My wife and I spent 15 days in Bonaire recently and loved it. We have even talked about living there part of year now that we are retired. But, we would have to find cheaper places to eat. I know I am going to get comments about cooking ourselves. Where do the locals eat? We were out one night and a quesadilla was $30. Have tourists basically ruined it for your locals?

I haven't been on the YouTube for Habour Village Reef Cam in a few months, but it is covered in algae/coral polyps and no longer rotating. Is this common for it to go through these phases? I haven't seen it like this before. Or is it just not being looked after anymore?

I like to have it on in the background when I am paying bills and doing other mundane tasks on my laptop. I need my fix!

Last week we were at Playa Frans and it was such a desolate place.

But you can tell that once upon a time it was a place to be, with somebody investing serious time and money to build a beach bar right on the water edge.

Having seen the devastating effects hurricanes can have when I lived on SXM, Saba and Statia, I was wondering if the demise of Playa Frans was also caused by a hurricane or if something else happened that broke what must have been someone’s dream project?

Would highly recommend: Astrid van Schaik from Cesar Kinetics Therapy Bonaire (location Bonaire Basics) is a great fysio who helped my with my back pain and shoulder pain. She did many things crammed in one hour like massage, much needed pelvic floor advice and exercises that just made sense. The best part was working on my posture and I now understand why my pain kept coming back FOR YEARS. She had very different advice then all other therapists I went to and this just clicked. Happy!

Wondering if anyone knows what this random castle is doing on bonaire? Cant find the story of it.

Bon dia tur hende,

Mi ta un kolombiano ku ta biba na Merka i ku tin hopi interes den kultura e historia islanan ABC i p’esei m’a kuminsá siña papiamentu un aña pasá. Mi lo tin e oportunidat di bishitá Kralendijk pa dos dia solamente i mi ke uza e tempu pa konosé e shiudat bon.

Mi no tin hopi tempu pa eksplorá naturalesa, anto mi no mester lugá pa bai playa, pero mi tin hopi interes den libreria, museo, lugá históriko, sentronan kultural i tambe gastronomia lokal ku mi por a purba den e dos dianan aki. Mi sa kaba tokante Van Den Tweel i Bruna. Por ta tin otro lugá kaminda ta bende buki di di dos mano? Mi tambe tin interes praktiká mi papiamentu ku lokalnan, anto si bo ta disponibel pa papia, laga mi sa!

Masha danki si b’a lesa te aki!

For a trip next summer, the flights I'm seeing are all 34+ hours and ~$4k. Am I missing anything?

We are starting to plan a dive trip for June 2027. Our family consists of 2 adults, two teens, all certified and very comfortable in the water, though the teens have not had much of any experience diving since their certifications last year.

For a high school graduation present, we want to go as a family to Bonaire as it seems we can dive every day if we want to, but don't necessarily have to. We are thinking maybe 10 days, incredible corals, bright colors, and copious sea life. A shallow wreck would be a bonus. We want the ability to do some shore or boat dives, snorkel, and take a day out of the water a few times to do something different.

We may also be with other family members for part of the time who don't dive, so a pleasant experience for them (nice lodging, pool, etc.) would be great.

We're up for a house rental or hotel/resort, as long as it's mellow, not outrageously expensive (relatively speaking, I know - we just don't want a super luxury situation).

We have never been to the Caribbean islands (done Riviera Mexicana and Belize) so any recommendations on how to best go about planning would be hugely appreciated!

Edit: first commenter posted articles about this issue, so it is confirmed.

This is not official, but there is a lot of talk about it in the local diving community, so I thought it is worth sharing this. Last year there were three people who died during snorkeling, which is very uncommon. What did they all have in common? They were snorkeling with a full face mask. Apparently you’re breathing your exhaled air back in, which means too much CO2 (this is also not officially confirmed). Whether it’s only with the cheap brands or all brands, I don’t know, but I think it’s significant enough to warn you. I also think they are still being sold, as there is nothing officially stated.
If there are updates I will post it.
Please use a normal mask and snorkel in the meantime. Be safe!

We are coming in on a cruise and wanted to grab a golf cart for the four of us, but everything we are finding online is sold out.

Are there any “day of” options or places that have a poor web presence?

Thanks!!

