Bonaire is the quiet, dry, low-lying third of the ABC islands, the one that trades nightlife and big beaches for the water itself. Its entire coastline, from the shore to a depth of 200 ft and taking in the whole of the uninhabited islet of Klein Bonaire, has been a national marine park since 1979, and the island is built around it: yellow-painted roadside stones mark dozens of dive and snorkel sites where you simply walk in off the beach. Beyond the reef, the land is scrubby and strange, a cactus-dotted interior, a wild national park in the north, and a southern plain of blinding-white salt pans, pink lagoons, flamingos and the stone huts where enslaved salt workers once sheltered. Little Kralendijk, the capital, is a line of ochre and pastel Dutch colonial fronts along the water, and it is here that the ship ties up.
The practical headline is a happy one: Bonaire is an easy, central port. Ships come alongside at one of two piers directly in front of Kralendijk, so there is no tender and no queue for a boat, and you walk straight off into the town. Two charges are worth knowing before you sail, both handled easily: a Visitor Entry Tax, reduced to $10 for cruise passengers and collected through the cruise line, and a marine park Nature Fee if you want to get in the sea, cut to $10 for cruise visitors through the local dive and tour operators. And like Aruba and Curacao, Bonaire sits outside the hurricane belt, which makes it a dependable winter call.
This guide covers a Bonaire day ashore: the walk into Kralendijk, the shore snorkelling and diving that the island is famous for, the water taxi across to Klein Bonaire, the flamingos, salt pans and slave huts of the south, the wilderness of Washington Slagbaai in the north, the windsurfing lagoon at Lac Bay, and the practical detail of the fees, the US dollar and getting around an island with no tourist buses.
Port Overview
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Port Type | Alongside berthing, no tendering. Cruise ships dock at one of two piers directly in front of Kralendijk on the sheltered leeward coast: the North Pier, also called the Town Pier, whose gates open onto a pedestrian street across from Wilhelmina Park, and the South Pier, the Customs Pier, close to Plaza Wilhelmina and the promenade. You step straight off the ship into the little capital. |
| Distance to Town | The piers sit in front of Kralendijk itself, so the shops of Kaya Grandi, the waterfront bars and Wilhelmina Park are all within a few minutes' walk of the ship. |
| Currency | The US dollar is the official currency of Bonaire, in use since 2011, when the island adopted it on the dissolution of the Netherlands Antilles. This is unlike neighbouring Curacao, which kept the guilder, and it means there is nothing to change for a passenger arriving from a US homeport; everything is priced in dollars. |
| Language | The official languages are Papiamentu and Dutch; English and Spanish are widely spoken. |
| Best Known For | The third of the Dutch ABC islands, a dry, low, breezy place outside the hurricane belt whose entire coastline is a national marine park: shore diving and snorkelling straight off the beach, the uninhabited islet of Klein Bonaire, and a wild south of pink salt pans, flamingos and old slave huts. |
- Kralendijk cruise piers , The North and South piers in front of the capital
- Klein Bonaire , The uninhabited islet and No Name Beach, reached by water taxi
- 1000 Steps , A well-known shore snorkel and dive site on the north-west coast
- Washington Slagbaai National Park , The protected wilderness of the island's north-west
- Pekelmeer Flamingo Sanctuary , A flamingo breeding ground by the southern salt pans
- Slave huts , The 1850s salt-workers' huts beside the southern pans
- Salt pans (Cargill) , The pink solar salt works on the south coast
- Lac Bay / Sorobon , The shallow, mangrove-fringed windsurfing lagoon
Kralendijk cruise piers, Bonaire · View larger map
Getting From the Port to Town
Walking: The Best Option
Free- Walk time: At the pier, in front of town
- This is a genuinely walkable port. Both piers land you directly in front of Kralendijk, a small, low-key capital you can see on foot: the shopping street Kaya Grandi, the waterfront restaurants and Wilhelmina Park are all a few minutes from the ship. The town itself is quickly seen, and its real draw is the water. The whole coast is marine park, so with a mask you can snorkel straight off the shore near the town, though the best-known sites and the beaches lie further out and want a taxi, a boat or a hire car.
Local Bus
No tourist bus network; use a taxi or tour- Bonaire has no tourist-useful public bus network, so getting beyond the town means a taxi, an organised tour or a hire car. For the flamingos and salt pans in the south, Washington Slagbaai in the north, or the windsurfing lagoon at Lac Bay, most cruise passengers take a taxi or book a tour. Many hire a small pick-up truck for the day, the island way of carrying dive and snorkel kit to the roadside sites.
