help please-Klein and handicap access

[daddysdilly]

All the tours appear to be booked. My daughter uses a wheelchair, but is able to walk 20 ft at a time. Will she be able to take the water taxi and walk to get into the water. Thank you for helping.

[Mary Ellen1]

I've only been there one time (and am going again in about a week!), but that sounds really difficult. There's no dock. The water taxi lets you off in shallow water. Can someone help her get out of the boat?

If she can get out of the boat & into the water OK, perhaps she can just start snorkeling right from there. But getting up onto the beach for any sort of rest period will be really difficult...

I must admit, it's been a few years since I've been there, and I didn't survey the surroundings with an eye to wheelchair access, but what I've said here is what I recall... Good luck!

[kdooley]

I'm going next week, too, so I will pay attention and report back!

[kdooley]

We just got back and wanted to let you know about Klien Bonaire. The other poster is correct, they let you off the water taxi in the water (just for the first step), then onto the beach, which shouldn't be an issue.

When we were there, it was very windy and the surf was rough, so it was getting in and out of the that was the hardest thing for us. We were told to walk down the beach for about 5-10 minutes, looking for yellow rocks that marked the breaks in the reef to cross over. The beach itself has really soft sand, but after you are about 2 feet into the water, there is rocky coral underfoot, so it is hard to get your gear on. But, after you got on the other side of the reef, you almost floated back to where you started with the current. Even with the rough surf, the reef was pretty, with lots of fish.

[Riversedge]

We're thinking of doing this in Bonaire. How long of a wait was there for the water taxi and how often do they go? Did you walk to their dock from the ship?

[Ycruise]

Just got back from our Christmas cruise. We enjoyed Klein Bonaire, we walked off of the ship and looked for a water-taxi, there seems to be 3-4 options. We found a guy with a sign by the pier with a bar, he charged $15pp for a roundtrip "ticket" and made us select the time that we wanted to come back. All of the boats get as close as they can to No-Name beach to let you off, but you are still swinging your legs off of the side of the boat and stepping out into 1-3 feet of water with a sandy bottom. There is a marked beach for swimming, but you walk down the shore to snorkel. As a previous poster said, LOOK FOR THE YELLOW ROCKS marked "entry point" for entering the water, adjusting your gear and getting out to deeper water without getting cut up on the coral. The yellow rocks are higher up on the shore and you have to look for them. There are no facilities, and no options to buy food or drink so pack accordingly.

We very much enjoyed the snorkeling, we are beginners and were able to see SO much!

[kdooley]

We went on the ship's excursion, so not sure how the public boat taxi works. The price for us, on Princess, was $35 per person. We selected this option because they said that they offered drinks and rentals. The drink was the boat crew setting up a small table with Fruit Punch, bottled water or soda (coke or sprite). Each person got 2 tickets to use during our time on the island. Also, our boat had steps to walk down, so I think the boats are different.

[Mary Ellen1]

Originally Posted by Ycruise

Just got back from our Christmas cruise. We enjoyed Klein Bonaire, we walked off of the ship and looked for a water-taxi, there seems to be 3-4 options. We found a guy with a sign by the pier with a bar, he charged $15pp for a roundtrip "ticket" and made us select the time that we wanted to come back. All of the boats get as close as they can to No-Name beach to let you off, but you are still swinging your legs off of the side of the boat and stepping out into 1-3 feet of water with a sandy bottom. There is a marked beach for swimming, but you walk down the shore to snorkel. As a previous poster said, LOOK FOR THE YELLOW ROCKS marked "entry point" for entering the water, adjusting your gear and getting out to deeper water without getting cut up on the coral. The yellow rocks are higher up on the shore and you have to look for them. There are no facilities, and no options to buy food or drink so pack accordingly.

We very much enjoyed the snorkeling, we are beginners and were able to see SO much!

We were there last Friday! We also took the public water taxi that's right by the pier -- $15pp (vs. $36 with the ship, which also included a beverage...). We paid the guy and then walked about 3 minutes to another dock where the boat was.

Originally Posted by kdooley

We went on the ship's excursion, so not sure how the public boat taxi works. The price for us, on Princess, was $35 per person. We selected this option because they said that they offered drinks and rentals. The drink was the boat crew setting up a small table with Fruit Punch, bottled water or soda (coke or sprite). Each person got 2 tickets to use during our time on the island. Also, our boat had steps to walk down, so I think the boats are different.

Our water taxi had a step-ladder into the water.

Here's the website of the guy we used. Note that the times listed on the website aren't accurate. It seems that he was leaving to go to Klein every-hour-on-the-hour, and coming back to the cruise ship pier every-hour-on-the-half-hour.

http://www.goodreturnbonaire.com/GRB...n_Bonaire.html