Where to stay in Bonaire

[SayNo2Snow]

If you want to pursue the apartment style approach that wwguy mentioned above. Leanne & Tim (the owners) of Beachcombers will take care of all your arrangements so you just have one point of contact if you like. They partner with Easy One Rent for your vehicle and with Dive Friends for diving. I'm sure if you wanted to use other rental companies, Leanne could make those arrangement for you too.

I began researching here and on Bonaire talk last spring and thanks to the fabulous feedback for wwguy and a number of others we settled on Beachcombers for our first trip to Bonaire. We will be staying there in 9 more sleeps so I can't tell you about their place first hand, yet... But my email conversations have been great and they have been so helpful. I'm getting really excited

 

[diversteve]

There's the Divi Flamingo. Divi Bonaire | Caribbean Shore Diving | Divi Flamingo Beach Resort & Casino | Divi Resorts Has everything Buddy's does plus a real (small) beach and the casino. Also about the only resort you can walk to town from. I read their shallow reef took a hit in a storm a few years ago so I don't know how well that's come back.

One other advantage Belmar has is that you get use of the Buddy drive-thru. Also since the whole resort is oriented east-west, all the condo patios have views at sunset. Their tank pickup is at the south end of the property and the good dive sites from the Hooker south are a 5min. drive away. We bought a package thru a dive travel agent (Caradonna?) and we picked up our truck at the airport. It's prettty quiet in Belnem at night also.

wwguy covered the disadvantages pretty well - one I'd add is there's no water access except off the dock(s).

 

[jimw]

Well, I will vote against Captain Don's. As someone else posted on tripadvisor; the place is coasting on it's reputation from the 80's.

I was there in October. Older furniture, same crappy safes (mine had the batteries held in with duct tape, and the bathroom remodeling was to tile over the old tile. Like flushing the toilet with a stick? They didn't measure their new counters, and since they extend over the toilet, they drilled a hole in the counter, and put a stick in to push down on the flush button. Classy. And no box springs. I can sleep on anything, including a slab of depleted uranium, but when I'm on vacation, I do like a bed that isn't a thin mattress on a piece of plywood.

These were the new junior ocean front suites. I sudder to think of what the rooms were like before this "remodeling".

I am sorry that I cannot offer another option since you said that Buddy Dive was out. I know there are some to the south of the town, but have never researched them.

I think you may be speaking of the older Oceanview Rooms over by the pool rather than the Jr Suites near the dive shop. The suites were built when the new dive shop was built about 3 years ago.

The Oceanview rooms ARE crappy, I have spent a few nights in them at the beginning or end of a trip. They were crappy 15 years ago and remained so on my last visit in April, '13. They are crappy in exactly the ways you describe!

 

[T.C.]

I think you may be speaking of the older Oceanview Rooms over by the pool rather than the Jr Suites near the dive shop. The suites were built when the new dive shop was built about 3 years ago.

Hmm. I think you may be right! I'm going to have a little "chat" with my ex-LDS.

I don't hold much hope of that. He tricked or swindled four people on that trip; I guess I got tricked too. I don't hold much help; I cut ties to him, and he's in Kansas.

 

[NW Dive Dawg]

I think you may be speaking of the older Oceanview Rooms over by the pool rather than the Jr Suites near the dive shop. The suites were built when the new dive shop was built about 3 years ago.

The Oceanview rooms ARE crappy, I have spent a few nights in them at the beginning or end of a trip. They were crappy 15 years ago and remained so on my last visit in April, '13. They are crappy in exactly the ways you describe!

Yep.... I think that's the case for sure. As mentioned above, wife and I walked over (from Buddies) to Dons just this past May and the Deluxe Ocean Front Junior Suites are like NEW and really nice.. Just won't work for us as we enjoy a full kitchen.

This year for our 20th anny in May we're treating ourselves to 14 nights in a Sabadeco Villa.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bonaire/472581-north-end-villa-sabadeco.html

 

[mtcyclist]

Sand Dollar is very convenient but be aware that each unit is individually owned and some owners don't keep their places up to date. We stayed there once and requested a specific unit based on comments we had read. They said "you bet" so we paid. We checked in and within 30 minutes of walking into the unit and finding that it was indeed quite nice, the person from the front desk was at the door telling us we had to get out because someone else wanted it. WTF? And two people were with her acting like vultures. She tried to put us in a dark dingy unit next to BDA's compressor. We told her were not vacating until we had a comparable unit. It took about 2 hours to sort that out but we did get a comparable unit. On our next trip we stayed at Den Laman which were very nice, even more convenient to BDA and the dock but the mattresses were like rocks. This next trip we're staying at Villa Safir, not as convenient for diving but we know our way around pretty well and it will be quiet.

