Bonaire - Resort vs private rental?

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jbrotsky

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Location
Wichita, KS
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Hi all - have searched but could not find a similar topic, so alas, another unique form of "where should we stay in Bonaire"!

We are a family of four considering traveling to Bonaire for the first time in mid-November. My daughter and I scuba dive, and my wife and son do not. Our daughter is 12, and our son is 7.

We are finding no shortage of private rentals or resorts on Bonaire, and our primary concern is ensuring that my wife and son have pools, beaches, or other activities to keep them relaxed and having fun while my daughter and I dive. Based on the following criteria, would you suggest that we pursue resort or private rental accommodations?
  • At least 2 bedrooms, preferably 3
  • Access to a beach area and a pool area
  • Access to non-diving activities such as ziplining, shopping, etc
  • Access to dive shop for tank rentals throughout the week
  • Relatively close access to grocery and pharmacy
Thanks, all! As an aside, we are also open to traveling to Aruba or Curacao - if either of those locations would be better suited based on what I've shared, we're open to those destinations as well!
 
Bonaire is not a big beach place; for that, Curacao might be a better option. I've stayed at Eden Beach Resort quite some years ago (under prior management), and it had a beach of sorts (but not the kind you wade out into waist deep water over a sandy bottom!), and I hear Harbor Village has some sort of beach exposure?

I've never heard of zip lining on Bonaire. If you want to be near grocery stores, well, it's not a big island. I'm told at Divi Flamingo you can walk into town.

I would lean toward a dive resort where other divers would be around to answer questions, ideally with a nice house reef for easy entry/exit as you guys are pretty new to diving and would be new to Bonaire, if I understand correctly.

If you want to research Curacao a bit, here are some threads I keep on hand to help with that.
Curacao vs. Bonaire - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/lesser-antilles/473036-curacao-vs-bonaire.html
Bonaire vs Curacao - http://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/bonaire-vs-curacao.535918/
Curacao 1st Timer Trip Report - http://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/curacao-1st-timer-trip-report.527457/
Curacao Trip Report - Curacao Trip Report
Curacao Suggestions - http://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/curacao-suggestions.536523/
Place to stay in Curacao - http://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/place-to-stay-in-curacao.518346/ See Damselfish Post #3.
Curacao Trip with Teenagers in June - http://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/curacao-trip-with-teenagers-in-june.525886/
Curacao Lodging - Curacao Lodging?

Richard.

P.S.: I've been to Bonaire 8x's, haven't dove Curacao, but I'm all about the diving. A big question is how much diving you want to do (e.g.: 2 or 3/day, or 4 or 5?) and whether you want to do a lot of shore diving, or quite a bit of boat diving.
 
If you want shopping and beaches , Bonaire is going to disappoint (head to Aruba or Curacao instead).

Bonaire is small enough, that if you stay in Kralendijk, it's a five minute drive to the market. Many dive operators on Bonaire have "all-you-can-dive" packages that allow unlimited cylinder rentals (some 24 hours / day). We were just there in May and arranged a private rental (housing and truck) and did our diving through a shop:

Bonaire Trip Report [Photos + HD Video]
 
Had a buddy who did Curacao and Bonaire
He liked the diving on Curacao much better and said there was a lot more to do on the surface. If your wife is even moderately high maintenance I do not believe she would like Bonaire. It is geared to divers, windsurfers and bird watchers. There really isn't much to do and the beaches for the most part are not soft Sandy beaches.
 
Done them both, and heading back to Curaçao this time. For us it has more top side / non diving activities, beaches etc. like you are describing.
Some good shore dives from beaches that the non divers can enjoy while your under.
 
Two concerns with a beach at a resort are the size of them and whether you can access the water from them w/o walking/driving nearby.

The resorts with both are the Plaza Resort - some parts of their beach are fronted by ironshore though, Harbour Village - the nicest resort on the island probably has the best beach or the Divi Flamingo which has a small beach out front. The problem with the Divi is there's a fence in front of a large part of their beach so the only water access is in front of some of the resort building - this is an old photo of it - the one I linked to in this sentence starts on the other side of the jetty.

Eden Beach mentioned above has wood terraces to keep theirs in place and a curb you have to step over to reach the water. From what I recall there was coral almost immediately off their beach prior to their improvements, I doubt that's changed as STINAPA would be very fussy about dredging of any sort. This is their beach - in the background you can see Wannadive and the dive boat dock.

I'm generalizing a little but most of the rest of the resorts have little.no beach or water access. At Buddy Dive for example there's sand spread on top of the ironshore cliffs but it requires a ladder to get down to the water level as seen here: http://www.bayadventures.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/buddy-resort.jpg - most of those resorts will say "ocean view" or waterfront but not beachfront. Harbour Village is the only one I know where you can walk off the patio of some of the better units directly onto the sand.

The other consideration is in just about all the photos I've linked to the coral rubble/ironshore is the darker area just off the beach. It will shred your feet w/o some sort of surf walker or light dive boot.

All have on-site affiliated shops, Toucan Diving at the Plaza, the Divi has their own shop and Wannadive is at Eden Beach. The two large food stores are in town about 1/4 mile inland from the road that bisects the Divi's entrance - there's other smaller markets up near Eden Beach also. The Plaza is just about 1/2 mi. south of the Divi along the water.

