We have benefited greatly from the content of this newsgroup and hope that the following report of our first trip to Bonaire will be equally useful to others. Please note that all the thoughts are ours alone and totally subjective.
Trip purpose - To snorkel and to visit a new culture.
Overall - We want to go back to Bonaire and we highly recommend it to others, despite some negatives.
Air travel - American from DFW-Miami-Curacao, ALM from Curaco-Bonaire and return went off smoothly. Do fill out your declaration card given to you on the airplane on the way down. Two couples in front of us did not and it caused them real frustration and created a serious bottleneck. The customs arrangement at Curacao is a bit different. For those going on to Bonaire, go to "transient customs," not the regular customs area. It is not a full customs inspection, you don't show your passport, but rather it is a confirmation that you have an ongoing ticket to Bonaire. The official looks only at your Curaco-Bonaire ticket and gives you a boarding pass for that leg of the trip. You go through regular, traditional customs at Bonaire. It was a non-event. Returning from Bonaire to Curaco, you go through the regular, non-resident customs line, but when you show your ticket for on-going travel they wave you through. You claim your baggage, take it outside the terminal and come back in and check it with your return airline. You go through full customs in Miami. Again, a non-event and very well administered given the amount of traffic they process. Tip: if you are a U.S. citizen and have less than the allowed import amount, you can go through a special U.S. Customs line in Miami that is a "wave through." All of this handling of luggage and customs stops got a bit tiresome. If you can find a flight directly into Bonaire, give it some thought.
Land travel - If you want to see the island and/or get to a variety of dive/snorkeling spots, we strongly urge renting a car. We rented a standard-shift, unairconditioned Toyota four-door pickup from AB Rental and had no problems. It did get a bit hot, but we learned to get out early or late. If you plan to go through the park, you definitely will need a tough vehicle. Did not shop around, rented through the Plaza.
Snorkeling - All of our snorkeling was from the shore. Overall, best snorkeling we've seen in travel to St. John's, Virgin Gorda, Grand Cayman, Kauai and Hawaii. Most fish, most variety, by far best coral. After driving all around the island, we found easiest entry and actually best snorkeling to be at our hotel, the Plaza Resort. Easy entry from a small stretch of sand and from a ladder at a pier. Calm water, loads of coral and fishes. We did snorkel at Pink Beach which is probably the best sand beach on Bonaire, but the snorkeling was not as good as the Plaza strip. The northwest snorkeling, reached by going through the park, was disappointing. The water was murky and not near as many fish as at the Plaza or Pink Beach. Lac Bay snorkel was a bust. Murky water, but mainly almost no fish. We put in near the pier about a 1/2 mile from Sorobon beach. Perhaps we just needed better directions. We did not get to Klein Bonaire because the water taxi was "broken" and outside of renting a boat, there were few guided snorkeling tours. Tip: booties (unless you want to swim in your land sandals) were mandatory for getting to the water for the great majority of places we saw. There are relatively few sand beaches. Most water entry is over rock; slippery and hard walking. We were unable to snorkel quite a few places because we simply couldn't negotiate the rock in bare feet. Very frustrating.
Hotel accomodations - Stayed at the Plaza Resort Bonaire. Had a Gran Suite Laguna (lagoon view). The physical accomodations were quite nice. Very large room, tiled floor, very large twin-sink bathroom, large walk-in closet. Most importantly, an air conditioner that was most effective. It was like a blood transfusion to walk into the room after coming from the outside. Built-in/provided appliances included a small refrigerator with freezer; wall mounted hair dryer in bathroom; wall safe (for an additional fee); tea kettle (not a coffee maker) with instant coffee, creamer, sugar and tea. We were able to get an iron and short ironing board from the front desk. Be aware that the electrical current is somewhat "hotter" than U.S. and might cook your own appliances. Tip: if you want a quiet location as far from beach bars and other night noise as possible, go for a far northeast or far southwest location and get a room facing the lagoon. Or, if you need the space, the villas should be even quieter, but they are somewhat further from the beach, still an easy ~5 minute walk. While we were there, about 90% of the guests were Dutch (the Plaza is owned by a large Dutch hotel company). Made for an educational experience. If it makes any difference, the Dutch ladies were most fond of topless beach "non-attire."
