3rd trip in 4 years. Best conditions so far.
My wife and I arrived on American. It's just a bit later than Delta and United depart, so everything was nice and cleared out. It's not a large aircraft, we came in on a 319. Passport control was quick and friendly, bags were feeding in, probably within 5 minutes of getting into the claim area. One thing I haven't experienced until this trip, customs officials were clearing people out of the baggage area. We were waved through with a friendly smile, but several people we saw were questioned pretty extensively.
Rented a Hilux through Avis because it was free with my Venture points. They were just a bit of a pain to deal with prior to arrival. At no time did they ever advise that they now have an all inclusive insurance (for $26 a day/$100 deductible) until I got to the window. It has roadside,key, tire, etc etc included. At the window they advised that they didn't have Hiluxes. Available, or at all, I don't know. So we were upgraded for free to an Auto trans Frontier. Power everything, back up camera, carpets, 3 tank rack in the bed. It even had pretty meaty Hankook tires. It had less than 5500 miles on it. Ended up pretty happy over that.
By now, I can get around the island pretty well, so we declined the taxi ride included with our villa and hauled on up to Hamlet. 2nd time we've stayed at Bonaire Sunset Villa. I could write for hours about that alone, but I'll skip that. Lamber is an excellent host, the villa is amazing, cliff is off your back steps, and it's just perfect. 5 bedrooms, each with their own bathroom, large kitchen, etc etc. It's hamlet 13, just 2 doors from Dive Friends. Our group was supposed to have been bigger, but we had some last second drop outs. I love the villa, but it's not super economical for just 5 people. I think I paid just shy $3200 for the week and 2 air/nitrox packages through dive friends. And that was with a 10% discount on the gas, and a 10% discount on the villa for being repeaters. Price goes up for every person you add, but it gets cheaper per person.
On sunday, we picked up our second rental (we had one person staying an extra day, so we staggered) we got an SUV from AB. It wasn't shifting right and had several warning lights pop up between AB (next to van den tweels), so we returned it. All they had available was a manual truck, we were in and out within 5 minutes.
We used DFB again, and for the most part were pretty impressed. The only issue was a tiny one. The newer facility across from the airport wouldn't let my dive buddy charge something to his account, even with the ID tag they issue now. It wasn't that they couldn't, it was just that one guy didn't want to do it if we had cash. Tanks were consistently 30.8 to 31.7 with one 32%
My dive buddy was sick all week, and I had an ear decide to get funky on me, so we didn't get a ton of dives like we usually do, but they were all good, TONS of small fish life. More turtles than usual, only one lionfish all week. Several people reported seeing a nurseshark at 1k steps, north of the entry. We'd already done it, but had gone south. Vis was pretty consistent at 80+ feet. The coral was in great shape, no bleaching like we saw 2 years ago. Water was 82f.
We eat in a lot, but we did hit the standard places for us, Kite City, King Kong, Blennies (at Buddy) Donna and Giorgios, The tasty treet, La Creperie, and Gios. All were good as always. Blennies has the best French Onion Soup I've ever had, and the number of spring rolls you get for $6.50 is better than any American place I've ever been to. Sadly, we didn't get a chance to go to Bobbejan's, which we really like.
American departure sucks. One, because you're leaving, two, because it's late enough that you're likely sitting around for 3 or 4 hours waiting. Luckily, we didn't have to vacate the villa until 1 (nobody had it booked the week after us). Had to have the first truck back by 2, so between getting another liter of real orange juice at Van Den Tweels, some chocolate at Warehouse, and topping off with gas, I pulled into the parking lot at Avis at 1:57. The restaurant at the airport could stand to lower the temp by 5 degrees, but I'm really hot natured. The American gate agents were around really early though, so we didn't have to haul our checked bags around at least.
We weren't wheels up before my wife had her phone out looking for dates for our next trip. It was her 2nd trip, and first time in the water. She wanted to go somewhere else after her first trip, just to experience somewhere else, but she fell in love this time. The water will do that.
