Bonaire

Kralendijk — the capital of Bonaire (a Dutch special municipality in the southern Caribbean, 288km², population 23,000, part of the ABC islands with Aruba and Curaçao — but unlike its neighbours, Bonaire is purely a dive destination with virtually no beach tourism) with the Bonaire Marine Park (the entire coast of Bonaire is a protected marine reserve from the high water mark to 60m depth — the oldest marine park in the Caribbean, established 1979) and the famous yellow painted rocks marking dive sites.

💡 The Bonaire National Marine Park (established 1979 — the first designated marine park in the Caribbean, covering the entire coastline from high-water mark to 60m depth, approximately 2,700 hectares of coral reef) has been continuously protected for 45+ years. The coral health at Bonaire is consistently ranked the best in the Caribbean in annual surveys by the Coral Reef Alliance; coverage and fish biomass are significantly higher than unprotected Caribbean reefs.

Bonaire shore diving — the signature experience: 60+ named dive sites are accessible directly from the road, without a boat, by driving to the yellow-painted rocks, kitting up and wading in. The 1,000 Steps dive site (so named because of the steep staircase down to the water), the Salt Pier (where tarpon and angelfish shelter beneath the pier legs) and Karpata (the finest wall dive from shore — a vertical drop from 10m to 40m+, with sea turtles, eagle rays and schooling fish).

💡 Bonaire shore diving (the ability to drive to a marked site, walk into the water with scuba equipment and dive an undisturbed Caribbean reef without a boat or guide) is unique in the Caribbean — nowhere else combines the accessibility of self-guided shore diving with the marine park protection that maintains coral and fish populations at pre-exploitation levels. A Bonaire dive visitor can dive 4–6 times per day from shore for the cost of a single guided boat dive elsewhere.

Washington Slagbaai National Park (the northern third of Bonaire — a 5,643-hectare arid landscape of volcanic hills, salt lakes, cactus savannah and the most important flamingo nesting colony in the Caribbean, with 3,000+ American flamingos nesting at Goto Lake and Salina Slagbaai — the largest nesting colony in the southern Caribbean — and dive sites accessible from within the park at Playa Funchi and Wayaka).

💡 The American flamingos (Phoenicopterus ruber) of Bonaire (3,000+ individuals — the largest nesting colony in the Caribbean) have been documented on the island since the 17th century. They feed in the salt works (the pink salt evaporation pans in the south of the island) and nest at the inland lakes. The pink colour of American flamingos derives from carotenoid pigments in the brine shrimp they filter; flamingos in captivity without the right diet turn white within 2 years.

The Bonaire salt flats (in the south of the island — the Pink Lake salt evaporation pans, intensely pink from halophytic algae producing beta-carotene, the salt pyramids and the historic slave huts — tiny stone structures just large enough for one person to lie down, used by enslaved workers in the 18th–19th century who were forced to work the salt pans and walk to Rincon village (8km) for food on Sunday — the most sobering historic site on the island).

💡 The Bonaire slave huts (two rows of tiny stone structures near the salt pans — each approximately 1.5m x 1m, just large enough for one person to lie down — where enslaved workers from West Africa were housed 5 days per week during the salt harvest, returning on foot to Rincon village each Saturday and walking back each Monday) are UNESCO-tentative listed as part of the broader Dutch Caribbean slave heritage network.

Klein Bonaire (an uninhabited 6km² flat island 800m offshore from Kralendijk — completely undeveloped, with 24 named dive sites encircling the island, the finest concentration of dive sites in Bonaire, all accessible by boat in 5 minutes — no construction is permitted on the island: it was purchased by the Bonaire government in 2000 to prevent hotel development) — and the turtle nesting beaches (June to October).

💡 Klein Bonaire was the subject of the most important conservation purchase in Bonaire’s history — in 2000, after a Dutch developer purchased the island with hotel development plans, the Bonaire government raised US$9 million from an international fund and bought the island back. It is now permanently protected as a nature reserve. Klein Bonaire’s coral is the best-maintained in the Bonaire Marine Park; its dive sites are consistently rated the finest in the Caribbean.

A day trip to Curaçao (40km east, 40 min by fast ferry — the largest and most culturally complex of the ABC islands, with Willemstad UNESCO World Heritage City — the most complete example of Dutch colonial architecture in the Caribbean, with the famous painted houses on Handelskade, the Floating Market and the Queen Emma Pontoon Bridge — the most photogenic capital city in the Dutch Caribbean).

💡 Willemstad, Curaçao (UNESCO World Heritage — a colonial port city founded 1634 with a continuous Dutch, Portuguese-Jewish and West African cultural heritage — the famous colourful buildings of Handelskade were painted vivid colours by the Dutch in the 18th century when it was claimed the glare from white buildings gave the governor headaches; the story may be apocryphal but the tradition of brightly painted facades has continued for 300 years.

A Bonaire night dive (the reef at night is an entirely different experience from daytime diving — octopus hunting, sleeping parrotfish in mucus cocoons, bioluminescent plankton, the coral polyps extended for feeding, moray eels patrolling the reef — the night dive at Lac Bay (the mangrove lagoon on the east coast, also the best windsurfing in the Caribbean) is the most complete Bonaire experience). Fly from Bonaire (BON).

💡 Bonaire’s Lac Bay (the protected lagoon on the windward east coast — the constant 20-knot Trade Wind combined with the shallow flat-water lagoon has made it one of the top three windsurfing and kiteboarding destinations in the world, rated alongside Tarifa and Maui) is the only site on Bonaire where the Atlantic-facing wind is accessible; the rest of the island is protected by the reef on the leeward Caribbean side.