filthy. It may have been acceptable as a diver's dive, but definitely not as a "luxury" appartment. IMHO, Captain Don's has absolutely nothing to recommend it.

Wow ... sorry to hear that. I wonder if I got lucky or you got unlucky, because my experience was quite different.

We rented an Oasis cottage. It was set back a bit off the waterfront, but it was a short 1-minute walk to the pool and restaurant, and about 2 minutes to the locker room and dock. Actually, the setting was rather nice, with a series of ponds where we could sit on the porch and watch the iguanas sun themselves on the rocks surrounding the pond. Considering the weather (hot!), having the cottage set amongst shady trees was something of a blessing.

There were four of us (two couples) and the furniture was quite adequate, although my SEU and I ended up in the room with twin beds while the other couple got the room with a queen bed. Each bedroom has its own bathroom. There were a TV and phone, but to be honest we didn't attempt to use them (I don't even watch TV at home). The kitchen was clean and functional, and there were kitchen utensils aplenty ... but we ate all our meals at the restaurant, so it didn't really matter. We did make tea each morning ... and each afternoon when we returned to the cottage, the room service had washed our cups and replaced them in the cupboard.

I personally enjoyed the experience. If I have one knock it's that the service in the restaurant is S-L-O-W ... which did bother me somewhat as it usually meant a two-hour surface interval when we stopped diving for lunch. But it is, after all, island time ... and slowing down a bit while on vacation isn't really such a bad thing ... especially when doing four or five dives a day. Besides, the food was good.

I would recommend the place ... and in fact, when I return to Bonaire, I plan to stay there again.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[vjongene]

Wow ... sorry to hear that. I wonder if I got lucky or you got unlucky, because my experience was quite different.

We rented an Oasis cottage. It was set back a bit off the waterfront, but it was a short 1-minute walk to the pool and restaurant, and about 2 minutes to the locker room and dock. Actually, the setting was rather nice, with a series of ponds where we could sit on the porch and watch the iguanas sun themselves on the rocks surrounding the pond. Considering the weather (hot!), having the cottage set amongst shady trees was something of a blessing.

I should amend my previous post somewhat: we rented a cottage at Captain Don's in February 2003, and we did like it, even though the price was a tad high. This is why we came back. However, the appartment we were offered, at a higher price, over the holidays was a disgrace.

 

[socaldiver]

I agree with 1000 Steps, Salt Pier, Forest and I would also add Bonaventure over on Klein Bonaire.

We were lucky when we did Town Pier for our night dive last year, there were only 8 of us if my memory serves me correctly. We saw a Tarpon, octopus, spotted eels and a seahorse, but our (my wife and I) main goal was to see the orangecup coral spawning (which it does during full moon). Oh dear, since we are leaving this Saturday for Bonaire I guess we will have to do the pier again for the coral.

Here are some pics of the reefs.

 

[Schwim]

The wife and I are currently planning a trip to Bonaire for this December (11th to the 18th). Was looking at The Plaza Resort with its PADI 5 Star Resort rating. Has anyone had experience with this accomodation? Would you recommend it or somewhere else? Are shore dives accessable there? Should we rent a vehicle?

Thanks,
Schwim

 

[Diver Kat]

The wife and I are currently planning a trip to Bonaire for this December (11th to the 18th). Was looking at The Plaza Resort with its PADI 5 Star Resort rating. Has anyone had experience with this accomodation? Would you recommend it or somewhere else? Are shore dives accessable there? Should we rent a vehicle?

Thanks,
Schwim

Schwim ... if you're not stuck on being on the water (and Bonaire is just not a beach type island) - check out the Deep Blue View B&B. It's up the hill from Sand Dollar in a quiet little neighborhood, giving it a spectacular view of the island and Klein Bonaire. They have only 4 rooms that they fill with guests, very clean & modern, beautifully landscaped pool and courtyard area, and an upper viewing deck where at night you can see the lights of Curacao. Their package prices are terrific - set by room for two people to include your room, diving & car... not per person as most other places. And Esther & Menno (the owners) take very good care of you ... it's like having your own private home on Bonaire. As first time visitors, it made us feel very comfortable ... not lost in the crowd of a huge resort. Here's the website if you want to check it out ...

http://www.deepblueview.com/index.html

 

[SDAnderson]

The wife and I are currently planning a trip to Bonaire for this December (11th to the 18th). Was looking at The Plaza Resort with its PADI 5 Star Resort rating. Has anyone had experience with this accomodation? Would you recommend it or somewhere else? Are shore dives accessable there? Should we rent a vehicle?

Thanks,
Schwim

The Plaza is highly regarded as one of (if not) the nicest resorts on the island. It's got a truly great dive operation (Toucan), a decent beach (rare), a good house reef (with a terrific eel garden on the 110ft bench), several restaurants (passable to pretty good), large rooms, the list goes on. Search the board and you'll find lots of mentions. We visit most every year, so I'm hardly impartial. One word of caution - it's a Dutch resort on a basically Dutch island and there are differences in food, service and attitude that some folks like and others aren't so comfortable with. We enjoy the distinction but others seeking to stay wrapped in the cocoon of American-style resorts might be a little disappointed. If you can develop a taste for fricadelle, don't mind walking more than a few steps to get from your room to the boat to the bar, and not trip over your chin at the sight of an occasional topless gal on the beach, you'll feel very comfortable there - and you'll get to dive with the best operator on the island.

 

[herman]

The wife and I are currently planning a trip to Bonaire for this December (11th to the 18th). Was looking at The Plaza Resort with its PADI 5 Star Resort rating. Has anyone had experience with this accomodation? Would you recommend it or somewhere else? Are shore dives accessable there? Should we rent a vehicle?

Thanks,
Schwim

While I have not stayed at the Plaza, it has the reputation of being one of the "nicest" resorts on Bonaire. That said, if "5 star" is important to you, by all means stay there. If on the other hand, you are just looking for a nice, clean place then there are a lot of other places that are less expensive. As far as dive ops are concerned, Bonaire is blessed with a lot of good dive ops and I would not be to concerned with which you use, esp on your first trip. Which ever place you stay, you will want a vehicle to enjoy the many shore diving spots on the island and to get to the many great places to eat. I would also suggest that you NOT get any all inclusive package. You don't want to be limited to eating at just the resort, there is alot of good food on Bonaire.

 

[shark27]

You have to night dive there. Night diving the excellent there. There are many night creatures that you arent able to see during day dives!