My husband and I have been to bonaire twice, but after a 2 year break from diving (1 for pregnancy, 1 to recover) we are anxious to get back into the water. Where is the best place to stay with a toddler (15 months old)? Also any tips on caregivers or special considerations for little ones would be appreciated. Would also love to hear from anyone who has traveled with small children. Thanks.

Its been a long time since we had to deal with small children, but when we stayed at Belmar last May, the couple in the ground-floor unit next to ours had a child (Charlie) who was about a year old. They used various means to successfully keep him contained on the patio. The parents also made extensive use of a babysitter (a mature Dutch woman) when they were away windsurfing each day. Besides watching and playing with Charlie in and around the apartment, with the parents' permission, she also played with him in the pool. I believe they arranged for her through Belmar, and from what we saw (and Charlie's parents said), she was very competent and very attentive to Charlie's needs. Suggest you contact Irene directly at info@belmar-bonaire.com. Good luck.

We are heading there in June with a 15mo so we have gone through simmlar searching. We are staying at Belmar because of the space and kitchen facilities. As an asside, the upper floor rooms have kid safe balcony railings and they provide free cribs. We are traveling with people who will provide babysitting but Belmar also said they can help there as well.

Chris--Thanks for the input. Can you tell me a little more about Belmar? Are the rooms air conditioned? We aren't sure how the baby will do in the heat. Also we are planning on bringing grandma, so we will have a babysitter too. How do you work out the diving? Do you get in as much as you'd like or does the baby slow you down? Thanks--Misty

We have not stayed at Belmar before, we were at Divi last time. There are a lot of trip reports here that can give you more fist hand info on Belmar. The bedrooms are air conditioned but not the living area, this is common on the island. As to the heat, we went to Hawaii when our daughter was 5 months and it was quite hot with no AC in our house but our daugther did fine. I mostly worry about the sun so we are bringing lots of sun screen. I think she will be fine though.

As to diving, the plan is to do our diving on the ealry side and leave either my mom or sister behind with the baby. We going to be there two weeks and we are hoping to get in two dive a day with a third every now and then. We will certainly not have the freedom we did when we went with just the two of us. If it turns out the babysiters get restless we will talk to Belmar about their babysitter.

When are you thinking of heading back?

Hi Misty,
I'm an owner at Sand Dollar and have seen parents there with infants and small children many times. The terraces are safe for children on the second floor. The resort provides cribs and will find a babysitter if Grandma wants some time off. There is a full kitchen in every apartment. As far as diving is concerned, the pier and dive shop are right there at the resort and you can dive as much or as little as you want. If you don't want to be away from your baby too long, you can do shore dives very easily from the pier which is at Bari Reef.
Milton

[Self-Promotional URL Removed by Moderator]