loved the harbour village, perfect for honeymooners private beach which we had practically to ourselves snorkelling was excellant went on sailing trip bowalie was the company really good, had dinner on the beach which was very romantic, complimentary champagne, the breakfasts were fab overall this property is the best on bonaire and worth it after been in aruba bonaire was much quieter and more dutch, aruba very americanised so if its quiet, relaxing & beach your looking for perfect.

Our stay at the Harbour Village was largely positive, but every aspect had a 'but'. If it had been half the price, I would have given it a higher rating. For the price we paid, we wanted better. The property itself is fine, and generally well-kept; service is the main problem.

We had intimations that service would not be all we hoped before we arrived. According to the web site, the dive shop had some sort of deal for snorkelers. I sent an email asking whether the transport was on the dive boat, which admittedly carries an implicit hope that it is otherwise. I got no response. On the other hand, the reservationist exuded competence. She was in Florida, though.

We had given the reservationist our arrival information, and she assured us that there would be someone to meet us at the airport. This was good, as the Hertz web site had that office opening at 7, and we were scheduled to arrive shortly after 5 am. We arrived at perhaps 5:30, and got through immigration quickly, only to wait about 20 minutes for the luggage to appear. (Apparently, the airport people didn’t want to come to the plane when it landed, as it was raining.) So a little after 6 we emerged from customs, and were unable to find a vehicle from the hotel. I walked to Hertz and found that it was open (they open at 5 on Sunday, as the main flights arrive shortly thereafter). After wating on line at the counter a bit, I went back to assure my wife I was not lost. When I got to her, the hotel driver had arrived. Since Hertz was open, we declined the ride. On the other hand, the driver took our luggage, and it was in our room when we got there.

We got to the room before 7:30, when the restaurant opened for breakfast, so we unpacked first. The suite is really a suite, and it has more closet and drawer space perhaps than any other place we’ve stayed. This made it very easy to lay out all the snorkeling equipment together, apart from everything else, which is pretty much what we need to do to remember it all for snorkeling trips. The suite is well laid out, and pleasantly enough furnished. The bathroom has a separate w.c. for the toilet, a free-standing bath tub, and a fine shower. On the other hand, there was no shampoo until the second day, and the shower waste line needed to be snaked out.

Breakfast options aren’t exciting, but not bad either. On the first day, my wife had an omelet, and I had fried eggs with Cuban black beans. Service seemed neither here nor there. But when we went down for breakfast at 7:30 on the second day, since we needed to be on the road by 8:30, the restaurant was not open. Just a second, we were told. We were seated about seven minutes later, a bit before 7:40. We ordered coffee and continental breakfast, in the interests of efficiency – nothing to cook save the toast. As it got closer to 8:00, with only coffee and the juice that seems to come with every breakfast having appeared, we left. I told the waitress that we were leaving, and to give us a bill for the coffee. She said that I should have ordered the night before. I asked, “For continental breakfast?” I forget what else she said, but my wife overhead me responding, “I think of 7:30 as 7:30.” On the other hand, we weren’t asked to pay for the coffee. (And I got a call from the front desk around 6 pm, as I was about to nap, asking what happened at breakfast. I described it, and got an actual gasp at, “You should have ordered the night before.” That was encouraging.)

For breakfast the next day, I asked for a pot of coffee to be brought to the room at 7:45. At 7:55, I called the front desk to ask what might be happening. It was then brought right away, at no charge. Apparently, they thought that I was going to pick it up, perhaps to avoid the $5 USD delivery charge for anything delivered from the restaurant. I had given no indication that I intended to pick it up, though. The coffee was at the room before 7:45 the next two times we ordered it. We did pay for it, with the service charge. On our last day for breakfast, we were served more rapidly than any hotel breakfast I can recall. I even added a tip equal to the service charge, to bring it up to 20%.

On the second day, after a brief excursion into town, we stopped in the hotel shop for some candy. They wouldn’t let us charge it to the room; there’s a $5 USD minimum. Why? On the other hand, they had M&Ms, which the supermarket downtown didn’t.

I haven't yet mentioned the mosquitoes in the room. The first night, I was awakened a couple of times by their whine. After a couple of nights, and one try with the mosquito net (which is sort of cramping, and managed to capture at least one mosquito inside, with us), we started running the air conditioner at night. One night, though, even with the air conditioner, I was awakened twice by mosquitoes. (I wouldn’t be surprised if mosquito spraying is prohibited here, to protect the reef from poison runoff.) On the other hand, it’s a good bed.

We spent a week at the Harbour Village Beach Club. Mostly did a dive trip. The Good: Great location, the rooms were EXCELLENT. Huge suites, Very pretty place. The best part is the staff. Lloyd was our go to guy and got us just about anything we wanted. Pinata for a birthday party, salt crystals as souvaniers. The Average: The dive shop is good but not great. Some staff attitude problems with our group. The good news is that buddy dive is just down the street and has a much bigger dive operation, but not nearly as nice rooms or hotel staff. The Bad. There are condos on the site and one of the owners lets the kids play at full volume outside your room at all hours of the night. Despite multiple calls to security, and the manager the problem persisted. The resturant is very pricey. For God sake don't get the buffett, the food is below average. There is an Argentine steak house just around the corner and buddy dive has good food for reasonable price. Or just go into town. This is a good place for the person who wants luxury and diving in the same package.

My wife and I took our first trip to Bonaire as relatively new divers. We wanted to stay at an upscale resort, understanding that Bonaire is not St. Bart. We were found that the property itself was more than we expected. It was really well designed and maintained. The rooms were large, very well furnished with very large clean bathrooms. My wife really liked the great shower, bathtub, and amenities, (robes, toiletries, etc.).

However, it is clear that the property far exceeds the guest service. Where is everyone? The cleaning and grounds staff seem do a good job but reception and bellman service were really amateur for a “resort” with rates as high as they are. The whole stay seemed to be self-serve. We went on a package deal but it took quite a bit of asking at reception to figure out what was or was not included for meals, dives, etc. Furthermore, we essentially had to give ourselves an orientation to the property and the dive operations.

Checking in an out was a circus. The morning after we arrived,after essentially checking ourselves in the night before, the reception staff seemed to have no idea what the dive shop was doing when we inquired about dive times, orientation dive, etc. Worst of all, there was no coordination or real interest in helping us figure it out either. We had to go to the hotel next door, Eden Rock, to rent our gear and get the required Bonaire dive orientation since the dive masters were “tied up” all day and the woman managing the dive shop seemed to be inconvenienced by our questions. See a theme here.

That put us one day behind on diving in a five day trip. (We never did get all out pre-paid dives in.) In addition, we found it puzzling that the dive shop was really not interested in providing PADI classes. We had wanted to take Peak Performance Buoyancy and Nitrox but just ran into too many scheduling roadblocks. It may be that they get so many experienced divers that they are not well set up to give training. On the other hand, we did like the dive masters and dive boat once we figured out the system. It just seemed to take so much effort. (We were actually impressed with the Eden Rock dive operations next door.)

To give you just one example of the poor service, I bought some good Dutch beer at the large grocery store in town to enjoy back in the room after a dive. I needed a bottle opener. None in the room, reception had no idea where to get one so I went to the bar and asked to borrow one. One of the waiters lent me hers but I had to bring it back immediately. They should be embarrassed I had to traipse around asking for something so basic. Reception, this is your job.

We really liked Bonaire and will definitely go back. However, we’ll try one of the other resorts. The rooms may not be as nice but at least we won’t be paying for services we never got.