A diver's island par excellence, with easy diving that's especially well suited to beginning divers or those returning to the water after a long dry spell. Bonaire boasts superb year-round weather, with lows around 74° at night and daytime highs around 89°. Expect some rain from October­January, but, since Bonaire lies outside the hurricane belt, dives are rarely canceled. There's arid cactus-covered terrain topside; on the leeward side, expect calm seas, little or no current, and water temperatures in the low 80s most of the time.... The dive industry here's thoroughly organized with many excellent operators and lots of places to rent tanks or book boat dives. Although the island's been heavily dived the last two decades, its unusual coral formations remain in good condition with a wide range of tropicals, excellent guides to point out unique critters (although there are few sharks or pelagics), and shore diving in front of every hotel.... Savvy divers rent a vehicle to shore-dive the island (reserve these ahead of time, or you may be out of luck, and don't leave valuables in your car).... The best shore dives include Thousand Steps, Ol' Blue, La Dania's Leap, and Karpata. The southern end of the island is often rough, but worth diving when conditions are favorable.... Avoid meal plans to take advantage of the many restaurants within walking distance of each hotel (and so you don't get stuck if your hotel chef is on leave). There's plenty of overnight film processing, good gear rental, and repair facilities.... Everyone speaks English....

Buddy Dive, September 1997, Carole Ott/Chet Hall, Floyds Knobs, IN. Great place to stay. From the front desk to the restaurant, to the dive shop, they treat you like family, not like a number. Rental truck included in the package; did all shore diving; staff very helpful when we asked questions or needed help. The town pier dive isn't worth the effort and can be downright dangerous if the tugs start up. Water: 82 degrees. Vis: 80-100 ft. (Ph: 011-599-7-8647, email: buddydive@bonaire.net, Website: www.buddydive.com)

Buddy Dive/Sorobon Beach, September 1997, J.C. Mercer, Montgomery, TX. Vis: 75-100 ft. Water: 82-86 degrees. Second trip to Bonaire. My favorite place for great diving, good food and friendly people. Petty crime is alive and well on island. Left some change in our truck ashtray, about $4, it was gone along with two cold cokes, when we returned from shore diving. Don't leave anything expensive.

Buddy Dive, November 1997, Mike Chambers, Strongville, OH. Nothing beats Bonaire for easy diving and lots of it from shore. One boat and 3-4 shore dives per day. Vis: 60-80 ft. Water: 79-80 degrees. Great accommodations and diving. Three trips to Bonaire in one year and I'm not even getting the least bit bored yet.

Buddy Dive, November 1997, Jan Kovach, Corrales, NM. Dive operation well organized and accommodating to boat and shore divers. Boat dives typically had 6-8 divers. Divemaster Murphyn helpful in pointing out seahorses, frogfish. Vis: 75-100 ft. Water: 79-81 degrees. Dive restriction: no deco, on boat with 500 psi. Drive thru air station for shore divers minimized lugging tanks and gear. . . . Terrible connections thru Miami; ALM and Air Aruba indifferent to customer satisfaction.

Buddy Dive, February 1998, Nick Ferris, CO. Just right-no pressure or schedules. . . . Rental car a waste; didn't need or use it for 3 days. Plenty of restaurants and stores within walking distance; Washington Park roads are in such bad shape and the going so slow that it doesn't justify the time. Boat dive as part of package was wasteful; made only 5 of 12 dives we were due. On the last day the boat was full so we could not go. What kind of package is that? No refunds, of course. Self-serving policies may look good to the resort management, but they are not helpful to customer relations. I have no reason to prefer Buddy's to the other outfits nearby.

