Bonaire: A Surprising Caribbean Island with Flamingos, Quiet Space, and… Cacti?!

“What should I know about Bonaire?” I asked the island experts as our shuttle van chugged out of Flamingo Airport and towards our hotel.

“Bonaire isn’t just a scuba diving paradise,” replied a woman who vacations on the island each year. “It also has wild natural beauty, with otherworldly landscapes of cacti.”

“Cacti?!” I gasped. I didn’t realize Bonaire had cacti!”

“You’re in for a whole lot more surprises,” the woman smiled. “You haven’t seen a Caribbean island like this one.”

Bonaire wasn’t on my radar at all, until the random afternoon I won a solo trip to the island. (Check out the full story here — it involved a contest posing with inflatable flamingos.)

After winning the trip, I began to read up on the island. Turns out, Bonaire is a “special municipality” of the Netherlands, and lies 50 miles north of Venezuela, and a fortunate distance south of the Caribbean’s Hurricane Belt.

The island is just 114 square miles in area (slightly larger than my home city of Boston), meaning it takes less than half a day to drive around the entirety of Bonaire, exploring its nooks and crannies. That’s exactly what I did on my third morning there, equipped with a camera, van, and new buddy named Rodrigo, who I’d met at my heavenly Bonaire hotel.

As we started our circle around the island, the first thing that stood out was how quiet, calm, and private Bonaire feels. With under 19,000 inhabitants (most of whom are in the main town of Kralendijk), you can drive for miles and not see anyone. In fact, more than 20% of the island’s land and all 100% of its surrounding water are protected National Parks. No high-rise hotels here!

The second clear element was the Dutch flavor of the island. Check out the Dutch “Donkey Crossing” sign, above! Though Dutch is the official language of Bonaire, Papiamentu is also recognized, and English and Spanish are also widely spoken.

The color of Bonaire’s ocean floored me. In the sun, the azure waters are so bright, they swirl the head. Though there aren’t endless sandy beaches, the island is one of the best in the world for scuba diving, and its snorkeling shines, too.

There are other bodies of water besides the crystal sea, however, and the shallow lakes on either tip of the island house the most famous animal of Bonaire…

Given that one enters Bonaire through “Flamingo Airport”, it’s easy to surmise that the pink birds are a favorite on the island. While the official flamingo sanctuary is found at the southern tip, I also ogled some excellent flamingo struts on the north side of Bonaire.

As our van puttered stealthily along Gotomeer (Goto Lake), I kept asking Rodrigo, “Please pull over! There’s a flamingo I’d love to photograph!” In keeping with the quiet feel of the island outside of Kralendijk, we did this for a full hour, and hardly saw another car.

Eyes full up from flamingos, we continued our drive to circumnavigate the island. From the tiny northern village of Rincon, to the salt flats in the south, and back up to Kralendijk, Bonaire’s combination of cacti, bright blue sea, and quiet were, indeed, unlike any other Caribbean island I’d ever seen — or even imagined.

This isn’t the kind of vacation destination where you’re forced to march from tourist attraction to tourist attraction to check off a list, because the best way to explore Bonaire (when one isn’t scuba diving or relaxing by the ocean) is a slow, free-form wander through its wild beauty. Check out these photos from our drive to see what I mean!

These photos epitomize the calm solitude I felt on Bonaire, and the pull of its nature. I didn’t pick any of the pictures from the bustling main town, because for me, what I most appreciated about Bonaire was its opportunities for solo reflection, meandering through the island’s unique terrain.

So what about you? Does Bonaire seem like a place you’d be curious to visit? Have you been? Are you a flamingo fan? I’d be curious to hear about your thoughts in the comments!

Click here to check out my first Bonaire article, and here to see all my ABC Islands posts.

I was a guest of Tourism Bonaire, but all opinions and penchants for photographing things growing upwards are my own.