About the Island of BONAIRE
Geographic Location
| Bonaire is a small island which is part of the Dutch Antilles. It is located off the coast of Venezuela and next to Curacao. Being a Dutch island, the primary currency is the Gilder however USD is accepted almost anywhere. Bonaire is famous for its Shore diving and has earned this reputation. It is surrounded by natural reef and there are usually dive sites marked with yellow markers at the road every 1/8 kilometer or so. The entire diving area is classified as a Marine Park and has strict rules attached to it. Gloves cannot be worn while diving, you may under no circumstances touch any part of the reef (simply common sense in my mind). An orientation is given by all dive operators. The most popular dive sites are located on the east side of the island. They span from 10 minutes north of Kralendijk to 10 minutes south of the city. To drive from the northern popular site to the southern popular site takes about 20 minutes and there are dozens of sites in between. Some entries can be difficult but most are comfortable enough. Almost everybody comes to the island and rents a truck so they can simply drive from site to site. Boat dives are available but with amazing shore diving, I say WHY?? If you are not a diver, there will |
| not be too much to entertain you for a weeks vacation. There is very little night life on the island as most people are there to do night dives and morning dives. There is a lot of very good dining on the island within about a 10 minute drive from most resorts/hotels. |
| I stayed at the Den Laman Condominiums (in 2007) and can say nothing bad about them. The rooms were great (and air conditioned) with in room kitchenettes. The appliances were all new(er) in 2007. Service....well they were great as well. There is a wireless Internet area within a 1 minute walk however the Condominiums did not have Internet. If you do not feel like cooking, there is a restaurant just downstairs. Unfortunately, there is usually a bad side to most areas. The bad here is the dive operation that is tied to Den Laman and Sand Dollar (although independently owned and operated). Some of the staff were rude to many divers and the biggest problem I had was their hours. They claim 24/7 diving however they are open from 8:30 to 4:30 and they try to prevent hoarding of tanks. This makes it difficult to do 4 or 5 dives per day if that is what you want. They also had too few Nitrox tanks allocated for the number of divers. |
| A good booking agent for travel to bonaire. |
| This chat forum is a great place to ask questions and to learn about people's experiences (good and bad) with Bonaire. |
| Location of Den Laman Condominiums and the best house reef (Bari Reef) |
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