This was our second trip to Sand Dollar and as always, it has its good points. It's relatively affordable, especially as part of a dive package. The childcare is a great deal, as the Sand Penny Club is available for 3-6 year olds for free. The dive operation (BDA) and the house reef are both good. And we had adequate space and everything worked in our two bedroom condo. We also had a screened in porch, so we could sit out without worrying about skeeters. Safe was helpful, easy to use and big enough for a laptop and other small electronics.

What are the drawbacks? Well, the units are starting to look a little ragged around the edges. They were clean, but not sparkling and not especially well maintained. TV is pretty small (Kids watched a lot more than us grownups.) Bed was a bit hard. Bed linens looked old, though the towels were nice and thick. As mentioned by some, they don't provide washcloths, which is weird.

Staff was not especially friendly, aside from Marlen in Sand Penny Club. We were not given a unit close to the water, despite my early, repeated requests. And the pool area is looking BAD. The bar and couches were ok, perhaps. But the pool deck seems dirty, the pool tiles are chipped and cracked, the bathrooms are sketchy and the pool itself has mold on the sides. We swam in it anyway, because fresh water feels nice after diving in salt all day, but I didn't like it. The food was also pretty bad.

While not expensive, Sand Dollar isn't cheap either. As our kids will be too old for their childcare next time we visit Bonaire, we won't be going back.

Stayed at the Sand Dollar in October and had a great time diving in Bonaire for a week. As the other reviews state the Sand Dollar is a bunch of condos owned by different people with some available for weekly rentals. We stayed in a 2nd floor 3 bedroom condo that was well furnished met all our needs, we used the kitchen to prepare lunches as well as several dinners. The A/C worked great, no problems with bugs and plenty of space to store our gear. The best aspect of the condo was the huge deck with a great view, by far the best place to go after a day of shore diving to watch the sunset and get ready for a night dive.

We had the breakfast package at the Don Laman next door and also had a few dinners there. The food was good, but a little pricey overall.

We did 1 boat dive per day through Bonaire Dive and Adventure (BDA) and averaged another 3 shore dives per day around the island. Tanks were always available through BDA and we took advantage of the free nitrox upgrade. The Dive staff was competent and very friendly. The dive shop is similar to the Sand Dollar resort in a lot of ways; not very pretty on the outside, but excels in the important areas (good DMs, ease of access to gear storage / tanks and very timely with the boat dives). As for the diving, we dove all over the island (except the east side) and I enjoyed the northern dive sites the best. Rappal to Karpatta is fabulous.

Overall, very happy with choosing the Sand Dollar. I would definitely stay here again for a dive focused trip. If I brought my spouse and kids with I would probably choose to stay somewhere with a better pool, beach and more amenities.

We stayed at Sand Dollar earlier this month and had a great time.

We flew on the fairly new weekly Continental non-stop flight from Houston to Bonaire (leaves late Friday night, returns early Saturday mornings.) We would have prefered to stay 10 days but flight schedules didn't accommodate that.

Each of the condos are individually owned and their furnishings vary. Ours (#B-4) had a recently updated kitchen and furnishings. We appreciated the screened windows and the two air conditioners in our one bedroom unit. It did not have a screened in porch, which we would have enjoyed. The owners provided several dive books including books on reef creature identification which we appreciated.

We did not buy the resort's breakfast package but bought cereal, juice and milk at a grocery store as we prefer the convenience of eating breakfast in the room. We also bought things to make lunches but planned to eat dinners at the restaurant next door (Den Lamon) for convenience. After one meal there, we decided to eat dinners elsewhere. It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't very good either - and was overpriced for what you get. My husband had a club sandwich that hardly had any meat on it. The place was never busy so I guess other people came to the same conclusion as we did. And since it was independent of Sand Dollar, you could not charge meals to your room. The restaurant had a great location and could have been a destination dining location instead of an avoided restaurant. We ate several meals at the nearby Captain Don's resort which was also on the water but the food was better.