Town Pier a little north of the Divi is the cruise pier also. I believe they warn you not to dive in that direction since modern cruise ships sometimes hold position with thrusters - 20' or so pods with propellers hanging down with no guards. Not a lot of ships call there but some do. Google it to find a schedule.

Kralendijk is a pretty little town, You can walk to many of the better restaurants from the Divi, it's a little far from the Plaza and the other two resorts are too far north IMO although I know people that do. There';s sort of a "resort tow" north of town, several condo complexes, Habitat, Buddy Dive, Den Laman Condos, Cocoa Beach Club then Eden Beach and Harbor Village b4 there's the marina, a small neighborhood then the north part of downtown.

Coco Beach Club would be a short walk from Den Laman or Eden Beach - it's possibly the best beach there now since they made it. Bari Reef on the north end (in front of Den Laman) is arguably one of the better shore dives there. Dive Friends has a shop there and shares a tiny beach with Sand Dollar Condos also. One nice thing for the divers is DF has the most locations by far on on Boaire - 2-3 north of town, 2 in town and one south of the airport.

I know of condo/villa rentals waterfront both north and south of town - some with their own pool. I know none that are beachfront except maybe there's a couple in Belnem where some sand has washed up. Much of that area though is ironshore cliffs right to the water - often with ladder/stairs access only. Even Bachelor's Beach has stairs down - depending on the tide you either step onto a small strip of beach or into the water.

No ziplines, I can't think of anywhere tall enough except the radio towers or windmill farm...lol.
 
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Just got back from a week at Bonaire, stayed at the Plaza. Going to be pretty tough to find many non-dive activities. Jibe City was pretty awesome, windsurfing (they have boards/sails sized for kids) and you can walk out thigh/waist deep for hundreds of yards. But, its on the opposite side of the island from town. Worth it for a day trip. Otherwise, as was mentioned most resorts with a sandy beach have ironshore/coral rubble just offshore, so you cannot walk into the water without some type of water shoe.
 
As already indicated, non divers may find Bonaire boring. If they need excitement then maybe look elsewhere.

But if they are happy to relax and unwind, the Divi may work. A large percentage of the people that go to the Divi are non divers. They book lots of non diving groups. Lots of people lounging by the two pools, sunning on chairs, swimming laps out front or snorkeling, gambling, hitting the spa,...

Most of Divi's water edge is rock, then then it turns to sand a few feet out. There is a walk in sand entrance right by the buffet restaurant. There are also at least 5 ladder entrances off the various docks / jetties. But there really is no sand shore where you can sit in a chair. We often see a few lounge chairs dragged into the water...
 
All - thank you so much for taking the time to share your experiences! I'm so glad I asked, as our local dive shop provided a very different report of how much there is for non-divers to do topside on Bonaire. I'm picking up that Bonaire's beaches generally wouldn't be a "stress-free" place for my wife to hang out with our son - she's far from high maintenance, but with half a family full of divers is important to us that everyone is able to relax.

I think we'll turn our attention to homes/resorts on Curacao. This is a wonderful forum, and I hope to be able to assist others as you all have assisted me on many occasions! If anyone needs weather reports for KS sand pits, I'm your guy!
 
Bonaire is not a big beach place; for that, Curacao might be a better option. I've stayed at Eden Beach Resort quite some years ago (under prior management), and it had a beach of sorts (but not the kind you wade out into waist deep water over a sandy bottom!), and I hear Harbor Village has some sort of beach exposure?

I've never heard of zip lining on Bonaire. If you want to be near grocery stores, well, it's not a big island. I'm told at Divi Flamingo you can walk into town.

I would lean toward a dive resort where other divers would be around to answer questions, ideally with a nice house reef for easy entry/exit as you guys are pretty new to diving and would be new to Bonaire, if I understand correctly.

If you want to research Curacao a bit, here are some threads I keep on hand to help with that.
Curacao vs. Bonaire - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/lesser-antilles/473036-curacao-vs-bonaire.html
Bonaire vs Curacao - http://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/bonaire-vs-curacao.535918/
Curacao 1st Timer Trip Report - http://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/curacao-1st-timer-trip-report.527457/
Curacao Trip Report - Curacao Trip Report
Curacao Suggestions - http://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/curacao-suggestions.536523/
Place to stay in Curacao - http://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/place-to-stay-in-curacao.518346/ See Damselfish Post #3.
Curacao Trip with Teenagers in June - http://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/curacao-trip-with-teenagers-in-june.525886/
Curacao Lodging - Curacao Lodging?

Richard.

P.S.: I've been to Bonaire 8x's, haven't dove Curacao, but I'm all about the diving. A big question is how much diving you want to do (e.g.: 2 or 3/day, or 4 or 5?) and whether you want to do a lot of shore diving, or quite a bit of boat diving.

Richard,

Thanks so much for these resources - I've looked through most of them, and am using them for logistics and lodging planning. On an aside, I see many posts that you've helped with much like this one - I'm sure many have thanked you in the past, but let's add another!

Take care - Jason
 
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