My husband and I just got back from our first trip to Bonaire and we stayed at HHH. I would highly recommend these bungalows to anyone! Louise and Mel made us feel so at home in their rentals. They are sooooo clean and comfortable, very well furnished and so accommodating for divers/snorklers,surfers,etc. We parked right outside the gate to our bungalow - maybe 15 feet from our front door and patio. There was a hose and 2 buckets for cleaning our gear, as well as a rack for hanging it all up to dry - so convenient! Also had a clothes line on the back patio for swimsuits and towels. The patio has a table and chairs for outdoor dining - and we weren't overcome by bugs on any of the days/nights that we chose to sit out. Very relaxing area. The kitchen was so nice to have to make breakfast and other meals either from scratch or reheating leftovers from such places as Casablanca (grill platter for 2 - highly recommend you order this in the early part of your stay and freeze the leftovers for additional meals throughout the week). The kitchen consisted our microwave, stovetop, frige, dishes, pans, etc...so anything you need to complete a meal. We also asked Louise to pre-purchase some groceries to have since we were arriving late in the evening after the stores closed - that was a very nice touch! Louise was having phones and internet installed while we were there, so perhaps they are all in working order now. Towels were exchanged every other day and bed linens changed once during our week stay - which is more than adequate! We felt very safe within the compound since it's surrounded by a tall concrete fence - no theft problems at all! Louise was able to set up our rental truck and dive package as well. WE weren't real thrilled with Photo Tours - but more on that under the diving area! We will definitely stay at HHH again and will recommend it to all our friends! We are definitely having PBD and will be back!

Please let me know your experiences with Photo Tours ASAP. My group is planning on staying at HHH and we'd like to find out about any problems before we sign up for diving!!!

Thanks

We will be staying at HHH again for the 4th time. We have always been very happy with Louise and Mel. Last year we dove with Photo Tours for the first time. We did not care for their boat dives only because the boat is smaller and can be crowded. The Dive Master was great. We will dive with them again, however, this year we are only doing shore diving.
Holly

We have to agree with Holly, we've never been unhappy with HHH. We just got back from our 10th year and have dove with others on the island, but since we only do shore diving, it's not ever too much of a problem. We did one boat dive with Photo Tours a couple of years ago and we have to agree with Holly, it was a small boat and it could have easily gotten crowded. From all the years we dove there, the dive shops change and our favorite people go from dive shop to dive shop, so it's never quite the same, but we love Bonaire and will continue to go back because the shore diving is so easy and we love the people on the island.

Can anybody comment on HHH's limitations on air conditioner usage? I'm looking for specifics like exactly how long they allow it to be used per day.

Joe -

The air conditioner is in the bedroom only and it was an overnight usage - maybe 9 hours. I don't remember exactly. We've never had any problems.

HTH - Bea

Joe, I don't know what time of the year you are going but when we were there the outside temp was around 85-90 and we used the AC some nights but not every night. The windows open up and let a good breeze through so it was cool enough without the AC. We also sat outside on the porch and enjoyed the great outdoors. We love HHH and hope you enjoy your visit also.

We stayed at HHH 2 years ago and enjoyed it a great deal. We went with another couple and rented one of the two room bungalows. It was a very inexpensive option and since we rarely spent any time at all in the rooms it was well worth it. Not that the rooms are bad - in fact they were quite comfortable.

There are only a couple drawbacks to the place that I feel should be mentioned:

1. There are no phones in the rooms (although that may have changed since we were there)

2. It isn't on a beach, so you have to drive or take a short walk.

3. I advise against leaving your gear hung up on the hooks outside overnight. We got back from a midnight dive at Salt Pier and left everything outside. In the morning we were missing masks, snorkels, dive lights and my sandals. I think someone was outfitting themselves for some snorkeling.

Please don't get the wrong impression though, I'm glad we chose HHH and I would certainly go back there again. I like the fact that it's down on the south side because that's where we did most of our diving.

Oh, and as for Photo Tours... one of the best. I agree about the boats being a little bit small, but we were there in August and there were very few divers on the island at the time. We did all of our boat dives out to Klien instead of around the shore where we could simply swim out to. I also recommend renting their underwater video camera for a day. I used it for 3 separate dives and it made for a great souvenir.

Michael

By the way, I should amend my previous post. I don't want it to come across like we had our gear stolen because we stayed at HHH. I think petty theft like that occurs wherever a thief sees an opportunity. It could have happened anywhere and we were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Michael