My wife and I arrived on American. It's just a bit later than Delta and United depart, so everything was nice and cleared out. It's not a large aircraft, we came in on a 319. Passport control was quick and friendly, bags were feeding in, probably within 5 minutes of getting into the claim area. One thing I haven't experienced until this trip, customs officials were clearing people out of the baggage area. We were waved through with a friendly smile, but several people we saw were questioned pretty extensively.
Rented a Hilux through Avis because it was free with my Venture points. They were just a bit of a pain to deal with prior to arrival. At no time did they ever advise that they now have an all inclusive insurance (for $26 a day/$100 deductible) until I got to the window. It has roadside,key, tire, etc etc included. At the window they advised that they didn't have Hiluxes. Available, or at all, I don't know. So we were upgraded for free to an Auto trans Frontier. Power everything, back up camera, carpets, 3 tank rack in the bed. It even had pretty meaty Hankook tires. It had less than 5500 miles on it. Ended up pretty happy over that.
By now, I can get around the island pretty well, so we declined the taxi ride included with our villa and hauled on up to Hamlet. 2nd time we've stayed at Bonaire Sunset Villa. I could write for hours about that alone, but I'll skip that. Lamber is an excellent host, the villa is amazing, cliff is off your back steps, and it's just perfect. 5 bedrooms, each with their own bathroom, large kitchen, etc etc. It's hamlet 13, just 2 doors from Dive Friends. Our group was supposed to have been bigger, but we had some last second drop outs. I love the villa, but it's not super economical for just 5 people. I think I paid just shy $3200 for the week and 2 air/nitrox packages through dive friends. And that was with a 10% discount on the gas, and a 10% discount on the villa for being repeaters. Price goes up for every person you add, but it gets cheaper per person.
On sunday, we picked up our second rental (we had one person staying an extra day, so we staggered) we got an SUV from AB. It wasn't shifting right and had several warning lights pop up between AB (next to van den tweels), so we returned it. All they had available was a manual truck, we were in and out within 5 minutes.
We used DFB again, and for the most part were pretty impressed. The only issue was a tiny one. The newer facility across from the airport wouldn't let my dive buddy charge something to his account, even with the ID tag they issue now. It wasn't that they couldn't, it was just that one guy didn't want to do it if we had cash. Tanks were consistently 30.8 to 31.7 with one 32%
My dive buddy was sick all week, and I had an ear decide to get funky on me, so we didn't get a ton of dives like we usually do, but they were all good, TONS of small fish life. More turtles than usual, only one lionfish all week. Several people reported seeing a nurseshark at 1k steps, north of the entry. We'd already done it, but had gone south. Vis was pretty consistent at 80+ feet. The coral was in great shape, no bleaching like we saw 2 years ago. Water was 82f.
We eat in a lot, but we did hit the standard places for us, Kite City, King Kong, Blennies (at Buddy) Donna and Giorgios, The tasty treet, La Creperie, and Gios. All were good as always. Blennies has the best French Onion Soup I've ever had, and the number of spring rolls you get for $6.50 is better than any American place I've ever been to. Sadly, we didn't get a chance to go to Bobbejan's, which we really like.
American departure sucks. One, because you're leaving, two, because it's late enough that you're likely sitting around for 3 or 4 hours waiting. Luckily, we didn't have to vacate the villa until 1 (nobody had it booked the week after us). Had to have the first truck back by 2, so between getting another liter of real orange juice at Van Den Tweels, some chocolate at Warehouse, and topping off with gas, I pulled into the parking lot at Avis at 1:57. The restaurant at the airport could stand to lower the temp by 5 degrees, but I'm really hot natured. The American gate agents were around really early though, so we didn't have to haul our checked bags around at least.
We weren't wheels up before my wife had her phone out looking for dates for our next trip. It was her 2nd trip, and first time in the water. She wanted to go somewhere else after her first trip, just to experience somewhere else, but she fell in love this time. The water will do that.
