Bonaire Again

We have traveled to Bonaire twice in the last few years. I guess I never posted about the first trip in December 2018 because we were soothing our hearts over the recent loss of a close family member. But apparently we liked it enough to visit again.

Travelling internationally in the time of Covid-19 is not for the weary. If you find navigating TSA and Immigration/Customs a challenge normally, you don't want to do it with additional protocols for Covid.

Bonaire is still part of the Kingdom of The Netherlands. Consequently the Dutch flock to Bonaire during the holidays jammed onto the daily 747 KLM flight. We also discovered that due to Covid, 'breakers' who are college grads right out of school, traditionally take a year off before joining the real world and places that were previously options for their sabbatical (Indonesia for example) are no longer available, so there are tons of them on Bonaire. This generally means lousy service in restaurants and lots of them don't speak fluent English or Spanish. 

But enough of that. 

1000 Steps

You go to Bonaire if you love the water, enjoy water sports or truly want a place to do almost nothing. It's a desert island and tourism is the #1 source of income, probably followed by the commercial salt business that has been going on there for centuries.

Salt Pier

Salt marker for ships

There's windsurfing, kitesurfing, snorkeling and scuba diving. We go for the latter two and a lot of the do almost nothing but relax. 

Divers down!

 

The first trip in 2018 we stayed at The Bellafonte which are condos that are run like a luxury hotel. Fabulous location on the sea, large sunny dock that stretches out over the Caribbean with easy access into the water. There is a small pool and at the time, the property hosted regular happy hours.  We stayed two weeks in a two bedroom/two bath unit on the second floor with a balcony where we spent a lot of our time. The property has a partnership with VIP Diving to supply dive tanks which are replenished daily, you make arrangements with the dive shop directly. 

Bellafonte-Bonaire

The second trip in December 2021 we rented a villa a little farther down EEG Blvd. It was a double villa and because we initially planned to have both sides filled (but Covid 😡) we rented the entire property named Salt & Pepper for 18 days. It was next to the Ocean Oasis Beach Club and Flamingo Dive shop which was perfect, in theory, for our group. The view and in particular the sunsets were spectacular!

Salt & Pepper

The View

AS for food, well the Dutch are not known for their cuisine but we highly recommend El Mundo in downtown Kralendijk. It has much more of an island vibe, the food is great as is the service. 

We also tried Sebastian's because we couldn't get a table when we visited in 2018 we reserved way in advance for 2022. It's a lot of hype IMO, food was ok, service was mediocre, but the sunset view is fabulous.  

View from Sebastian's

Another dinner spot we tried was Joe's Restaurant which was nice. All outdoor seating and it's a training restaurant, or so the signage indicated. The food was good, service was good too. We would probably go back to Joe's over Sebastian's.

Joe's Restaurant

Our go-to really became The Beach. We ate here on our first trip and back then it was half the size, mismatched tables and chairs and a limited menu. But it was good food. Today it's grown across two lots, added swanky club style chairs, walkways, tons more seating and a much bigger menu. 

The Beach

There are things to see and do on Bonaire such as...

Visit the Salt Worker Slave Huts

Watch Flamingos

Check out Ft Oranje

Gruta du Lourdes

Cruz Sera Largu

Bonaire Museum

Giant Windmills

When It's Not What You Think

So we spent two weeks over the holidays in Providenciales, Turks & Caicos and it is beautiful. It's warm, sunny, the water is super clear. Diving was great [according to my divers.] Food was delicious. Really lovely.

But it wasn't what we thought it would be.  In fact, once you get past the beauty, weather and food, it was a lot like the Jersey shore in July. Grace bay is this 13 mile stretch of white sand beach with calm water and the bodies are practically on top of each other.  Granted they are in resort lounge chairs vs. the typical towel or beach blanket at the shore but there were people EVERYWHERE. And they were all American.

What you expect when you research TCI

This is what it's really like.

TCI totally caters to Americans.  In fact, their official currency is the US dollar, which is nice since you don't have to pay an exchange rate or additional fees on credit cards. Oddly, for an island that is so "American," very very few places take American Express.  [Note to travelers like us: Take your Visa or MC!]

We are the type of travelers that like to immerse ourselves in the local culture, history, food etc. That was really hard to do when everyone I spoke with was from somewhere else. All of the resort staff were Haitian or Jamaican. I met ONE person during our two week visit that was born and bred in TCI. And I talk to everyone! I ask where to eat, what to see, where to go. Most were stymied and the concierge at our resort just stared at me like I had asked to book a tour to the moon.

Thankfully we had our car, Will Cypha, who we drove all over the island looking for the elusive TCI culture, history, local flair and 'downtown' Provo, which we found doesn't really exist other than on a local map. 

