Bonaire Ocean Front Apartments – Drive & Dive vacation
With more than 80 dive sites, Bonaire is the diving island of the Caribbean. You’ll make the most beautiful shore dives on Bonaire, all on your own.
Travel period
Features
Starting at
Diving on Bonaire
Escape to Bon Bini Bonaire and enjoy a stay in a private apartment right in the center of Bonaire, at Bonaire Oceanfront Apartments. This property offers not only a comfortable stay, but also the opportunity to dive with Private Divers’ on-site diving school. A true diver’s paradise, Bonaire attracts many Dutch, Belgians and Americans. As a special municipality of the Netherlands, you will find many Dutch influences, including Dutch as the official language and well-known supermarkets such as Albert Heijn and Jumbo, albeit under a different name. What makes Bonaire truly unique are the diving experiences. With an average water temperature of 28°C, visibility that sometimes reaches 30 meters, turtles and colorful tropical fish, it’s a diving experience you can’t compare anywhere else to the Netherlands.
Most of Bonaire’s dive sites are easily accessible from shore. This makes the Drive & Dive concept the most popular way to dive on Bonaire. On a Drive & Dive dive vacation, you rent a car (almost always a pickup) and pick up daily dive tanks with air (or Nitrox) from the dive center. By the way, the diving school also provides you with lead. Of course, it is possible to rent diving equipment and/or book boat dives.
There are as many as 80 dive sites on Bonaire. Some popular dive sites include:
- Salt Pier, a dive site in the south where you dive under the salt pier. Here you can often find large schools of fish, hidden angler fish and tarpon. In the shallows there are often young green sea turtles
- Hilma Hooker, Bonaire’s famous wreck.
- Karpata, in the north. With its valeits and diverse coral, this is a very fun and diverse dive site with lots of fan coral.
- Red Slave, Rianne’s favorite. Here you can often find eagle rays in the shallows at 5m and if you look carefully you can find a few seahorses!
Best travel time: Bonaire offers fantastic diving year-round, with favorite diving months during the summer. The rainy season runs from mid-October to mid-January, with more mosquitoes. A constant easterly wind provides pleasant temperatures, but also causes rough water conditions on the east coast and calmer seas on the west coast. There are peak crowds during the Christmas season, mainly because of the many American tourists visiting the island.
🍴 Bonaire is a foodie’s paradise, with high-end culinary experiences such as Chefs and Brass Boer. Chefs, located in Hato, is unique because you sit down with chefs Han and Mark along with 11 other guests. You look into the kitchen as you enjoy a glass of wine and the gentlemen prepare the most amazing dishes. It is an intimate and personal way to enjoy great food. On the other side of the island at Point Square you will find Bras Boer luxury, located on the waterfront with beautiful views. Known for its refined dishes prepared with fresh, locally sourced ingredients, this sister restaurant of de Librije (in Zwolle) offers an unforgettable culinary experience on this beautiful island.
Average Temperatures
Wetsuit advice for Bonaire
A 3 mm wetsuit is recommended between July & November. The other months the water temperature fluctuates between 27/28 C. For most divers then a 3mm is still sufficient, but if you dive a lot or get cold quickly then you might consider a 5mm.
What will you experience on this trip?
View itinerary here
Day 1 - Arrival on Bonaire
Today you will fly to Bonaire with TUI or KLM from or via Amsterdam. The flights are what you would call “direct,” but sometimes there is a short stopover on another island. Your luggage just stays on the plane, and usually you go off the plane yourself for a while, to a special “transit” area.
In the afternoon or evening you will arrive on Bonaire. Here you can immediately pick up your rental car and drive on to your apartment at Bonaire Oceanfront Apartments. Depending on what time it is, you can do some shopping at the Appie (v.d. Tweel) or drop in at the Private Divers diving school. At Private Divers get your air and lead this week.
Day 2 to 6 - Lace diving on Bonaire through Private Divers
The next 6 days are devoted to diving. Lots of diving! At Private Divers, you have an unlimited air package. That means you may pick up unlimited filled dive tanks to dive with for the next 6 days.You bring these back empty and then you get new filled tanks. A day of diving in Bonaire can look like this:
07:00 Wake up, breakfast
08:30 Get air at the diving school & to 1st dive site in the North
09:00 Dive on dive site Tolo and after the dive continue to Karpata
10:30 Diving at Karpata and back to the apartment
12:00 Lunch at the apartment, get new air and through
14:00 Diving south, dive site Invisibles and then even further south
15:30 Diving on dive site Red Slave
17:00 Back to the apartment and at the diving school, change tanks again for new ones…. which you can either use for an evening dive or go straight to the dive sites tomorrow!
19:00 Dinner out at one of Bonaire’s many delicious restaurants. Maybe a few more drinks afterwards….
Is the above program too busy for you? Or just too empty? Never mind, the beauty of a drive & dive program is that you arrange it all by yourself. You decide how much, when and where you dive. Ideal!
