Hello! I'm new to BonaireTalk and I'm very glad I've found it! My husband and I will be on a cruise at the end of October with his sister and brother in law and we want to find a great place to snorkel. My sister in law doesn't snorkel so we need a place that has shade (preferably not under one of the poisonous trees!) and we want to see lots of colorful fish and coral if possible. We are considering a shore snorkel excursion through the ship but would also like to get some expert advice on where would be better places to snorkel. I don't like it when it's too deep. Thank you in advance for your advice!!!

Plaza in the area south of the Tipsy Seagull. Easy entry, shallow, Good Coral, lots of fish. Shade available all along the beach either under trees or the umbrellas. $5.00 entry to use their facilities including pools. Get there early if you are on one of the megs-ships [3000+ people].

Your ship will dock at either the Town Pier [1] or South Pier [3]. It is about a one mile walk to the Plaza [North Gate][12]. You want to continue to the far south end where you will find the Tipsy Seagull Restaurant [14]. Easy entry from the steps of the pier there. Snorkel to the South. Have fun!

Oh, I forgot to say Welcome to Bonaire Talk!

Following link is to some pictures of the coral and fish at the Plaza sout of the Tipsy Seagull.

http://falls4sale.com/Bonaire/Plaza.html

Thank you so much!!!! I'm going to print this out and take it with me!!!

BTW....awesome pictures!!!

I have the exact same question, but I'll be in Bonaire for a week. I bought Susan Porter's book, and it has a great description of each location, but I'm unclear exactly which ones are shallow. It sounds like all the spots are pretty deep. Are they? I don't expect a list of shallow snorkeling spots, but rather just an indication that there are some. (many, hopefully) Thanks.

A Bonaire Talk thread that was helpful to me before my weeks visit to Bonaire in May can be found at..

http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/22932/295633.html

Also, I suggest you contact Renee of Renee Snorkel Tours and have her take you out snorkeling.

http://www.infobonaire.com/reneesnorkeltrips/snorkel_photos.html

Tell her what you want to see and that you need shallow, easy entry sites. She lives on island, snorkels daily, and knows where the critters live. Don't miss one of her night snorkels.

Have a great trip and welcome to Bonaire Talk

Maureen, many of the sites have great snorkeling in very shallow water, right near the shoreline. The depths in Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy are good for helping divers to make their plans. As a snorkeler you can rely on Susan's ratings for the snorkel sites and know that you will see some great stuff without being in very deep water or very far from shore.

Renee was the first one I contacted but she is already booked :-(. It seems everyone loves her! So it's Plan B for me! Thank you for all of your info!!!!

Karen, welcome to BT and I hope that you enjoy your one day stay on an island that we all love. If you choose to follow the great plan that William outlined above would you consider stopping at the dive shop at the Plaza and purchasing the Marine Park tag? Snorkelers and divers who are staying on the island pay a yearly fee (10 dollars for snorkelers and 25 dollars for divers)but as of yet this fee has not been collected from cruise ship visitors. The money is used to help protect the beautiful waters of Bonaire and supports the wonderful work of the Bonaire National Marine Park. Thank you!

I guess I assumed I had to purchase the tag no matter what so I will do that. I would love to help protect the park!!! Thank you for the info Susan!

Karen ... thank you, thank you, thank you! And please feel free to pass the info along to anyone else on your cruise ship! This year's tag is a pretty color of purple and will be a nice souvenir of your time in Bonaire!

Yes,



A very nice souvenir!

Tags are a great souvenir to take home, and it helps proctect the reefs! The tags are originals too.(they have # on them). It also shows that you care enough about the island and reefs and support STINAPA (The agency that takes care of the reefs of Bonaire).
Maybe you can share that thought with yourfellow cruise passangers.
Masha danke (THANK YOU)for asking.

We find the best main island snorkeling is Andrea 1, going either North or South from the easy entry. We regularly see a turtle there, just south of the entry. Also there are always a few very large Parrot Fish around the shore-line coral. great variety of fish all round there.