Will Cypha - He spoke Japanese

The Christmas Eve "Funky Junkanoo" was as close as we came to any cultural activities. And we heard the Thursday Fish Fry is a good time, since the holidays fell on Thursday we missed that.

 

We did come across one historical site at Sopadilla Bay Hill.  Rock carvings from soldiers on lookout during the 18th and 19th century.  Here's the oldest one that dates to 1767 and another from 1832.  

But it wasn't a total loss - we had great food & drinks at Bugaloo's!

We did an all-day snorkel trip with Caicos Dream Tours on January 1st. That was fun!

Mind you, it wasn't a horrible trip by any measure. It was just not what we expected given all that we had read and researched prior to booking our trip - in April 2014!  [Yes, 8 months in advance and  reasonable airfares were difficult to find.]

I guess  'don't believe everything you read' is the lesson here. I am a big researcher before I book a trip and I feel like this wasn't quite an #epicfail but I certainly needed to have done more to ensure we went on the type of trip we enjoy.

So if you're an adventure traveler, history buff, museum monger or like to do all the locals stuff, Provo, TCI is not the place for you.

If you're looking for a place to unwind, take in the sun, hang on the  beach and enjoy the calm waters and eat great seafood, then TCI is the perfect place for you!

P.S. If you venture a trip to TCI, be sure to give yourself at least THREE hours on the return trip to the airport, you will need it. PLS is the worse island departure experience we've ever encountered. 

The Gift of Travel

Off We Go!

One of the many beaches we've lounged upon

We've been traveling for years during the winter holiday season.  Not being religious, I figured it was better to get out of town, avoid the cold weather, skip needless shopping for stuff people don't:
a) want
b) need or
c) like and will therefore have to return while fighting the throngs of after holiday sale shoppers
and head to the Caribbean for a week+ of warmth and merriment of our own making.

 [Side note: Our parents lived on the same street and it was too chaotic shuffling back & forth so we just gave up, which was way easier than dealing with the family holiday madness.]

Wilma was a Cat 5 storm.

I should say this originally started when we were taking a trip in October that Hurricane Wilma forced us to 1) postpone and 2) find a new place to visit after it wiped out Cancun.  The NOAA hurricane central website helped find an island that had not been destroyed in recent memory. [See my post on Like Amsterdam But in Pastels for the full story.]

This tradition started when our child was a baby. As she's gotten older we've asked if she wants to stay home and 'celebrate' and repeatedly we got the 'No," so I've stopped asking and now we just go.

We have 12 days until we leave for this year's trek. Two weeks in a condo on the beach. But let me tell you, each year it gets harder and harder to plan. It seems there are more people who have taken to the gift of travel instead of giving unwanted/needed/liked gifts.

 

 

Our planning process 

This is our actual airline confirmation. Notice the date: May 20!!!

In May we start thinking about where we might want to go. Generally I look for a more 'off the radar' type of island.  But for some reason, this year I zeroed in on a well known destination. Typically  I start the process of looking for a place to stay on TripAdvisor. After looking at hotel rates (GASP!) I opted to find a rental through VRBO or FlipKey.  Thankfully I found a reasonably priced place and I booked it stat!  [When we started this tradition I could get a 4-5 star hotel for $179/night. This year I was faced with $750+/night!??!  Clearly this whole run-away-to-warmer-weather-for-the-holidays has caught on.]

Then I started looking at flights. Much to my surprise I was FORCED to by airfare because the flights were already practically booked - in MAY? We're talking for a December flight seats were filled and some totally sold out! Maybe it's the island we picked? Guess we'll find out in less than two weeks.

Since flights were already crammed, I figured I better book the rental car at the same time.  So at least all the big logistics were out of the way.

The spouse and the kid are scuba divers. For the past two months he's been saying 'I need to contact the dive shop.'  Finally he did. Guess what? First choice dive shop was booked. As in for the entire two week trip. [Again, people are catching on to this non-holiday thing.] Plan B - go with the cattle class dive shop. Stay tuned to see how that shakes out!

Part of the planning of the location/accommodations MUST include: beach access, pool, bar, spa, and ability to prepare our own meals or at least a mini-fridge and microwave. The first three go without saying, but the spa is all me. This is where I'll be spending lots of time...

This is what I really look forward to while not celebrating a holiday.

Moral of the story?

So, moral of the Gift of Travel post? Book early if you want to go somewhere you read a LOT about. Consider renting a flat, condo, house, villa if you can't find a reasonable hotel rate. Then hope everyone else decides to stay home.

Happy Travels!