We selected Den Laman as the hotel for our first dive trip to Bonaire due to it's location (Bari Reef), value (great pricing relative to nearby resorts), and small but modern facilities. We prefer the smaller resorts. Another reason we chose this hotel was that there was a good PADI facility, Bonaire Adventure Dive, on premesis. Our studio apartment had a beautiful modern kitchen and nice modern bathroom. The only downside was that the balcony faced the back parking lot, not the ocean. Something we knew about before booking but decided not to pay the extra for an ocean front room. This was our first dive trip where we did all of our diving from shore via our rented pickup truck without the benefit of a local guide. We loved it! The flexibility of being able to decide what time to go diving and where to go allowed us to explore alot more aspects of the island other than diving. The reefs were healthy with lots of diversity. Den Laman location was good for us as we spent most of our time diving the north coast dive sites. Karpata and Ole'Blue were a couple of our favorites in the North. We saw a huge green eel at Ole'Blue and he was very cooperative getting his picture taken. In fact, we marveled about how cooperative most all of the fish were with the photo ops! We only dove the south dive sites one day, our favorite was Angel City Don't miss Washington Slagbaai National Park. It's well worth the adventure. When we weren't diving, we were birding and exploring the island. We spent one morning birding with Jerry Ligon, an expert birding guide, and learned alot about the islands natural environment that we would have missed otherwise including the Yellow Shouldered Parrot and Brown Throated Parakeet. When Jerry's not birding, he's an underwater naturalist guide at Bonaire Adventure Divers. We did a couple night dives including the Town Pier. We'd skip the Town Pier next time around, too many divers, a real traffic jam! Overall, we loved Bonaire and had a great time and hope to come back again soon and repeat our stay at the Den Laman. The staff was warm and welcoming. So was the Island of Bonaire!

I had an enjoyable 4-night stay at this hotel. My studio room was clearly recently refurbished and everything looked new. The kitchen appliances were sparkling and the pots/dishes/silverware were all high-quality. I originally marveled at the brand new full-size fridge with a built-in ice maker/water -- that is until things became quieter at night when the fridge made lots of weird noises and constantly woke me up. The new LCD flat-panel TV (small) was also pretty nice. There was even a DVD player hooked into a surround sound speaker setup but I don't know where you would get DVD's to watch??? I got attacked by mosquitoes at first but I eventually hunted them all down. It would have been nice to have a flyswatter though. My 2nd floor room's patio overlooked the front entrance and parking lot so the view wasn't particularly nice. All the doors use an electronic pass card which is better than a rusty key when going into the water.

The only problem I had was that there were lots of ants in the kitchen. I put some dirty dishes in the dishwasher and in a couple of hours they were covered with the little buggers. The ants are really tiny and scamper away quickly so they really aren't that annoying. You wouldn't even notice them If the kitchen was clean and you weren't looking for them. I just put all my food inside the fridge and re-washed any plates. I did not report this issue to them since the ants didn't bother me much and I was otherwise comfortable with my room. I'm pretty sure that they would have taken care of this issue if told.

The on-location staff of Bonaire Dive and Adventure are extremely friendly. The owner André took the time to show me their operation and explain their activities. The hotel even has an "equipment room" where you can stash all of your stuff. I took a very educational "Dive with a Naturalist" course (I was the only snorkeler) and it's so much better when you understand what you're looking at underwater.

It doesn’t look like much for the outside, but Den Laman is great, and we were very pleased with our stay. Our room had sort of a side-ways view of the water from the living room, and small deck off the bedroom that we used to dry out of diving gear. The apartment was HUGE (at least to our Manhattan standards) and we appreciated the beautiful kitchen equipped with stainless utilities. The place is new and clean and the help in the office was excellent. The dive shop on site, Bonaire Dive and Adventure, was good for us. Dianne oversaw my open water dives for certification and she was excellent – thorough and patient. Rental prices were high though…we wound up buying some of own equipment down there (fins, wetsuit) because the 10-day rental cost was about ¾ the cost of purchasing. Diving the Bari Reef, just off Den Laman’s dock, is fantastic. We saw eels, octopus, eagle rays and lots of fish right there. The Reef restaurant (actually a separate business from Den Laman) was hit or miss. I didn’t care for the breakfast and the fajitas were greasy, but the fresh fish for lunch was excellent. (For excellent Bonaire dining try Bistro de Paris, Wil’s and Cappricos) We paid 198/night for our one-bedroom, and got one night free. This was the high season; you might be able to do better. I poked my head into a studio apartment as well. It was spacious and equally clean, but without a view. Still, for $100 a night – I believe that’s the cost – it would be an excellent value. I would stay away from the ground-floor units: seems to me they would be noisy because everyone walks by them all day. If I could change two things about Den Laman I would add a shower curtain in the bathroom (the floor floods horribly without one) and I’d add a few lounge chairs outside near the water to hang out and read. Overall, we were very happy with Den Laman and would definitely return. One more note: bring bug spray. With the mosquitoes on the island, you’ll want it! We don’t like DEET, and had difficulty finding any natural options on the island.

These condos are clean, very well furnished and maintained. There are in a pleasant location. As for the rates, well for what is essentially a full self catering flat, you can't beat them on the island.

The kitchen was fully kitted - full sized appliances and sparkling clean. It was a doddle to cook and clean when the fancy struck.

The furniture was great for watching the telly and realxing in the evening. The bed was firm and quite new.

The only complaint (and I do mean the only) is that the shower basin in the studio is just a touch too small and keeping water from getting to the bathroom floor was a bit of a challenge.

I predict we will stay here many times again and we are fully looking forward to it.