Plaza is great for very easy entry and again good variety. Also Donkey Beach, Sunset beach are easy entry, 1000 steps if swell is not too heavy.
Tried Hilma Hooker for the first time Tuesday. Fairy easy entry, saw some new things, larger squid than anywhere else a Porcupine fish that didn't mind posing for the camera, a pair of Permit fish and a Blue Lizardfish. Also swam along to Angel City - saw a Black Durgeon. Hoping to see an Eagle Ray, but didn't, so I quess we'll have to go back!!
We

Thanks to all who have helped with my many questions! We are coming on Saturday, and I can hardly wait!

Can you stand one last question?

Are the drift dives that I've been reading about--- and salivating over :>)) --- all in deep water? The dives sound truly phenomenal, but I just can't imagine watching the boat drive off!

Yes, Maureen. The Klein drift snorkel is in fairly deep water. The boat will drop you in really deep water, but you quickly swim toward shore (not very far) and hug the shoreline the rest of the way, looking right toward the deep water and left toward the coral all along the edge of the island. You really don't even have to kick unless you just want to get to the beach sooner. The current will carry you. It's not super strong--just strong enough to move you along. If you feel uncomfortable with the idea of it all, you could invest in a snorkel vest and wear it. But this snorkel is truly spectacular. The coral here is much larger than most of what you will see from main Bonaire shore snorkeling. We usually see turtles as well as some larger fish life. We normally take about 45 minutes to an hour to drift back to No Name beach where we've left our lunch. Then the boat comes back to get us. It is a great trip and very reasonably priced. The beach at No Name is very sandy and nice for swimming. Just remember that there is virtually no shade except for a crude lean-to where we usually eat lunch. So take plenty of sunscreen.

Hi Maureen: I second everything that Mr/Mss Keaton said above. The drift dive from Ebo to No-Name is not to be missed! My recommendation [if you are concerned about deep water] is to take the Woodwind Trip with Dee and Ulf. Dee will go in the water with you and make sure that you are comfortable. I believe that they can provide snorkel vests to those that want them at no extra charge.

The Woodwind leaves from the South Pier of the Divi Flamingo. They require a minimum number o go so check in by phone once you get on island. In addition to the drift at Klein you will make a second stop at Andres 1, 2 or Pietre and you also will have free drinks -- soda, water, etc and a very nice lunch.

Yes. it is more money then the water taxi but you won't have to worry about deep water with Dee along. Just be sure to ask her for a snorkel vest before you sail as I believe they keep them in their locker at the pier.

http://falls4sale.com/Bonaire/Woodwind.html

Once again, thanks to all who answered. Hope to do a drift... probably with Woodwind. I had e-mailed them once but got no response, so I'll call when I get there... tomorrow!!!

We just returned from our cruise. Based on the information posted by William Gates I decided to take the taxi to the Plaza Resort for entry into the water. The taxi fare was $5pp (so $15 for 2 with tip). Upon entering the Plaza property we were told that the fee was $15pp without chairs or $20pp with chairs. We explained we just wanted to enter the water and were planning to snorkel back to the ship. We were again told $15pp, or no entry. Of course the taxi had already left, so it cost us $30 to walk across the property. Yep!!! $30!!!!

We got to the Tipsy Seagull in about 2 1/2 minutes and got our gear on. The ship looked like a REALLY LONG distance so we didn't spend too much time looking around before heading toward the ship. It actually only took about an hour and 15 minutes. I had new booties and new fins and had the same floating problem that has been discussed on another thread here. The fish were the nicest right by the Tipsy Seagull and we should have gone south to the reef and just taken a taxi back. Live and learn, but at least we can say we did it. Next time we'll do the water taxi to Klein and do the drift snorkel. After snorkeling we went to the market and it was there that we found out that we really got ripped off by the Plaza. I was looking at the beautiful glass pieces that Stephanie and her husband were selling and of course we chatted about what we had done that day and they were so upset they said they were going to go to the Board of Tourism about it. (They go to the Plaza every Sunday and pay the above mentioned $5pp, instead of the cruise-ship-in-port fee of $15pp. Anyway, we loved your island and will return again, just NOT to the Plaza. BTW, we were not the only cruise passengers at the Plaza that day, so they ripped off many of us.

