This was our third visit to Bonaire over the last 8 yrs. We have a ten yr old son and traveled this time with just the 3 of us. We went for 11 days. It was great!!

Transportation: Air Jamaica. We had a mixed experience. We had reservations for Boston—MontegoBay/Jam—Bon. Two days before leaving they cancelled the Boston to MB leg and put us on an extremely early USAIR flight to Philly instead. Further, they forgot to send to USAIR the vouchers for our tickets. As such we wasted valuable time at the airport trying to figure this out and eventually had to PAY AGAIN for tickets at $1400 each, on the spot. (We expect this to be reimbursed). As such I suspect our luggage never made this flight. We had essentials in a carry on bag. Except in Philly they made us check that bag too! For some ungodly reason they insisted that we had to go through customs and immigration in MB and where there was no time for that in our connection we had to leave Jamaica, at their suggestion, without ANY of our bags which they insisted they would bring the next day. End result—we got to Bonaire on time but with absolutely NONE of our luggage. And it did NOT come the next day. It all came after three days. Not fun. But the flight home was as originally planned and it was perfect. So a mixed impression.

Lodging: We stayed at Gregg and Debbie Babcock’s Bonaire Villa townhouse. It was very nice and met our needs perfectly. It was very well appointed and very clean. A nice touch was having someone meet us at the airport and also having some foods there waiting for us. The pool on the premises was a big hit with our son and the dive out front was “Lighthouse”, a great dive and very convenient. We felt very safe there—there was a document safe and bars on the windows. Thank you Gregg and Debbie!

Dining: Having gone through the various BT’ers entries here we had a great list to choose from. At home we eat out often and very well but we don’t particularly like four course fancy meals on dive trips so we chose accordingly:

It Rains Fishes-- Normally a big family favorite this was not very good this time. Food was cold and not very good. Plus service there is just sooo slow.

Old Inn—We went twice! We found this restaurant to be fabulous, with an imaginative menu and extremely well executed. Large portions. We had the chicken sate with noodles, lasagna, beef tenderloin with mushroom sauce, fried shrimp, a hamburger they made special for my son. All great.

Wil’s Tropical grill-- We went twice! We found this restaurant to be fabulous, with an imaginative menu and extremely well executed. Perfect portions. We had smoked marlin, conch fritters, the grilled wahoo special with beans,BBQ ribs, lava cake, all very good. Service and drinks were excellent.

Swiss Chalet—We wanted to try Raclette, and we did. It was great. Our son had schnitzel and he loved it. Portions were large. The service was excellent, genteel and thoughtful.

Bobbejan’s: We went twice. Fabulous as usual.

We tried to go to Gibi’s on a Sunday night but it was closed and unfortunately we didn’t try again.

We ate at a few snack shacks or take out pizza, some excellent some ok.

Excellent—Panku steak and galina sate at Julios, the snack shack on JBF Vitte for steak and galena hasa, Donna and Giorgio’s take out pizza

Good—Maikey’s galina stoba, Pasa Bon Pizza

Ok—E Teras for sate, hamburgers

Breakfast out—Mangos and Caribbean Point at the Plaza, both excellent.

Diving—We rent out of the Carib Inn, all shore diving. It was excellent as usual. Very good equipment in great shape. Very orderly and efficient set up.

We did 14 dives, the usual sites-- all great. It was windy most of the time we were there so we only went as far south as Red Beryl.

Two night dives—one on Salt pier with Ralf from the Carib Inn and one at Yellow sub reef. Very nice.

Snorkeling was great at Tori’s reef, and the drift snorkel (highly recommended just tell the taxi boat driver you want to do this and pay $2 more) on Klein Bonaire.

We saw 8 turtles (3 snorkeling on Klein), two spotted eagle rays, three seahorses, tarpon, groupers, squid, garden eels, copious filefish, eels, crabs, angels, etc.

Child Activities—Our son spent his mornings in the truly extraordinary program Sea and Discover. Caren is a Marine Biologist and has a very educational and fun program geared towards marine biology, ecosystems and preservation. Our son learned a GREAT deal and enjoyed the program and Caren very much. We learned a lot from our son! The program is 3 hours from 9-12 weekdays and includes a classroom aspect and a guided instructional (and fun!) snorkel. I am a biologist and can’t say enough about both Caren and her program. She is a true Bonaire treasure. An experience you won’t want your child to miss.

Our son also did a resort course dive (Discover Scuba Diving) with Toucan and it went very well. DM George took him through the basics and them on an excellent dive out in front of the Plaza.

