Bonaire is a beautiful and wonderful paradise in the Caribbean Sea, it is a Dutch island and belongs to the ABC islands of the Lesser Antilles. In terms of area, Bonaire is one and a half times larger than the Dutch Wadden Island of Texel and it is a very quiet island with approximately 20.915 inhabitants (last count 2020). It is a nice and quiet island opposite, for example, Curaçao, where about 155.000 people live. If you drive around Bonaire and stop somewhere in a beautiful spot, you often imagine yourself on a private island. Tourism has now started up again after a long corona period and huge cruise ships dock in Kralendijk every day.
Kralendijk is very suitable for receiving large cruise ships, even the largest cruise ship can dock here. 2020 was on track to be one of Bonaire's busiest cruise seasons, with an average of 1959 sailing tourists per day. Then corona came and no cruise ship arrived in the port of Kralendijk until September 2021. The cruise season on Bonaire runs from October to April. Several cruise ships come to the port every week. It is an impressive sight such a boat about the size of an apartment building. What's also nice is that you don't have traffic lights on Bonaire, how nice is that. You don't find many roundabouts either, I counted five. Everything goes smoothly here and there is no stress on the road.
Traffic on the through roads has priority and not traffic coming from the right. Within built-up areas a speed limit of 40 km per hour applies and outside built-up areas this is 60 km per hour. The roads are pretty bad and you really have to adjust your speed accordingly if you don't want your head to hit the roof of your car if you drive through a hole in the road. It is advisable to rent a pick-up or jeep so that you can also go to the National Park, for example, because this is not recommended with a Fiat Panda. The cars on Bonaire wear out because of the bad roads and the climate. They do not do a mandatory APK inspection on this island. While touring, you have to pay close attention to donkeys and goats crossing the road, because they walk around a lot in the wild.
Also read: Watch out with crossing wildlife