Day 7 - Morning dive and explore Bonaire overwater
Your unlimited dive package is a total of 6 days. That means you can also use your package today. We recommend that you don’t do too much diving on the last day (before departure). Despite the fact that the flights are often in the afternoon there so you soon have 18 hours between your last dive and the flight. This is because you probably dived quite a lot this week. So give your body a chance to get rid of all the nitrogen before you fly home tomorrow.
Bonaire has several fun above-water activities such as:
- Mangrove kayak tour at the Mangrove Center
- Visit to the Donkey sanctuary; Donkey Sanctuary
- By boat across to Klein Bonaire
- Surfing at Jibe City
- Hiking in Washington Slagbaai National Park
- Flamingo visits at Lake Goto
Day 8 - Home
The diving vacation is almost over! Most flights leave late afternoon/evening. That means you still have quite a bit of time on the island today. Start the day relaxed with a long breakfast followed by a final dip in the pool. Check-out must be before noon, but you can temporarily store your luggage at the front desk. After checking out, you can enjoy lunch somewhere or, for example, take the car into Washington Slagbaai National Park if you haven’t been there yet. The short route takes about 1.5 hours and the long route takes an average of 2.5 hours. Keep in mind that you have to pick up your luggage on time as well as be at the airport. So ample planning is wise. Then, when the time really comes to go, you can simply return the car at the airport and then board the plane to Europe.
The accommodation
The stay and surroundings
Bonaire Ocean Front Apartments
The 13 Caribbean-style apartments are praised for their perfect location in the center of Kralendijk. This small and quiet resort offers everything you need. Relax by the pool in the tropical garden or jump into the sparkling blue sea where there is wonderful diving and snorkeling!
The spacious living room is complemented by a fully equipped kitchen. Enjoy the beautiful sunsets while dining on your own private terrace. If you don’t feel like cooking for yourself, no worries! The nicest restaurants are within walking distance of the apartment. As well as bars, stores and a supermarket.
Bonaire Oceanfront Apartments offers the following room types:
- 1-Bedroom apartments (first floor)
- 2-Bedroom apartments (second floor)
- Penthouse (1 bedroom, second floor)
Travel costs
What is included
This travel package is €815 per person and can be expanded as desired. A number of things are included by default in this travel package.
Prices are subject to price changes, increases or changing exchange rates. Flights are always based on the cheapest possible booking class.
Want to know more about the possibilities? Get in touch with us!
Included in this trip, from €815, - p.p.
- 7 nights at Bonaire Oceanfront Apartments based on 2 persons in a 1-bedroom apartment
- Care: lodging
- Unlimited air, lead and bottle
- Car rental during stay, including CDW insurance
- VZR, Calamity Fund & Administration fee
- Are you going on vacation with 4 people? Often with 4 people in a 2-bedroom apartment is more economical. Prices from €635 per person.
Excluding
- Flight to Bonaire
- Bonaire Tourism Tax
- Stinapa Nature Fee for divers
- from €1000,- p.p.
- $75.00 p.p. per year
- $40.00 p.p. per year
Optional
- Upgrade to Nitrox
- Surcharge €20, - p.p.
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Frequently asked questions about this diving vacation
Diving general
On Bonaire you will make mostly shore dives, however, it is also definitely possible to make boat dives. Would you like this? Ask us about the possibilities.
The apartment is very centrally located, which means you can be at several dive sites within a 10-minute drive. The “house reef” is also well worth a visit, this is directly from the apartment into the water. Seahorses are spotted here quite often!
As much as you want, we offer an unlimited shore diving package. Of course the advice to keep a close eye on your limits!
You can do fantastic night diving here. A unique spectacle not to be missed is the Ostracods night dive that takes place about 2/4 days after the full moon. Ostracods are super tiny clams that you can’t see with the naked eye, but 2/4 days after the full moon they sparkle in the dark water! A magical experience where you are surrounded by brilliant points of light illuminating the darkness.
You can dive straight into the water from the apartment. It is not the most beautiful coral in this place, but seahorses are spotted there, among other things, so it is definitely a recommended dive. For forests of coral, you have to go more north or south.
Absolutely, Private Divers offers several diving courses. Includes the first dive certificate you need to dive independently.
Yes definitely, the diving school Private Divers is located on the property.
Diving equipment
Both are present.
Yes, for €20 per week you can upgrade to Nitrox.
Yes, this is possible, prices are on request.
Other activities & excursions
Absolutely, some great snorkeling spots are; 1000 Steps, Karpata, Salt Pier, Bachelor’s Beach, Klein Bonaire and Wayaka (in the park).
You can go canoeing through Bonaire’s mangroves, visit the donkey sanctuary, learn to kite or windsurf and spend a day visiting Little Bonaire where you can sunbathe, swim and snorkel.
You can go canoeing through Bonaire’s mangroves, visit the donkey sanctuary, learn to kite or windsurf and spend a day visiting Little Bonaire where you can sunbathe, swim and snorkel.
Accommodation
Yes definitely.
Yes
No, but you are in the heart of kralendijk. Just steps away you will find several restaurants such as It Rains fishes (1-minute walk), Osaka and Donna & Giorgio’s.
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