About the diving: others have talked about how easy the shore diving is, especially off the Bonaire Dive & Adventures dock, and they are right. And Bari Reef has so much to see - we dove it several times and each time was different. There is a seahorse living on the reef, and very easy to find. I have been told there are also 4-5 frog fish there, but we only saw one small one. The one thing you almost never see in Bonaire is sharks. The underwater topography just isn't what they like.

This was our first diving trip to the Caribbean and others told us it is the best Caribbean diving they'd found - we believe them and plan to return. We were lucky enough to be there when the coral and sponges were spawning . The dive shop provided a schedule of when they thought different creatures would spawn. It was so interesting to see in person.

Most people we spoke with dove 4 times a day - we felt like slackers, only diving 3 times a day. The free Nitrox upgrade was a value-added bonus.

Bonaire Dive & Adventures boat dives go out at 9:00, 11:00 and 2:00. Many other dive boats go out at 8:30 and get the "best" dive sites. We tried for several days to get to Forest on Klein Bonaire (where there is a forest of black coral and some of the prettiest coral formations in Bonaire.) On our last day of diving, we finally got there - we were successful because it was requested for 11:00 boat instead of the 9:00. The dive boats were not crowded when we were there - many people were only shore diving.

We're mostly boat divers and are used to crew hooking up your tanks and basically doing everything for you after you have tested your Nitrox blend. (When you dive with Ed Robinson's on Maui, they tell you that they'll do everything for you and "your job is to fall off the boat.") Diving here isn't like that. You have to carry your tested tank over to the boat where they load it. Then when you reach to dive site, you attach your reg and BC to your tank yourself, etc. Not bad - but be aware that it is a different level of service than you may be used to from other boat dive operators.

We had a great time diving in Bonaire and were glad that we'd bought lunch stuff as it allowed us the freedom to dive more instead of going to get food somewhere.

One thing I wish that Bonaire Dive & Adventures would change is that they don't allow you to add tips for the dive staff to your dive bill.

Regarding the mosquitoes, I have to say there are more in Bonaire than in Hawaii, but less than we found on our many trips to Fiji. They were generally not a problem during the heat of the day but one place we learned to be careful in was the scuba gear room. The mosquitoes were attracted to all the moisture from the drying wetsuits, etc. And since you just got out of the water (or are getting in) you probably don't have any repellent on you.

We got a pickup truck rental from Total Car Rental with our Sand Dollar package. It had one very bald tire on it which we complained about when getting the car, but they acted like that is just how it is. When we turned the car in, we mentioned that the tire had been so bald that we had not felt safe driving up to the park or anyplace far. We were told they should have either given us another truck or swapped the tire out - and they would have come to our resort to do it. Wish we had known that then. Also, we would have liked to know that the gas station doesn't open until 7 a.m. so if you have an early flight, you should fill up the night before.

In summary, we had a great trip to Bonaire and I am sure we will be back - and we'll probably stay at Sand Dollar again. And next time we'll make sure to have a truck safe enough to go to the park.

we had a wonderful 8 night stay at sand dollar resort in Bonaire.
The two bedroom condo was large, comfortable, ocean view and had a huge screened in patio which came in very handy when drying out clothes and bathing suits.
The diving was superb, boat dives were easy. The shore diving in Bonaire was outstanding and so easy. We did 20 dives in 6 days and hardly felt it. So many sites to choose from.
The house reef, bari reef is great, we enjoyed diving here so much. so many fish and the night diving was great. Diving at the house reef was so easy. tanks always available and the dunking tanks were so great. The gear storage was easy and right at the dock.
Loved the benches on the dock to gear up on. Nice quiet resort, if you are here to dive, this is the place for you. Not much night life around and nothing much to do on Bonaire, so this is truly a place to go if you want to dive, dive and dive.
Only two comments that could have made it better, the onsite restaurant is pricey and not a good selection of food, and also is not open for food all day. However the food was very very good.
However, there are plenty of other restaurants in the area to choose from. The rum runners at captain don's was cheap and good.
this is great value for money, as far as accomodation and diving. cannot beat it, I will definitely go back. If you want to save money on food, the condo has a well stocked kitchen for breakfast and lunch and then just shop around for different restaurants at night.
However having said that, the view from the restaurant at night is unbeatable and the ease of being there along with the view, might make the cost of the food worth it.