A few days in Curacao or more in Bonaire?

[KatRizzo]

Hi Darrell,
Thanks! I'm very familiar with the Carib Inn. We dove out of there in August. Bruce it a great guy and I like the inn. I will look at that again. I've been checking VRBO and will continue that search having decided to skip diving in Curacao. I'm with your wife, I loved Gio's!

 

[dmaziuk]

In the end, I figured that I would lose zero dive days due to travel back and forth, it would be much less hassle (packing, unpacking, drying out gear..) and I don't think the diving experience would be so much different to warrant the additional cost, hassle and lost dive days.

+1. Maybe if there was a fast ferry, preferably going direct to Westpunt... As it is, once you factor in the no-fly time, waiting at the airports and all that, it's a bit hard to justify.

 

[drrich2]

What do you intend to stay in Bonaire to do? Just to 'be' in the tropical Caribbean, or to rack up more dives, or what? I was going to say since by then you'd have enough of a handle on Bonaire to efficiently dive it, you could get more dives in there vs. transferring to an island you're not familiar with. But Bonaire without a vehicle? That's a game changer. I'd pick a place with a really nice house reef that I could afford, and probably put those considerations ahead of others. If it's got an onsite restaurant, the need to 'get out' is less.

But if you want to do 2 boat dives/day and walk around exploring town in the afternoon, you'll be best served with a different approach.

Describe how you see your 'extra' days going, and maybe the answer will become clearer.

 

[diversteve]

I think Blachi Koko has kitchenettes in some of their suites - in town across the street from Carib Inn./Divi. If you want access to town w/o a big walk , you need to find something in that area.I think some of the bigger Carib Inn units have kitchens also. Since there's few cabs and no bus - maybe something around the Dive Friends shop on the north side of town but they also handle the day cruise traffic there. Boats are kept there and there's a shore dive. You can find properties in that area on vrbo but it's about a 10min. walk to the center of downtown.
One of hem is called Bonaire Oceanfront or something like that.

Another choice might be something like Hamlet Oasis just north of the dive resorts - I believe they have kitchens. From there you could walk to Dive Friends at Cliff, south to Habitat, Buddy, DF at Bari Reef, Coco Beach Club or Wannadive at Eden Beach. All have boat dive options.From Hamlet it would be a haul with gear to anything but DF/Cliff or Habitat though.

Den Laman has studio condos and I believe some of the Eden Beach suites have kitchens also. All have restaurants but it's 15mins. to downtown.

For this post, I'm calling "downtown" the area around Karel's Bar/the piers. Many of the restaurants are nearby. Just no shore diving.

Curacao w/o a car would be tougher. There's not really any good diving downtown except at Scuba Lodge and I believe they're all just rooms.

Around Lions Dive further south there's enough to do and they have a shuttle to downtown. Mambo Blvd. went in nearby - shops and restaurants. Lions Dive also has kitchenettes but in the bigger units only. It's across the channel from the Sea Aquarium mentioned here. Two restaurants plus several others nearby but I can't recall if there's a close market. Some nightlife also. The main Ocean Encounters shop is 50 yds. south and there's an average shore dive but it's kind of an active boat channel. Lion's Dive is a larger property also - you may not want that. OE has a pretty strict no-solo policy also.

Nearby is the Dive Bus - they pickup in that area but are not much cheaper than boat dives thru Ocean Encounters. They provide a DM so you won't need a buddy.

Contact Susie at the Dive Bus - they advertised a few small apts' once - I think they're on-site since they moved across the street.

That would be the Pierbaai dive site - one of the Carpile wreck sites.They pickup in most of Willemstad if you dive with them.

To do the better Curacao shore dives you either need to stay on one or drive to them. For most of those you'll still have to drive to eat. It gets really quiet once you leave town.

I think Curacao w/o a car would actually be more diffictult than Bonaire since the sites/areas are more spread out over the island. Unlike Bonaire where you might have a reasonable chance of getting a ride at many of the dive resorts since a dive couple will have a 4dr truck - that's not the case on Curacao.

 

[diversteve]

One other factor to consider for the 2 island approach is that Insel Air just shut down so your inter-island flight options are now limited to Divi Air or one other with considerably smaller planes.
AA picked up Insel's flights out of MIA but that doesn't help once there.

 

[AdivingBel]

One other factor to consider for the 2 island approach is that Insel Air just shut down so your inter-island flight options are now limited to Divi Air or one other with considerably smaller planes.
AA picked up Insel's flights out of MIA but that doesn't help once there.

Doesn't seem to matter much for this op at this point, but...Aruba Air flies larger planes with standard baggage allotments. Flew them in October from Bonaire to Curacao with my gear. Nice flight experience.

 

[Paul - Bonscuba]

One other factor to consider for the 2 island approach is that Insel Air just shut down so your inter-island flight options are now limited to Divi Air or one other with considerably smaller planes.
AA picked up Insel's flights out of MIA but that doesn't help once there.

Dividivi, EZ air, Winair, Aruba air. Plenty of choice between B and C.

 

[Paul - Bonscuba]

If you.re interested, I can pick you up for guided shore diving if you don.t have transport.