Trip Report Bonaire trip March 26 - April 2

[SelfDiver]

Took the American airlines flight from Miami.
Avis car rental. Their "Changan Hunter" manual transmission trucks are basic but work well enough. These trucks have a hard life and it shows.
Stayed at Ocean breeze.
- There are no dive lockers or any diver specific amenities in this hotel.
Took tanks from VIP diving on the $185 Nitrox package
VIP diving if fantastic on every level. Great crew, good service, good price and facilities are awesome.
Dives:
0-Weight check at Sebastian's reef
1-The Lake 30meters on the second reef
2-Angel City 23m
3-Hilma Hooker from Angel City entrance 27m
4-Te Amo 35m
5-Andrea II 30m
6-Oil Slick 30m
7-Isidel Beach Park 23m
8-Night dive to Sebastian's reef 22m
9-Red Slave 30m
10-Sweet Dreams 28m
11-The Cliff 26m
12-Night dive Atlantis north 24m
13-1000 steps 28m
14-Cooper's Barge 26m
15-Bachelor's beach 27m
16-Night Hilma Hooker 27m
17-Sebastian's reef 30m
18-Pink Beach 29m
19-Andrea I 29m
20-Night Weber's joy with lots of jellyfish 26m
21-Tolo 31m
22-Karpata 27m
23-Te Amo 27m
24-Alice in wonderland 15m
Never exceeded NDL

Marine life was Green morays and the smaller ones, turtles, eagle ray, So many fish. Crabs and lobsters and shrimp and Ostracods at night.

We ate pizza at the blooz right next to bachelor's beach. Not bad at all.
Gelato at Gio's is nice for the end of the day.
On the last night we ate at Cuba Compagnie. I like their fajitas.

 

[Jersey]

Nice! If that was $185 for 24 tanks, you got your per tank/dive cost down to $7.71. (I am a numbers geek kinda girl) LOL at first I thought the #m was minutes of dive time, re-read and realized it was meters.

 

[SelfDiver]

Nice! If that was $185 for 24 tanks, you got your per tank/dive cost down to $7.71. (I am a numbers geek kinda girl) LOL at first I thought the #m was minutes of dive time, re-read and realized it was meters.

Numbers numbers numbers!
I got ALL the numbers for you
Flight $660
Baggage fee $70 (35 each way)
Bonaire entry tax $75
STINAPA $40 per year
Hotel $750
Car rental $390 + $80 Gas (Fits four divers)
Tanks $185
Food $200 give or take

Total 2175 or $92 per dive

My organized trips are for 3 divers for one week at $2,000 each.
I do all the driving, dive planning, coaching, everything all day every day from the moment you exit the airport till you check in for the return flight.
If everyone is Advanced AND Nitrox certified, I will take 6 divers.
Not including flight and accommodation, but I can usually sort out a hotel at a lower cost.

To be honest, my divers are tech bros, crypto dudes, lawyers and senior engineers, so I can charge twice that and they don't care.
-----One of these dudes showed up in a private plane, that he flew to Bonaire...Wild.
-----This one woman, came with AOW and Nitrox cert with zero dives post-certification and left with a full set of brand new gear.

 

[hellrotbill]

Great Trip Report @SelfDiver - I thought I would jump in here on your report and see if anyone is heading to Bonaire? I got lucky last trip finding another DM that needed a dive buddy. I will be staying there doing a work-cation April 19th - May 3rd. I have done several dives at most of the sites from your trip. I will have a truck and can accommodate pickups if needed.

 

[Jersey]

Numbers numbers numbers!
I got ALL the numbers for you
To be honest, my divers are tech bros, crypto dudes, lawyers and senior engineers, so I can charge twice that and they don't care.
-----One of these dudes showed up in a private plane, that he flew to Bonaire...Wild.
-----This one woman, came with AOW and Nitrox cert with zero dives post-certification and left with a full set of brand new gear.

My kinda people! I got all those numbers too. I broke down breakfast to per meal/person. (Nuke engineer and big data/AI consultant, so our life is spreadsheet & DB driven)

Great price on tickets. I decided to splurge and buy tix, as opposed to using FF miles. $1,200/pp RT from PHL, Delta Comfort+. Trying to convince the boss we drive to Newark or NYC for the United or JetBlue directs.

Just because you got $$ don't mean you don't track it or spend it. Would love to know what the plane cost though. Friends took 1 to St T for a week recently. They shunned the $60K plane as it was 'older and needed a design update'. They took the $80K plane and still complained.