Diving in Bonaire

Scuba diving is the main activity to do in Bonaire, and they do it very well! All the reefs surrounding the island are protected, it has been a Marine Park since 1979. The color and the abundance of marine life is wonderful! Visit Klein Bonaire (Klein means small) it makes a great boat dive it's located about a half mile off the coast of Bonaire.
If you are into wreck diving the Hilma Hooker lies at around 90 foot of water, swim through the wheelhouse! For a nice boat ride go to Playa Funchi, it's off the shore of Washington National Park and it takes 45 minutes to get there. Beautiful scenery along the way and have a picnic lunch when you arrive.

Quick Tips:

Even if your not a certified diver, do your classes in your home town and take your 'check out' dive (final dive)in Bonaire. If you don't want to become certified you can take a quick course at your hotel and go diving with an instructor. There's also snorkling-if you want a good sunburn! If you are paralized or handicapped they specialize in handicapped diving. For night diving the Town Pier is one of the best night diving spots in the world. The sealife comes alive at night! While on land visit Washington National Park home of over 10,000 Flamingos, salt mines and the 349 year old town Rincon. Bring plenty of water for the ride, it gets very hot and there's not a lot of places to stop for a drink.

Best Way To Get Around:

Rent a Jeep!!! The island is beautiful and on some of the roads you'll need a 4x4. You can rent a jeep for around a day, NO deposit required! I mean really...where can you go? The island is 24 miles long and 3 to 7 miles wide.

The hotel was very nice. Every time we visit Bonaire we return to the same resort. They have 2 restaurants-- one for lunch and dinner and the other for breakfast, which is a buffet style of many fruits and fresh baked breads and pastries. They make you your eggs any style you want and with anything on or in them! There is an outside covered bar the 'Flamingo's Nest' with a patio over the ocean. The hotel has two large inground pools and one of the only casinos on the island. It's a very very small casino. They call it the barefoot casino. They have quite a few dive boats right off the beach. They have various room/dive packages call your travel agent for details.

You can work in groups or by yourself. Everyone has to find a piece of driftwood, then you paint a mural on it. After it's painted, it gets hung on the walls in the Flamingo's Nest Bar and in the walk ways of the resort. It's alot of fun!!

You pick a Hermit Crab with a number painted on its shell, and they get placed in the center of a large circle. The first crab to walk out of the circle WINS! Remember to root your crab on! I think my crab fell asleep!

If you enjoy bird watching this is the perfect place for you. You need to rent a jeep to get there, it's quite a drive but a fun one! There are many varieties of parrots and other tropical birds, as we were driving along the cliffs we looked up and saw a few pair of Sun Conures with their nests on the rocky cliffs. Then we saw hundreds of Flamingos...what a site, especially when they all took flight as they got startled from our presence then they all circled back and settled down to enjoy more of their shrimp lunch! There were even wild Donkeys roaming around. Hundreds of years ago they were used by the locals and they ran away or were turned loose now they are wild.

We brought most of our own personal dive gear with us then we just used the hotels tanks and weights for our weight belts. You can dive or go snorkeling just about anywhere, from right off the beach of your hotel or from a dive boat. Bonaire has some of the best diving I've ever seen!