Dear all,

I've been reading this discussion and I was really happy to see that you all are really excited about our reef and island! And I really love the pictures you made, William.
What concerned me, was the last article of Peggy, where I can read that there has been a miscommunication with the consequence that gave you, Peggy, a negative feeling about our pricing policy. My name is Chantal Schuijling and I work at the beach of Plaza Resort Bonaire. Peggy spoke to my colleague that day and gave us a copy of this discussion. Therefore I would like to thank Peggy, 'cause this gave me the chance to react on this.

Since I have been working here (that's for 2 years now), we've always been asking a $20,- facility charge for tourists that visit Bonaire for one day. That's not ripping of people, but it's giving people a different kind of service. For the $20,- guests can use:


- Entrance to our beach
- Beach chair / hammock / lounge hut
- Swimming pool
- Tennis courts & rackets *
- Unlimited ice water
- Use of bathrooms and showers
- Refreshing face towels
- (Drinks-) Service on the beach
- Beach Towel *
- Snorkel lesson (on request, but still for free)

(we ask to leave your boardingpass for deposit)


If you don't need a beach chair, you have to pay $15,- for the rest of the facilities. Everybody has to pay that facility charge because it's private property with security, nice sand on the beaches, 2 bars, 3 restaurants, a volleyball court, bathrooms etcetera.

On days there's no cruise ship our prices are $ 5,- per person, because we don't offer the same service and facilities on 'regular' days. Besides that for local people would $20,- be too much, concerning the average monthly salary is $800,- and they just can't pay that much money to enjoy their island.
But for that $5,-, they only get entrance to the beach, use of the pool and a beach chair.

And of course there are a lot of public beaches where you don't have to pay the fee but... there's no bar for if you're thirsty, no beach chair if you would like to sit comfortable, no shade if you're overheated, no first aid center if you scratched your toes on corals, no bathrooms if you really have to go, no restaurants if you are hungry, no soft sand but dead coral and no security if you want to snorkel without checking your bag every minute...

I hope I gave a clear explanation for our prices, if anybody still have any questions, you can contact me on chantals@plazaresortbonaire.com or activities@plazaresortbonaire.com

Kind regards,

Chantal Schuijling

Chantal..Thanks for the clear explanation of Plaza's admission policies to the facilities. Problems are certain to arise whenever there are mis communications either on this board or in person speaking with others which apparently was the impetus for Peggy's posting.

Chantal - Thank you for your response. Obviously the residents of Bonaire do not know your policy and that is why Stephanie and her husband were so upset. They told me that they often refer people to your hotel for using your beach, etc. for the price of $5.

I will email them your explanation so it doesn't happened again, not the referral, but the price.

Maybe you could take the time to search this board for "$5" and put a simple response of the correct pricing because I received the information on more than one thread.

I'm curious about what Divi's policies for the cruiseship visitor's are ?

Me,too, Lorraine! We had a bunch of "visitors" to the Divi beach early one morning during our breakfast at Calabas and never did find out "who" they were or "where" they came from. The Freewinds was in port, however.

We weren't too thrilled with what we saw that morning....took over the whole (small) beach, chairs and the tanning pier, too!