Taxi
Fixed government-set rates; agree the fare first- Taxis work to fixed, government-regulated rates rather than a meter, displayed at the taxi stand by the cruise pier, with surcharges in the evening, overnight and on Sundays and holidays. Agree the fare and the currency before you set off. A driver will run a small group down to the salt pans, flamingos and slave huts in the south, or up the leeward coast to the snorkel sites, and wait or return for you, which is the flexible way to combine a couple of the island's sights on a single call.
Top Excursions
Washington Slagbaai National Park Tour in Bonaire
Spend the day exploring Washington Slagbaai National Park in Bonaire! This tour takes you to deserted beaches, lighthouses and blow holes located within the park. Your guide will show you all there is to be discovered on this 7-hour tour, that includes hotel pickup and drop-off.
Check AvailabilitySmall-Group Guided North & South Tour of Bonaire with Pick Up
This is a Unique Small Group Tour guided by knowledgeable, Local Bonaire resident who loves Bonaire with 27 points of interest. We focuses on quality over quantity by offering small group tours with no more than twenty people per vehicle. Specializing in small group tours allows us to offer pick-up
Check AvailabilityNorth & South Tour with Local Guide
That is a Unique Small-Group Tour guided by a knowledgeable, Local Bonaire resident who loves the Island with 28 points of interest. Why Shekhinah Tours is Different: Unlike other tours, this is not a big bus experience with long wait times and impersonal guides. We want you to feel welcome to the I
Check AvailabilityLuc’s Private Group Bonaire Open Bus Tour
Book your own private tour in a great Caribbean Open Bus and discover the best that Bonaire has to offer. Up to 10 participants – you pay 1 price per booking! Exclusively guided by your experienced guide and owner Luc. Enjoy the pink salt pans, Caribbean flamingos, the Marine park, Wild coast to Sor
Check AvailabilityMore Experiences in Bonaire
Cave Tour with Local Guide
You will be visiting 3 of the remarkable caves here on the Island together with a Native or Local tour guide. We will pick you up at the ship's port or your hotel or apartment. Transportation from and to your accommodation is covered. The caves are located on the North side of the Island. One at the
Private South island tour and Snorkel combo
Join us for Bonaire's original Land & Sea snorkel combo tour, an unhurried and leisure experience with your own private guide. While exploring the south of Bonaire in your private vehicle the narrative discusses the Cargill salt flats, the Salt Pier and the the historic slave huts, which date back t
Private Bonaire Snorkeling Experience
Join a certified local guide and discover the incredible underwater world of Bonaire on this 100% private snorkeling experience. Just you, your family or friends. No rushing, no sharing with strangers, just enjoying Bonaire at your own pace. Tours available in English, Dutch and basic German. During
Fully Private North and South Tour with a Local Guide.
This tour is unique because this is a private tour for you and your family alone. You will be with a local and get a local experience, including drinks and a small local taste. This tour is not an ordinary tour like the others on the Island. We will show you 28 points of interest. You will see all t
The best excursions in Bonaire fill up ahead of peak sailings. Compare options and book before you leave port.
Things to Do in Bonaire
A Bonaire day is a water day first. The island’s reputation rests on shore snorkelling and diving, and with the ship berthed in the middle of Kralendijk you can be in the sea within minutes, either off the town or at a named site up the coast. The classic shape of a call is a morning in the water, whether a snorkel off the shore, a dive, or the short water taxi across to the empty beach on Klein Bonaire, then an afternoon exploring the strange, dry land.
That land divides neatly north and south. The south is flat and surreal: a plain of white salt mountains and pink lagoons worked by Cargill, the flamingos of the Pekelmeer sanctuary, and the low stone slave huts by the shore. The north is wild, the rugged Washington Slagbaai National Park with its hills, flamingo lakes and remote snorkel bays. There are no tourist buses, so a taxi, a tour or a hire truck ties it together, and a single call has time for the water plus one end of the island.
- Shore snorkelling and diving. This is what Bonaire is for. The entire coastline has been a national marine park since 1979, and along the sheltered leeward side you walk in straight off the beach over healthy coral, with dozens of sites marked by yellow roadside stones. You can snorkel near Kralendijk itself, or take a taxi up the coast to a named site such as 1000 Steps, famous for its coral and frequent sea turtles. Every visitor entering the sea needs the marine park Nature Fee, cut to $10 for cruise passengers through a local dive or tour operator. A mask and a little planning turn this into the best-value day on the island.
- Klein Bonaire. Klein Bonaire is the small uninhabited islet lying just off the coast opposite Kralendijk, ringed by reef and reached by a short water taxi from several points around the town, a round trip costing about $25. Passengers are dropped at No Name Beach, a strip of white sand with superb snorkelling straight off it and, deliberately, no shade, shop or fresh water, so bring everything you need, including proof of the Nature Fee. It makes a simple, memorable half-day: a boat across, a beach to yourself and clear water over coral.
