I've never been to Bonaire, but am very excited to go in late May and do some diving and touring!
I've called both Captain Don's and The Plaza Resort Bonaire. The Plaza's Jr. Suite Ocean View (w/ 3 days diving) is about the same price as Captain Don's Deluxe Jr. Suite, ocean view (w/ 3 days diving). Any recommendations??? Your thoughts are appreciated!!!

Welcome to the board Scott.

Both Capt Dons and Plaza are nice places. Both are on the water. The Plaza is closer to town, CD's is 2-3 miles out of town. If I remember correctly, the Plaza is a little more upscale than CD's. You will want a vehicle anyway so the location is not that important (to me anyway). What I think you will find is that almost everyone on this board has their favorite place to stay. To he honest, it's kind of hard to find a really bad place on Bonaire. If you are shopping around to find the best price, then I would look at some other places. When compairing prices, make sure you are compairing like packages. Are meals/shore diving/boat dives/vehicle/airport transfers/ whathaveyou included or not. Also, do you want/need a room with a kitchen? Some other places you might want to look are Sand Dollar, Buddy Dive, Lions Dive, Yatch Club, Happy Holiday Homes, Eden Beach and there are more, these are just the ones that come to mind. Most of these are located on the water, a couple are not if that makes any difference to you.
I would not recommend a meal plan (other than breakfast only). There are to many good places to eat on Bonaire to be stuck at only one rest.
For what it's worth, Buddy Dive is our prefered resort.

I've only stayed at Captain Don's, but we did visit the Plaza. Personally, I find the sprawl of the Plaza to be a bit off-putting. It's just too big and resort-y for my taste.

We've stayed in the Deluxe Junior Suite, the Villa Superior, the Villa Suites (the first floor of the oceanfront villas) and the cottages. We liked them all. Although the view from the Oceanfront Villas was the nicest because you are literally right on the water, from the Junior Suites you can still see the ocean, there's just a pool in between. The whole place is small enough that you just walk a few feet and you'll find some eye-candy, everywhere. Last time, we were in a cottage because my husband was weeks away from total hip replacement and we wanted to stay as close to the dock and with the least amount of stair climbing as possible; we really liked the cottage, too.

We'll probably return to a cottage or to a Villa Suite next time, depending on our financial situation. We definitely will go back to Captain Don's.

hey scott,
i have stayed at both places and they are both very nice, stayed at cd's with my dive buddy john and stayed at plaza when i took my family. you will have a great diving vacation at either place.

I stayed at Bel Mar Apartments 10 days for my first visit to Bonaire and just loved it. As a diver it is very convienent having a dive shop on site with tanks available 24/7. I loved the sunsets, the pool, the house reef, and the spiral staircase. I loved the cross ventilation and the levolux pull down windows. I liked having a kitchen. The restaurants are great for every budget, but there are some great foods you will want to try from the Cultimara store.
I want to return this year to cure my bout of PBD
but I will have to economize and am looking at a variety of places. At any rate, you are going to love Bonaire wherever you decide to stay.

We've stayed at the Plaza and visited friends staying at Capt Dons. The rooms are nicer at the Plaza but the difference isn't that significant. The house reef at Dons is a couple of notches above Plaza's IMHO. The convenience of night/day diving Don's reef two or three times during your vacation would tilt the scales for me if I were on the fence.

don't forget to consider Divi Flamingo...they have effeciency units that are adjacent to the dive shop and small beach...very close to town....good dive shop operation and fair prices (usually much cheaper than Capt D's.

Gregg, Thanks for the tank you loaned us at Bopec.
I trust your retirement is going as planned. Take care.

Thanks for all of the great input! I appreciate all the feedback...we're going to stay at the Plaza. It sounds like we really can't go wrong...besides, we're there to dive and experience the island, so the hotel shouldn't matter as much. Thanks again!

We have just come back from Bonaire (yesterday) and have stayed at Captain dons in the past but not this time.
This time, because we were not guests at the hotel they were very unfriendly, to the point of being offensive and Rude. One arrogant youngster at the dive centre (bleach blond hair with mirror sunglasses) was extremely rude when we arrived to dive their house reef.( He had an attitude problem )

Not known to us since our last visit they had introduced a fee for jumping off their small dock of $5 per person per dive to outsiders, which none of us had since we didnt have any money with us. When I tried to explain this to this arrogant Prat , it was made clear we "Divers" in the so called "home to diving freedom" were not welcome and should get off the premises without delay.

I would not recommend staying at a diving resort with this type of attitude . - Sadly it was Rincon day and neither the manager or assistant manager was on duty until late afternoon to register our dissatisfaction.

Keith,

As you admit you were not a "guest" your opinion as the current overall operation of Capt Don's is heavily biased. To post a negative in response to a comparision question is unfair to Capt Don's and to the original poster.

"As you admit you were not a "guest" your opinion as the current overall operation of Capt Don's is heavily biased. To post a negative in response to a comparision question is unfair to Capt Don's and to the original poster. "

I have to disagree. No matter who you are, guest or not, rude treatment is not apropriate bahavior for a resort employee(or guest/non-guest for that matter). Rude bahavior on the part of one employee reflects badly on the entire operation and should not be acceptable to the resort operator. On the other hand, I agree that one should not base the quality of the resort on one employee or one person's post here. None of us were there at the time and we have no idea what the exact exchange of words/attitudes were. I don't know for sure but I would bet that someone from Capt Don's keeps an eys on this board. If they do have a "problem" they need to know about it. In any case, politely informing non-guest of the new policy would be the way to handle the situation and a less than polite non-guest/guest needs to be handed off to a manager, not gotten rude with.
I have not stayed at Capt Dons but I do visit the resort as well as some of the others. The purpose is to see if I may want to stay there next time, one rude employee will send me back their competitor in a second. I would not base my decision on one post here, but if more start comming in, I would take them into consideration. In all the times I have been on CD's property, I have been treated nicely, but then I have never tried to dive off their dock.

Herman, you know the old saying about "opinions"... The issue remains that Keith's commentary as to rude behavoir is one-sided. I have frequented Capt Don's Habitat (Bonaire) for 10 years and have NEVER encountered a rude employee. However during this time I have met boorish, crude, loud, obnoxious and rude guests that would test the patience of Job.

My issue remains, to post a negative evaluation of any resort based on one experience is unfair to the original inquiry and even more so to the resort. (my opinion)