birdman27
Contributor
My wife and I joined our LDS trip to Bonaire last month and I wanted to share our experience. I have read a ton about the island on this forum over the last couple of years, so I was excited to see it first hand. Long story short, it didnt disappoint.
Accommodations
Being a dive shop trip, we didnt get to choose where we stayed, so we ended up at Divi Flamingo. As such, we didnt have a kitchen. However, the room was nice, spacious enough, the A/C worked great and the bathroom had plenty of hot water. We had a fridge and a coffee maker, so we loaded up on drinks and snacks to augment our restaurant visits. We got one large cockroach in our room, which I was able to catch and move outside, but otherwise far less insect life in the room than we have had in other locations. The grounds were beautiful, as were the pools. Lots of lizard and bird life, as well as a resident cat. Staff was attentive to any requests and we had no serious issues.
Food
We had breakfast included in our package, but our leader decided against the full board package, which we all appreciated. Given the proximity to town, it was great to get out and try different spots. Breakfast was pretty standard buffet and eggs to order. Other than that, I will just list off the places we tried and some quick impressions.
Karels beach bar: we had a decent lunch, but the over water location was beautiful. Service was a little lack luster
Cuba Compagnie: we did a pretty big group dinner here. the drinks were fun and strong, and most everyone seemed to enjoy their food.
Mezze: One of my favorite meals. This was just my wife and I. The food was great and the owner was a real pleasure to speak with.
Bonaire Blond Brewery: I work at a brewery, so I found the beer a little underwhelming. However, the food was some of the best we had on the trip. The burger was outstanding and everything else was pretty good as well.
Between Two Buns: Really awesome sandwiches. pretty far from where we were staying, but we hit it up the day we dove 1000 steps
Doner Station: great value for a great lunch. i wish i had gone back more.
At Sea: My personal favorite meal. Again, just my wife and I. Fun cocktails, but also a really creative kitchen. I got the chef's choice taster menu and was not disappointed. It can be hard to not know what you are going to get, but I loved it all. Pretty pricey, all things considered, but not out of what I would expect to pay at home.
Cactus Blue Food truck: Lionfish burgers and wraps. You need to try this.
Mi Banana: one of our DMs for the week, Carlos, is the son of the owners. We went there with him and got to meet his lovely family as well as eat some delicious food. If you are looking for something more local and authentic, check this place out for sure.
It Rains Fishes: We chose this place for our final group dinner. I had high expectations, but was a little let down. The ceviche app was great, but a lot of the mains were pretty ho-hum. My steak had a distinct musty flavor to it (might have been the sauce) that wasnt terribly pleasant and all of the red snapper filets, which were the special, were full of bones. The drinks were good. I would go back and give it another chance, but given the reviews I was pretty surprised.
Gio's: gotta get that gelato!
Cadushy distillery: not food, but worth checking out if you are up in Rincon. Very interesting and informative.
Diving
First off, a shout out to Divi Dive. This was the best run dive shop I have ever had the pleasure of working with. From check in to the end of our trip there were no problems. Serge and his crew run a tight ship. Boats left on time or a few minutes early (heaven to my sense of punctuality); there was no island time. The dive masters were competent without being overbearing. Carlos and Laurel ran a great boat and were a blast to hang out with over the course of the week. Tanks fills were strong and nitrox ran consistently around 32%. I wish all ops were this solid.
As advertised, the diving was easy and carefree. My wife and I did 11 boat dives and 10 shore dives over the course of the week. Others in our group did more or less than that (I believe one guy did 30 dives in the 6 days). Most boat diving was Klein, although we did go to the Hilma Hooker one day and hit two northern dive sites by boat. We did 4 dives at the house reef and the other 6 were offsite at: Karpata, Tolo (unintentional night dive), 1000 steps, Alice in Wonderland, Salt Pier and Margate Bay. Many of those shore dives were my favorite dives of the week. Dives averaged around 70 minutes, with only the Hooker being significantly shorter. On a personal note, my SAC was the best it has ever been and I was regularly returning with enough air to hang out longer, but I find a 60-70 minute dive is perfect for me.
A brief list of the major wildlife we saw: eagle ray, tarpon, sting ray, sea horses, frogfish, octopus, squid, tons of lettuce sea slugs (my wife's favorite), flamingo tongues, mantis shrimp, eels galore, turtles, one juvenile trunkfish, all manner of shrimps and crabs, and on our last boat dive, a reef shark! Photos below of some of my favorites.
We rented a truck one day from the onsite Hertz rental shop and then the rest of the week from Bonaire Rent a Car. The reason for the change was we were able to get a better rate on a better truck. From hertz we got an old Isuzu diesel, which could barely make it around the island. From Bonaire RAC, we got a newer Nissan Frontier that really had some oomph. Both were manual, which was fine for me.
Overall
Bonaire lived up to the expectations and was what I thought it would be. The diving was nice, the people were nice and the island was nice. In all honesty, I found myself getting a little bored by the end of the week. I will probably end up going back, but there are so many other places to check off the list first. Also, the value over other destinations is not there, being from the west coast. If you want nice, easy diving and can get there conveniently, by all means, this is the place. The freedom of shore diving was really great too. I can see how that is a strong draw.
