My friend Bob and I spent 4 days on Bonaire at the end of October as part of a vacation that also included Miami and St. Martin. Though we have both traveled fairly extensively, neither had been to the Caribbean. I had followed the 2 Bonaire newsgroups for several months. We are not divers but do enjoy snorkeling and hiking, as well as seeing the local sights. Since we both live in the relatively cool San Francisco Bay Area, we sought a warm, sunny, relaxing location. Bonaire met or exceeded our expectations.

Airlines. We took a total of 6 flights on ALM, in part because of its partnership with United. Two were delayed 1-2 hours, 2 were on time, and 2 actually left 5 minutes early (Everyone was on board). Planes were comfortable and service was pleasant. Bob's new suitcase was damaged on the initial flight (into Bonaire). Although ALM offered to reimburse near its purchase cost, he would have had to give them the suitcase, and the only replacements available on Bonaire were of similar cost but significantly lower quality. He ended up taping it with packing tape on each successive flight and exchanging it when he returned home.

Accommodations. Based on guidebooks and the internet, we had booked a studio apartment at Oceanview Villas, just south of Kralendijk and the airport. It was quiet, spacious, excellently maintained, and very reasonably priced; perfect for our purposes. The weather was less breezy than usual, and therefore somewhat warmer at night, and we needed to use the air conditioning at night for comfortable sleeping. Note that the rooms do not actually have an ocean view, though the proprietors' accommodations do. A car is not an absolute necessity, since the beach is very close, but restaurants and grocery stores are not within walking distance. The proprietors were friendly and always available and readily provided lots of useful information about Bonaire (including where to look for suitcases). We would definitely stay there again.

Car Rental. Tim Nesselrodt of Oceanview Villas had arranged a Suzuki minivan with AC (welcome but not absolutely necessary) with Netty's Car Rental for us. Any flat tires would be replaced at our expense. Even if not doing off-road driving, you need to be careful, especially after the infrequent rains, because of cactus fragments with tire-puncturing spines that lurk on the road shoulders. We left doors unlocked, with nothing inside, and always locked the provided "Club" on the wheel. We experienced no problems, but did not really park in any very remote places. Netty met us at 6:30 AM at the airport when we returned the car. The gas station nearest the airport was the only place that would not take a credit card. As everyplace else, they accepted US dollars, but had difficulty in making change in dollars. We used less than half a tank in 4 days.

Restaurants. We discovered Richards was closed when we went there Monday, so we ate at the nearby Blue Moon. Richards was open the next night, and it was Amadeus the 3rd night and Green Parrot the last. The first 3 restaurants seated us on oceanside tables. We found service to be friendly and surprisingly fast, in contrast to past newsgroup comments. Food was tasty and reasonably priced. Portions were hearty and ther was good variety. A somewhat unique but endearing common feature was the presence of local dogs and cats that appeared next to the oceanside restaurants at dinnertime, meekly looking for handouts. We (mostly) were able to resist. The Cultimara supermarket in Kralendijk was quite well stocked, except a bit lacking in tropical fruits (e.g., no bananas!). The local tapwater was clear and fresh tasting, despite its production by reverse osmosis deionization (sorry, I'm a chemist). Some people said our very positive restaurant and food experiences were partly due to the slower October season.
We also had mosquitoes at twilight and after dark, particularly at leg level, although they were wimps compared to those found in my native Minnesota. I wore jeans to dinner and applied a bit of OFF Deep Woods Formula to bare skin and had no trouble. Bob wore shorts to dinner and ended up with numerous bites. Bring and use repellent and wear long pants if you are especially susceptible.

Activities. We snorkeled every day from shore. It was as warm, clear, and vibrant as all the guides say. We avoided sunburn by SPF 36 or 40 sunscreen and Bob used a Lycra dive shirt part time. We had bought new fins and tropical dive booties at the repeated insistence of this newsgroup and were glad we did. Snorkel equipment was available for rent or sale many places in Kralendijk, and prices were only slightly higher that in California shops. We also booked the Wednesday barbecue snorkel trip to Klein Bonaire on the Woodwind with Renee, Barney, and Jan, and about 8 other passengers. I highly recommend it. Bob capitulated and bought the video Jan produced during the trip, as it was beautiful, memorable, and informative. Due to the recent heavy rains, the National Park was closed for road repairs, so we drove just to the entrance, where we were flagged down by a local resident who was looking for a ride to Kralendijk for him and his wife. Unfortunately, we were headed to Gotomeer and the North Coast, but we gave them a ride to the bus stop in Rincon. We saw many flamingoes at Gotomeer in the more scenic north, and many more in the salt ponds in the south, but wished there was some way to observe them closer than the nearest approach of 200 feet. Without telephoto lenses, they appear as tiny pink blobs in our photos. It was wonderful, however, to see a group of them take flight near sunset for Venezuela, arcs of rose punctuated by black against the dusky blue sky.

Summary. We're ready to go back.