Bonaire Diving: Shore Diving, Nature Fee, Dive Sites and Seasons

Why Bonaire is a shore diving island

On Bonaire you drive to the reef. STINAPA, the foundation that manages the Bonaire National Marine Park, marks shore sites with yellow stones that carry the site name, and boat sites with yellow mooring buoys; anchoring is banned in the park. The counts differ by page: STINAPA lists 86 public dive sites on its marine park page and 88 marked sites on its diving rules page, and the Tourism Corporation Bonaire says 54 of its 85-plus sites are easy shore entries. Buddy Dive, a resort operator, says the fringing reef usually starts after a swim of 10 m (30 ft) or less.

The routine is simple. You rent a pickup truck, collect full tanks, drive to a stone, run a buddy check at the tailgate and walk in. Buddy Dive's packages include a pickup and unlimited air, and its drive-thru lets each diver take 2 tanks per collection; it warns that tanks left in a parked car get hot in the sun. Dive Friends Bonaire lets you swap air or nitrox tanks at any of its seven shops. Buddy Dive also notes there is no public transport on the island, so shore divers need a car. With no boat crew or guide watching, your buddy is the safety plan on every entry.

Plan for theft from the parked car. Bonaire.com's safety page says theft from rental cars happens but is not systematic, and that dive gear in an open pickup is a risk. A 2012 reader report in Undercurrent says rental companies told divers not to leave valuables and not to lock the doors, because thieves break the glass; that reader's truck was emptied of towels, shirts, hats and prescription glasses while they dived The Invisibles, south of Salt Pier. Take only what you can lose.

The STINAPA nature fee: price, validity and who pays

Every diver needs a paid nature fee before entering the water; STINAPA's portal still calls it a tag. STINAPA's own payment page lists the 2026 tag at USD 40, covering the Marine Park and Washington Slagbaai National Park and expiring on 31 December 2026.

• Price: USD 40 per person. STINAPA's FAQ says divers and other users paid different rates until 1 January 2023, and everyone now pays the same. Older guides quote a lower diver tag; DAN's 2015 Bonaire feature gave $25.
• Validity: one calendar year, 1 January to 31 December, not 12 months from purchase. A trip that runs over New Year needs a tag for each year.
• Exempt: residents of Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Sint Eustatius and Saba with official ID, and children under 12 according to the FAQ. The 2026 payment page says under 13, so check the age rule when you buy.
• How to pay: online on STINAPA's portal, which emails a QR code. Bonaire.com also lists the STINAPA office at Barcadera 10 in Kralendijk and many dive shops as sales points.
• What it funds: STINAPA says the parks run almost entirely on visitor money, and lists mooring maintenance, law enforcement, research and monitoring as its main jobs.
• A separate charge: the Tourism Corporation Bonaire lists a Visitor Entry Tax of $75 per person, per visit. It is not the nature fee.
• Fees change, so confirm the amount on the STINAPA portal before you pay.

The orientation dive and the marine park rules

STINAPA makes an orientation dive mandatory on arrival. Buddy Dive describes how it works at its resort: everyone does it regardless of experience, before any boat or shore dive off the premises. A short briefing at 9:00 or 14:00 is followed by a dive on the house reef, where you check buoyancy and staff help adjust weights. Divers on afternoon flights usually attend the next morning, so count on a short first day. The check is mostly about buoyancy; if yours is rusty, practise the drills in our buoyancy and trim guide before you fly.

STINAPA says its rules derive from the island's Underwater Park decision. For divers they are:

• No gloves and no knee pads. Medical exceptions can be requested from STINAPA by email.
• Do not touch, move or hold marine life, including for photos, and do not feed animals.
• Do not take or leave any object, living or dead. Disposable chemical light sticks and pointer sticks are banned.
• Secure gauges and hoses so nothing drags on the reef.
• Carry a surface marker buoy; STINAPA recommends one, especially in shallow water, so others can see where you are.
• Use sunscreen without oxybenzone and octinoxate.
• No spearfishing and no anchoring. Coral, sharks, turtles and parrotfish are protected.
• The two marine reserves (Queen Maxima and King Willem-Alexander) are closed to diving, as is Washington Slagbaai National Park.
• Disinfect your gear before your first dive on Bonaire and after your last one, because of stony coral tissue loss disease.

Bonaire dive sites: 1000 Steps, Salt Pier, Hilma Hooker and Karpata

Most of the famous sites sit on the sheltered west coast, and published depths and levels are patchy, so the table shows only what a source states.

The Hilma Hooker is the deep one. The Dutch Cultural Heritage Agency's MaSS database says the 71.6 m (235 ft) cargo ship rolled onto her starboard side and sank on 12 September 1984, and now lies on a 30 m sandy plateau between two reefs at the Angel City site, with the top at 18 m. Its cargo holds are open, and MaSS says more advanced penetration is possible; Buddy Dive runs guided penetration dives for certified wreck divers. With the sand at 30 m, no-stop time is short, so plan the dive on your computer before you walk in.

Salt Pier works around ships. Underwater Journal says the pilings drop to 15 m (50 ft) and the pier is off-limits while a freighter is loading salt. Ask your dive shop if a ship is in before you drive there.

