On Bonaire, you'll stay at Chogogo Dive & Beach Resort, where you'll have everything you need: from a dive school, car rental, and bicycles to three restaurants, a bar, a private beach, and a huge swimming pool. The resort is located just outside Kralendijk, so you can easily walk into town. The decor is light with wood, the occasional bright towel, and, of course, a striking SMEG refrigerator. Accommodations range from compact studios to spacious villas. No frills. Kids, parents, plenty to do: so, are you taking a dive (or a lesson)?

Chogogo Dive & Beach Resort

Traditionally (or well, not very old but you know what I mean) it has been the most popular beach bar on Bonaire Jibe City. And it is also very cozy, colorful and a wonderful surfers' resort. But it must be said: nowadays you actually feel a little better, and you also eat a little better a door away, at Sebastians Beach (see below). We're not losing Jibe! Are you crazy? Still very fun and relaxed and the place where you want to hang out if you are young and have surfing skills. Plus: highly recommended if you want to experience Dutch conviviality (which is well represented on Bonaire anyway). However, you will not easily find Bonairians here. No, they go to the other side of Lac Bay (just look at a map, then this comment will be a bit clearer). At Jibe City you can take surfing lessons, also for dummies, and at the Hangout Bar you can easily lie down all day…

Bonaire. Sun, sea and beach. Oh yes, and wind. That's just part of it the island life and is actually very tasty. A stay there is just as nice Windhoek (what's in a name) Resort Bonaire, a small-scale boutique resort where you are guaranteed a breath of fresh air. And zoning out. And rest, too. Windhoek has her formal and casual looks and charm is not only due to the fact that it is located on a lovely island. The resort was designed by architect Piet Boon, who created an unmistakably casual Bali meets Bonaire managed to create an atmosphere. There is one next to the large swimming pool palapa. Nice word, nice place.

Read more about Windhoek Bonaire

When you drive to Jibe and Sebastians Beach, you can't miss the sign on the side of the road that says FOODIES THAT WAY. It's a good idea, going to Foodies. The restaurant in a colonial building, next to a few houses (funny corner here) is a great place for a now-no-beach lunch. The food is fantastic and if you want to get some work done, the WiFi is fast and the waiters are just as hospitable.

As mentioned, nowadays you move a step further towards the young Sebastians Beach. Does ring a bell? That's true: restaurant Sebastians has been a popular, and very good, restaurant on the edge of Kralendijk (the capital of the island) for many years. And what do you do if you are a popular restaurant on a small island like Bonaire? Right, then make sure you also open a location on the beach. Sebastians Beach's pizzas are thin, delicious and famous for good reason. The same applies to the beach right in front of the 'door': thin (or narrow/small, whatever you want to call it), wonderful and famous for its warm, clear blue water.

A beach tent from the books – as it goes and as we like to see them, that is Ocean Oasis. Nothing here but wooden decking, roofs made of branches, 50 shades of sand and... good food what matters. Once more: what's not to like? But seriously, if we have to choose a place to hang out all day, this is our second best choice (the best choice is below but you don't do that every day). The food is really good, the portions are plump and the service is the same. Well, not chubby, that service.

Bonaire has more than enough delicious restaurants, but we perhaps had the best meal at an ordinary food truck. The Kite City Food Truck is run by two, you'll never guess, fanatical kitesurfers. The two had a simple dream: kitesurfing and cooking, cooking and kitesurfing, day in and day out. And what you can dream, you can live. With the caveat that the place where the food truck is currently located is not the place the two dreamed of. They started on the other side of Bonaire but were no longer allowed to stay there. It doesn't matter: almost opposite the small airport, things are secretly getting even better. The spicy tuna burger is one of the tastiest things I have ever eaten (probably also because of the environment, but that's besides the point). By the way, you will not find the locals' beach near the well-known, popular beach bars, but a few meters away from the Kite City Food Truck. Follow the music.

Or you might want to take a dip in the pool, take a private trip on one of the hotel boats (the hotel is not called 'Harbour' Village for nothing) or – of course – go diving or snorkeling. For the latter, the hotel has a shop where you can easily arrange everything. The beach in front of the door is a private beach, it doesn't get any nicer. Private and therefore for guests but you can buy a day pass! And then you are here at the next level. All day. You can also have lunch and dinner in the restaurant if you are not a guest. Reservations are of course a must; the friendly gatekeeper handles the guest list strictly but fairly.

Harbor Village

With all due respect to Brass Boer, but the restaurant of Bonaire is without a doubt Restaurant CHEFS, part of the (adults only) Bamboo Boutique Hotel. To get there, you have to enter the hotel and that's nice because you immediately get a glimpse of how wonderful it is here, but we'll come back to that later. After all, this is about Restaurant CHEFS, the only restaurant on Bonaire where we have to make reservations weeks in advance (this applies all year round). That is twofold: on the one hand it is really great (we know, because we slept at Bamboo and they always try to create a place for hotel guests, a good reason to plan a child-free week on Bonaire...) and on the other side there are only a handful of place settings. If you have a hot ticket, you are always in the right place chef's table – that is the entire restaurant. At the high bar you sit on comfortable stools, watch the chefs on their fingers and eat the fixed menu that they have devised for that day. About six courses of pure pleasure.

If you ask a dozen people for the best tip on Bonaire, at least half will mention Stadscafé Het Consulaat. We understand; It's a lot of fun to sit there, especially in the narrow patio, and we can totally imagine that the city café was a unique place for years where things happened naturally. A success story. But yeah. They say you're only as good as your last match, right? We had a rather disappointing evening there ourselves. With the best intentions in the world, the food could not be called good, although it was mainly the sullen service that did not treat us to a nice evening. Now we normally wouldn't have written that down so loudly (after all, everyone can have a bad evening once in a while), if it weren't for the fact that after asking around we heard the same stories very (really) often. It's certainly a nice place, but perhaps it's a good time for the coach of Het Consulaat to whistle for his team again?