Can anyone let us know about what the Divi is doing with cruise passengers? Thanks! Carole

I called the tour operator this morning and she informed me that Divi Flamingo Resort asks a $10,- facility charge on cruise days. There for you'll get entrance to the beach, beach chair, use of swimmingpool, showers and bathroom and you can borrow a beach towel. They have around 30 beach chairs available.
Let me know if you have any more questions, I'll be pleased to help you!
Chantal

Thanks, Chantal. Not really what Lorraine and I wanted to hear, but thanks for the response. (Lorraine, I don't "think" you wanted to hear that response, right?) Carole

Your absoultly right on that ,Carol.
Thank you for the response, Chantal.
You'll want to look at the cruise ship agenda if you are staying at Divi then.
I was hoping that the beach was not open,as Carole was too. It is hard enough to get a lounge without the cruiseship people coming over.
I won't be there when the cruiseship are in port.

To our local friends, I certainly understand how the cruise ships coming in to the islands can feel invasive, however, we pay alot of money to visit your islands and without those cruise ships and tourism, your island may not be what it is. Just remember, that when all those chairs are full, so are the pockets of the local businesses. Without that, you may not have those beautiful resorts to come to when the ships arent in port. Looking forward to visiting your island in April.

Hello Meredith. Welcome to BT & thanks for posting..
Please understand that just about everyone who posts here (my guess is at least 95%) with few exceptions fall under the category of "tourist". Most of the folks rent places or stay in resorts for varying amounts of time. So we are well aware of the value of tourism to Bonaire. Personally, I've been visiting the island for well over 20 years.

What many folks do not like (myself included) are the plethora of cruise ships dis-engorging their passengers onto the peaceful island, who in turn pay NO FEES to use the marine park & on top of that really spend very little money on island.
Really, I fail to see exactly what the cruise ship industry does to support the "beautiful resorts" which you mentioned.

Most of the folks here support the local businesses on the island & pay a multitude of taxes to the government, including (but not limited to) hotel taxes, rental car taxes, restaurant taxes, departure taxes & property taxes just to name a few.

I hope you & your fellow cruisers enjoy your short visit to Bonaire & will return again one day to spend a week or more. Then maybe you'll get a better understanding of WHY many folks frown upon the cruise ships who are frequenting the island more than ever.

Hi there. Thank you for the welcome. Those chatting sounded like locals to me, but then again, Im new to this board. Im trying to find a great place to relax while in Bonaire and found this great site.

Back to our conversation... Actually, we do pay fees. I have to pay a small fee/tax to every port that I visit. When you multiply that by 3100 passengers, regardless if they get off the ship or not they have to pay it, that is quite an income to Bonaire for one day. We also buy suvineers, pay for taxis, spend money for shore excursions, pay money as described in the posts above for entrance fees to the resorts to sit on the beach. We all pay taxes and fees in our homelands. I just cant imagine that the local business do not profit from the cruise ship industry.

On the same note, I really understand as I said before that it is invasive, just as it is when thousands of people plant themselves on our local beaches. With the beach near us, seriously, there are thousands of people for miles of beach. You cant find a spot hardly to sit anywhere. And our beaches arent near as beautiful as Bonaire.

We look forward to our visit and thanks for chatting with me.

Is there a place to buy the marine park tags on Klein? We're planning on taking a water tax there and snorkeling on our own.

Thanks!

Klein Bonaire is uninhabited. Bring food, and drink(lots of water)with you. Buy your snorkeling tag at any, of the many, dive shops... Ron

Chantal,

You are quite clear about what the Plaza provides for cruise passengers, however, you fail to note that the Plaza is one of the largest resorts on the island and even on non-cruise ship days, the beach is reasonably full with resort guests. One of the reasons that we stopped staying at the Plaza was the influx of day-trippers that overran the resort and destroyed the peace and quiet that we seek on vacation.

For the past two years we continued to use the AquaKids program even though we stayed at another resort. Last year I felt that the AquaKids program also suffered from the attraction to make a quick buck on these day-trippers. We had to pick our child up early 2 days so the staff could attend to the cruise ship passengers. For this reason, I can no longer recommend this program. If you look through the archives of this board, I was a big supporter of this program, as it taught my children to snorkel.

Sue