Buddy Dive, February 1998, Peter Hartlove, Longmont, CO. Buddy Beach resort was nice overall, 110 v in rooms with fridge and kitchen. Remote control in several rooms did not work. Food was fairly good, emphasis on fried. Dive operation was good, nothing special. Rental vehicles available and easy tank pick-up for shore diving. Boats good, small camera rinse tanks, had trouble with new boat. Salt Pier good dive, Town Pier at night excellent, carpets of flowering tube corals with a plethora of sponges and great crabs. A few frogfish, couple of turtles, squadron of four squid. Shore diving: spent many dives with yellow-headed jawfish, sharing holes with one another. Vis: 60-80 ft. Water: 79 degrees. Good Caribbean diving, no restrictions, able to solo shore dive. . . . ALM, even with an added flight, over booked by 80 seats. We stood in line 2.5 hrs the night before departure to ensure a seat!

Buddy Dive, September 1998, Matthew E. Kreegar, Indianapolis IN. Water: 84, vis: 80-100 feet. Pleasant slow, diving. Use the Club to lock steering wheel if shore diving, leave no valuables, leave windows down and doors unlocked. Drive through air at Buddies easy to use. Reef in front of the hotel makes for good day or night diving. Reefs and marine life nicer than Cayman. Dive your own profile. Reefs start at 25' and go at a 45-degree angle to a sand plateau at 130'. Good accommodations. AC in the bedroom only, small TV with cable, no phones in the rooms. Wild goats and donkeys everywhere. Food is fairly good, but expensive. Service charge (mandatory tip) added to your bill at every restaurant, guaranteeing mediocre service.

Carib Inn/Sunset Inn/Sunset Resorts, August 1997, Bambi Alexander Banys, Benicia, CA. To save money, I went with the Sunset Inn that was $15/night less than the Carib Inn. Big mistake. The Sunset was dark, small, and in disrepair. Whereas, the Carib, with whom we dove, was spacious, clean, and the impeccable service of the dive staff. The best sites we dove were in the Washington Slagbai National Park. Although, they told us north was rough, it was calm and pristine. At Boca Slagbai we saw two turtles and one manta and the best coral on the island. On surface we visited a bat cave less than 20 yards from the beach! . . . Food is expensive, even at the grocery store. Eleven days was more than enough if diving 2-3 times a day. Vis: 40-80 ft. Water: 70-77 degrees. No diving restrictions enforced. Flamingos are over rated and we saw very few. P.S. Washington Slagbai Park also has the best nude sunbathing! (Ph: 011-599-78819, Fax: 011-599-75295,

e-mail caribinn@bonaire.com)

Carib Inn, June 1998, Craig and Judith Bolon, Brookline, MA. Bruce and Kitty Bowker have run Carib Inn for 20 years. Small, nine rooms, and very friendly. Most guests are from the U.S. No restaurant, but more than a dozen within a 10-minute walk. Four rooms have kitchens; all have refrigerators and kettles. Staff is knowledgeable and helpful. Prices reasonable, but reserve at least six months ahead. Two-thirds of sites can be reached from shore, but you need a car-check out insurance carefully; joyriding by local young people has become common; one car disappeared while we were there. . . . Superb for beginners; most sea life at 30 feet and less. On shore dives, we saw huge chromis schools, sea turtles, eels, seahorses, a barracuda, a spotted manta, and great varieties of coral and reef fish. Carib Inn operates two dive boats, the only way to reach Klein Bonaire, an unpopulated island a mile offshore, its reefs almost undisturbed. Pufferfish and a nurse shark were in caves a few feet below the surface. Sea turtles were resting in crevices at 50 feet. Boca Slagbaai, an sea inlet in the huge nature preserve on the north end of the island, is an interesting shore dive. Swim out across a wide shelf of sea fans and a staghorn coral forest. Cai, a rarely used site, provides the only reasonably safe shore access on the windward side. In return for a long swim over a stiff surge, you will see enormous specimens of reef fish, dense schools of neon gobies, and large blue tube sponges. Watch for jellyfish in the shallow lake that tempers the waves and makes it possible to dive here. . . . Only Europeans, flying on KLM, have good air service to Bonaire. ALM operates about 3/4 of the flights and cares little about its customers. Best bet: take their turboprops to and from Curacao or Aruba, then another service elsewhere; ALM jet flights are often canceled. Check in at least one hour before departure; allow two to three hours for a transfer in Curacao or Aruba.