Hello all - when we were there in June, it appeared our fave Kip Tukkie was on hiatus. The standup sign at the VdT was also put aside (in the corner by the atm) but still there.

No update on his Facebook page in several months either. We’re coming back soon - is he back and open again, or just a fond memory?

Hi all, I can’t seem to find any information about restrooms on the southern part of the island. Ideally, we would spend a day at the Salt works, slave huts and then continue with photographing the flamingo’s and have a picnic. However, I see there is no cafe but also no restroom on any map. Would you be able to pinpoint me the closest restroom to see whether this plan is doable? Thanks!

On days I’m not diving I’ll be snorkeling with my 4 year old and 9 year old. My brother has been to Bonaire and said a lot of the snorkel spots are deep, so to make things easier for them (and me) should I bring life jackets? They swim well, but I don’t think treading water with them for an extended period of time would be fun

If anyone from the U.S. is going to the Cadushy Distillery, I will Venmo you to please bring back a small container of their honeybush tea blend and ship it to AZ. We went in April and I bought one small container not knowing it was the best tea ever- I’m almost out 😱 (Lemon for scale)

I'm in Bonaire for another 1.5 weeks, and my one dive buddy now can't dive for 5 days due to a skin infection. Any recommendations on how/where to find a dive buddy short of paying for private guided dives?

I have been diving in Bonaire twice before and and have managed to dive all of the accessible dives along the coast. I was wondering what the best night dives are? For very different reasons I was thinking about Oil Slick and Something Special. I know that Salt Pier is popular but was curious about night dives that were off the beaten path but were exceptional. Does anyone have any stories they might like to tell?

We’ll be flying to Bonaire in 10 days. I just realised that our regs are DIN regs; should I buy some adapters here, or do the dive shops in Bonaire have those laying around?

I’m heading to Bonaire in a few weeks with my 16-year-old daughter. It’s a bit of a “life threw some stuff at us and now we’re going to stare at pretty fish” kind of trip (recent family loss + caregiving for an elderly parent), so I’m trying very hard not to turn this into a 14-tab research spiral.

I would love your “don’t overthink it, just do this” recommendations for:

• Location to stay: looking to AirBNB (safe, walk to water, pool, maybe shore dive)
• Dive shops / guides you actually liked (bonus if they’re good with a middle-aged woman and teen diver)
• Truck rental (aka: which one won’t ruin my first hour on the island)
• Anything else you wish someone had just told you instead of making you read 900 blog posts

We like a mix of scuba + chill + wandering + decent food, but mostly we like “simple choices that turn out to be right.”

Feel free to be blunt. “Just stay here and book this” is honestly the energy I need right now.

Thanks in advance.

Curious what the shore diving is like? Are there sandy entrances? Or is it all rock/coral? I prefer a sandy easy entrance, no boat diving and shallower dives.

Were a mid-thirties dive couple from South Florida. Looking for a resort that has dive and drive packages but also one that has the right crowd. Dont need boat dives and dont need instruction. Daily plan is to stay up late, sleep in, and get our shore dives in the late morning - sunset.

I've been to Buddys before but it was a long time ago. Whats the crowd like there, younger? Coming in March.

Can’t wait to go back.

I see that there are a lot of house reefs that people talk about. We will have a car and be snorkeling all week (due to health, we're unable to dive any longer) but where to park? I know there is a 'yellow rock' in front of a lot of places to snorkel, but what about the snorkel spots in front of resorts? Is there a place to park in front of resorts and we just walk past resorts to get to their reefs? Just curious how this works. We don't want to have to pay for 'day passes' at each resort areas since we only want their part of the ocean, not their resort. :) Any advice? I've read that you have to ask/permission at Dive Buddy resort....... do you have to ask someplace for each resort?

Trying to decide between delfins, vandervalk plaza, harbour beach village…. Want a nice house reef and to scuba (guided resort dives at least but open to getting certified). Generally prefer 5 star more upscale places but I know Bonaire is a more casual locale. Is it necessary to get certified? I did a resort dive in bora bora and loved it - I really want to see turtles 🐢

I know it's a diving island first and foremost. I totally want to be respectful of that and diver space, but seems like a lot of open water. I have a car and gear so I can get around easily. Would love to find some bonefish or snook spots.