Visa and entry requirements Bonaire:
Passport required
No visa is required

Information from the Foreign Office about your Bonaire trip:
https://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/de/niederlandesicherheit/211084

The island of Bonaire is a special municipality in the Netherlands with around 20,000 inhabitants. Bonaire is the second largest of the so-called ABC Islands in the southern Caribbean and part of the Lesser Antilles.

The island's two official languages are Dutch and Papiamentu, and the US dollar has been the legal tender since 2011. The only cities on the Caribbean island are Kralendijk, the island's capital, and Rincon, the oldest settlement on Bonaire.

The land area of Bonaire consists of the green and undulating part in the north and a very flat southern half. The local vegetation is based primarily on huge cacti and the typical Divi-Divi trees, which are also used as material to protect against the wild donkeys, goats and iguanas that occur there. Due to previous radical deforestation, the island had lost its original vegetation.

Bonaire is world-famous as the home of thousands of pink flamingos. A nature reserve has been set up on the island specifically for this rare bird species to build their nests in order to ensure their continued existence.

In addition to the iguanas, which are numerous on the island, you can also find several specimens of large sea snails in the small northern mangrove forests.

Due to the lack of large sandy beaches, Bonaire's economy is based mainly on diving tourists or windsurfers. Due to the clear water and the coral landscape surrounding the island, the island has a species-rich and fascinating underwater world. This makes Bonaire one of the best diving areas in the world and attracts around 200,000 visitors every year for diving or snorkeling.

For the Bonaire National Marine Park, the local government has therefore introduced strict rules to protect this unique underwater world in order not to endanger this rare paradise.

The most important sights on the Caribbean island include the uninhabited island of Klein Bonaire, Lac Bay with the largest beach in Bonaire, the flamingo sanctuary, Sorobon Beach, the Terramar Museum, the old slave houses, the Bonaire National Marine Park, the Spelonk Lighthouse , the Bonaire water taxi, the Mangrove Information Center, the Coral Casino, the Jan Art Gallery, the botanical garden, the famous Pink Beach as well as some paradisiacal diving areas that can mainly be reached without a boat.

The capital of Bonaire is Kralendijk with around 3,000 inhabitants. The few sights in Kralendijk include the Protestant church, the Fort Oranje, the port of Kralendijk, Wilhelmina Square, the government building, the museum of national history and the Flamingo International Airport.

In August 2015 I visited the island of Bonaire for two days. On my only trip so far to the slightly different Caribbean island, I came with the airline “Insel Air” from the neighboring island of Curacao.

The small capital Kralendijk was very clean and cozy throughout, but during the day it seemed almost deserted because all the diving tourists were on the water. Although the small town is quite spacious, it was of course very easy to explore it on foot in just a few hours.

The real highlight of Kralendijk for me was observing the numerous corals and the colorful fish swimming all around from the shore. I have only experienced this unique spectacle in very few places before and it was even better than any other aquarium in the world.

However, without being a real fan of windsurfing, diving or snorkeling, staying on the island of Bonaire could become a bit difficult and a bit boring after a while. Any traveler who intends to visit this beautiful Caribbean island in the near future should think carefully beforehand. For so-called beach worshipers and party lovers, the island of Bonaire is for a longer stay, so perhaps not the right place to vacation.

The next day I went back to Curacao to continue my long nine-week Caribbean tour, then via Aruba to Caracas and to Venezuela in South America.