Places to stay for large groups

[scuba41girl]

We are going to be a large group (anywhere from 7-15) and are looking for the best accommodations for us. We will be doing mostly shore dives and will need vehicles to either rent or to be included in the price. Any suggestions on where to stay? We would prefer oceanfront.

 

[arew+4]

Are you looking to rent a house, or a hotel. Multiple houses in close proximity could be a good solution. The folks we rented from had several houses in El Puebla, not ocean front but up on a cliff over looking the ocean, it's up by oil slick leap.

 

[diversteve]

We also had a group of 12 - mostly singles, 2 couples.

There's not a lot of options for a single house that large but there's a few. I haven't stayed at any of these.

Vacation villa rental seafront on Bonaire - Beachcroft - Sabadeco Crown Keys
Vacation Villa Rental with pool on Bonaire - not waterfront
Newly build luxurious & private villa with ... - VRBO - not waterfront
saved the best for last:
Villa Salentein, Best Villa On Bonaire By F... - VRBO

Contact Sunbelt Realty also, they have some larger rentals - a couple near town and a couple in Punt Vierkant which is a little south. Properties vacation rentals Some consist of configurable propierties in the same complex that you rent depending on need.

As far as cars, there's many options at he airport - we chose Budget IIRC. Most of them: Bonaire Car Rentals | InfoBonaire

Typically ONLY SUV's are automatic transmission if that matters. Most of the 4-door trucks are standard with tank racks in the back.

I'd rent tanks from Dive Friends Bonaire as they have about 5-6 tank pickup locations including one drive-thru and 3-4 of them are on named dive sites including 2 of the best, Cliff and Bari Reef.

Most parking is un-improved along the shore so a car is not a good idea - especially into Slagbaai Park.

There's 4-5X the car rental companies as there is gas stations (5?) but find one b4 you return the cars - gas is extremely pricey there when you add the rental return surcharge. Also if you have an early AM flight don't assume either the gas station or car rental office will be open - we dropped the truck in the parking lot and locked the keys in it - but we bought the waiver since most trucks are a little beat up looking.

 

[diver0008]

We are going to be a large group (anywhere from 7-15) and are looking for the best accommodations for us. We will be doing mostly shore dives and will need vehicles to either rent or to be included in the price. Any suggestions on where to stay? We would prefer oceanfront.

Buddy Dive may fit the bill. Large oceanfront resort, tanks and trucks on site.

 

[jujubeess]

We are going to be a large group (anywhere from 7-15) and are looking for the best accommodations for us. We will be doing mostly shore dives and will need vehicles to either rent or to be included in the price. Any suggestions on where to stay? We would prefer oceanfront.

Hello...
We have been going to Bonaire for the past 7 years. We have made a lot of great friends with people who work and live there. By far,Serge at Divi, runs the best dive operation on the island, but the Divi hotel need to fix a lot of issues.
Since those issues we decided to go up north to Capt. Dons. It's a different environment. It feels like a resort...away from local ********...kids that don't belong, thinking that this is the resort,not the visitors of the resort. The local kids parties at sundown was never seen at Capt. Dons.... why up north. Divi has a great Diving operation and Serge is always there, but he cannot deal with the locals that feel that this is there backyard. We moved up north to Capt. Dons...and there you have no local ******** with the local children. There hotel is run good with thanks of Valerie in the office. She is hands on and will address any issues.
There operation is great.
Ludson....is the best.
If you go there...he will take care of you
If your doing hotel/ diving.....go with Capt. Dons.
If your doing hotel diving....go with Serge at Divi.
If you private shore diving or private boat diving ...ask for Ebby
Wish you best of luck...

 

[scuba41girl]

Thank you everyone for the info. We are open to a house or a resort depending on what is more cost efficient. We have a family of 5 so they are trying to keep their costs low.

 

[scuba41girl]

I have one more question. Reading some of the answers about shore diving is making me question how much we can do. Are the shore dives easily accessible? Like I said before, one of the families we are traveling with has 3 teenagers so shore diving will be cheaper than multiple boat dives.

 

[arew+4]

80% or so of the marked dives on Bonaire are easily accessible from shore. You will not be able to exhaust the possibilities in one week. We took our three teens there in December to finish cert, and log some bottom time. You won't need to board a boat unless you want to. Maybe for Klein or the east coast.

 

[DustyC]

I have one more question. Reading some of the answers about shore diving is making me question how much we can do. Are the shore dives easily accessible? Like I said before, one of the families we are traveling with has 3 teenagers so shore diving will be cheaper than multiple boat dives.

Back the truck up a few yards from the water, walk to the water to scout the best route out, gear up, walk out.

 

[Doctorfish]

One of the benefits of staying at a dive lodge right on the sea would be an easily accessible house reef for afternoon and night dives. We stay at Buddy dive and do a PM and night dive daily there. Arguably, may not be the best reef on the island, but sure is the easiest. They do a dive and drive package that is competitively priced.