Maria Lau babysat for us and she was great.

As usual, we can’t wait to go back!!

I forgot Michael's Chat and Browse! He was great and the facility was perfect. We did everything there--internet, cell phone charging, souvenir shopping, cigars. The internet service was as good as it gets and Michael and his staff were very helpful to us in resolving our luggage and travel issues with Air Jam.

We have used other internet spots on the island, but we will stick with Chat and Browse in the future--great service no waiting (yet!)

Great trip report! Sorry aout your AJ experience. I guess it is still just a crap shoot! It is still my favorite way to get to Bonaire. I hope they can get their act together.

yunno,I would try it again. The flights were very nice and from Boston it is very convenient, when they actually fly that leg...

Next time I will under no circumstances check my emergency carry on bag. We HAD actually prepared for lost luggage by packing that bag accordingly. The Steward in Philly made us check it...that was the biggest mistake.

I have also been meaning to look into flying to Aruba from Boston and then booking my own flight from Aruba-->Bon

did it seem to you that there were less tourists on
Bonaire?

Glad you had a great time even though it was a rocky start! Don't you just love Wil's Tropical Grill? It is our favorite!

Wil's WAS great. What is the story, he used to be at Lighthouse? I noticed that the menu was similar...

Thank-you for your report!!

Aimee, I enjoyed your report. Reading about the food made me hungry! Sorry to hear about no bags for the first three days. It stinks that you tried to prepare for that and then they made you check that bag as well. Glad you had a nice trip.

Aimee, The only time it looks like less tourists is because they are all in the water!
Too my knowledge, Will's was from the lighthouse.

Nice report! Thanks for the tips about Caren. I'll keep that in mind.

Thank you all! I tell you, writing it made me wish we hadn't left.

The Sate at the Old Inn was unlike anything I have ever had anywhere else, this might be a problem...

Michelle, are you going soon? In the past we have always brought our son, but we also brought a semi-willing person to watch him while we went diving. Problem was that this person would always stage a revolt mid-trip. This time we solved that problem very well. Not only was he taken care of, but he gained so much in the process, including a love of the ocean and marine life that he will carry on into life and diving, which we were hoping for.

Aimee,

Thanks for the kudos for our home and glad to hear you luggage finally did arrive! My son, Brandon loves Caren too! It really helps to have him be able to have fun, learn about the ocean as you mentioned and you get to go diving at the same time. He looks forward to spending time with her every visit. Actually, I think he can identify more fish than I can from going with her. Glad to hear your son enjoyed her too! Do you have any pictures???? Please post them if you do!

Thanks again Debbie!

I don't know how to post the pix.

We took 1000 shots, darn digi camera makes it so easy....

Thanks great report, I am glad it is dinner time after reading it here in the UK.

Aimee, Thank you for such a complete and upbeat report. I am so glad that you and your family had such a great time.

Hi Tom
Thanks!

Can you tell me how to post pics?

Aimee

Aimee,
Yes, Wil and his wife Sue used to be at the Lighthouse. That is where we first became acquainted with Wil's wonderful cooking! We were happy to see that he continues to offer some of our favorites at his new place.

Aimee,
I hope Tom was able to help you out with the pic posting. I haven't been able to figure it out yet either, so I am no help with that. Took me forever to learn how to post pics on the webcams. Would love to see pictures if you figure it out, I will have to learn soon, have so many pics I would love to post too.
Debbie

Just follow the instructions on this page to post images. It includes examples.

Aimee and Debbie....it is the SAME as posting on the web page....just make sure the pics are under 50kb, save them on your computer and know where you saved them. Wherever in your report that you want a picture to appear type this:
\ image {name of pic}
only don't have ANY spaces....when you hit post, another screen will appear asking you where you saved that pic on your computer. using the browse button, enter the info, and "upload"

That should do it! Have fun!

LaDonna

(Aimee.....Mary and I took 1100+ pics in our 12 days there)

LaDonna,
I believe it. It is the perfect combination of two things I adore--diving and photography. I'll try to post some later today.

Ladonna and Mary,
Your fingers are going to be very, very sore before we get enough of seeing your vacation photos!

Aimee,
My wife said you had posted a trip report. I finally got around to reading it. Great report. Glad you enjoyed your stay and enjoyed our home and Bonaire despite the luggage problems. Please let us know if you have any suggestions for our place. Look forward to seeing your pictures.
Take care,
Gregg