Best Sustainable Hotels, Resorts and Eco Friendly Stays in Bonaire
Best Sustainable Hotels, Resorts and Eco Friendly Stays in Bonaire
The 4 best places to stay in Bonaire are sustainable and all run on solar power, cut their water and energy use, and protect the island’s reefs and native plants. From the EEG Boulevard near Kralendijk to the quiet nature outside town these resorts and eco lodges are top rated for low-impact eco friendly comfort that keeps guests coming back to the world’s first Blue Destination.
How we decide the best place to stay in Bonaire
Each top rated stay in Bonaire is hand picked and checked for sustainability features.
Bonaire is one of the windiest, sunniest and most dive obsessed islands in the Caribbean, so we judged these stays on how seriously they take the things that actually matter here: clean power, the reef offshore, and what the island gets back. We start with the energy, like Belnem House Bonaire running entirely off grid on solar power stored in a 430 kWh lithium battery bank that carries its studios and apartments right through the night with no diesel backup humming away.
On a flat, dry island that imports nearly everything, we wanted to see real water conservation rather than a card on the pillow, like Auriga & Gecko Ecolodge being built from the ground up to teach guests lighter water habits and recycling much of its waste back into the property.
Because the reef is the whole reason most people fly to Bonaire, we looked hard at what each stay grows and what it refuses to use, like Captain Don’s Habitat keeping part of its grounds as a nursery for local plants and leaning on local sourcing decades before farm to table was fashionable, with commercial fertilisers banned outright so nothing leaches out onto the coral.
We also weighed up the wider impact each place has on the island, like Delfins Beach Resort Bonaire protecting the island’s wildlife by planting one native tree for every housekeeping clean a guest skips through its Bloom Back Bonaire scheme, funding 1,499 trees in 2024 alone.
The boutique resort, eco lodge, dive resort and beach resort on this list of best places to stay in Bonaire have each proven, in their own way, that they are making a real effort to protect the island while taking care of its guests.
If diving’s beloved capital has set the bar for your Caribbean travels, our guide to the best sustainable hotels across the Caribbean brings the whole region together in one place, or drift west to sister island Curacao, further west again to Aruba and south toward the eco stays of Trinidad and Tobago.
Top Picks, Where To Stay in Bonaire
- Belnem House Bonaire: Solar powered and off grid
- Captain Don's Habitat: Blue Destination certified diving
- Auriga & Gecko Ecolodge: Female owned eco lodge
Belnem House Bonaire is a fully off grid boutique resort on the EEG Boulevard near Kralendijk, the first hotel on the island to run entirely independent of the public grid and holder of the gold Bonaire Blue Destination certificate.
Solar panels supply all of its power into a 430 kWh lithium battery bank that carries the 13 studios and 18 apartments through the night, solar boilers heat the showers and a magnesium pool replaces conventional chlorine, earning it a National Geographic mention along the way.
Auriga and Gecko Ecolodge is an owner run, off grid pair of timber lodges set in a quiet patch of nature outside Kralendijk, self catering and deliberately built to teach guests lighter water and electricity habits.
Solar and wind energy power the site, much of the waste including human waste is recycled, and the surrounding terrain has been replanted with endemic Bonaire flowers and trees to bring back native plants and wildlife.
Captain Don's Habitat is an ocean front dive resort near Kralendijk founded in 1976 by conservationist Captain Don Stewart, whose campaigning created the Caribbean's first marine park and set Bonaire on the path to becoming the world's first Blue Destination.
Solar water heaters and energy saving measures cut its footprint, while a portion of the grounds is kept as a nursery for local and sustainable plants, a farm to table approach Captain Don adopted decades before it was fashionable, with commercial fertilisers banned to protect the reef.
Delfins Beach Resort is a beachfront resort just outside Kralendijk running on solar power throughout the day, with panels fitted across all available roofs and a goal of carbon neutral, energy neutral operation.
Through its Bloom Back Bonaire scheme with the Tera Barra Foundation it plants one native tree for every housekeeping clean a guest skips, funding 1,499 trees in 2024 alone, and its beachside Brass Boer kitchen comes from three Michelin starred restaurateurs Jonnie and Therese Boer.
More Caribbean Sustainable Stays
Book Your Next Stay Consciously
Travel is a wonderful opportunity to connect with Mother Earth.
However, it is also frequently undermined by reckless development and disrespectful tourism practices.
This directory is a curated, verified list of hotels, lodges, and resorts that honour our planet and are led by visionary stewards of the environment.
From farm-to-table culinary experiences to dedicated ocean conservation efforts, such as marine protection and coral restoration, these establishments are redefining hospitality.
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