3rd Bonaire Trip in 11 months

[Natasha]

I hope you're wrong about that.
My goal is to continue to make scuba board, a family read board, where divers can learn and share ideas about scuba.
Hard to believe anyone could disagree with that!

 

[the sharkman]

Sounds cool... Sounds like my choice to go to Bonaire next is a good choice... It looks like that extra flying time to get there must be worth it.
:guitar:

 

[Bob]

Sharkman,
I,ve dove lots of places, but Bonaire is the easiest, most relaxed diving I've ever done. If you're looking for nightlife I suppose Bonaire will limit you. However, If you're looking for great diving, you can't beat Bonaire. I'll be there again next month. :tree: Bob

 

[shiro85]

jepuskar once bubbled...
Ok, I'm going to Bonaire in September...this will be my 3rd trip to Bonaire since last November...

Am I......

In a rut? Yup.

Obviously, you like the place, but it happens. And repeat visits such as this do make for an easy trip - less hassles to do destination research - but we do have to "draw the line" somewhere. I guess I draw it at 3x/year. I did choose the Poll's "a waste of time" option as a kinder match than the alternatives.

I'd guess that you've somehow figured out an airline schedule that works for you...by any chance, are you using Air Jamacia? I've been looking at prices for a possible trip later this year, and I've been finding that the flights to Bonaire are more expensive than usual...running around $1000/pp-RT.

An $1000 airline ticket for a dive trip is pricy enough to motivate me to think about somewhere else, even a non-diving trip. For example, for the price of one $1000 Bonaire ticket, this year's airfare wars on Virgin & British Airways were good enough to let you fly from the US East Coast to Europe...twice.

 

[jepuskar]

Yes, I'll be using Air Jamaica as their Friday/Saturday arrivals/departures work great for me.

Airfare was tad more expensive than my last trip, but it is no where near 1g....I forgot what I paid, but I think it was in the area of 500-600pp r/t.

My buddy is a very new diver, in fact, she is not even certified yet...so I thought Bonaire would be the best place for a newbie...

There are plenty of dive sites I haven't done there and there are plenty I want to do again...so I'm all excited...but not as much as my buddy.

 

[shiro85]

jepuskar once bubbled...
Airfare was tad more expensive than my last trip, but it is no where near 1g....I forgot what I paid, but I think it was in the area of 500-600pp r/t.

There are plenty of dive sites I haven't done there and there are plenty I want to do again...so I'm all excited...but not as much as my buddy.

Yeah, I was surprised at my estimated airfare cost this time out. Its usually around the same 500-600 as yours.

Insofar as dive sites, IMO, Bonaire has only around three variations of reefs, although with 25 examples of each...not really all that much real variation in topology to make it interesting...most of the variation is topside (1000 steps vs an easier entry!). It doesn't help that the wave set from Lenny in Nov 1999 trashed the shallows at a lot of them, which makes them even more repetitively blend together. The macro life makes up for some of it, as do also the restaurants, plus some advanced drifts down south that you're not going to take a novice to.