Our kids are swim teamers with advanced beginner snorkeling skills, coming to Bonaire in July or August. Is one month better than the other? What's the rule re the full moon and jellyfish? Our youngest and I were stung by BOX jellyfish in St. John a couple of years ago--any chance of that re-occurring at Bonaire? (Apparently they were migrating--unbelievably painful and I ended up with allergic reaction/hospital visit and about 6 months before it resolved itself). Is Divi the best place for us to stay for shore snorkeling? Any thoughts on Bellafonte Chateau? Am concerned re footwear--will Crocs work? Do you recommend Windward or Renee over going it alone. If guided recommended, is one more child-friendly than the other--or are there age restrictions? Any must-dos/sees? Will have rental car and will be there about 7-10 days.

Amy:
Jellyfish can occur 8 - 10 days after a full moon.

We've used Renee for snorkel trips many times & she is great. Never done the Woodwind snorkel, but it looks like it would be fun...you'd be on a boat, going to several places. Either choice would be good IMO.

There are many, many places to snorkel from shore, I wouldn't choose a place to stay just because of the shore snorkel issue.

Never stayed at the Bellafonte, maybe someone will jump in to help you on that issue.

Chris

We did some snorkeling in the park(Wayaka...go to www.bonaireislandinfo.com/ island_map_enlarged...for the map), which was good, and went to Klein via water taxi but it was really wavy and churned up (storm in the Altlantic) some water taxis were not even bothering. According to the map the Southwest side of Klein is best, we did the North side where the taxi dropped us off...wasn't that great. We were told by others to go a place called the windsock, near the end of the runway of the airport, (there is a small building with a graffiti heart note on it) but never made it. The coral is sharp, so if you plan on walking around much on it I would suggest proper booties, I would imagine crocs would get cut up fairly easily. We stayed at the Bellefonte for two nights, a very nice modern place. Not a great snorkel location (*hard to say for sure as the waves churned up a lot of sand, but the pier is nice to drop in to the water).

Thanks, Chris.

Jason,
Do we all need to go to our local dive store for diver's booties and open-backed fins? I worry that between narrow ankles, sensitive Achilles, and tiny feet (our 7-year-old), we may not be very comfortable. Any thoughts?

Amy, most entries in Bonaire are very hard on the feet and require some kind of foot protection. Lots of people have lots of different ideas in addition to booties such as wear teva type shoes into the water,put on full foot fins and then attach the tevas to oneself. Others throw them back to shore and others have one member of the group return them to the shore. That being said, if you stay at Divi and only snorkel there you can use the ladder and not need booties.

We go to Bonaire in the summer and honestly do not see a big difference in July and August as far as temperature, visibility and number of people on island. Last July was the first time that I had ever seen a box jelly and it was only one.

I would suggest contacting both Renee and the Woodwind for info as both are very different experiences. You might also want to think about getting a copy of Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy if you plan to snorkel different sites. If your children love the water and snorkeling they will be amazed by Bonaire ... much better than St John for seeing fish in my opinion.

Amy, we did not use our booties for snorkeling entry...just walked in awkwardly with the flippers or put them on after...but then again we were on Klein(sand), and also entered from sandy/rocky small beach entries at the park so we did not go to any 'tricky' coral access points. That said, we also didn't wear booties windsurfing, while others did...my toe did get a small cut..."bag of shells" so to speak!

Hi Amy, Welcome to BT! Since you have kids, I would suggest the Divi as a place to stay, very family friendly. Good location and very easy snorkeling there. I have kids too, mostly all grown now, but they have been going to the Caribbean since ages 2 and 4 years old.

As Susan mentioned, the shores of Bonaire are hard on the feet, lots of coral pieces and depending on where you snorkel, when entering the water, there could be sea urchins, something you don't want to step on. You have some time before you go, have your kids try water shoes with fins or booties with fins in a pool to get them "used" to the feeling of having something on their feet. Also, kids grow so fast, wait till early summer to buy anything so they will not outgrow them before you go. When my kids were younger, they used a water shoe which you can get a lot of places, no need to go to a dive shop for that and then I took them to a sports store, like Sports Authority or Dick's and just bought a cheap pairs of fins and snorkel for them. You can take the booties and can check for sizing with the fin at the store as with kids sizes, you can actually fit their foot with a water shoe on into a closed fin that is not open backed. May just need to buy a bigger size than normal with the water shoe on. This may solve your problem with the kids. Open heeled fins and booties are the best in my opinion, but with younger children and foot problems as you noted, you could the water shoes inside a close heeled fin.

We made our reservations yesterday, and guess where? Yep, the Divi! So, thanks for reinforcing that. What a great idea--aqua shoes and closed back fins for the kids. My husband is a kids' swim coach so we have every size fin imaginable--surely we can make something work for our kids! I may go check out booties for myself. My husband, alas, has size 15 feet, so he may need to take Susan's suggestion re the Tevas. Thanks, Jason, for letting us know that not every beach is rough on the feet.

Amy, there are a few places that have a bit more sand than coral, The Plaza's beach, then there is a little place across from the airport, there is a yellow hut type building, small sandy beach, shallow, easy entry, they call it donkey beach. Windsock Beach, next door to it is another. Jibe City in Sorobon is another wonderful sandy area where the windsurfers go. You have to wade out in knee high water a ways out to get to the snorkeling, there is a platform where you can rest when you get out there. I am sure you will have a great time wherever you decide to snorkel at. Renee is a super snorkel guide and I am sure she can suggest a lot of cool places to snorkel at. We dive as well as snorkel, enjoy both sports.

Amy,
Bonaire is a marvelous place for all age kids, even the adult variety. There are several BT strands about the jellies on Bonaire, which are not nearly as dangerous as UVA and its cousin UVB. Bonaire is one of the clearest, cleanest places on earth to swim, snorkel, and dive. While it is not jelly-free, it is not nearly as bad as FL or the Bahamas or other parts of the Caribbean. That said, stinging jellies are a worldwide problem, Bonaire included. Several species have a mild (moons, siphonophores...) to moderate (fire coral, Man O War, hydroids, sea lice) sting to the potent box jellies (a least 2 species). There are also a couple of species of stinging anemones and sponges.
Since you are already "sensitized" to jelly stings (animal venom) and reactive to venom antigens is would be wise to get your doctor's advice about carrying an epi-pen and other medication for allergic reactions.
Divi is a great choice for kids with the beach entry, including night snorkels. With your fish family, Divi has a roped area for boat safety. Your kids can swim laps between the dive docks (~50 meters).

Happy snorkeling,
Bud

Bud,
That is an excellent suggestion re the epi pen, etc. We definitely will carry Benadryl with us since the hospital at St. John had treated so many box jellyfish stings that day before we got there that they didn't have any and we had to travel all the way back into town to pick some up from the pharmacy. LOL re 50 meter swims!

Amy, most of the resorts on the water have piers with ladders/steps to get into the water. All you have to do is go by the dive shop and ask if you can snorkel from the pier, there was some talk about a small fee for use of the piers but that is for use of lockers, showers, rinse tanks, & etc. If all you want to do is use the ladders/steps it won't cost you anything. So this is another option for you to be able to snorkel other areas.

Andy

Debbie and Andy,
That's really helpful; thanks!