Klein Bonaire, Washington Slagbaai and the east coast

Klein Bonaire is the flat, uninhabited islet facing Kralendijk. STINAPA puts it at just under 4 km², 800 m from the nearest point of Bonaire, with no running water or toilets. The government bought it in December 1999 for US$5 million and handed it to the Marine Park, and STINAPA notes that Hans Hass photographed its reefs in 1939. PADI describes its sites, such as Munk's Haven and Monte's Divi Tree, as boat dives, and STINAPA lists green, hawksbill and loggerhead turtles among the species that nest on its beaches.

Washington Slagbaai National Park in the north is closed for diving, according to STINAPA's current notice, although the park is open for other activities. Other northern and Klein Bonaire sites closed during the coral disease outbreak have reopened.

The east coast is the windward side. STINAPA says diving there is for advanced divers only and recommends an experienced guide. Buddy Dive runs east coast boat trips from the fishermen's pier at Sorobon, requires every diver to wear a dive computer, and says the captain may reschedule for weather. Lac Bay itself is a shallow lagoon with a fringing reef, seagrass and the largest mangrove forest in the Dutch Caribbean, and STINAPA describes it as a foraging ground for green turtles.

Best time to dive Bonaire: water temperature, wind and hurricanes

Any month works. The Meteorological Department Curaçao, which covers the ABC islands, gives an average sea temperature of about 27°C, coolest around February and March (about 25.9°C) and warmest around September and October (about 28.2°C). DAN's Bonaire feature gives 78-80°F (about 26-27°C) from December to March and 81-84°F (about 27-29°C) from April to November. Buddy Dive puts average visibility above 30 m (100 ft); DAN gave 18-30 m (60-100 ft).

Hurricanes are rare but possible. The same department says the season runs from 1 June to 30 November with a peak from August to October, and that the Dutch Leeward islands sit on the southern edge of the Atlantic hurricane region, so direct impacts are relatively rare. Its record lists 37 or more tropical cyclones passing within 100 nautical miles of Curaçao between 1605 and 2024. Tropical Storm Bonnie in June 2022 brought tropical storm warnings to all three ABC islands, the first time in decades. A late summer trip is still a reasonable bet, but buy cover that handles cancellation.

Rain and wind shape the surface more than the water. The dry season runs from February to May and the rainy season from October to January, with July to September transitional. Steady easterly trade winds keep the west coast in the lee and push the swell onto the east coast, which is why east coast trips depend on the day's weather. To compare Bonaire with other trips by month, see where to dive each month.

Reef health: coral disease, lionfish and restoration

Bonaire's reefs are protected, but they have changed. A 2017 study in Coral Reefs by de Bakker and colleagues followed four reef sites on Curaçao and Bonaire from 1973 to 2013 and found coral cover fell from 32.6% to 9.2%, while cyanobacterial mats rose from 7.1% in 2002 to 22.2% in 2013.

Stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) reached Bonaire in March 2023. A 2025 paper in Frontiers in Marine Science by Pepe and colleagues surveyed 115 sites along the leeward coast at 5 m and 10 m. Mean cover of six disease-sensitive species fell from over 3% in 2014 to about 1% in 2023. The City Limits area around Kralendijk and Klein Bonaire were hit hardest, with most transects near 0% for those species, while the North stayed stable. STINAPA has found the disease on 9 coral species and has started trials treating infected corals with an amoxicillin ointment.

Lionfish were first reported on Bonaire in 2009, according to the Reef Resilience Network's case study. Spearfishing is illegal on Bonaire, but around 500 local volunteers have been trained and licensed to remove lionfish with special permits. On the restoration side, Reef Renewal Bonaire says it has outplanted 70,000 corals from 12 nurseries, grows 16 species and works with 17 partner dive shops, and it offers discovery dives and volunteer places to visiting divers.

Flights, the recompression chamber and flying home

Bonaire's airport is Flamingo International (BON). The Tourism Corporation Bonaire lists non-stop flights from Amsterdam Schiphol on KLM, TUI and Corendon, and from North America on American Airlines from Miami, Delta from Atlanta, United from Newark and Houston, and WestJet from Toronto. Check current schedules with the airlines before you book.

The island has a recompression chamber, according to the tourism board, and Bonaire.com places it next to Fundashon Mariadal hospital in Kralendijk. A June 2026 Outdoor Medicine interview with three of its physicians says divers with suspected decompression sickness usually come in through the hospital emergency department, an on-call diving physician decides on treatment, and each chamber run needs at least four staff. Staffing has been a problem before: the BES Reporter reported the chamber closed on 20 February 2023 for lack of a dive doctor, with patients to be flown to Curaçao, and InfoBonaire reported it reopened that August. Evacuation cover still matters, so read our guide to what dive insurance covers. DAN says to call local emergency services first, then its hotline on +1-919-684-9111, staffed 24 hours a day.

Unlimited air makes a dive on the last morning tempting. DAN's guidelines give a minimum 18-hour surface interval after multi-day repetitive diving, which a week of shore diving is, and substantially longer after decompression dives. Enter your last dive in our flying after diving calculator before you book the flight home.