We stayed at Bellafonte last week and do not have a bad word to say about the place. The rooms are wonderful, the staff are extremely helpful, nothing is too much trouble and they make you feel so welcome. I would recommend Bellafonte to anybody, this place is great. it is close to the airport but in 1 week I did not get disturbed by any planes. When we return to Bonaire we will go back to Bellafonte. I cannot praise this place enought, it is luxurious, quiet, safe and is perfect whether you travel as a couple or a family. STAY AT BELLAFONTE, IT IS PERFECT!!!

David..I agree.. We've stayed at Bellafonte on 2 separate occasions.. Wonderful spot & accomodations!
The views from the rooms are great! I did however miss taking a dip in a swimming pool after diving & would also like a beach.

Thanks for posting these. We're going for a week at Bellafonte in January. Can't wait !! This will be out first visit to Bellafonte. We're going with very high expectations. Is the hot tub usable? Which dive operation did you use? Did you fly the Continental redeye with an early check-in?

Did you folks see the underwater grid out front of Bellafonte? It's great!

David - we've stayed at the Bellafonte twice and certainly agree with your observations!

Curious to know if the elevators are working? Hauling luggage up those corner stairs is a little tricky at 10 pm after a long day flying.

You met and enjoyed Marcel the manager I'm sure. He is great!

Dena

We've stayed twice at the Bellafonte as well, most recently Nov. 23 thru Dec. 2, 2006. Our prior stay was May 2004.

As of Dec. 2, the elevators were not in use and construction in the penthouse was still ongoing (on one day there was a lot of pounding, so we went to the Donkey Sanctuary between dives instead). Lugging luggage is more challenging since the stairs have been cut about in half their width by installing the elevators. We were in Room 301 this stay and 304 our prior stay.

We did most of our diving from the deck / dock there, and educated Marcel about the U/W grid to tell guests. Makes a great navigation aid, especially for night dives.

If you're connecting through Curacao, consider taking Marcel a Cinnabon for early goodwill in your trip. We had a long last work day and packing night on Nov. 22 and a long travel day on Thanksgiving, and agreed we wouldn't wake up early to shop for groceries or go to breakfast. So, we rationalized ourselves into picking up some Cinnabon during our Curacao layover at the new Curacao airport, to go. When Marcel popped by the next morning while my wife was heating them up, he was VERY interested, and after we described them, he said "This will never come to Bonaire." in a somewhat disappointed tone.

We used Photo Tours / Dive Friends at Port Bonaire for our diving (shore package only this trip), and took advantage of the free Nitrox upgrade.

Marcel made all our dive package arrangements with Photo Tours at a discount for us, as well as our vehicle rental at AB Car Rental (again with a discount). You will still need to pay your marine park tag fees directly at Photo Tours though.

The underwater grid is a left over from the days of Bonaire Beach Bungalows and a group of researchers used to track experiments.

Thanks Michael - I was sure it was a research grid no longer used by the researchers. We noted it last trip and made good use of it on both our trips.

I assume the buoy / mooring just offshore from the Bellafonte was originally named Corporal Meiss - is this correct?

A few years ago we had posted a picture somewhere, probably on BT, of that grid. Imagine our surprise when we were contacted by a woman who had been one of the original researchers! We sent her several shots of the grid, she was thrilled.

Corp. Meiss was named after the son of long time Bonaire Resident, Jean Meiss. A few years backt the Marine Park had a program where you could pay a small fee to have a site named. The Meiss's lived just south of the buouy in Belnem
a bit of Trivia: Belnem was named after Morris Neme and Harry Belafonte, who used to own large tracts of land on the island...