Hotel service - The service at the Plaza was, by and large, terrible. Slow doesn't exactly describe it. Probably "incompetently polite" is a better description. They staff is friendly, smiles a lot, but is totally unaware of what it takes to provide good service. We were first admonished by the staff that "this was not the United States," but we have traveled enough (Kenya, Tanzania, Switzerland, Mexico, Cayman, BVI,Canada, etc.) to know that good service is not a nationality, but rather an attitude. Interestingly, we found the service to be pretty much as inattentive across the island, except that the more expensive hotels, i.e., the Plaza and Harbour Village, seemed to be the worst. Tip: if you want decent service, be aggressive in a polite but persistent manner. We would never advocate offending the local folks nor advocate forgetting that the culture is theirs and not ours. But when anyone solicits our business, no matter it be Africa, Europe,Canada, wherever, we do expect some attention to our requirements.
Food - Restaurant food was very good (including the Plaza) at almost every place we tried. And the prices were a real surprise: we found them to be very reasonable and definitely less expensive than other comparable restaurants we have been to in the Carib. Especially good were two downtown locations, the Rendevouz (excellent Brasilian beef) and the Crocottino (sp?, outstanding lasanga), and the Old Inn (great losbter bisque and chicken satay) on Boulevard Abraham near the Plaza. And service at these places was considerably above the average for the island.
Weather - Mid-September was very, very hot. We live in North Texas and know a bit about the heat, but Bonaire was of a different magnitude during our stay. You will learn that the average temperature is 82 F, it was closer to 94F during our visit, but that is not really the story. The humidity is the real consideration. Just as the other parts of the Carib in which we have been, we estimate it never fell lower than 80%. Without my chart, I would estimate that the heat index was about 90 at night and close to 110 in the day time, no exaggeration. (We have been in 110 heat index at home, we know what it feels like.) Add the lower latitutde and a serious discomfort issue is apparent. Staying in the water, having meat-locker room air conditioning, and night breezes are the key to survival. Even though there were several big hurricanes in the northern Carib, we felt no effects other than some most welcome night rainfall. Tip: don't even consider going without sunblock (preferably the ~50 SPF). Even if you don't mind a sunburn, skin cancer is no laughing matter...I know from personal experience. The sunblock by N0-AD is by far the least expensive and least irritating to the eyes we know.
Birding - Wish we had taken binoculars. The birding is even better than we had heard, especially on the northern end and in Washington-Slagbaai park. Even without glasses, we saw probably a dozen birds we had never seen before.
What we didn't learn before we went - September is the hottest month. Booties are a necessity for most water entry. The northwest and Lac Bay snorkeling was disappointing. Birding is better than we realized. Restaurant service is poor to terrible, with some exceptions. Restaurant food is very good to excellent and comparatively quite reasonable. The supermarket Cultimara (downtown) is surprisingly well stocked. The major streets and roads are seldom well marked; the minor ones are all marked. The Washington Slagbaai park is totally different than the middle and south part of the island; a wild, "must-see" area. Guided snorkeling tours are not as available as we would have thought. Customs in Curaco is different.
Again, the purpose of this posting is to share our experience from our own perspective so that others can add to their intelligence. It is not to engage in argument, to deny that others might have had different experiences, to imply we do not still have a lot to learn about Bonaire, nor to in any way denegrate the Bonaire experience.
Because, after all is said and done, it was a most enjoyable, entertaining, pleasant experience and we would highly recommend it to anyone who is aware of the above facts. We are ready to go back...but perhaps not in September! |
By C Poteet on Wednesday, September 22, 1999 - 11:50 am: 
