Hotels near The Lake (42), Kralendijk

I was very happy we decided to stay at Delfins Beach Resort. We stayed in one of the two-bedroom apartments. The main pool is very nice, with direct access to the bar. We typically skipped the buffet and got breakfast at Boertiek, which offered decent coffee, smoothies, yogurt parfaits, and pastries. For lunch or a casual dinner, the Beach Brasserie was excellent—I especially enjoyed the goat stew. And for a more formal dinner (by island standards), the Brass Boer was truly excellent—arguably the best restaurant on Bonaire—and we ate at many excellent restaurants during our weeklong visit.

This review has two parts. The Resort excluding the dive operations. The resort is nice. It’s our second time there and was the perfect place to take my fiancé who is a new diver for his first dive trip. The food is great the staff is beyond friendly. The staff get 5 stars no questions Gabriella and Nayeah (two gold tooth caps) think her name was are absolutely top notch. They truly helped make our trip to the resort wonderful. The Dive Shop/Operations This new dive ops manager is a real piece of work. While I applaud his trying to make positive changes such as 1hr dive times and empowering his dive masters (at least he says) His almost 2 hour long dive briefing the first day was beyond ridiculous. It was pretty clear he was required to go over certain things by STINAPA etc but it could have been very much condensed. Now a diver of almost 30 years as I look back on my time doing this I can say that was without a doubt the worst one I’ve received. He had my poor fiancé so terrified to so much as touch a grain of sand it literally ruined his diving since he was in constant fear of touching something and being kicked off the boat. Greg, you mean well and it’s clear you care but your delivery needs some major work. You’re not my dad or my boss I come here to escape them. We are tourists on vacation. You could learn a lot from the rest of the staff at the resort on how to interact with the folks there. Thankfully after his long winded speech I didn’t have to interact with him much with each time I did was just a further painful reminder of how unfriendly he is. Poppy in the shop is such a kind sweet woman. I have nothing but great things to say. So funny. Denise and Ruud were my dive masters the last time I came and I was beyond excited to see they were again leading our boat. Such great dry Dutch humor and they try so hard to make sure we have a good time. Can’t say enough good things about them. They are absolutely a reason to return.