Boutique Hotel Sonrisa Bonaire

“Highly recommend”

I was so happy to stay in this wonderful hotel. It was such a personal experience, with the staff and other guests all feeling like friends. Corinne gave all new guests a full brief of the area with some really helpful tips for my stay on Bonaire. I also rented a car with Sonrisa and that was an ex… more

I was so happy to stay in this wonderful hotel. It was such a personal experience, with the staff and other guests all feeling like friends. Corinne gave all new guests a full brief of the area with some really helpful tips for my stay on Bonaire. I also rented a car with Sonrisa and that was an excellent experience - well worth doing. Could not recommend this place highly enough. The rooms were spotless and the main hub of shops, bars, restaurants was walkable in 10 minutes. As a solo female traveller, I felt very safe here. The staff work really hard to make this a lovely place for people to stay, and it pays off.

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“For grown up travelers”

Located near airport. Nice and calm atmosphere. Rooms were nice with everything you need for island holiday, clean and with a lot of helpful details like good light on each bedside etc. We enjoyed the personal atmosphere, our host took the time to share a lot of insider tips especially for waterspo… more

Located near airport. Nice and calm atmosphere. Rooms were nice with everything you need for island holiday, clean and with a lot of helpful details like good light on each bedside etc. We enjoyed the personal atmosphere, our host took the time to share a lot of insider tips especially for watersport. Very welcoming and helpful. The swiss cheese fondue was great!

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“Can’t get better than this it has everything you could possibly want or need everything is done for you immaculate and s”

Excellent… 5 night stay and we got so lucky choosing this place! They had a rental car for us!! The hotel is an oasis in near walking distance to beach and ALL the great spots… host Corrine, and her husband were fantastic as soon as we got in Corinne showed us how to get into the very safe and beau… more

Excellent… 5 night stay and we got so lucky choosing this place! They had a rental car for us!! The hotel is an oasis in near walking distance to beach and ALL the great spots… host Corrine, and her husband were fantastic as soon as we got in Corinne showed us how to get into the very safe and beautiful property where everything was located very fast Internet, a beautiful pool ready towels, a 24 hour drink bar there’s even a kitchen with breakfast every morning they serve dinner. Sunday is fondue. I cannot stress how close this is to all the great restaurants. They are there to recommend anything that you need. This is literally one of the best island experiences me and my husband ever had. We are still here presently and can’t recommend this place enough. We have traveled worldwide and they can tell you every restaurant what to expect everything’s in walking distance one thing that I would love to say is that I really appreciated the fact that housekeeping kept the room immaculate through our entire stay we never saw one bug the rooms even come with blue lights to that mosquitoes and I’ve never seen that before. I very much wish to come back to Bonaire. This was one of the best island experiences I’ve ever had and I will recommend this particular hotel to my friends and family. A if you end up staying here, you will understand why it has such good reviews. Everything you need is right there.

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“Lovely small resort with friendly staff, but billing and car issues on the last day left disappointing final impression”

We spent a fantastic holiday on Bonaire and stayed 10 days at Sonrisa, a small, cozy resort with clean rooms, friendly and helpful staff, and delicious home-baked bread for breakfast. Unfortunately, there was also a downside that affects my rating. When we arrived, the manager explained that divin… more

We spent a fantastic holiday on Bonaire and stayed 10 days at Sonrisa, a small, cozy resort with clean rooms, friendly and helpful staff, and delicious home-baked bread for breakfast. Unfortunately, there was also a downside that affects my rating. When we arrived, the manager explained that diving on the east coast depends heavily on the weather and that the next day might be the only opportunity. He offered to arrange a guide for USD 55 per person per dive. We agreed, and the next morning the guide convinced us to do two dives instead of one. On the last day, however, our bill showed USD 70 per dive. When we politely asked about the difference, we were told that prices were published online and that the manager could not have quoted the wrong rate. After asking for clarification, Beat, the owner, replied that it was “word against word,” insisted the manager had given the correct price, and said he was “sick of playing games.” That felt like an accusation of dishonesty. I said we would pay the higher rate but expressed disappointment about how it was handled. Beat then said he would “turn the tables” (German: den Spiess umdrehen), accusing us of treating the rental car badly and charging USD 50 for “excessive dirt.” In my view, some sand inside a car is normal on a sandy island. Beat remarked that he wouldn’t have said anything if we had removed the sand from the floor mats, something he could easily have asked us to do in five minutes. (On the first bill, this charge did not appear.) In that context, Beat also brought up an earlier incident when he believed we had scratched the car (which turned out, after rinsing, to be only dust) and claimed we had driven into salt water in the national park (which was not true). Another point future visitors should know: Sonrisa tracks its rental cars via GPS, something not mentioned to us. Beat used this to accuse me of speeding as evidence of poor car care. While it might be possible I exceeded the limit occasionally, I drove much more slowly than most locals, and roughly at the same pace as the hotel staff during our airport transfer. Without this unpleasant ending, I would have clearly recommended Sonrisa. Most of our stay was excellent, but the final day and the way the disagreement was handled were disappointing.

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