caribbean islands bonaire
The Bellafonte Bonaire resort in Bonaire.
Caribbean

In Bonaire, Your Own Private Caribbean Reef 

By: Guy Britton - July 9, 2022

The first thing you notice is the view: a beautiful and vast ocean lies before you, unobstructed and inviting. 

Walk into any room at the Bellafonte Luxury Oceanfront Hotel and you can hear it calling.  It’s the sound of the ocean and nature, the endless soundtrack at a hotel that sits literally at the edge of the sea. 

The Bellafonte has 22 one and two bedroom units with private balconies and fully equipped kitchens.  

The Bellafonte is located 5-minutes from downtown Kralendijk. For Bonaire’s relatively small size there are numerous award winning restaurants, such as The Brass Boer, At Sea and CHEFS to name a few. There is also a great restaurant on-site adjacent to The Bellafonte. It’s called “The Beach” and the hotel staff works with the restaurant to prepare meals and provide room service.  They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner from 8 am to 10 pm.

There is WiFi throughout all rooms and outside areas, daily housekeeping, room service, night security, and on-site dive facilities including tank exchange. 

But there’s one amenity that towers above them all: the magnificent reef right at the edge of the hotel. 

The Bellafonte is located at the edge of the Bonaire Marine Park, one of the oldest marine conservation zones in the world, established in 1979.  

The protected zone starts at the waterline and extends to areas 60 meters (200 feet) deep. The zone covers about 6,700 acres around Bonaire and Klein Bonaire and includes Lac Bay.  

There are 60 varieties of coral surrounding Bonaire:  all corals, seagrass, mangroves and wildlife are protected. 

It’s one of the greatest natural resources in the Caribbean and home to some of the best diving and snorkeling in the world — including this prime spot right at the edge of the Bellafonte. 

At the Bellafonte, you walk down the pier and take a few steps into the ocean and you are on a spectacularly beautiful reef. 

It’s like your own private reef, with hundreds of tropical fish and live coral surrounding you.  

This is Bonaire after all, so nature and beauty is all around you.  

But to have a reef at your doorstep is a rare luxury.

bellafonte
Inside a room.

Here, they call it a “house reef.”  

You can walk up to your room for a drink or a quick bite, take a splash in the plunge pool and in seconds you’ re back on a shaded pier at the edge of the sea and the reef.  

This is life on Bonaire. This is living at The Bellafonte. 

For more, visit The Bellafonte.

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