Best Dives in Bonaire

[msubryan]

I am heading to Bonaire in a couple weeks and I am trying to plan my first couple of days.

Looking for suggestions on best dive sites for days?

Staying at Golden Reef Inn, so what is the closest and best house reef to visit on our first day/night?

Favorites?

 

[reefdiva]

My favorite dive in Bonaire is the one I am doing at any given moment ...

The closest sites to GRI would be the Andreas, Cliff, Habitat (charge to use dock), Buddy.

I happen to love the sites in town for looking for small critters and any site south of Margate for the soft corals.

If you do not yet have a copy, consider purchasing Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy. It is available on line at Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy, BSDME, Author Susan Porter or at many dive shops in Bonaire.

 

[herman]

Your first day dive will be at Eden Beach. GRI uses Wannadivebonaire as their dive op, a great dive op I might add. Bonaire rules require you to do an orientation dive at the house reef your dive op uses as your first dive after getting your park tag ($25) and Eden Beach is the closest house reef to GRI that WDB uses as a house reef. I would also suggest you do your first night dive there as well. It's not my favorite dive on Boniare but it is well lit, very easy entry/exit and you will have done a couple of dives on it by then.
When are you there? There are a bunch of SB members on island from June 27 to July 10. I will be dropping by GRI for Gibi's BBQ and will likely do a dive or 2 at EB. I alway like to meet SB members.

 

[Maine Diver]

I didn't find a bad dive site. My favorite was Cai with Bas. Oil Slick is fun. Bari Reef, The Lake, Hilma Hooker, Margate Bay, I could go on and on. Most sites you can burn your air at the end of the dive in 5-10' of water looking at the small critters.

 

[DeputyDan]

What Herman said!

 

[KY_BOB]

What Herman said!

If you ask a question about Bonaire and Herman replies, take his advise.

 

[msubryan]

Herman,

I will be there the 27th thru the 3rd...we can make some dives!!


Thanks to all for the responses..

 

[herman]

Great. ScottyD and myself are staying at Den Laman, a little ways from GRI. Gypsyjim and several other SB members are also on island that week. I am real easy to pick out, I am the only one on the island diving a old double hose reg with bright yellow hoses. Same reg but I dive a differnet harness these days, it's now black. The shot was taken at Buddy Dive on Bonaire. The island in the background is Klien Bonaire (Little Bonaire).

 

[drrich2]

Well, I suppose there are some 'signature dive sites.'

1.) Oil Slick Leap is a good site, and the giant stride in (around 8 foot drop) rather fun. Definitely on the list.

2.) 1,000 Steps actually has 60 something steps, or thereabouts, and the stairwell is quaint and looks good in photos. Just the name evokes an impressive atmosphere. Good to do.

3.) The Cliff is the only Bonaire site I know that actually looks like 'wall diving,' which is a bit different.

4.) The Hilma Hooker is not the only wreck, but it's the big one with the greatest name recognition and the reef's nice, too. Another good choice, but entry can be a bit difficult as there's kind of a step off entering the water.

5.) Windsock has one of the easiest entries around. A friend & I chose it for a night dive, as we figured getting out in the dark would be easier near some shore structure at one end of the site. And that worked out alright.

6.) A number of people really like Karpata.

7.) Off Eden Beach's 'Eden's Rubble' is the wreck of the Bakanal; far smaller than the Hilma Hooker, but you can actually take a photo of the whole thing. Not much reef here.

There are other fun places to dive on Bonaire, but if it's new to you, these are some good places to put on your list. I know Angel City & Alice in Wonderland are also popular. I like Tolo (Ol'Blue).

Richard.

 

[diversteve]

After your BMP dive(s) at Eden Beach, I'd move just up the road and dive Bari Reef - it's at Bonaire Dive/Adventure just between Den Laman and Sand Dollar condos. IIRC Den Laman is the next resort north of Eden Beach.

We also dove Cliff/La Machaca at Habitat just north of there. As mentioned above Cliff is one of the few vertical walls in that area. We did both in one dive by swiimming into the current to Cliff (it's slightly north of Habitat) and then letting it blow us back.

Our other "best" dives:

Angel City - there used to be a huge blue sponge between the reefs.
Vista Blue - ripping current the afternoon we were there. My buddy mentioned he thought it the best dive we did all week.
Bari Reef - it has the largest counted fish species of any divesite in the Caribbean. You can do REEF surveys there through BD&A - they have a naturalist onsite who will dive with you and point them out.
The Salt Pier is a really good dive also. DM escorted only now afaik. And only open when there's no ship loading.
Town Pier is another good dive but it's only done at night. And might be closed now due to the cruise ships docking there. Which might've also ruined it, the best part of that dive was the cup corals and seahorses you could find - I'm hoping they haven't been silted over or scared off by the cruise traffic.

We also did a couple of memorable boat dives:
Rappel - off Bonaire but the only way to do it is by boat.
Hands Off - a drift dive off Klein Bonaire
Forest - IMO one of the best dives we did all week - there was a "forest" of Black Coral at around 70'.