- The flamingos, salt pans and slave huts. The flat south of the island is its most surreal quarter. Cargill has worked the solar salt pans here since the 1990s, and the water glows pink from the salt-loving algae that also feed the flamingos of the Pekelmeer sanctuary, one of only a handful of flamingo breeding grounds in the world, viewed from the road as entry is not allowed. Nearby stand the slave huts, low stone shelters built in the 1850s for the enslaved workers who cut the salt, now protected monuments beside the shore. It is a short taxi run from the pier and a stark, moving contrast to the reef.
- Washington Slagbaai National Park. The rugged north-west of Bonaire is a protected wilderness run by STINAPA, a landscape of dry hills, cactus, salt lakes with flamingos, iguanas and remote snorkel bays, crowned by the island’s highest point on the Subi Brandaris trail. It is open Tuesday to Sunday, 08:00 to 17:00, and the $40 Nature Fee, or the cruise rate, is required to enter. The interior roads are rough, better suited to a high-clearance or 4×4 vehicle or a guided tour, so it suits passengers who want wild scenery over an easy beach and are willing to make a day of it.
- Lac Bay and Sorobon. On the south-east coast, Lac Bay is a large, shallow lagoon protected by mangroves and a reef, and the windsurfing capital of the island, with steady trade winds and warm, waist-deep water. Sorobon Beach is its laid-back social hub, with schools that rig up beginners and boards for hire, and the calm shallows also suit gentle snorkelling and mangrove kayak tours. It is a taxi ride from the port and makes an easy, breezy alternative to the reef for anyone who wants a beach with something to do.
- Kralendijk town. The capital is a small, cheerful waterfront of ochre and pastel Dutch colonial buildings strung along the sea, and because the ship berths right in front of it, it is the one thing you can see with no transport at all. A short stroll takes in Kaya Grandi and its shops, the little seafront fort and Wilhelmina Park, the fish market and a line of restaurants and bars looking out towards Klein Bonaire. It is easily seen in an hour or two, and makes the natural bookend to a morning in the water.
Like Aruba and Curacao, Bonaire lies outside the Main Development Region for Atlantic tropical cyclones, the belt where most storms form and track, so it is far less exposed to the weather cancellation risk that affects much of the Caribbean between June and November. The three islands are often called the safe haven of the southern Caribbean. That makes Bonaire a dependable winter cruise port, and a reassuring one to build a fly-cruise itinerary around.
Eating Near the Cruise Port
- Alongside, in town
- At the pier
- US dollar
What to eat in Bonaire
The cooking here is Krioyo, the creole food of the ABC islands, and it’s worth seeking out over the resort menus. Kabritu stoba is goat stewed slowly with island spices and a hint of coconut, and it’s the plate to order. Funchi, cornmeal set firm and often grilled, and pan bati, a slightly sweet griddle bread, come alongside. Keshi yena, spiced meat baked in a shell of Gouda, is shared across all three islands. Fresh fish is obvious and good, and lionfish appears as a dish that’s actively helping the reef.
What to drink
Amstel Bright is the beer you’ll be handed almost everywhere and it’s brewed for the Caribbean market. Rum punch is the standard cocktail. Awa di lamunchi, fresh lime with water and sugar, is the local soft drink and the right thing in the heat. Bonaire’s tap water comes from desalination and is famously good, so there’s no need to buy bottled.
Where to find it
Ships berth right in Kralendijk, so the town is at the end of the gangway. Kaya Grandi and the waterfront hold most of the restaurants and they’re aimed at divers rather than cruise crowds, which keeps them reasonable. The local snack trucks and small places a couple of streets inland do the Krioyo food. Everything here is small and walkable.
Good for a short port call
You step off into the town, so there’s nothing to plan. Bonaire is the quietest of the three ABC islands and lunch on the waterfront is the whole point.
Getting Around
Bonaire has two separate charges. The Visitor Entry Tax is $75 for most air visitors but only $10 for cruise passengers, and it is arranged by the cruise line and included in your fare, so you pay nothing at the pier. Separately, if you want to swim, snorkel or dive, the marine park Nature Fee is normally $40 for the year but is cut to $10 for cruise visitors, paid through the local dive shops and tour operators. Children under 12 are exempt from the Nature Fee. Book any water activity through an operator and the fee is sorted for you.
Essential Travel Tips
Bonaire’s entire coastline has been a national marine park since 1979, and shore snorkelling and diving are the whole point of the island. Roadside stones mark the sites, and along the leeward coast you can walk straight in off the beach over healthy coral. You can snorkel near the town itself, or take a taxi up to a named site such as 1000 Steps. The one thing to remember is the Nature Fee, which every visitor entering the sea must hold, reduced to $10 for cruise passengers through a local operator.
