Kralendijk, Bonaire

Kralendijk is a small capital and the piers put you at the edge of it. Downtown is a short, flat walk: Kaya Grandi for shops, Wilhelmina Square, and an island-made market that runs on cruise days. This is the one Southern Caribbean call where "just walk off and look around" is a complete plan rather than a fallback. Water is the reason most people come, and it is where the planning lives. Bonaire's entire coastline is a national marine park, and STINAPA charges a Nature Fee for entering the sea — swimming, snorkelling, diving, kayaking, any contact with seawater, lagoons or mangroves. The standard tag is USD 40 per person and runs for a whole calendar year, but cruise passengers pay a reduced USD 10 day rate valid only on the day of the visit — figures as published in September 2026, so check STINAPA before you travel rather than treating them as fixed. Under-13s are free. Do not confuse that with Bonaire's Visitor Entry Tax, which is a separate government charge with its own system and its own reduced cruise rate. The headline USD 75 per person is the ordinary visitor rate; cruise passengers are charged a reduced USD 10, collected and remitted through the cruise line rather than paid by you at a kiosk. Two different USD 10 charges therefore exist on a Bonaire cruise day — STINAPA's Nature Fee, which you pay to get in the water, and the government's entry tax, which your cruise line handles. Chachacha Beach sits close to the southern pier and is the easy near-port entry point. Klein Bonaire, the uninhabited islet offshore, is reached by water taxi and is protected within the marine park. It is a genuine highlight and a genuine timing commitment — you are on someone else's boat schedule in both directions. Washington Slagbaai, in the far north-west, is the one to think hard about. STINAPA recommends a vehicle with high ground clearance of at least 30 cm — a Jeep, Jimny, pickup or SUV — and says the rangers at the entrance booth make the call on the day, so a lower-clearance car may or may not be let through depending on road conditions. ATVs, quads, golf carts, dirt bikes, scooters, fatbikes and e-bikes are not allowed at all. None of that makes the park off-limits, but it does mean the vehicle is a decision to settle before you drive out there rather than at the gate.