Bonaire without a car: three days on foot, scooter and boat

Published 21 August 2026 Last checked 24 August 2026

Bonaire without a car works as long as you stay south: Kralendijk is walkable, the coast down to Pink Beach is a comfortable scooter ride, and Klein Bonaire is a boat ticket. The north is the part you give up, and that is a fair trade for three days. Rent the scooter for a full day rather than an afternoon, because everything worth reaching lies between five and twelve kilometres out of town.

Starts in: Kralendijk
Getting around: on foot, scooter and boat
Covers: town and the south

What you cannot do without a car is the north coast, Rincon and Washington Slagbaai. Those need an hour of driving each way over roads a scooter has no business on.

What do you do on which day?

Day 1 — Kralendijk on foot

5 stops · on foot · 3 h 55 min · ± 20 min travelling

The whole centre fits in one morning of walking. Anyone who hires a car for this day has wasted the money.

Morning

± 5 min

0.3 km
± 5 min

0.2 km
± 5 min

0.4 km
± 5 min

1 20 min

Wilhelmina Square

Between the water, the government buildings and the market. The natural starting point.

2 20 min

Fort Oranje

Two minutes along the waterfront, small and yellow, with the harbour behind it.

3 1 h

Terramar Museum

The one indoor hour that makes the rest of the island legible.

4 45 min

Kaya Grandi

The main street. Book the scooter for tomorrow while you are here.

5 1 h 30 min

Karel’s Beach Bar

On stilts over the water and facing the sunset. Nothing else is needed on a first evening.

Day 2 — South by scooter

5 stops · by scooter · 4 h 35 min · ± 30 min travelling

Take the scooter for the whole day and leave at eight. The southern road has no shade at all, and by two in the afternoon it is a hard ride back.

Morning

1

Greenbikes Bonaire 20 min

Pick-up on the boulevard, five minutes from the centre. Take the largest dry bag they have.

1.9 km · ± 5 min
2

Te Amo Beach 1 h 30 min

The first stop that feels out of town, with easy sand entry and planes overhead.

1.7 km · ± 5 min
3

Bachelor’s Beach 1 h

A cove at the bottom of a staircase. There is room for two scooters at the top and no more.

5.9 km · ± 15 min
Afternoon

4

Salt Pier 45 min

Stop at the roadside for the pier and the salt mountains behind it; the water itself is closed when a ship is loading.

2.3 km · ± 5 min
5

Pink Beach 1 h

The furthest point that makes sense on two wheels. Turn around here rather than pushing on to the lighthouse.

Morning

Afternoon

1.9 km
± 5 min

1.7 km
± 5 min

5.9 km
± 15 min

2.3 km
± 5 min

1 20 min

Greenbikes Bonaire

Pick-up on the boulevard, five minutes from the centre. Take the largest dry bag they have.

2 1 h 30 min

Te Amo Beach

The first stop that feels out of town, with easy sand entry and planes overhead.

3 1 h

Bachelor’s Beach

A cove at the bottom of a staircase. There is room for two scooters at the top and no more.

4 45 min

Salt Pier

Stop at the roadside for the pier and the salt mountains behind it; the water itself is closed when a ship is loading.

5 1 h

Pink Beach

The furthest point that makes sense on two wheels. Turn around here rather than pushing on to the lighthouse.

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.

A scooter gets you to Pink Beach and no further. These three pick you up in town and drive the parts of the island this route otherwise leaves out.

Day 3 — Klein Bonaire by water taxi

5 stops · on foot and by boat · 6 h 50 min · ± 30 min travelling

The one day of this route where having no car costs you nothing: the boat leaves from the pier in the middle of town and drops you back there. Take the morning crossing and photograph the time of the last one. The afternoon is on foot, the way the whole route is.

Morning

Afternoon

3.4 km
± 10 min

3.5 km
± 10 min

± 5 min

0.1 km
± 5 min

1 15 min

Karel’s Beach Bar

The boats leave from the pier beside the bar, not from the cruise pier. Be there for the first crossing and photograph the time of the last one when you board.

2 4 h

No Name Beach - Klein Bonaire

An uninhabited islet 800 metres offshore with reef starting fifty metres from the sand and visibility routinely over twenty metres: the best snorkelling within reach of anyone without a tank. No shade, no water, no facilities.

3 20 min

Luciano Bonaire - Ice

Back on the pier with salt in your hair, and two minutes up from it the Italian ice cream everyone ends up at. The right order is: boat, ice cream, boulevard.

4 45 min

Boulevard Kralendijk

The last hour of light, walked slowly with Klein Bonaire straight ahead of you — the island you spent the day on, from the other side.

5 1 h 30 min

La Cantina

Dinner five minutes from where the boat came in, and five minutes from wherever you are sleeping if you followed the advice about staying in the centre.

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.

All three leave from the pier you are standing on anyway, so this is the one day where having no car costs you nothing.

What this route asks of you

What this route asks of you — Bonaire without a car
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	One day of scooter hire, a helmet, a dry bag, a boat or water-taxi ticket, and a hotel within walking distance of the centre.
Skip	The north. Do not try to reach 1000 Steps or Rincon by scooter; it is a long, hot, exposed ride with nowhere to stop halfway.
Time at the stops	15 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, 25 km/h by scooter, 18 km/h by boat. 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

Can you do Bonaire without a car?

In the south, yes. Kralendijk you walk, the coast down to Pink Beach is a comfortable scooter ride, and a water taxi runs to Klein Bonaire. The north and Washington Slagbaai drop off the list: nothing runs there and the distances are too far to cycle.

Is there public transport on Bonaire?

Barely. A limited bus runs between Kralendijk and Rincon, without a timetable you would plan a day around. Taxis work on fixed fares and are fine for a single trip, but as daily transport they cost more than a scooter.

What does a scooter cost on Bonaire?

Reckon on 35 to 50 euros a day, less if you take several days. For the south that is all you need: Kralendijk to Pink Beach and back is under 40 kilometres (25 miles), and the road is flat and paved the whole way.

Practical notes

Book a hotel in or just north of the centre. Anything past the airport turns every evening into a taxi ride.
Scooter hire needs a valid driving licence and a helmet; ask what the excess is before you sign anything.
The trade wind blows from the east all day. The ride out is easy and the ride back is not, so plan the return for the coolest hour you can manage.
There is no shop between the salt pier and the lighthouse. Fill your bag in town.
If you have a fourth day and want the north after all, take a guided island tour rather than a scooter. It is the one part of Bonaire worth handing over to someone else.

Take this route with you

All 15 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.

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Free · no account · works offline