My twist on the usual "Where to stay?" thread...

[diversteve]

There's a couple of nicer places across the street from the Dive Friends Yellow Sub shop. They look pretty nice but I haven't stayed there. Just over $1K per week but you'd have to buy a dive pkg. somewhere. Probably far enough north to not be impacted by any cruise pax yet close enough to stumble home from Karel's.

Playa Lechi is one of them - there's several units on vrbo.com. [-]I can't remember the name of the other but if I do I'll post it. [/-]

Here's one:
Kralendijk Vacation Rental - VRBO 489003 - 2 BR Bonaire Condo, Ocean Front Condo at Playa Lechi Residences W/ Dive Locker

Here's the other one but they may all be queen beds. I know what you mean about that, me and Dave don't share either.
Bonaire Seaside Apartments - vacation rentals

 

[Chasin' Tales]

We're not so concerned about driving TO the bars... it's driving BACK from the bars that concerns us.

:d

Yes, because Bonaire cracks down hard on all traffic laws!

I don't condone drinking and driving. We all know it's not a safe practice. However, if there is one place on this planet where I feel absolutely comfortable having a few drinks at dinner and then driving home, it's Bonaire. It's even more fun to let the missus try to drive the manual shift truck home from dinner after she's had several drinks! (No humans, property, donkeys, goats, or iguanas were injured - I swear!) Besides, if you are there to dive, are you really going out and getting crunked? Don't sweat driving home from dinner after a few drinks. Never has parking been an issue either.

If you don't mind being back from the water I will suggest again that you can't go wrong with Coral Paradise. You can easily walk with tanks and dive the Cliff over to Capt Don's. We've stayed there three times, all of which have been wonderful. Kenny and Margaret are great folks. It's reasonable priced as well.

Hope you enjoy your trip.

 

[RJP]

So, we're currently considering the following three properties:

Casa Calexico - I guess I'm considering it more so than my buddy is. I'm intrigued by the "Tex-Mex in the Caribbean" style, the outdoor kitchen, the small size (five units), the "backyard pool" atmosphere. It gets phenomenal raves from everyone who's stayed there. Walking distance to town, though admittedly not critical, is kind of nice. Though dive shop for tanks not right nearby.

Bridanda Apartments - Second on both of our lists, this one also has an intriguing style. Very different - and not as small as Calexico - but at only 10 units it's still intimate and likely to be quiet. Will be a bit more like staying "on property" at a resort for sure. Also gets phenomenal raves from everyone who stays there. Not walk-able to town, but as everyone has pointed out that's really a non-issue. Dive op for swapping tanks is right nearby.

Caribbean Club - First on my buddy's list... last on mine. It seems to me that whatever this archetypal "Bonaire Dive Resort" may lack in charm, it makes up for in banality and size. I say that somewhat facetiously, and the apparently "newly renovated" 1 bedroom cottages do look fairly nice. Clearly they would offer us a bit more room to spread all our junk out. Dive op onsite. Not walk-able to anything really, though a non-issue in all practicality.

All three - each with their pros and cons - are within a few bucks of each other in price. Hopefully my buddy and I can come to agreement in the next day or two. No doubt we'll have a great time at any of these!

 

[diversteve]

Caribbean Club is the other Buddy affiliated property so you get to use the drive-thru.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Drive to market. Purchase beer, wine, and liquor; and anything else you might need. Drive home and drink. No worries for you (or your spouse) and much less expensive. You could even squeeze a night dive into the process.

We arrange in advance to have a couple of cases of Amstel waiting for us in the fridge.

We've never been that impressed with the bars in Kralendijk.

I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but if you can figure out the driving logistics (like a designated driver or something), do make the rounds to the various resorts' happy hours.

 

[RJP]

We arrange in advance to have a couple of cases of Amstel waiting for us in the fridge.

"We're gonna need a bigger fridge!"

 

[darook]

I think I stayed in exactly that unit at CCB last year over the holidays. Not fancy but very convenient. We could load everything into the truck by handing it over the little wall. Definitely not walkable to anything but about 20 seconds from Oil Slick, two minutes from 1000 Steps, 4 minutes from Andrea 1 & 2 sites. CCB has a nice little bar/grill and their breakfast was very similar to Buddy's. Parrots around the grounds and very quiet at night. We would grab tanks there, at Buddy's drive through or on the dock at Buddy's if diving their reef. I recommend the place.

My wife and I are heading to Bonaire next month but staying at Bamboo Bali but I think we are looking for different sleeping arrangements than you two! :cool2:

Another place worth checking out but walkable to downtown and looks really nice is Djambo. We checked it out once when we were on the island and thought it looked really very nice. Djambo Bonaire - Home

 

[Lorenzoid]

"We're gonna need a bigger fridge!"

The fridge in our unit at the Belmar was big enough--barely. This is from 2001:

[deleted image]

 

[RJP]

The fridge in our unit at the Belmar was big enough--barely. This is from 2001:

Looks like you tried to link to an image in your yahoo inbox?

 

[Lorenzoid]

Looks like you tried to link to an image in your yahoo inbox?

Eh, I copied an image from an email and pasted it here. Does that create a link to my email inbox? I deleted it. This is too complicated.