Accommodations
Being a dive shop trip, we didnt get to choose where we stayed, so we ended up at Divi Flamingo. As such, we didnt have a kitchen. However, the room was nice, spacious enough, the A/C worked great and the bathroom had plenty of hot water. We had a fridge and a coffee maker, so we loaded up on drinks and snacks to augment our restaurant visits. We got one large cockroach in our room, which I was able to catch and move outside, but otherwise far less insect life in the room than we have had in other locations. The grounds were beautiful, as were the pools. Lots of lizard and bird life, as well as a resident cat. Staff was attentive to any requests and we had no serious issues.
Food
We had breakfast included in our package, but our leader decided against the full board package, which we all appreciated. Given the proximity to town, it was great to get out and try different spots. Breakfast was pretty standard buffet and eggs to order. Other than that, I will just list off the places we tried and some quick impressions.
Karels beach bar: we had a decent lunch, but the over water location was beautiful. Service was a little lack luster
Cuba Compagnie: we did a pretty big group dinner here. the drinks were fun and strong, and most everyone seemed to enjoy their food.
Mezze: One of my favorite meals. This was just my wife and I. The food was great and the owner was a real pleasure to speak with.
Bonaire Blond Brewery: I work at a brewery, so I found the beer a little underwhelming. However, the food was some of the best we had on the trip. The burger was outstanding and everything else was pretty good as well.
Between Two Buns: Really awesome sandwiches. pretty far from where we were staying, but we hit it up the day we dove 1000 steps
Doner Station: great value for a great lunch. i wish i had gone back more.
At Sea: My personal favorite meal. Again, just my wife and I. Fun cocktails, but also a really creative kitchen. I got the chef's choice taster menu and was not disappointed. It can be hard to not know what you are going to get, but I loved it all. Pretty pricey, all things considered, but not out of what I would expect to pay at home.
Cactus Blue Food truck: Lionfish burgers and wraps. You need to try this.
Mi Banana: one of our DMs for the week, Carlos, is the son of the owners. We went there with him and got to meet his lovely family as well as eat some delicious food. If you are looking for something more local and authentic, check this place out for sure.
It Rains Fishes: We chose this place for our final group dinner. I had high expectations, but was a little let down. The ceviche app was great, but a lot of the mains were pretty ho-hum. My steak had a distinct musty flavor to it (might have been the sauce) that wasnt terribly pleasant and all of the red snapper filets, which were the special, were full of bones. The drinks were good. I would go back and give it another chance, but given the reviews I was pretty surprised.
Gio's: gotta get that gelato!
Cadushy distillery: not food, but worth checking out if you are up in Rincon. Very interesting and informative.
Diving
First off, a shout out to Divi Dive. This was the best run dive shop I have ever had the pleasure of working with. From check in to the end of our trip there were no problems. Serge and his crew run a tight ship. Boats left on time or a few minutes early (heaven to my sense of punctuality); there was no island time. The dive masters were competent without being overbearing. Carlos and Laurel ran a great boat and were a blast to hang out with over the course of the week. Tanks fills were strong and nitrox ran consistently around 32%. I wish all ops were this solid.
As advertised, the diving was easy and carefree. My wife and I did 11 boat dives and 10 shore dives over the course of the week. Others in our group did more or less than that (I believe one guy did 30 dives in the 6 days). Most boat diving was Klein, although we did go to the Hilma Hooker one day and hit two northern dive sites by boat. We did 4 dives at the house reef and the other 6 were offsite at: Karpata, Tolo (unintentional night dive), 1000 steps, Alice in Wonderland, Salt Pier and Margate Bay. Many of those shore dives were my favorite dives of the week. Dives averaged around 70 minutes, with only the Hooker being significantly shorter. On a personal note, my SAC was the best it has ever been and I was regularly returning with enough air to hang out longer, but I find a 60-70 minute dive is perfect for me.
A brief list of the major wildlife we saw: eagle ray, tarpon, sting ray, sea horses, frogfish, octopus, squid, tons of lettuce sea slugs (my wife's favorite), flamingo tongues, mantis shrimp, eels galore, turtles, one juvenile trunkfish, all manner of shrimps and crabs, and on our last boat dive, a reef shark! Photos below of some of my favorites.
We rented a truck one day from the onsite Hertz rental shop and then the rest of the week from Bonaire Rent a Car. The reason for the change was we were able to get a better rate on a better truck. From hertz we got an old Isuzu diesel, which could barely make it around the island. From Bonaire RAC, we got a newer Nissan Frontier that really had some oomph. Both were manual, which was fine for me.
Overall
Bonaire lived up to the expectations and was what I thought it would be. The diving was nice, the people were nice and the island was nice. In all honesty, I found myself getting a little bored by the end of the week. I will probably end up going back, but there are so many other places to check off the list first. Also, the value over other destinations is not there, being from the west coast. If you want nice, easy diving and can get there conveniently, by all means, this is the place. The freedom of shore diving was really great too. I can see how that is a strong draw.