Carib Inn, July 1998, Ron & Dawn Steedman, Cape Coral, FL. Feels like your home away from home. Well maintained; rooms are neat, clean and comfortable. The ones over looking the water are the best. The dive staff is top notch; dive your own profile or have a guide. My complaint: Resort Divers on the boat. Corals are healthy, and sea life abundant-parrots, trumpets, seahorses, frogfish, turtles. Vis: 70-100 ft, water: 80-83 degrees. Most dives are multi-level with lots of bottom time. Most spots 10-15 minutes away. Shore diving at the Carib Inn is excellent.

Carib Inn, September 1998, Jane and Douglas Rorex, Fairfield, IL. Reefs healthy, critters varied, small reef fish abundant. Good sized groupers and snappers on the northern and southern ends of the island and stunning sites on the windward side awash with sea fans. Number of wrecks at different depths for those who thrive on heavy metal. Saw at Tori's Reef eagle rays, Southern stingrays, green and hawksbill turtles, a large polarized school of bigeye scad-shadowed by Tarpon and Barracuda and Bar Jacks - sargassum triggerfish, cherub angels, and colorful giant anemones. Razor fish, molted and yellowfin mojarra, palometa, shortfin pipefish, a whitenose pipefish, bandtail searobins and upside-down jellyfish, and a seahorse. Second year we swam with a manta at O'blue. Star corals, brittle stars and sea cucumbers were spawning. Talk about an over abundance of sex-honey slip on that 3mm shorty and start the spawning video-the Oval office has no corner on kinky. Bruce Bowker's Carib Inn is like staying with family. Same people show up year after year. Staff is friendly, helpful and good-natured, competent: Kitty, Tessa, Linda, Valerie, Enrico, Edward, Richie and Bruce, himself, has an limitless interest, knowledge, and love for Bonaire. Service staff was diligent. Other than diving or snorkeling, there isn't much to do except enjoy perfect sunsets, friendly people and stunning desert scenery. Still crime-most of it not violent-but there is little interest in curtailing it. Most involves the theft of valuables left in rental cars during beach dives, but has expanded to rooms in resorts.

Captain Don's Habitat, October 1997, Tex Frank, Evergreen, CO. Comfortable and convenient dive operation. Checkout shore dive and briefing a good idea. Lockers to store gear close to pier. Take a lock. Marine Park offers many dive sites. . . . Local residents friendly, but need ecology education. Found junk cars, building refuse, tires and trash on shore dives. Rent a moped and tour salt marshes (flamingos) and island. Room outstanding with queen beds and private balcony. No TV or phone in room. Sign up ASAP for next day dive trips. Groups tend to monopolize favorite places. Vis: 80-120 ft. Water: 80 degrees. Generally, Bonaire is overrated in my opinion. (Ph: 800-327-6709, Fax: 305-438-4220, Website: www.bonaire.org/habitat)

Captain Don's Habitat, January 1998, Tom Doeppner and Katrina, Providence, RI. Air 80 degrees, vis 70 feet. No restrictions on dives. No pelagics other than a couple tarpons off pier at night. Boats go out three times a day, but scheduled so that it's not possible to do the second morning dive, have lunch, and do the afternoon dive. Annoying large group: one of their reps would sign the group up for dives as soon as possible, resulting in no choice of sites for everyone else. We had to miss one boat dive because the group had taken all slots. The diving from the shore is nice day and night. Dive operation is competent, though unenthusiastically run. Villa quite nice, though a distance from the boat dock and dive lockers-it wasn't pleasant carrying a camera and strobes back and forth for every dive. We bought groceries in town and fixed our own lunches.

