Best Bonaire House Reefs??

[NightRaven77]

Hey all....

Im booked to go to Bonaire for the first time and want to know about how good the house reefs are......

Anyone have any good ones to share...???? What hotel are they infront of....and do they have any deep ones..?

NightRaven77

 

[scubablue67]

I stayed at Divi Flamingo and the house reef was excellent. Everytime I thought I'd seen it all I found something else to make it a special dive. I bet I dove it 15 times over ten days.
Captin Don's had a slightly better reef in front with some great stuff. They have a pair of mating frogfish that are easy to find each time I went looking for them. Most of the good stuff on both reefs is between 30 and 75 feet. It pretty much ends in a sandy bottom around 80 or 90' with some areas as deep as 120'.
I prefered the Divi because of it's location to the customs pier and towne pier right next door. Also less than a block from town. Serge the shop manager was first rate and certified my mother for nitrox. He really impressed me with his knowledge and willingness to share information. Pepe one of the staff was really nice to dive with. His ability to make it fun was impressive, even with a couple of bozo divers he had to keep and eye on. Pepe lead us on a very late night dive at towne pier around midnite when there were no other divers to deal with. Do that dive if you get the chance.
Also check out Www.Bonairetalk.com to get the lowdown on whats happening in Bonaire and read tons of detailed trip reports.

 

[herman]

Most of the house reefs on Bonaire are more or less the same, the one exception I know of is Eden Beach, it's mostly rock with little life but plenty of fish. The profile of most of the reefs are similar. They start in 0 to 10 ft of water and drop slowly to about 35ft where they do a steep drop. How close to shore the drop off is and how deep it bottoms out depends on which end of the island you are on. The north end starts deeper, the dropoff is a lot closer to shore and the bottom is 300ft+. On the south end and around the resorts, the dropoff is farther from shore and bottoms out at around 80 to 100 ft.
Diving on all the piers on Bonaire has been highly restricted recently due to security reasons so don't count on diving any of them without a guide.

 

[00scuba]

just got back from Bonaire and i would say Captain Don's...

 

[caymaniac]

I agree, Cap't Dons is one of the best. I have stayed at the Divi several times and it is okay, but Capt Dons is allot better. I think the location of the Divi is a better place topside, it is close enough to town, close enough to rent a sailboat off the beach. And close enough to restaurants, all this is in walking distance.

Dive Safe,
Caymaniac

 

[blawler1]

Sanddollar/Buddy's/Lions and Capt Dons are all very similar as they located together and are basically part of the same reef formation. It is basically 30' sloping down to 130' with lots of stuff to see in the shallower depths, especially little stuff and great for night dives. I have heard that Capt Dons has instituted a $5 charge for divers using their dock who are not staying in the resort or buying tanks from them, so this may be a consideration. My most recent experiences and have been with Sanddollar and Buddy's and they didn't appear to have a problem with people bringing in outside tanks to dive there.

 

[SchoonCR]

Sanddollar/Buddy's/Lions and Capt Dons are all very similar as they located together and are basically part of the same reef formation. QUOTE]

That seemed like a good area to me, we stayed at Lions Dive Inn.

Sandollar is the most southern, and is situated in front of Bari Reef (or close to it, I believe)

BuddyDive/Lions Dive are situated in front of Buddy Reef

Capt. Dons, which is right beside Lions Dive, is situated in front of Reef Scientifico.

All are nice, but we didnt do I bad dive on the entire Island.

Schoon

 

[Danny-Diver]

Hi,

I experienced both Sand dollar and Captain Don's night and day and liked it very much.

I found that Sand Dollar had smaller fishes but more diversity.
Capt Don was a better place for wall and night diving in my opinion.

It is a fact that Capt Don dive shop asks for a 5$ fee for diving from their pier. Fortunatly it closes at five so during night dives we dived for free.

During our night dives at Captain Don's, two big tarpons were using our lights for spotting small fishes. Very interresting to see those big fishes racing with preys.

 

[aquasport]

Just got back from buddys, nice reef , i thought divi was not great.

 

[diversteve]

Here's my .02 regarding Bonaire house reefs:

Swim north from Capt. Don's dock past the Memorial. I think the site is officially called Cliff. It gets possibly only a little deeper but the fishlife is better. It costs $5.00 to dive but it's worth it, they have good facilities and a separate dive dock. Also when we were there, there was just a little current to help you drift south back to the dock.

Then drive over towards Sand Dollar, just before the Sand Dollar entrance turn left and follow the sign for Bonaire Dive/Adventure - it's right where they're doing the construction, the resort is closed but the divestore is open. This is Bari Reef - the most prolific reef for fish species in the Caribbean - according to REEF. Ask for Jerry Ligon, he's the naturalist there, he'll tell you what's lately been seen there and where to look for it. We filmed a family of squid there.

Also dive the piers if you get the chance, Town pier at night and Salt Pier anytime there's no boat loading. Due to port restrictions, both of them are DM accompanied dives only.

regards,