Bonaire Trip Report

We arrived in Bonaire for our 3rd visit to the Island on February 23rd and enjoyed 2 wonderful weeks of fun and relaxation. It was my husband Bob and I (Lise) along with our 11 year old twin girls, Mary and Elizabeth. I will try to hit the highlights of our trip.



TRAVEL: With all the Air Jamaica problems, we were prepared for the worst but made it to Bonaire and back with no problems.

ACCOMMODATIONS: Ann Phelan with www.bonairepros.com booked our accommodations for us. We had looked at Belmar on our last visit to Bonaire and decided to stay there on this trip. Belmar is a wonderful property with beautiful views from all rooms, nice pool, friendly staff and nice units. We really enjoyed the “social” aspect of staying at Belmar. It is a very intimate property (only 22 rooms) and you become friends with everyone staying there. We had wonderful neighbors who even watched our girls for us one afternoon so we could go on a dive. We would stay at Belmar again. We homeschool the twins and below is a photo of daddy teaching a math lesson on the Belmar dock!



DIVING: We used the dive shop at Belmar. (Owned by Buddy’s) We only did shore dives on this trip. Our favorite dive sites are Angle City, The Lake and Bopek. We did arrange an afternoon dive at the Salt Pier. It was beautiful and I recommend this dive.

WINDSURFING: We decided to take a windsurfing lesson at Jib City. Ronald was our instructor and was great. Bonaire is an ideal place to learn to windsurf. The shallow water was perfect for beginners. Our girls really picked this up quickly and it was the highlight of the trip for them. After our lesson day, we returned to rent boards 3 more days. We have now added another reason for returning to Bonaire!



KIDS PROGRAM: The twins took the Sea & Discover class taught by Caren for the 3rd time. What a great program she offers. If you bring kids to Bonaire, I highly recommend her class. It runs Monday through Fridays from 8:30am to 12:15pm. This allowed my husband and I time to dive in the mornings while they were in class. Caren is a wonderful teacher and my girls adore her. I am always amazed at how much they learn in her class while having LOTS of fun!



DINING: We at most of our meals in our condo. One note…Belmar units do not have an oven. We did eat out at Chibi Chibi (at the Divi) which has a wonderful view and good food. On our last night we ate at Richards and had a wonderful meal while watching the beautiful sunset and watching a cruise ship leave port. We found the Warehouse Grocery to have the best selection for grocery shopping.

BUGS: We found the bugs to be pretty bad at times. With that said…I think they liked me the most! My husband and girls only had about 10 bites in the entire 2 weeks. I was getting about 5 bites a day. I really think I was getting bit by no see ums as I was killing these little bugs that looked more like nats to me. We did see mosquitoes the first day we checked into our condo. There were a bunch of them in our bathrooms and the office staff gave us some spray that killed them. From that day on, we made sure our doors were kept shut at all times. I was using deet like crazy but they would bite me anyway.

LAST THOUGHTS: We love Bonaire and had a great trip. The people on the Island are very friendly and we have always felt safe. Our two weeks flew by and now we have to wait for another year to return!

A few more photos:


Several ship came into port during our stay, including the Queen Mary 2. (This is not the QM2..I missed that photo!)


The twins with Ronald our windsurfing instructor.


Homeschool Caribbean Style!

The twins enjoyed snorkeling right off the Belmar dock.



We created our "trash art" sculpture on the windy side of the Island!

Wow! Great trip report! Enjoyed your pictures, too. I agree about Miss Caren at Sea & Discover. My son went with her for the entire two weeks we were there in February! He broke his old record in identifying fish! He was so proud! It was a highlight of his trip as well. My husband and I both dive too and did our diving as well when Brandon went with Miss Caren! Worked out great. Glad you had a great time. My oldest daughter loves to windsurf and had Ronald too! He's a great guy and was so patient with my daughter and her friend. Bonaire is such a great place for young and old! Debbie

Wow, the girls sure have grown! I love the family photo with the driftwood sculpture! It's so 'Bonaire'! Great report.

(I love watching the BT kids grow up on this site! This site has to stay!)

Yes..the girls keep growing... we have not figured out how to stop that!! They turn 12 this summer and are changing right before our eyes into young ladies! They are great girls, very sweet and well behaved...we feel blessed. (now ask me again in a few years...the teen thing may kill us! hee hee) At some point we plan to put them in dive classes. PADI says 10 years old is OK, but we still are not comfortable with them diving just yet. We feel they need to mature and grow up at least another year. We are thinking that 13 might be about right. For now they love to snorkel and windsurf!

Great trip report...how did you ever get the kids to concentrate on math with that view? Thanks for posting your pics!

Lise, I don't often comment on trip reports but wanted you to know how much I enjoyed yours. Your pleasure at spending time together as a family really came through which made it a very special report. Thanks for sharing!

Lise, It was fun to read your report. A family enjoying time together is beautiful:-{)}

Lise
A great trip report-As a grandfather of five I can only admire your family and look forward to enriching my life with sharing the togetherness I have with my little ones(too young to dive but two oldest 7 & 6 are avid snorkelers here in Florida-My hat is off to you

Lise
I really enjoyed reading your trip report as we were also staying at Belmar during the same period. Your problem with the bugs may have been partially due to your location (I believe you were on the ground floor). We were on the second floor with the doors open all the time and I came home with only one bug bite to show for it. We are avid divers and spent all the time we could under water but after reading your report I think we might take a day off from diving next trip to try windsurfing. Thanks for a great report.

Lise, that is a fantastic trip report. Your girls are beautiful. Love the home schooling on the dock !

Masha danki for the photo's!
Loved your report.

Rodney...I think you might be right about the ground floor. Also...we did learn not to leave our wet things like towels, wetsuits, etc out on the porch. In the mornings the mosquitoes would be swarming around them! We did like the ground floor in that we could just walk right out to the pool without going down the stairs on the parking lot side. My girls could be in the pool and I could see them while cooking dinner in the kitchen. So that aspect was nice.

Lise>>We met & chatted briefly on the dock as we were headed to the airport on our way home on 2/26.. Your 2 girls were in the water snorkeling at the time..I believe you gave me the advice of calling first to see if the plane was delayed..At any rate, we never really had any problems with mosquitos..So I suspect the units on the ground floor had more of a problem with this then the upper floor units. Unfortunately our trip home on Air Jamaica was simply horrible. If I had known what I was going to be in for,I probably would have stayed at Belmar another week!!

Yes, I remember talking with you. We got lucky on our trip home...they did change our flight from MBJ to a Delta plane and we arrived just about on time into Atlanta. I hope AJ works out its problems or it will be difficult to get to Bonaire.

Lise, thanks for sharing. It was a great report. Sorry we missed seeing you. I can't believe it's been so long since we first met. I still remember the meeting on the plane after all the BT postings!