 

[DiverVince]

KT..I've stayed at many locations on the island and own at Bellevue. We have an easy all sand beach entry right in front. We use Buddy Dive at Belmar (a 30 sec drive) for tanks. I think you'll be more than happy with the interiors. Just google vinibu for our website.

 

[Ron G.]

If you like ocean front, we loved Den Laman (which someone else mentioned above). It's next door to Sand Dollar (which is next door to Buddy Dive).

(I agree with an earlier poster about Captain Don's. My LDS owner loves that place and takes a group there every year. On his recommendation, my son and I went there a couple years ago. I liked are room, which was second floor overlooking the pool and facing the water. I thought the dive op was lousy. We went out on several boat dives and the DM acted like he was doing us a favor...and he wasn't happy to be stuck doing it. We later found out he was related to the owner. It does have a very nice house reef.)

Sand Dollar is popular, but the apartments are fairly small and the are set back a bit from the water. They might be better characterized as ocean view, rather than ocean front (despite the fact that there's nothing between them and the water....just set back and at an angle).

Den Laman is a much smaller set-up, but most of the rooms are right on the water. The apartments are beautiful and well kept. It is a bit more expensive than Sand Dollar, but we thought it was forth it. In fact, after one night in a one bedroom, ocean front unit, we noticed that a two bedroom unit freed up. We really liked that because it was ocean front, but directly overlooked the dock.)

One issue to be aware of is that there's some controversy going on with the dive ops. Bonaire Dive and Adventure has a great set-up there, including a very nice dock for boat or shore dive entries. Their dock sits between Den Laman and Sand Dollar. Sand Dollar used to use BDA as their primary dive op, but they had some sort of conflict. Now, the primary dive op for Sand Dollar is Bonaire Dive Friends, which seems fine, but BDF is not allowed to use the dock. So, if you're staying at Sand Dollar and using BDF, you aren't allowed to use the dock, even for entries for shore dives. Maybe they've improved their set-up, but a year ago, BDF customers had to load tanks and gear into a wheel barrow, drag it down to the water and descend steps to a very small beach area and walk in for a shore dive. Not the end of the world, but not nearly as convenient as BDA. (Part of the problem with BDA is the owner, Andre, has a reputation for being hard to deal with, so a fair number of customers report having run-ins with him over relatively silly issues.

Ron

 

[drrich2]

So, if you're staying at Sand Dollar and using BDF, you aren't allowed to use the dock, even for entries for shore dives.

I read elsewhere BDA rents that pier, rather than owns it. If true, might explain why they're touchy about it.

I've heard about Bari Reef (the Sand Dollar house reef) so much that my last trip diving with a friend there, at Buddy Dive, I made it a point aim for Bari Reef. My buddy said we'd dove it; if you go in at Buddy's and head south, it's a pretty good ways but you can get there. But I wanted to 'do' Bari Reef. So, knowing from the forum I'd better not mess that BDA's pier, what to do?

Uh, drive down the road headed south, past Sand Dollar, and there's a little 'round-a-bout' (serves the purpose of a 4 way intersection without the stop signs). It's easy to miss while going around it, but there's a little road to shore access to Bari Reef. My friend backed the truck up, parking, and we geared up and went in. No different from a number of other Bonaire shore dives. I looked at the BDA pier/dock/whatever-you-call-it just north of us and wondered 'What is the big deal?'

Since the reef at Captain Don's was mentioned, and a number of these reefs and op.s were mentioned, perhaps a brief discussion is in order. From north to south:

1.) The Cliff - a shallow vertical wall dive. I believe Beach Comber Villas and Hamlet Oasis have this for house reef? And the south end is a sunken boat. I head south to the boat, then turn and come back.

2.) Captain Don's - regular sloping 'underwater hillside' coral reef dive. I think of it was running from that sunken boat to the north, down to Buddy Dive Resort. Coral Paradise Resort is beside Captain Don's, from what I read.

3.) Buddy Dive Resort - if you go in & head north, you enjoy Captain Don's reef, and can head up and see the sunken boat mentioned earlier. Nice dive. Diving around rubble and the 2 Buddy Dive piers is nice, especially as a night dive. If you head south, it's a bit further out, but you can still enjoy the reef; go real far, and you can hit Bari Reef, famous for species diversity and it is a nice reef.

All that said, when I want a lush reef, I like Karpata to the far north, or Sweet Dreams to the far south, and if memory serves Red Beryl was also quite nice.

Richard.

 

[Scared Silly]

Ron … was the restaurant operating when you were at Den Laman? It was not when we stayed there. I would go back and recommend it but not sure how the restaurant impacts the ambiance (especially late at night).

Also, thanks for the info on the dive Op. We had good luck with them but that was in Nov 2012 before things changed.

Also IIRC San Dollar lost their dive op during a Hurricane some time ago and never rebuilt it - part of the bldg and other bits are still there - sort of.