I am doing a lot of research about Bonaire. I was wondering about safety. Is there an issue with staying in a rental home vs. a resort?

Chris, overall I would say that although Bonaire is safe compared to other destinations, it is not without flaws. The people there are great, but there are a few bad apples around. The grand majority of crime is of opportunity, so take all precautions needed. Rental vs. resort, it all depends on what you are looking for. If you want the most privacy and get away from groups, your best bet is to rent a house. A lot of the rental homes are adding alarm systems and locks, but most of them do not count with private security personel like most of the resorts do. There are other aspects of a rental home vs. a resort, but I'm limiting only to what's relevant to the topic. There had been incidents of criminals breaking into private homes just last year (search the archives) and two incidents in which harm was caused to the victims (the victims were residents, not tourists) My wife and I will be returning in March and we'll be staying at the Divi. Just extra peace of mind. Once again, just the basic precautions (not leaving anything in the car, leaving car doors unlocked and windows rolled down), not leaving gear unnattended, locking your valuables in a safe, etc, will do a lot to get you overlooked by most criminals without getting you too paranoid. This is not an absolute guarantee, but it has worked well for many repeat visitors. If you go there with the mind set that people should "respect" your property, well, you'll leave yourself open and the criminals will take a hearty laugh as they walk away with your stuff. Lastly, the police there are notorious for their apathy and extremely slow response, so don't expect much help from them. Keep in mind that you are stepping into foreign land. Feel free to do a word search for crime related stories in the board. There are quite a few helpful tips. I hope you enjoy your visit to the island. We can't wait to return. Coach Izzy

Marc of AB Carrental has stated very clearly that their car rental contracts (and, I assume, other companies' contracts) require renters to put windows up and lock the vehicle whenever it is left unattended; otherwise the vehicle theft insurance is invalid.

Any comments on this?

David

We are arriving on Bonaire on February 23rd for our first visit and have scheduled a truck rental from AB rental, primarily because of the new insurance they have beyond the CDW that has much lower deductibles, but cost another $8.00 a day. But I am also curious to know if they "require" the truck to be locked to prevent theft. Is this to prevent the theft of the whole vehicle? I will contact them about this. Also, does AB give you a chain and lock to secure the spare tire? Any information that other renters can provide would be appreciated.

we have rented from ab in the past and will be renting from them again on this trip. unless they just started offering it, they do not provide chains for the spare tire. i'd recommend taking your own lock and buying a chain at kooyman.

also, keep in mind that most credit card insurance policies do not cover rental of a truck like they do passenger vehicles.

we'll be arriving feb. 8. see you then

We rented from AB last week, and they certainly didn't make any mention of a locked-car/rolled-up window policy. We happened to do so anyway, but no one told us we needed to. We did, however, splurge for the extra insurance (basic insurance is $11 a day, additional $8 for theft and lowers your liability to around $170). For a longer rental period, this could really add up. Depending on where you're staying on the island, you may not need a car the whole time. We were there for 8 days and only had a car for 2 and it worked perfectly for us.

We are staying at the Sand Dollar and plan to spend a lot of time just snorkeling that reef. We are not divers. We have reserved a truck for the whole 11 days we will be there, which is quite expensive with insurance and all. We wanted to be able to go to the park, so we got a pickup truck. But it seems that we might be able to use a taxi some days to go into town for dinner and shopping for the price of the insurance. Does anyone out there have any advice as to shortening the length of car rental. Some people who stayed where we are staying previously were there for a month and only rented a car one of those weeks. Also I have an email out to AB to have them explain what their policy is about locking the car, but haven't heard back from them yet.

KM:

The locked car requirement would have been in the fine print, almost illegibly printed on the back of your contract (if AB is like the major US rental agencies - they seem to use grey print on a grey background).

David

If you'd like to economize, you can definitely reconsider how long you want the car. From Sand Dollar, you can easily walk into town for dinner and groceries (about a 15-20 minute walk). Alternately, a taxi one way will cost you less than $7.

The real perk of having a car is being able to spend some time driving around the northern and southern parts of the island. You'll want to see the sights (flamingos, Lake Gotomeer, etc.) and even as snorkelers, you may want to take advantage of the shore diving sites. But the island is very, very small and it's easy to cover a lot of space in very little time. We only had a car for 2 days, and this was more than enough to do some shore diving, see the flamingos fly out at dawn, and circumnavigate the island. We did everything else on foot (or by swimming!). If you're up for it, you can also rent bicycles right at Sand Dollar. I think rates start around $15 for a mountainbike with helmet, but there are multi-day packages that save $$.

The only hitch we had was that, because of the rain, the Park was closed while we were on the island (Jan. 8-18). Hopefully the weather will improve, but you can check with the park (or this list) about this. Because it has been raining so much, the roads in the park are washed out and the park is closed to visitors.

FYI, AB Car rental has complimentary pick-up/drop-off service, so you can set up your rental period whenever you want, even if it doesn't coincide with your flight arrival and departure. The airport is about 10 minutes from Sand Dollar, but with "island time" pacing, plan on at least an hour to check-out your car (and 4 wheel drive is definitely recommended).