Captain Don's Habitat, January 1998, William Maxwell, Concord, MA. 3rd time in Bonaire, 2nd at Capt. Don's. People friendly, atmosphere laid back, serious about instructing everyone about saving reefs. Accommodations in Jr. suite excellent, right at the pool, bar and open air dining room. Weather perfect. . . . Air Aruba canceled our scheduled flight, so we were combined with another flight and arrived 7 hours late. On return flight they did the same, resulting in 2 hour delay. On the positive side, we didn't lose our luggage!

Captain Don's Habitat, February 1998, Jim Boone, Alex, VA. Good trip. Food at Habitat OK. Green Parrot much better. Restaurant behind condos next to Habitat good. Good dive operation, check tanks before equipping for short fills. Some bad o-rings. Dive lockers good. Two docks, one for boats and one for shore divers. Rinse tanks good. Divemasters helped. Hilma Hooker dive excellent, easy penetration. Nitrox. Night dives at Habitat excellent. Rope path leads to reef to follow in and out. Eels, yellowtails, lobsters and one large tarpon at night. Water: 77-78 degrees, vis: 60-80 ft. Large midnight parrot fish. Boats are good with good platform or deck and twin ladders. Make advance car or truck rentals. Prices high.

Captain Don's Habitat, April 1998, C. Wallace/C. Holbrook, Reno, NV. Without exception, every employee from restaurant to dive operation was friendly, helpful, professional and very accommodating, including management staff members. Divemasters are excellent in every way! Efficient dive and hotel operation! We will definitely return to Cpt. Don's! Vis: 40-100 feet, water: 78-80 degrees. Diving was top notch Caribbean. Nice coral and sponge life. Tons of tropicals! Not much large animal activity-some turtles and rays.

Captain Don's Habitat, April 1998, Terry Ekdahl, Oscoda, MI. Dive operation very accommodating. Tanks available 24 hours a day. Staff at Dive shop and resort friendly and eager to please, all seemed to want to ensure that you would be returning to Bonaire. Vis: 100-125 ft., water: 80-81 degrees. Easy diving, great coral, wonderful operation, we will return.

Captain Don's Habitat, June 1998, Nicola Nelson, Hawthorne, GA. Warm, clam water, lots of fish and some rare ones, wonderful snorkeling and beach diving, especially at night. Vis: 50-100 ft, water: 80 degrees. One aggravation: no matter what, they make you do a checkout dive, which they never mention until you get there, so you miss the first boat dive the first day (and they just asked us to do a shore dive by ourselves)! Try Mi Poron in town for great goat stew and a small museum.

Divi Flamingo Beach, January 1998, Paul Anest, Prairie Grove, IL. Beautiful. Reef was right outside your door or balcony. Temperature great and hospitality of locals outstanding. Vis: 45-65 ft. Water: 78-82 degrees. Dive restrictions: 80 ft., 3 min. deco. (Ph: 800-367-3484 or 011-599-78285, Fax: 011-599-78238)

Divi Flamingo, April 1998, Ray Pettigrew, Napa, CA. Run down. Had a mouse in our room. Restaurant on island time. Shore diving the best. Dive operation good but a few problems: let divers disturb sea life and coral, don't trust divemaster with anything in a skirt. Lutte and Enrique very good from briefing to gear handling. Vis: 50-100+ ft, water: 78-82 degrees. Not a lot of night life, but food uniformly good. Locals friendly, not so with hotel staff.

Great Adventures/Harbour Village, September 1997, Scott & Karen Fauth, Jacksonville, FL. Beautiful resort. Landscaping, accommodations and service all excellent. Food excellent, Kasa Coral as good as any restaurant in the states. We had a meal package and upgraded accommodations, a beautiful beachfront suite. Diving operation did a single tank dive in the a.m. and p.m., with a time limit of one hour. Corals very healthy. Diving very easy most of the time, but strong current on a few dives. One hour underwater in Bonaire was enough, no big thrills. Vis: 70-100 ft. Water: 79-81 degrees. Recommend more for total vacation experience than the diving. (Ph: 800-868-7477, Fax: 305-567-9659)

