Places to Stay in Bonaire

[ding dang]

Hi - Planning a trip to Bonaire for July or August. I've never been, and don't know much about the island itself.

I see some "combo deals" in magazines, where you can stay at a hotel/resort/etc., all meals, unlimited diving. Is this the best deal, and which are the notoriously good ones?

If not, where would you recommend staying and diving with?

I don't want to get a "great deal" and find out it's in the middle of crap!

Thanks

 

[drrich2]

Here's a link to my '09 trip report, with lots of pics to illustrate what it's like.

The main town is Kralendijk; your resort will be in or somewhere outside it. It, the resorts & the diving are along the west coast, facing the calm Caribbean. The east cost gets harsh Atlantic waves.

You will rent a truck, possibly as part of your trip package. It will probably be stick. The road signs will be alien to you but people seem to get around pretty well.

The town is fairly small & you can walk around the main area pretty well. Some decent places to eat are City Cafe', Cactus Blue, Bon Apetite (Chinese, not buffet), Richard's, Wil's Grill, and there are others. Some people like Casablanca. Plan to hit a grocery store or pay big to eat out all the time; Cultimara, Warehouse Bonaire or that little Asian supermarket I don't recall the name of come to mind.

When you shore dive, put fins on & take them off when you're in waist deep water; don't try to 'duck walk in' with fins or you could hurt yourself.

I haven't heard off all meal inclusive deals on Bonaire, myself. I've heard of some place that offers breakfast as part of the package deal.

For a smaller operation a bit off the water that has a great rep. for service and value on this board, Golden Reef Inn is worth checking into. Lots of people speak highly of it.

Richard.

 

[BDSC]

I was just there this past February and it was my 9th trip. We usually stay at either Buddy's or Sand Dollar. They are right beside each other, both on the water, and offer an excellent shore dive right off their dock. They also offer boat dives but we rarely do any boat dives.

Most of the time we stay at Buddy's. They usually offer a package deal with a truck for the week, unlimited tanks for shore diving, and a buffet breakfast is included. It's nice to be able to get up in the mornings and just grab breakfast without having to work at anything. They also offer a lot of different lunch choices at very reasonable prices and have a great happy hour. Love their drive thru tank pickup and gear rinse. Easy in and out and off you go. They are also located north of town and I have found in the last few years the northern sites to have the better diving and vis.

This is a great website to go to and see/compare deals on some of the major places to stay: Bonaire - Bonaire Travel and Bonaire Information : Bonaire Pros I have used Andy at Bonairepros to book most of my vacations there and his deals are as good, and many times a little better, than other folks.

 

[DiverVince]

DD..Firstly I suspect you're going to love your trip to Bonaire. To answer some of your questions, there is really no "best deal". The answer to your question is what type of accommodations do you want? Most first time divers on Bonaire stay at one of the resorts which deal exclusively with divers; ie; Habitat, Sand Dollar, Den Laman, to name a few up north and Carib Inn, Plaza, Belmar down south. After one or two trips, I've noticed the repeat visitors many times branch out to different private accommodations, depending upon their budget and desires.
My suggestion is to figure out exactly what you want and then narrow down to two or three choices. You'll then get better responses.
Here's a link to a site with a lot of useful information on it..

bonairesite

Additionally you may also want to visit the bonairetalk site to gather your information.

 

[herman]

I'm with Vince. I don't know of any place on Bonaire I would say is crap or way out of the way. It basically boils down to on the water or not. On the water is more expensive and usually a good choice for first timers but if budget is a concern staying off the water is a good option. There is no resort more than 1/2 mile off the water. If I am with a group we usually stay on the water, if it's just a couple of us, we stay off the water and save the cash.

As for dive shops I have my favorite ones but I honestly don't know of a bad shop. IMO, it is easiest to use the shop that is associated with whatever resort you are staying at. You will want a truck and the stay/dive/drive packages that almost all the resorts offer is the way to go, esp on your first visit, makes your planning a lot easier.

For meals, I suggest one of 2 ways. Either take the plan that just offers breakfast or do it all your self. Most places have at least a fridge and microwave. What we do is cereal and the like for breakfast, PBJs for lunch and a good evening meal. Doing your own breakfast saves you about $10-15pp/day, you can buy a lot of bagles for that. I do not suggest any of the all meals included plans, there are way too many good places to eat on Bonaire to tie yourself down at one place.

Here is another site you might find useful. http://www.infobonaire.com/

 

[Maine Diver]

We stayed at Sand Dollar in Feb. We had a 2 bedroom condo that included truck and unlimited shore diving. They also have studios 1, & 3 bedrooms. If you need internet, it works quite well and is $25 per week. You can buy breakfast for an additional fee. But we prefered a light breakfast in our room. This until we discovered Eli's Deli's chocolate chip muffins. We did our lunches and a dinner in our condo. Bari reef is great.

 

[christnk1]

We are staying at bellafonte and diving with Dive Friends. We plan to cook in our condo quite a bit (we love cooking anyway) and enjoy meals on our private balcony.