David, where exactly has Marc clearly stated the policy of locking the car, it is contrary to all my experiences with him and AB rental.

Seb:

Please read the first six posts on this thread.
http://www.oldbonairetalk.com/newsgroup/messages/32/158868.html?1094337757#POST185351
(And let me say, that was a tough search, since Marc posted so many times, and he didn't say in any one post, "Lock car doors and close windows.")

In the thread, Marc and Kitty both support the idea of locking your car, as required by the AB contract.

But don't sue Marc, he's on his way back to Holland. A recent email from me to AB was answered by "Han Sjoerdsma Operations Manager - AB Carrental Bonaire". I don't know if he intends to watch BT.

David

(Message edited by bostondavid on January 20, 2005)

KM:

We stay at Black Durgon, another mile+/- farther away from Kralendijk; nothing much you can walk to from there. We consider the snorkeling to be poor now between Andrea I and town, so we're dependent upon "wheels" to get us to the good snorkeling. Even before Lenny, we did one snorkel a day away from the inn, then did Small Wall in the afternoon. Alas, no more.

David

David I appreciate the time you took to do the search of the archives. This was very helpful. I received an email from AB which I am copying here for the benefit of other travelers.

Hello Donna,

We officially advise people to keep their car locked so that in case of thefth there will be proof of a forcefull entry. If you leave the car open and something gets stolen there may be no damage to the car, but your goodies are not covered because you didn't lock the car. Full Insurance will cover most damage, to your car and the third party, apart from a deductible of $169. Thefth of (parts of) the car and vandalism are fully covered by the full insurance, no deductible, as long as you have a police report. A spare tyre falls under this regime, so a police report is needed to avoid the deductible. Cutting a fuel hose is also vandalism, but you might be charged for the fuel only... Your maximum liability with full insurance (the $19 per day) will be $169.

Regards,


Han Sjoerdsma
Operations Manager - AB Carrental Bonaire

I hope that Han can continue to explain the policy of his company to Bonairetalk to help eliminate all the confusion.

I appreciate everyone who took time to respond to these questions I put forward.

KM, an easy 15-20 minute walk from Sand$ to town? What type mile pace are you keeping, and how hot was it? The only places I would consider close enough to walk to town from would be Divi, Dive Inn or Carib...just my 2 cents worth...if you are at Sand$, I wouldn't rely on walking or riding a bike to town. You will be a ball of sweat by the time you get there...

In my relaxed vacation state, I didn't look at the thermometer much last week, but I believe temps were in the mid 80s with very high humidity. We stayed at Harbour Village (2 resorts closer to town than Sand Dollar) and walked to town almost daily, never clocking more than 15 minutes each way, even when schlepping our groceries. We also had friends staying at Buddy Dive (which is further from town than Sand Dollar) and walked twice from Buddy Dive to town, which took us 25 minutes. I don't consider myself a speedwalker (and my partner is a notoriously slow walker), but we are young and relatively fit, so perhaps that's why it didn't seem problematic. But I can imagine that in truly hot weather, the walk could be unpleasant. So, Donna, in thinking about the car situation, you may want to assess whether or not you like to walk/bike ride, how often you would reasonably expect to go into town, and what temps are likely to be while you are there (keeping in mind also that they vary significantly during the course of the day, so lunch in town would be a much warmer walk than a late afternoon trip to the grocery store or an evening walk to dinner).

Hi all,
By chance I saw my name mentioned in this thread. I was the next operations manager of AB Carrental after Marc, until the end of my 2 months probation period. I decided not to stay working there, for reasons I will not disclose here. There is, of course, always discussion about how to leave your car, unlocked or locked. The official stand of AB Carrental was to lock the car, to make it harder to steal the whole thing. Cars get stolen for joyriding or they disappear from the island within hours. A catch in the insurance small print for the full insurance:
Damage to the car resulting from thefth has no deductible, but when the obligatory police report shows that valuables were present in the car, the deductible will be restored to $169. That should be an indication to leave nothing of value inside the car, so as not to attract thieves. We have had, in the past 2 months, only 1 car broken into, and some 2 stolen (with stolen keys) for joyriding. So things seem not to be grim at the moment, with a fleet of 150 cars.....

Regards and happy bubbles,
Han Sjoerdsma, former operations manager AB Carrental

My wife and I are avid walkers up here in Kentucky. It gets really hot and humid up here in Kentucky. However, in the tropics you are actually closer to the sun. We were in the USVI last June and you just couldn't walk out in the sun, midday. At any rate we have a vehicle lined up to rent through the Coco palm for 38.00, per day,all insurance and fees included. that seems like a bargain. We could have rented non A/C vehicle for 32.00. Friends that visited Bonaire advised us that to fully enjoy a trip to Bonaire, you must rent a vehicle. It costs so much to get there, you might as well be certain to enjoy it by renting a vehicle,JMHO.