Last year we stayed at Capt. Don's...they were booked this year, so we made reservations with the Plaza. Could you fill me in on the good, bad and ugly on the rooms, food and diving...hopefully heavy on the good!!
Thanks for your thoughts, Kelly

Kelly, go to the bottom of this page and do a "keyword" search for "Plaza" and you will come up with lot's of information. I would search under "accommodations" and "trip reports."

Have a great time!

Kelly: We've stayed at the Plaza for the last 2 years. We are staying there again in October. I like the rooms because they are so big. The food at the Banana Tree and the Tipsy Seagull is good in my opinion and the dive shop, Toucan, is great - you see alot of favorable posts on Bonaire Talk about the dive masters at Toucan. I would stay there probably forever if I could talk my dive buddies into it and we had 4 people to share a room. My wife and I think its too expensive for just the 2 of us. The best deal is the 2 bedroom villa package for 4 people. You should be okay assuming you have no problem with a bigger, higher-priced resort. I just talked to my wife about your post. Her recommendation is that you get a room off the ground floor to avoid potential problems with bugs at ground level. I've noticed some of that but I don't think its bad enough to be a show stopper. Anyway, have a great dive! Oh, yeah; one of the better beaches on Bonaire.

Hi Kelly,
We have stayed at the Plaza twice, most recently in April 04. We will be returning there in October. We keep thinking that we should try another resort, but then the "if it isn't broke, don't fix it" pops in our minds. Our stays there have been great. Good accomodations. No problems with bugs in the room. (at night, we roll up a towel, spray it with some repellant, and put it by the bottom of the door.) Food was excellent, with probably one of the best buffet breakfasts around. All in all, no complaints. Enjoy.

Kelly -

We've stayed at the Plaza three times and are in the processing of booking our fourth trip.

But there are some minuses. The walk from the parking lot to your room, depending on location, can be tedious, especially if you are loaded down with dive equipment, cameras, goodies from Cultimara, etc. You can have noise over your head if you stay on the ground floor. Of the two restaurants on the property (Banana Tree and Tipsy Seagull), we've had better luck with the Tipsy Seagull. Neither is inexpensive, but I don't think they are out of line with other good places on the island; and not the least expensive hotel option on the island. Sometimes you run into a bit of European-relaxed attitude toward service, but we've noticed a distinct improvement in the couple of visits and we've found that polite persistence pays off. Sometimes, actually no time last March, nightime noise from the beach bar is a nuisance (we always ask for an upstairs room as far south as we can get to avoid beach bar noise).

Why are we repeat customers? Excellent snorkeling right in front of the hotel; very good breakfast buffet; unusually large, comfortable rooms and baths; good central location; improving service; A/C that will flat freeze you; attractive grounds; restaurants right on property; surprisingly quiet for such a large place; and cosmopolitan guests with lots of Dutch and other non-American guests (half of the fun of getting so far away is meeting folks from different cultures).

Hope this helps.

Charles Poteet
Dallas