Unlike Curacao, which uses the Netherlands Antillean guilder, Bonaire adopted the US dollar as its official currency in 2011. For a British passenger on a fly-cruise from a US homeport that is convenient: there is nothing to change, everything is priced in dollars, and cards are widely taken. Bonaire is a special municipality of the Netherlands rather than an independent country, but it is outside the EU and Schengen, and British passport holders need no visa for a day ashore.
Both Bonaire piers are a few minutes from Wilhelmina Park and the shops, so the All-aboard time is rarely the problem. What catches people is that there is no tourist-useful bus network, so anything beyond town needs a taxi or a hired truck. The packing list is snorkel gear, because the reef starts at the shoreline.
Klein Bonaire is reached by water taxi, about $25 for the round trip with Epic Water Taxi, which is the kind of number that makes independent travel the obvious call rather than a booked excursion.
The US dollar has been Bonaire’s official currency since January 2011, so there is nothing to change and your onboard spending needs no conversion, which is one less thing on a diving island.
Bonaire is a diving and snorkelling call above all else, so the day is spent wet and the afternoon is spent drying off. A cabin you can rinse a swimsuit in is more use here than a view.
Frequently Asked Questions
They dock. Ships come alongside at one of two piers, the North Pier, or Town Pier, and the South Pier, or Customs Pier, both directly in front of Kralendijk, so there is no tender and no queue for a boat. Between them the piers can take up to three ships at once. You walk straight off the ship into the middle of the small capital, which makes Bonaire one of the easiest ports in the Caribbean to get ashore at.
Yes, very. Both piers land you directly in front of Kralendijk, and the shopping street Kaya Grandi, the waterfront restaurants and Wilhelmina Park are all a few minutes’ walk from the ship. The town is small and quickly seen on foot. Its main appeal, though, is the water, and with a mask you can even snorkel from the shore near the town, as the whole coast is marine park.
The US dollar, which has been the island’s official currency since 2011. This is unlike Curacao, which kept the Netherlands Antillean guilder, so if you are hopping between the ABC islands do not assume the money is the same. For a passenger on a fly-cruise from a US homeport it is convenient: there is nothing to change, everything is priced in dollars, and cards are widely accepted.
The Nature Fee funds the national marine park and is required of every visitor who enters the sea, whether to swim, snorkel, dive or windsurf. It is normally $40 for the calendar year, but cruise passengers pay a reduced $10, handled through the dive shops and tour operators that work with the cruise industry, so booking a water activity through an operator sorts it for you. Children under 12 are exempt. The fee also covers entry to Washington Slagbaai National Park.
Yes, and it is different from the Nature Fee. Bonaire charges a Visitor Entry Tax, which is $75 for most visitors arriving by air but only $10 for cruise passengers. For a cruise call it is arranged and collected by the cruise line and included in your fare, so you do not pay anything separately at the pier. In short, the entry tax is handled for you, while the Nature Fee is what you sort out if you plan to get in the water.
Get in the water. Bonaire’s whole coastline is a national marine park and the island is one of the finest shore-snorkelling and diving destinations in the Caribbean, with sites you walk into straight off the beach. The short water taxi to the empty white-sand beach on Klein Bonaire, a round trip of about $25, is the other classic. If you would rather stay dry, the flamingos and salt pans of the south make a memorable half-day by taxi.
British passport holders do not need a visa for a day ashore. Bonaire is a special municipality of the Netherlands, but it holds overseas-territory status, so it is outside the EU and the Schengen area, and the EU entry systems do not apply here. A valid passport is required, and cruise passengers ashore for the day are cleared through the ship. Travellers of other nationalities should check their own position before sailing.
Bonaire is mainly a winter cruise call, in the island’s drier half of the year, and because it sits outside the hurricane belt, along with Aruba and Curacao, a call is far less exposed to the weather cancellations that can hit the wider Caribbean between June and November. The island is warm, dry and breezy for most of the year, so a winter day ashore is a dependable, sunny one, with calm, clear water for the snorkelling.
Ready to Explore Bonaire?
Bonaire is the easy, watery, quietly different member of the ABC trio, and the honest steer is to treat it as a water day: the whole coastline is a national marine park, you can snorkel straight off the shore, and the short hop to the empty beach on Klein Bonaire is the simplest of pleasures. The port could hardly be better placed, alongside in the middle of little Kralendijk, and the two fees are modest and easily handled, with cruise passengers paying just $10 for the entry tax and the same reduced rate for the marine park Nature Fee. Add the pink salt pans and flamingos of the south or the wild north of Washington Slagbaai, and this dry island outside the hurricane belt makes a dependable and rewarding winter call.
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- Berth and terminal details, including whether the port is walkable or requires a transfer
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