Donkey Sanctuary Bonaire — Attraction in Bonaire

We had an absolutely amazing time visiting the sanctuary. We were the second car in the gate, but the first vehicle to pass through that morning. Lines can be pretty long as many people are excited to see the animals, so we recommend coming earlier in the day, especially since it gets hotter toward midday.

The donkeys are very curious and will come to your vehicle, but that’s OK because they’re hoping you’ll feed them some carrots (their favorite, available for purchase). We found that our truck, which had been to the beach, was like a big salt lick to the donkeys. The animals are very friendly and will let you pet them.

Don’t forget to take a pitstop at the watchtower and go to the top for panoramic views of the sanctuary. It’s an incredible view and allows you to see how many donkeys are truly in the area. You can tell these donkeys are well cared for, each area has food and water stalls for them to enjoy, as well as covered areas for them to get out of the hot sun.

We enjoy going over to the nursery area to see the young calves and mothers. They are very sweet but a little timid, so go a little slow when you’re in the area. You can also see flamingos, turtles, and iguana being cared for as well.

Each ticket is a donation to the sanctuary, and truly worth the experience. You even have the opportunity to sponsor a donkey, helping to provide care to one of the many animals they have on site. It was incredible to hear all the work that they do, and you can truly tell that the staff love what they do daily.

Highly recommend a visit and enjoy the experience. I think kids will enjoy this, and it makes for a couple of fun vacation photos. It does smell like a barn, but do not let that deter you from coming. It’s truly worth it to support such an...

I love the cause and regardless of my personal experience, would recommend others to go to support the sweet donkeys. Some are real lovers including Scuddy in the special care area! We became great friends.

My three stars come from my experience at the entrance and as a solo traveler I wanted to share for others in case that's why I was treated differently. I was waiting patiently at the register at the front of the line and the woman (I believe the founder) served the couple behind me and then started talking to a family behind me about the park and entering. She never looked at me and I'm not sure I would have gotten a ticket if I hadn't pulled cash out and held it out when she told the other family about the $9 entry fee. I asked if I could buy food to feed the donkeys and she said her husband was out with hay. I was disappointed but figured that meant it was a time of day they didn't want to overfeed. She then sold the family next to me tickets, had a little chat, and asked them if they'd like to buy a bucket of food to feed the donkeys! They did. I was still ignored during that interaction and deeply upset. I would've loved to feed the donkeys as they came up to my windows. It was very bizarre and even the dad of the family and I shared a glance. I felt very unwelcome. Luckily she had to open the gate for them to enter and I snuck in as well. After that I had a wonderful experience.

I'm glad I supported them and made such lovely donkey friends but I'm still unsettled by the experience days later so thought it was worth sharing. It's also worth noting I interacted with one of the staff in the special care area who was lovely, friendly, and answered everyone's questions. She seemed really passionate about her job and...

We were there week ago and were welcomed wormly and told about absolute safety for everyone including visitors. My sons are 3 and 5 ad we were from cruise and by feet. Started our journey which is round about 1-1.5 km of open territory you can walk everywhere. So firstly we were surrounded by donkeys with the interest and felt more or less comfortable then after 200 meters of walking my younger son was attacked by single donkey which behavior was relatively more agressive than other ones. I took son on hands and then donkey run to elder son pushed him by his head and then run on him. Only by luck none of donkeys feet were on my son. My wife cried and jumped to pick up son and run away. Nobody was near us that time only 200 meters away we saw worker on electric car driving away. So again it was luck that we had only scratches on feet and broken glass on ipad which we used to make pictures. Shocked we run to the office and told our story to personnel and they were pretty surprised and the only thing they tried to convince us in that this had never happened which I cant believe and resisted to take money for entrance back. They dont have CCTV there or pretend not to have so If you would face that kind of safety problem like we faced, it would be very hard to prove and unguided tours in this place is simply dangerous. And personnel wouldnt accept your complain with the argument of this never has happened before...