Bonaire Rental Car???

We will be in Bonaire for the first time next April. How would renting a car and driving around the island be? Is it very congested?

Can we walk off ship and rent a car at port after arriving? We port 7 to 5. What are the must see/do's for a first time visit? What would be the best place to do a little shore snorkeling? TIA

We will be in Bonaire for the first time next April. How would renting a car and driving around the island be? Is it very congested?

Can we walk off ship and rent a car at port after arriving? We port 7 to 5. What are the must see/do's for a first time visit? What would be the best place to do a little shore snorkeling? TIA

What did you find? We have rented cars on Aruba and Curacao and enjoyed the freedom immensely. What did you end up doing?

yes we are interested in what you find as well. we would like to rent truck and go through the park....

We rented a car from Hertz this past February. Pickup is near the Divi Flamingo resort (about a 10-15 minute walk from the port). I would suggest booking ahead of time. We pretty much drove around the entire island - it was very easy driving; especially once you get out of the main town. If you want to go to Washington Slagbaii National Park, it is $25 per person to get in (more than we wanted to spend).

Make sure you stop at the Cadushy Distillery in Rincon - interesting little place with some yummy liquers!

We emailed three rental car agencies, and Avis was quick to respond, with pick-up shuttle offered at the cruise dock. We reserved with them and will post our results after our return.

We rented from Avis at the airport, about a ten minute ride. They picked me up at the tourism office near the ship, and dropped me off at the ship at the end of the day. I can recommend them, very professional. The off roads are rough, so I would recommend more than the little economy car we rented. All the divers had pickup trucks for their tanks. We just snorkeled. The mountain lake at the north end is the one of the most spectacular sights in any of the Caribbean islands I have seen. There is a big sandy beach at the south end of Lac Bay. We snorkeled Windsock just south of town near the airport.

Was it necessary to pre-book a rental car (easily sold out)? How long did it take you to drive around the island? TIA.

We rented a car from Hertz this past February. Pickup is near the Divi Flamingo resort (about a 10-15 minute walk from the port). I would suggest booking ahead of time. We pretty much drove around the entire island - it was very easy driving; especially once you get out of the main town. If you want to go to Washington Slagbaii National Park, it is $25 per person to get in (more than we wanted to spend).

 

Make sure you stop at the Cadushy Distillery in Rincon - interesting little place with some yummy liquers!

How many hours did it take to drive around the island (all of your activities)? Was it worth going to the national park? TIA.

This seems like a wonderful idea. Did you have to request the shuttle or is there one waiting when you arrive at the pier?

Another option to consider is Bonaire Cruisers. You rent a golf cart for the day. We did the south side of the island and were done by noon and had time to go see more. The best part is they would let you know where to see the best things including the Flamingos. We planned to head north, but were told Flamingos had moved to the south part of the island to mate.

We had family do a tour through the ship to see Flamingos, they went north and saw 10 if they were lucky. Following the advise given to us by Bonaire Cruisers we saw over 300.

It was a fun way to see the island.

We were there mid march. Very easy to rent a car. We used Avis. Short walk to get picked up after exiting ship and then we were taken to airport to rent clean car. Gracious and efficient service. We rode for hours enjoying the sites. Stopped once to snorkel a little past the 100 step area- think that was the name. Brother in law said it was great. I didn't go in. Refuel was about 11.00 usd. Can't really get lost and not a lot of traffic. Roads are occasionally rough so I was glad we opted not to rent the golf carts although if you don't want to cover too much territory they would be ok. Car was more cost effective also. All in a all a pleasant day. Glad we did it this way. If we return some day we will probably go to a beach spot and relax as we saw a lot on this ride.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

To the person who posted about Bonaire Cruisers, how much did a day rental cost? Could you get around well to a variety of places with the golf cart or is it just a restricted loop that can be done?

Sorry, I'm late in getting back to the question. I don't recall the price, you can find in on their web page. We were on a bit of of time crunch as we booked the golf cart and the Woodwind. So we had just 1/2 the day with the golf cart. So we headed south and had plenty of time to do the southern loop. Got back with enough time to head back down to the donkey sanctuary for an hour or so. If you want to do north and south, rent a car. But I would check the seasons with regard to the Flamingos. In February they moved to the south. We have family do the bus trip to the north hoping to see the flamingos. They saw 3 we saw hundred

See other post about visiting the National Park. It's not recommended if you want to make it back to the ship on time.

How did you pre book with Avis? I emailed them and they said they this:

Thanks for your mail but we do not block cars for one day, we always ask if you can call us the day that you arrive and then we will look at the availability that day, we hope that you understand this.

The Jeep Wrangler will be US$ 117.84 with FULL insurance for the day.

If you have arrived on Bonaire, we advise you to go to the Tourist office at Kaya Grandi and they will call us and if the car is available we can pick you up.

I was at the Aida Perla. I didn't make any reservations but walked to Golfcart Rental Bonaire Unfortunately they didn't have any golf carts left. However she called Pickup Rental Bonaire they are working together and they managed to get a car in 5 minutes on location, it was awesome! Next time I will try the Golfcart.