Great Adventures/Harbour Village, October 1997, Sunny Morrison, Littletown, CO. Resort lovely but their dive operation (Great Adventures) was disappointing. Only two boat dives/day and when the boat was full we were turned away. They have three boats, but declined to open a second boat when the first was full! Boat dives often went to sites accessible by car/shore. Only two of our six dive went to Klein Bonaire! . . . Food on island average, including Richards and Green Parrot and others recommended in your chapbook. Harbour Village required long pants for men in their restaurant, pretty silly on a hot, humid tropical island. They had no other restaurants open for dinner several nights during our stay and bar was not open after dark! Water: 80-81 degrees. Restrictions enforced for diving were 100 ft/60 minutes. Diving conditions excellent. Very healthy reef with lots to see. Good for beginners and advanced divers. ALM on time and no reservation bumping.

Great Adventures/Harbour Village, February 1998, Victor A. Bary, Cranford, NJ. Charges for dives and equipment rental a bit high. Equipment excellent, dive staff and operation very good. Insisted on a familiarization dive on resort reef, then allowed you to pair up with a partner (boat diving) or grab tanks for shore diving and treated you as an adult, experienced diver. Vis: 75-100 ft. Water: 78-84 degrees. Restrictions: 100 ft.depth limit. Helma Hooker (wreck) at 60-90 ft. is intact and a fun dive. 1000 steps, a wall dive, has magnificent coral and sponges. Schools of 100's of Creole Wrasse. Harbour Inn is magnificent with the best staff I've ever encountered.

Great Adventures/Harbor Village, April 1998, Nicholas Evans, Vero Beach, FL. Harbor Village deserves top ratings. Perfect for our 8-person family group, ranging from 4 year old to 75 year old. Three nondivers enjoyed pool, beach, snorkeling and new found playmates. Very expensive but worth it. Great Adventures Dive Operation would be greatly enhanced by providing 2-tank boat trips. Mandatory check out dive is acceptable, but a nuisance when lost dive bags and canceled air reservations forced us to squeeze in a shore dive on little sleep and no breakfast before the 9 a.m. boat departure. Dive Boat (Harbor Lady) is well designed for scuba and personnel do a good job overall. Only exception was a dive with strong current when divemaster called the direction exactly backwards. Water: 76-79 degrees. Vis: 60-120 feet. Shore diving is easy and fun. Need a rental van. Not much to do in town. Richard's was a happy find for our only dinner out.

Lions Dive/Bon Bini Divers, February 1998, Jennifer Voege, Plainfield, NH. I wish I had known how expensive groceries and dining were. Loved the island. Not a lot of glitz, gambling or night life. Excellent shore dives. BonBini like family, knowledgeable, but laid back and fun. Water: 75-80 degrees, vis: 100-150 ft. . . . Lions Dive not exactly service oriented or overly friendly. Huge 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom condo with full kitchen cleaned daily and very nice. (Living room furniture in desperate need of replacement). Make sure you know how to use your telephone calling card. I had a whopping phone bill for just a few calls made from my room when I checked out! (Bon Bini, Ph: 011599-75425, Fax: 011-599-74425, e-mail: bonbinidiv@aol.com, Website: www.diveguideint.com/p0245.html) (Lions Dive, Ph: 011-599-9-461-2100)

Sand Dollar/Captain Don's, November 1997, Carl Mintz, Washington, DC. Some guides better than others finding critters. Shore dusk divers were excellant for photography. Sand Dollar accommodations excellent (2 bdrm/2 1/2 bath-2 flr). The diving was OK and the staff generally pleasant and helpful, but the majority of their boats are not true dive boats and are not easy to get out of, get into, and have no storage space and not enough tank space for everyone to have their own upright tank. Most boats are long and narrow and it is hard to move around. Still, the operation itself is not first rate. Though you can dive most any time, they lock up at 11 p.m. so unless you make prior arrangements and put your stuff in a little locker, you can't go on a midnight dive. No individual lockers. On our second trip, we dived with Captain Don because their boats are more diver friendly. Adequate space to store gear, easier to get into our equipment and into and out of the water. Staff just as friendly as Sand Dollar and the shore diving as good. Individual lockers can be used for any time day or night. Vis: 40-80 ft. Water: 77-80 degrees. Dive restriction: less than 120 ft. (Ph: 011-599-78738, Fax: 011-599-78760)

