Sorobon Beach — Bonaire

Bonaire day route

Bonaire with children

Length
4 days
Total distance
15.7 km (9.8 mi)
Travel time
± 1 h

Published Last checked

The short answer

With children, plan around shade and short drives rather than around sights: Sorobon for water they can stand up in, the donkey sanctuary from inside your own car, and the mangroves in the calm of the morning. Four days is enough, and nothing here is more than half an hour from Kralendijk. Leave the north coast and the national park for a holiday without them.

Starts in
Kralendijk
Rental car
three of the four days
Shade
only Sorobon and Lac Cai

It also leaves the two most photogenic parts of the island out. That is deliberate: the north coast is a long drive with nowhere to stop, and Washington Slagbaai is a full day on unpaved road with no shop, no shade and no way to turn back early.

What do you do on which day?

Day 1 — Town at child pace

4 stops · on foot · 3 h 20 min · ± 15 min travelling

Everything today is within fifteen minutes of walking, which means no car seats, no parking and no arguments.

  1. Morning

    0.1 km · ± 5 min

  2. 0.1 km · ± 5 min

  3. 0.1 km · ± 5 min

Day 2 — Donkeys and an easy beach

3 stops · by car · 4 h 15 min · ± 10 min travelling

Do the donkeys first. By eleven the animals move into the shade and the car turns into an oven at every stop after that.

  1. Morning

    2.8 km · ± 5 min

  2. 0.1 km · ± 5 min

  3. Afternoon

Day 3 — Sorobon, all day

3 stops · by car · 4 h 30 min · ± 10 min travelling

This is the best beach on Bonaire for small children and it is not close. Drive once, stay all day, and do not plan a second stop.

  1. Morning

    1.5 km · ± 5 min

  2. 0.1 km · ± 5 min

  3. Afternoon

Worth booking for this day

affiliate

Booking runs through Viator. It costs you no more; we receive part of their commission. Price, duration and rating were read on 21 August 2026; check the current ones before you book.

Sorobon is shallow enough to stand in for a hundred metres, which is why it gets a whole day. These three are the ones children talk about at home; all work from about eight.

Day 4 — Mangroves and quiet water

3 stops · by car · 4 h 15 min · ± 25 min travelling

Go in the morning. The mangrove channels are glass before eleven and choppy after, and that difference decides whether children enjoy a kayak.

  1. Morning

    1.7 km · ± 5 min

  2. 9.2 km · ± 20 min

  3. Afternoon

Worth booking for this day

affiliate

Booking runs through Viator. It costs you no more; we receive part of their commission. Price, duration and rating were read on 21 August 2026; check the current ones before you book.

Clear-bottomed kayaks over the nursery, in the calm of the morning. An hour is usually the right length for children; the longer trips add snorkelling.

What this route asks of you

What this route asks of you — Bonaire with children
What it costs Fixed: USD 75 visitor entry tax per person aged 13 and over, USD 10 for children up to 12. Add USD 40 nature fee per person per calendar year as soon as you enter the sea; children under 13 are exempt. A rental car, fuel and meals come on top — we have no current prices for those.
What you need A car with air conditioning, a beach umbrella that lives in the boot, child-size snorkel masks, and more drinking water than seems reasonable.
Skip The north coast, Washington Slagbaai and the slave huts. Two are too far, and the third needs an age at which the story lands.
Time at the stops 16 h 20 min

Time at the stops is our estimate of how long each one is worth, added up. Travel time between them is calculated from the coordinates — a straight line, a quarter added for the bends in the road, at 4.5 km/h on foot, 28 km/h by car. Add the journey from your own hotel.

Sort this before you go

A rental car

Bonaire has no bus network worth planning around. For the days below that leave Kralendijk you need your own wheels; book before you fly, because the island runs out of cars in high season.

The rental companies on Bonaire

Data on your phone

Bonaire is outside EU roaming, so your bundle from home does not apply and the bill can be unpleasant. An eSIM you activate before you land is the cheapest fix. The app works offline either way — the map and every stop below are stored on the phone.

Questions people ask

Is Bonaire good for children?

For water, yes; for long days, less so. Lac Bay at Sorobon stays shallow far out and they can stand in it; the donkey sanctuary you see from inside the car. What does not work are the long unpaved drives in the park and afternoons without shade.

From what age can children snorkel on Bonaire?

As soon as they are comfortable with their face in the water, usually around six. Start at Sorobon or on the beach at Klein Bonaire, where the reef begins shallow and there is no current. Water shoes are not a luxury: the coral is sharp.

Are there shallow beaches on Bonaire?

Yes, though fewer than people expect. Lac Bay at Sorobon is the obvious one: knee-deep for hundreds of metres out. Te Amo and No Name Beach on Klein Bonaire also shelve gently. Much of the west coast, by contrast, drops away to the reef straight off the shore.

Practical notes

Take this route with you

All 13 places on this page are in the free Bonaire app: a map that shows where you are, walking and driving directions to the next stop, and the whole lot downloaded before you leave — so it keeps working where the signal does not.

App Store Google Play

Free · no account · works offline

The other Bonaire day routes