Snorkeling Klein BonaireSnorkeling Klein Bonaire is a highlight of the snorkeling available in Bonaire. Klein Bonaire is a small, flat, uninhabited island just a half mile from Bonaire. It has one of the only true sandy beaches in Bonaire. That beach, combined with the amazing snorkeling makes this one of our favorite places on earth.
Snorkeling Klein BonaireThere are four ways to get out there.
The island is protected and is part of the national park. So you need to buy a national park pass for snorkeling Klein Bonaire. All around the island there are boat mooring buoys that mark places you are allowed to get in the water. You must use these because you can't bring a power boat to the shore. When we looked at the guides it was not at all clear where the best snorkeling spots were. One guide shows one side of island as the best snorkeling, one says the other. So we rented a boat for several days and explored every single spot. And the truth is the best spots are scattered around the island.
Snorkeling No Name Beach via Water Taxi One of the best spots is the easiest to access, No-Name Beach (now called Playa Neme). All you do is take a water taxi. It takes about 25 minutes on the water and will drop you off at No Name Beach. The taxi leaves several times a day, so you can stay on the island as long as you want, (just make sure you don't miss the last taxi back). But there are no facilities on the island other than some trash cans and a couple of shade structures. The snorkeling at No Name beach is a drift snorkel. That means you get in the water at one spot and ride the current in one direction and get out at the end. There are two ways to do this. You can either get dropped off and walk down the beach to enter the water. Or you can stow your gear on shore and then get back on the taxi and they will drop you off at the beginning of the drift snorkel. This is really the better way to go and it only costs a few bucks more. If you do walk, you head down the beach to the south until the reef structure close to shore starts to end. Look for the orange buoy. It is a good long ways down the beach, maybe a 20 minute walk. When you get toward the end look for a good break in the reef to swim through. To walk this safely you will need to have some protective footwear, because you run out of beach and get into rock and coral rubble. The snorkeling on this drift is superb. You actually get to experience three types of snorkeling. First, there are some very shallow areas right next to the beach with fantastic corals within it, including healthy Elkhorns, brain corals, fire coral, yellow pencil coral, turtles and closeups with fish are common. If the water is calm and the tide is high you can explore a lot of these shallow areas.
Next, as you exit the shallows there is an interesting shallow wall of coral that almost reaches the surface, and you can follow it all along the shoreline. You can swim right next to this wall and get very close views of fire corals, tube corals, and lots of fish moving in and out of the structure. You will find Corkscrew Anemone, Giant Anemone, urchins, and Flamingo Tongue attached to Purple Fans.
Third and finally, you move farther away from shore the bottom quickly plunges into the deep blue depths, and offers some very different snorkeling views. You can see a great distance down because of the excellent water clarity. There are bunches of healthy corals, and many wonderful sponges, in a variety of types. You'll see some nice Pillar Corals and in particular the tube sponges are amazing. There are also some huge Black-Ball Sponge. You will also see larger varieties of fish, and schools in the deeper waters. Keep your eyes open for turtles, they are common here. Also look for Donkey Dung Sea Cucumbers on the floor.
As for fish when snorkeling Klein Bonaire, there is a nice quantity and variety. You will see some bigger varieties than you will generally see off the beaches in town in Bonaire. We noticed just about every type of smaller to medium sized fish you will tend to see in Bonaire.
There were large schools of Blue Tang as well as lots of Parrotfish, Boxfish, Filefish, Queen Angelfish, Banded Butterflyfish, Spanish Hogfish, Big Schoolmaster, Damsels, Sergeant Majors, Chromis, Grouper, Bluehead, Squirrelfish, Goby, Sand Diver, Trumpetfish, Spotted Trunkfish, Porcupinefish, Orange-spotted Filefish, and Black Durgon, to name a few.
Moving With The Current Once you are outside the shallow reef edge, you let the current pull you along to the north. The current we experienced was not very strong. We could pretty easily swim back against it. But it was definitely there. 
If you are not paying attention before you know it you will be twenty or thirty feet down the reef without swimming. But fortunately the current moves right along shore, the direction you want. In some areas very warm water will be flowing out of the shallow areas. And in other areas you will feel cold drafts of water coming up from the depths. In some areas this thermocline situation reduces visibility a bit, kind of like when there is fresh water on the surface. But these areas are not big and you swim past them quickly.
If you snorkel the entire length of the drift snorkel, and spend a lot of time checking things out, it will be about one and half hours in the water. If you go quicker, plan on an hour.
 Snorkeling Klein BonaireSo given that you have both amazing depths to look into, and the shallows all along the drift, it is an amazing snorkeling situation. One of the best we have experienced in the world. In our PDF eBook guide we give details about where all the best spots are for snorkeling out on Klein Bonaire and on Bonaire.
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