AI with a good house reef

[scubadada]

Until we know the world is going to be open for travel we haven't set a date but at this point I would guess not until summer 2022.

You have plenty of time to wait and see how, at least the first half, of this year works out. Right now, the majority of places you are thinking about, are not readily available.

 

[tursiops]

I absolutely do not need AI, but would like to be able to walk to dinner or hit up something easy after diving.

Then you have MANY more choices, especially in Bonaire where almost all the house reefs are excellent. Buddy Dive has two restaurants on site, for example, and you can easily walk to places on either side, and a slightly longer walk gives some more choices.

 

[ChuckP]

I may get slammed for this but I'm not a huge fan of renting a truck and doing shore dives just b/c it is a lot of lugging equipment around and doesn't appeal to me. My husband and I are both nurses, work hard, and on our vacation we like more "valet" style diving.

LOL - my thoughts exactly while swimming my butt off and walking from parking lots in Curacao. We actually told the dive shop that if their boat was going out any day any time, I wanted a seat on it - I hated the shore diving that much.

I moved to Cozumel and welcome to the laziest diving in the world!!

 

[tursiops]

LOL - my thoughts exactly while swimming my butt off and walking from parking lots in Curacao. We actually told the dive shop that if their boat was going out any day any time, I wanted a seat on it - I hated the shore diving that much.

I moved to Cozumel and welcome to the laziest diving in the world!!

My annual (except last year!) trips to Bonaire have been about 1/3 boat dives and 2/3 shore dives.. There are LOTs of good boat-only sites.
And lots of the shore dives are on the house reef; always something new to see.

 

[BoltSnap]

I only do boat dives to sites that are either inaccessible or too difficult to do from shore, the rest I do from shore. In Bonaire or Curacao, I usually do 2 - 3 morning dives from shore away from the resort and 1 dive in the late afternoon at the resort's reef (or a night dive). In places like Porto Marie, I do 3 dives and stay there for lunch. I start my diving by diving site no. 1 in the dive sites map and work my way down diving a different site the following day.

 

[AdivingBel]

I absolutely do not need AI, but would like to be able to walk to dinner or hit up something easy after diving.

Well then...one of the best house reefs I've found in the Caribbean is at Marazul (Westpunt) on Curacao. Nice cliff side shallows (30 ft. or so) with a short swim to the drop (typical Bonaire/Curacao slope down to 130 ft. or so); two sets of entry stairs down the cliff side approx. 300 yards apart so almost two separate dives; comfy condos with nice pool and rinse tank; two restaurants within easy walking distance with several others within a short drive; dive shop next door with another about a mile away with boat diving to Watamula etc.; several other easy entry shore dive sites within close driving distance including Playa Piskado with lots of turtles. Willemstad is about 45 min away with good grocery stores, restaurants, night life etc.. Close enough for an evening, but far enough away to enjoy quiet, rural Westpunt. I'm headed back as soon as travel is a bit easier. I really miss it. All IMHO, YMMV.

 

[Mason Gierke]

I like to claim that we want to relax on our trips but we always end up diving as much as we can, usually 4-5 dives a day and then we end up exhausted and just want an easy dinner and a quiet place to have a drink or two before we pass out and do it all over again. We will probably end up doing a mix of boat dives in the A.M. and shores dives in the afternoon.

 

[Doctorfish]

I've done many of this sort of trip and enjoy both boat and shore diving. IMO Little Cayman Beach Resort, Southern Cross and Brac Beach resort will meet almost all of your needs. In my experience, their AI and 3 boat dives per day schedules more than make up for not having house reefs for shore diving. No thinking or effort required, You just need to get up in the morning and put one foot in front of the other. At any of these 3 resorts, the boat tends to come back to the dock before 4 pm allowing plenty of relaxation time for pool, bar, a walk or bike ride, shower and dinner at 7ish. If you want even more diving, all 3 offer night dives a few times per week as well.
I've dived Grand, Little Cayman, Bonaire, Curacao and The Brac many times and given the choice, much prefer a week at Brac or LC. I agree a house reef is nice to have but I much prefer having the opportunity to get on a boat and dive Bloody Bay Wall instead.

The quality of wall diving and valet service at Little Cayman and Brac, more than compensates for the lack of house reefs. The choice all comes down to your price point and preferences.