The first time we stayed at Eden Beach was 4 years ago. We had been camping out on a boat moored in front of Karels for a couple of weeks, and even though we were surrounded by water, we were craving water without salt in it. I was swimming by Eden Beach and stopped there to catch my breath. Met some really friendly people there from Pennsylvania. Went and jumped in the pool for a few minutes. Swam back to the boat and got the guys. Brought them to Eden Beach. They jumped in the pool with me, got some drinks at the bar, and then went back to the boat with two days left in our trip, got our bags and checked into Eden Beach.
We have stayed everywhere on Bonaire for many years..houses, boats, hotels...nothing comes close to Eden Beach Resort.
Now that the web cams are at Eden Beach, its really like a dream come true. We used to have to swim up to Jake Richter's house to let our friends see us, now all we do is eat breakfast at the bar and park a chair in front of the camera while we digest and work on our tans.
We crank up the AC in the rooms as soon as we get there and leave it running so we sleep and hang out in the living room at night feeling like we've never left Virginia. Just right!
My 12 year old and I play chess in front of the north beach web cam so folks back home can see us.
I like to play guitar on the beach. The south beach web cam is about 20 steps away from our room. If you put a chair even with the first palm tree, everybody can see you just right.
Right now, I think Eden Beach is the nicest sand beach on the island. The staff takes really good care of it. I see it raked every morning. There's a big blue heron that loves it, too. He was there every morning of our two week stay this year.
Wanna Dive is a great dive operation. Their downtown store has all the gear you could ever need and the divemasters are first rate. Paul is the guy I would trust to get me out of any trouble I could ever get into underwater. He took my 12 year old out diving twice this year to Klein Bonaire. My son was fearless by Paul's side. A really great time.
For those that don't know it, Eden Beach is a wreck diver's dream. You see the boat laying on it's side in the web cam view. That's at 65'. What you don't see is "The Cavalier" about 200 yards down to the right (north) and "Our Confident " about 200 yards down to the left (south). We do all three wrecks in the same dive typically. The Cavalier is in 90' of water. It's a major cleaning station for big groupers. (see photo) We do that first. Then we come up to the web cam boat and play with the sargent majors. Then we continue on over to the Our Confident wreck and look for tarpon. By that time you are at 35'. It's an easy swim up the the Wannadive shop and then the bar for lunch after that.

For the more adventurous diver, you might try doing the underwater web cam at night. Last time we did it, this 5' tarpon came out to hunt by our lights. We brought him up to the Eden Beach dock with us and we snorkeled for the next two hours while he swam right underneath us chomping down on fish we spotlighted for him. Totally amazing.

If you do New Years in Bonaire, Eden Beach is always filled up with little blond haired Dutch kids playing in the sand while their parents hang out at the bar. The staff lights tiki torches on the beach and the kids run around shooting off fireworks all night and playing hide and seek behind palm trees and under tables.
Great family atmosphere.

Do New Years Eve from a boat if you can. You can see all the fireworks on the island at once that way. Plaza shoots from the south, Captain Don's from the north, and Karels from the center of town. Drink some champaigne with Captain Mike.

Life doesn't get better than Eden Beach Resort. If you're money conscious, the room prices are a real bargain. The money's not important. They could charge a lot more and we'd still stay there. We love the people there and they take great care of us. Best place on the island, hands down. You'll make friends that will last forever.

Dave (Guitar Man to you Webcammers)

This is a basic condo hotel - 2 floor townhouses with 2 bedrooms on the second flooor that can sleep 4 persons. It comes with basicly supplied Kitchen and 3 bathrooms. It needs a fresh coat of paint but the staff are marvelous. They went out of their way to solve any and all problems we had.

For example they went to the local store and bought a BBQ for us when we asked if there was one on site. They replaced an air conditioning unit when we complained that the existing one was too loud. Anything we asked for they found a way to do.

The physical site is drab but we spent all our time in the water or the beach so did not mind the drabness.

The dive operator on site - wannadive - offers unlimited tank refills and 24 hour a day access to diving so for scuba enthusiats this is a great place.

Just returned from the resort today. First, everyone there was really nice and they try hard with what the have. The dive shop was understaffed and had to abort a dive due to their poor rental equipment (airline lost our dive gear) so we had to go to Toucan Diving for gear and boat dives. The two bedroom apartment was a nightmare. Construction above us was noisy and our patio was wet 24/7 from water dripping from the construction. The back bedroom had wonderful large doors to open for breeze, but no screens. We are all covered with mosquito bites even though we used bug spray both in the rooms and on our skin. One member of our party had a severe allergic reaction to the mold in the noisy AC unit and growing on the walls. A fresh coat of paint initially disguised the rust, corrosion, and mold. Furniture on the second floor was homemade and the beds uncomfortable. Wires were exposed in one bath along with a six inch pipe to no where directly above the shower. The lack of water pressure (hot water stream about the size of my thumb) made more than one shower at a time impossible in the tiny showers . We stayed out of our room as much as possible because it was impossible to relax there, it just felt creepy. The patio furniture paint was pealing off and the beach was littered with cigarettes and broken glass. The pool was adequate but the view of the ocean was blocked by vegetation and was only accesible by a small walkway in the middle of the property. We have stayed at Plaza Bonaire and have been very pleased with the accomodations in the Junior Suites and Toucan Diving there is a good safe outfit. Well worth the extra two grand for the Plaza. Will never ever stay there again, I felt like I was in jail!
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Cons:
no ceiling fans and no screens on windows = completely being attacked by the vicious mosquitoes from dusk through-out the night. A/C unit is large and loud, would much rather have enjoyed the cooling breezes but were attacked by mosquitoes even with the windows closed.

beach at resort is very small and dirty with cigarette butts littering it all over. If only they raked it daily it would be nicer. Sand is not fine white, but small corally bits, a little hard on bare feet.

They are building 3rd floor units over some of the existing buildings, could be disturbing if you stay in these buildings.

Resort pretty far outside of town, about a 30 minute walk.

A bit overpriced for not including breakfast or an airport transfer.

Pros:
Very clean room with daily maid service.

Nice little pool to soak in after you get attacked by mosquitoes.

Great snorkeling right off the pier.

Good location to ride bikes along the Northern road to snorkle sites.

Excellent hot sandwich press provided in kitchen.

Advice about Bonaire:
It's a good place for divers but there really aren't any nice fine white sand beaches except at Klein Bonaire.

And they really need to do something about mosquito management because at dusk no matter where you are outside, by the downtown marina, at an open air restaurant, in your hotel room, the super aggressive mosquitoes will swarm around you and make you completely miserable. We did not sleep well the entire time because we were swatting at the mosquitoes or getting bitten by them. Find a resort with good screens on the windows and bring plenty of really strong bug spray.