Sand Dollar, January 1998, Dan and Ann Dubbel, Marriottsville, MD. Fourth trip to Bonaire, second to Sand Dollar, so we knew what to expect. Sand Dollar reasonably priced. Good dive operation. Easy, fun diving. Night diving was quite good. Large tarpon attracted by lights and followed us around. Lots of fish. Vis: 70-100 ft. Water: 80 degrees. Diving restrictions enforced were 100' a.m., 50' p.m.

Sand Dollar, April 1998, Marianne and Jeff Daniel, Castro Valley, CA. Sand Dollar, though older than some resorts, was great! Ocean view from each condo and aligned in a way that catches the trade winds (if windows were open). Comfortable, well maintained, clean. Sand Dollar Dive and Photo fine operation. Fun and safety are priorities; every briefing included reminders to be careful of buoyancy, and info on what neat critters would be found. Water: 79-81 degrees, vis: 70-100 ft. You could go with the guide or not. Max depth 100 ft on first dive, 60 ft on 2nd. Max hour dive from boat. . . . Green Parrot has good food, but pricey. Better prices at Buddy Beach and Dive Resort (next door) and Run Runners at Captain Don's. Richard's and Rendezvous were wonderful. Mona Lisa's food was good, but 3.5 hours for dinner was too long. Marvelous week.

Sand Dollar, April 1998, Bill Hilts, San Mateo, CA. Water: 78 to 80. Used a Polartec. Visibility 70 to 100+. No restrictions enforced: We were a group of 12 experienced divers including two marine biologists so we pretty much had our own boat every day and were taken where we wanted to go. Dove many sites on both Bonaire and Klein Bonaire, all very enjoyable. Bonaire deserves its reputation as among the best. But there isn't much to do for the nondiver. . . . Dive operation is first class-efficient, professional, knowledgeable and they had fun. Jerry's Naturalist Program is a must if you are not familiar with the species in the area. . . . Accommodations are a bit shopworn but still a good value for the dollar. . . . Avoid the small grocery store in front if at all possible unless you want to get snarled at by a cantankerous old Dutchman. There's a supermarket in town. . . . Restaurants: Richards-excellent. The Old Inn (Indonesian)-great. Rendezvous-very good. Mona Lisa-food good but not worth the slow, slow service. Green Parrot-very good breakfast and lunch. (Website: www.interknowledge.com/bonaire.)

Sand Dollar, July 1998, Thomas Harvey, Hillsdale, NJ. Mob scene and illegal beach night dives on pier are common. D.M. hustles most customers. Be prepared to be shown frogfish or seahorses. D.M. and head of diving have a haughty manner. Single American women get hit on by staff constantly. Funny watching their macho antics. For beginners. Vis: 50-75 ft. Water: 80-81 degrees. Dive restrictions enforced were buddies one hour B.T. one dive boat a.m. One dive boat p.m.

Sunset Beach, September 1998, Doug Boren, Kenova, WV. Resort is not luxurious and could use improvements; comfortable and dollar for dollar a deal. Mary and Ernst were friendly, efficient, and knowledgeable. Vis worse than previous trips. Only 40-60 ft. Water: 83-85 degrees. Boca Slagbai is great, if you don't mind 24 km of rocky, rough road. Richard's Restaurant fed me the best meal I ever had on Bonaire, and Green Parrot is always good, if slow. (Ph: 011-599-78330,

e-mail: sunsetdive@bonaire.net)

Sunset Beach, March 1998, J. Scott Farmer, St. Augustine, FL. Friendly and let us decide where we wanted to dive. Diving conditions great and dive crew would personally take us down to see the seahorses and frogfish. Vis: 50-70 feet, water: 77-78 degrees. Great diving off Klein Bonaire with its pristine reefs and great fish life. Excellent diving in front of the hotel! Highlight was the night dive at town pier.

