Bonaire Neth.Antilles

Hello newsgroupers,
Planning a visit to Bonaire in February 05.

1. Looking for nice place to stay, private home e.g. (off the beaten track)
2. Diving facilities / Location tips.

Thanks for your reply.
Rick.

"Rick van Kesteren" <rickvankesteren@hetnet.nl> wrote in message
news:clji9d$na$1@reader13.wxs.nl...
> Hello newsgroupers,
> Planning a visit to Bonaire in February 05.
>
> 1. Looking for nice place to stay, private home e.g. (off the beaten
track)

It's not a private home, but it is very quiet and very small: Belmar
Apartments.....14 oceanfront units with (sometimes) diving pickup at the
docks located on the property.

www.belmar-bonaire.com

I have stayed here 4 times now and enjoy it
very much. Nice property, nice units, located away from town, dive shop on
premise, pretty good beach dive in front, used to use Toucan for diving but
that has now been taken over by Buddy Dive, Ericka who runs the dive shop
has been there for years and is a good gal (her shop-partner Monique stayed
with Toucan when Buddy took over), nightly guard during the night watches
over the cars in the parking lot, real good service in all other
considerations, Irene Dingjan used to run the resort but has left and I do
not know the person in charge now. Units are furnished and supplied with
dishes, pots, flatware etc, stove and micro, but no oven. Each unit has a
marvelous covered porch/patio overlooking the water..quite frankly I spend
most of my time there rather than inside. All in all a good place to enjoy
Bonaire.

> 2. Diving facilities / Location tips.

Well as I said above Buddy Dive services the resort, there is a full service
dive shop on the premises, there are tanks left out for night and or shore
diving and all the unit keys also fit the doors to the dive shop so if you
need your gear or a tank at 3:00 AM to go dive you have access to the shop
(this leaves you free to not have to keep your gear on the porch).

Having said that...if you do rent a private house I believe I would opt for
Toucan diving for no other reason than they have the greatest resources in
terms of boats, service and crews on the island. They have always been able
to accommodate my need for a private boat, and to do it within 24 hours
notice. I am not saying that's the way for everyone, but it does indicate
their flexibility and depth of resource.