Since this was our first trip to Bonaire I read though the Bonaire Forum extensively for advice and information. I want to thank all the contributors who's recommendations and opinions helped make this a really great trip. We both felt this was one of our best dive trips we've ever taken. What a great place.

Flight: Flying from the west coast to the Caribbean is not the easiest of trips. We flew Continental form SFO to BON, with a change of planes in Houston. No glitches in the flights. We had a 6 hour lay over in Houston, and then took the 11:55 redeye to Bonaire. It made for a very long day. Coming home was a bit easier. We left at 7:30 and got to SFO in the late afternoon, with only a 3 ½ hour layover. Am I still growing or is the leg room getting smaller and smaller? Even the emergency row, which we got for one segment, seemed like it had less leg room than before.

Hotel: We rented a condo at the Bellafonte, which is just south of the airport. The apartment was very nice. We had a one bedroom unit that had a very private balcony in front of both our bedroom and living room. It has a full kitchen, but word of warning, the oven does not work. We had a great view of the ocean with beautiful sunsets every night. Like many places, there is no beach, but there are chairs on a very nice pier, and also a few that are on the main grounds. There is no pool, but there is a hot tub that is pretty much ambient temperature. Just enough to cool off if you don't want to go into the ocean. The staff was great as was housekeeping (they clean and change towels every day). The bed was extremely comfortable. It was a foam mattress which we have at home and so we had no problems sleeping. There is no restaurant or dive operator on site. The planes landing were not a problem at all. Every once in a while you might feel or hear a little rumble. It was kind of like being home in California. The unit had air conditioning in the bedroom and a ceiling fan for the rest of the unit. We did not find this to be a problem if you open the French doors to the balcony and the apartment door. This created a great cross breeze that made the room comfortable even during the hot afternoons. However, make sure you close them at dawn and dusk.....Mosquitoes.

Diving: This was the first time shore diving for both of us. We used Yellow Submarine at Port Bonaire. For the shore diving they worked out just fine. Tanks were plentiful with easy access to get them on the truck. We did use them for a boat dive, as we wanted to dive Klein Bonaire. I felt that the boat was over packed. There were about 12-14 people on a rather small boat. Not a problem during the dive, but really crowded topside. I would not have wanted to be on this dive if I had minimal diving experience. There was very little orientation to our dives. Again for us this was not a problem but for someone who needs a little more help, it would have been a little intimidating.

We did two dives a day, since that is about all my back can take. Our favorite dive was Windsock. As we headed south into the current there was as amazing amount of sea life. There were times we were completely surrounded by fish. At one point I saw an eel that came out of the rocks and was fully exposed for 5-10 minutes. What a beautiful, graceful sight to see. We also dove off the pier at the Bellefonte. Again, a really beautiful dive with large schools of fish and two eels, though just the heads. The rest of our dives were on the various sites on the south part of Bonaire. I was so impressed with the health and diversity of the reefs. We were truly in diving paradise.

Food: Breakfast and lunch was at the condo. We bought a lot of wonderful cheeses and fresh bakery for breakfast. Lunch was simple, PB&J sandwiches or leftovers from the previous night’s meals. Somehow even the PB&J tasted better on the local baked breads. The restaurants we ate at were:
Casablanca – Nice atmosphere, good food, huge portions and very good service.
Cactus Blue – Excellent margaritas, really good food and service. Excellent dessert.
Wil’s Tropical Grill – Very nice atmosphere, very good food and service, and a dessert that was
out of this world.
Restaurant RoomeR – Wonderful laid back atmosphere, very good food and service,
and run by the nicest, friendliest people.
Capriccio – Excellent food and nice atmosphere. Service was a little lacking.

Rental car: We rented our truck from Poppy at Telerin Car Rental. Our truck was a bit older than those we saw from other rental companies, but the service you get from Poppy is outstanding. After we picked up our luggage she met us outside of customs. With-in 5-10 minutes we were in our truck and off we went. BUT, what really impressed me was when we returned the truck. Poppy was waiting for us with both our boarding passes and tags for our luggage. Had I known I would have slept another half hour. There was no waiting in the Continental line.

This was truly a fabulous trip and I can not wait to return.

What a great trip you had. Thank you for sharing.

Alan,
Thanks for your report. It sounds like you had a very enjoyable trip.

Great trip report! What other sites did you dive?

Glad to hear you had a great time. How can someone else pick up your boarding passes, when they are suppose to check your ID's?

Alan, nice report, and nice to see another "Left" coaster on the board It isn't easy getting to Bon from here, but man it's worth it! What unit did you stay in at Belefonte? Did you let Robbert and Marjia know that the oven wasn't working? We had a couple of small things in the unit we were in that needed fixing and they bent over backwards to accommodate us. We stayed there our last trip and really enjoyed it.

Loved that pier at night to have a glass of wine, watch the sunset, and then go for a swim. We used the "jacuzzi" once, but got eaten alive by the skitters!

We stayed in apartment 205. It was my understanding that the ovens did not work in all the apartments except the Penthouse, but I could be wrong on that. They were very accommodating. We had bought a frozen pizza and she was going to ask the people in the Penthouse if they would cook it for us. It was a nice offer, but we declined. Wasn't a big deal. Hope the cleaning people enjoy pizza.

The dive sites we dove were basically all south,except for the reef that is by Yellow submarine in the city (north). We did our checkout then just kept going. Most our dives were based on easy entry as my back was getting pretty sore. So we did Bachelors, Alice In Wonderland, The Lake, Angel, and Windsock twice, along with Klein in the boat dive.s

Alan,
Thanks for a great trip report.
Glad you enjoyed your visit and my guess is you are hooked now.

Alan, enjoyed your trip report. Poppy sure is great, she's the best. I cannot imagine renting from anyone else.