Sunset Beach, June 1998, Gary and Pam Rudy, San Jose, CA. I (Pam) had only 15 previous dives (all cold water dives). Did one boat dive to Klein Bonaire and 23 shore dives. Rent a car and drive to any of the 56 marked dive sites. Beautiful protected reef with parrotfish, morays, angels, scorpionfish, peacock flounder, lobster, groupers, snake eels, barracuda, top hats, drums, conch, damsels, puffers, huge corals and sponges, crinoids. Vis: 60-100 feet, water: 82-86 degrees. Played with 2 small squid. A diver's paradise! Great macro and micro photography. Dove the Hilma Hooker wreck at 85 feet. Need permission to dive Salt Pier-get it a day ahead. Saw 6 ft Tarpon and huge snooks on night dive. Dive shop accommodating.

Toucan Divers/Plaza Resort, August 1997, Mike Holub, Ames, IA. Great divemasters, good boats, five large concrete rinse tanks. Vis: 75-100 ft. Water: 81-83 degrees. Let us use computer times. Restrictions enforced were depth, time, don t touch, stay with buddy. . . . Plaza Resort; Luxury rooms, clean.

Toucan Divers/Plaza Resort, December 1997, Mike Chambers, Strongsville, OH. Third trip in '97 to Bonaire. Great. The ability to dive whenever and wherever is something you don't find anywhere. Every site from the extreme South to Karpata is outstanding. Vis: 50-70 ft. Water: 79 degrees. Dive operation was good. Boats not crowded and ran many throughout the day. My only bitch is some divemasters only talked about money and their tips. . . . Plaza grounds and accommodations are wonderful (too new to be in bad shape), but very overpriced; they nickel and dime you for every little extra. Not a bad restaurant on Bonaire except the three in Plaza. Would not stay at the Plaza again.

Toucan Diving/Plaza Resort, February 1998, Tim Strombeck, No Webster, IN. Fly American rather than ALM to avoid delays. Plaza Resort is beautiful; staff friendly. Side trip to National Park great, Overly friendly iguanas and goats. Island people friendly. Not much shopping; car rental a must to see the island at your own pace. Klein Bonaire a short boat ride from Sunset Sailing. You are left there to snorkel at your leisure and picked back up when you say. Vis: 80-85 feet, water: 78-79 degrees. Richard's Restaurant and Bar has great food and at mosphere.

Toucan Divers/Plaza Resort, May 1998, Hans S. Menco, Pittsford, NY. Reefs in reasonably good shape, considering diver traffic. Extensive areas of dead coral and coral bleaching. Most beautiful reefs on West side of Klein Bonaire that are less disturbed mainly in the shallows, with lots of soft corals. Vis: 50-100 ft, water: 80 degrees. Plaza Resort accommodations outstanding with great service. Toucan Divers well organized, good facilities and service, attending to divers' personal needs.

Toucan Dive/Plaza Resort, May 1998, Dale G. Johnson, Helena, MT. Resort 3 years old, excellent service and rooms. Safes in rooms. Bring your own shampoo. Great snorkeling on hotel beach (fish, eels, corals). Walk to town 10 minutes. Dive shop and guides are first-rate. They provided 80 Nitrox tanks per day for our group. Vis: 60-90 ft., water: 82-83 degrees. Large meeting room to accommodate groups. Food average. Nondiver spouse found plenty to do with the good beach snorkeling at the hotel and could ride along on the dive boat to snorkel without additional charge. Touring the island interesting.

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