Need advice & info about Bonaire

[gert7to3]

Four trips to Bonaire (so far) no thefts. You should have a wonderful vacation there. I follow typical precautions about locking up or leaving behind good/important stuff. Always use your head when you go anywhere.

I really wish that anybody complaining about an act of thievery would include location information as to where and when it occurred.

People might be able to make more informed choices about where to dive. In fact, the information may even help the authorities, if some pattern emerges.

 

[TravelDave]

Just got back. Stayed at Den Laman and felt safe with things (computer, etc) in the room. We didn't leave much in the truck, although I did keep my sunglasses on the visor without incident (my old backup prescription shades - not the new ones). I dove with keys, credit card, and a little cash in a mostly watertight plastic case (it flooded once).

Pasa Bon Pizza was our favorite restaurant. Anything with the spicy sausage works for me.

Really enjoyed the "Dive with the Naturalist" at Bonaire Dive and Adventure.

Navigation wasn't that tough - my math is as follows:

Surface swim to buoy or start of reef. Go down to 60-80 ft, swim against the current (if there is any)
Turn around at 1500 psi and ascend to 30-40 ft
Swim back
At around 600 psi, head toward the shore and safety stop
Odds are you'll be pretty close to where you parked
(compass bearings and natural navigation also work, although the above method is easier)

Dave

 

[driftwood]

OK...what exactly do you consider "petty theft"??? Bonaire is high on our "to-do" list and we would love to go. But just how bad is the theft? I can handle not leaving anything of value in the truck while I dive, but what about leaving things of value back in the room? Are laptop computers, camera gear, etc. safe?

You'd think local law enforcement would realize that the island lives off of scuba divers and at least make an effort to curtail the crime rate! :no

Depends on where you stay, we have always gone with a group from our LDS and stayed at Buddy's without any problems. At smaller hotels and houses you will have less security, so you need to be more careful. Even at larger resorts if you don't put your passport and extra cash in the safe, you are inviting trouble.

Bonaire has a terrible reputation for crime due to the number of shore divers leaving valuables in cars and locking car doors. Plenty of rocks on the beach made to order for breaking windows while no one else is around. Should the local police do more, like conducting sting operations, of course. Why they don't do it is beyond me. All that being said, I have never felt uneasy or threatened on Bonaire. A very nice, laid back island, with a few criminals looking for targets of opportunity.

 

[DiveMaven]

I don't believe that Bonaire is any less safe than any popular tourist island, and in many cases safer than many Caribbean destinations. It seems to just be a matter of making sure you leave nothing of value in your car, leave the windows down, and take the normal precautions in your hotel/condo that you would whenever you're on vacation (locking valuables in the safe).

 

[ClayJar]

OK...what exactly do you consider "petty theft"??? Bonaire is high on our "to-do" list and we would love to go. But just how bad is the theft? I can handle not leaving anything of value in the truck while I dive, but what about leaving things of value back in the room? Are laptop computers, camera gear, etc. safe?

From the sound of things (having read about Bonaire for a couple years now), I'd have to say that I'll feel safer in Bonaire than in NOLA.

I've got a group of up to six scheduled to drive from Baton Rouge to Houston on August 8th for a week in Bonaire, and the Dixieland Divers here have a group leaving this weekend. (I'm glad they said at the meeting last night that the trip was full and closed, as it's been *far* too tempting these past few months. :biggrin

 

[herman]

The crime issue on Bonaire really gets blown way out of proportion. Does it happen, yes it does but no where to the extent some would have you believe and most of what does happen are truck break-in’s which are very easy to prevent. No doubt if it happens to you it's a bad experience but for every one who has an issue there are 1000s who do not. Myself, I have been to Bonaire 10 time since 99 with groups ranging from 2 to 24 and so far none of us have had any problems at all- none. I have stayed at 4 different locations with varying amounts of security. I do think that some of the visibility of the crimes makes the issue appear far worse than reality, do a word search on Bonaire on this board and see how many hits you get, Coz is not a close second and the rest of the dive destinations are way down the list. Add in the fact that in no other place do divers range so far and wide on their own, parking in remote locations to dive. Use reasonable precautions and act responsibility and the odds are in your favor.

 

[gfiseb]

I just returned from Bonaire. We rented our vehicle from AB Car Rental. At the time of the rental, we were told not to leave valuables in the vehicle (which I believe is common sense). We were also told to leave windows down, so thieves didn't have to break the windows to get in. From my understanding, most thefts happen at the northern dive site. We booked our shore dive through Dive Friends Bonaire, which is across the street from the airport, that if we dove south of their site, we could take two tanks per person, but if we went north, only one tank, because there was a good chance the extras would be stolen. We never had an issue at all.

I will say, you really need to pay attention to the amount you are charged in US dollars. We had to correct people several times, especially at Lisa Gas Station.

My favorite dive sites were Hilma Hooker, Angel City, Alice in Wonderland, Eighteenth Palm (very big tarpon), and Oil Slick. If you dive Oil Slick, use the jump that is the highest from the water, it's a much easier entry.

Favorite Places to eat: Cactus Blue, Chibi Chibi, Casablanca and Patagonia. I didn't think the prices were too bad.

All in all, loved Bonaire and can't wait to go back. Bottom line is, use common sense, you are not in your backyard.

 

[DeltaWardog]

We just got back from Bonaire. We dove north, we dove south, we left our truck parked in town, never had any problems. Never locked the doors, never left anything expensive in it. When we were diving, the truck contained a solar shower in the bed, our flip flops, hat, cheap sunglasses, BSDME, another bonaire guide book, and our dive log. Never even had any evidence that anyone went through our stuff much less took anything. I was pretty concerned about this before I went but not so worried now. We did see a carload of local teenagers driving up and down the road on the northern dive sites, quite sure they were looking for trouble. But they didn't bother our (useless) stuff in the truck.

I did put travel alarms on every door in our hotel at night though. I'm kinda paranoid about people breaking into the room while I'm sleeping after reading some reports of that happening to people on Bonaire a while back. Didn't happen to us.

The restaurants were mostly great. We ate at Patagonia, Richard's, ZeeZicht, Jibe city snack bar, Maiky Snack, and Nadia Snack. The first three were EXCELLENT in all respects. The pier table at Richard's just can't be beat for a romantic dinner on Bonaire. ZeeZicht had the best steak I've had in a while but they are heavy on the sauces (not a negative, just a warning for some, I liked it). Jibe city was not so great, dutch hamburgers are just plain weird... they put some kind of filler in with the meat that tastes really strange. Maiky Snack had fantastic goat stew but chew carefully, lots of bone fragments in there, and I tried the funchi but found I don't really care for it. Plus at Maiky you get to see next month's menu (the cute baby goats). Nadia Snack was just ok, but seemed popular with the locals. I had Conch Fried Rice which was so-so, but my wife had a chicken and vegetable dish that was pretty tasty. We were the only tourists in there for lunch. The lady behind the counter (I assume the owner) barely spoke english but was friendly.

Most expensive meal was Richard's, but we ate a lot more than usual there, appetizers, dessert, everything, had plenty of drinks and it still only came to just over $100. With the quality of the food and service, it was well worth it, IMO. And my wife just absolutely loved it. She said it was the most romantic dinner she'd ever had. To get a reaction like that I'd have spent twice as much.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[Bosun]

I have to agree that crime on Bonaire is given too much focus. The think here is shore diving were cars/trucks are left usually with no one around. So why the heck do people leave valuables in the vehicle.

Good places to eat; well just about everywhere. Places that deserve special attention for us are Plazita Limona fantastic flavours, Mona Lisa, It rains fishes, La Guernica and Bambu