Bonaire again? Looking for recommendations for new dive destination.

[Damselfish]

With respect to CoCo View and Roatan diving, the nice diving was the off-site and well off shore hosted by: Waihuka Adventure Diving It was a staged shark feeding/diving experience while kneeling on the 70' bottom or swimming among the sharks. Out there the water was clear, lots of nice colorful corals, lots of sharks and other fish and fine visibility. By sad comparison, CoCo View was milky/low vis and totally fished out (even back in 2005 fished out, can't even imagine how empty it must be by now!). I'd much rather have done all my dives 'out there' with Waihuka with respect to the actual diving quality.

You seem to have a bias against Roatan, based on your visit 14 years ago. My wife and I had a reasonable visit 2 years ago Turquoise Bay Resort/Subway Watersports August 2017

I didn't read it that way - appeared @scubafanatic didn't the diving from Cocoview but liked other Roatan diving.


When we were at Cocoview, shore diving viz was awful. Not sure how much of anomaly it is because I see that comment alot?

 

[AdivingBel]

I've got the card and the pony so I guess Curacao would work. Have to see what travel time and cost is like.

Shore diving, no matter where you go, can be a bit more work than some other types of diving, but @Kharon, you know that. If the other aspects of Curacao work out for you and you want to solo, my advice to you would be to find a good house reef (to supplement other sites and to make it easy to stay wet), and do the "don't advertise" approach. If a shop gives you the "stink eye" , don't try to solo under their noses. There are plenty of places to get tanks and plenty of places to dive "unsupervised." Expect no-solo on boat dives, but it's pretty benign diving so insta-buddy or "groupish" diving is normal and, IMHO, doesn't detract much from these dives. I hope you find a situation that works for you no matter where you land. Keep on divin' as long as you enjoy it. All IMHO, YMMV.

 

[robint]

Shore diving vis is totally dependent on weather conditions and if the tide is going out or coming in.
Our last trip to Cocoview we had fantastic vis a couple of times, okay vis most of the time, and bad vis a couple of times.... time of day, tide, all factors.

BUT at Cocoview shore dive we had seahorses and amazing macro stuff ..... so it all depends on your point of view. We dove the Prince Albert wreck right there every day, only one day was it bad vis.



And this trip was in JUNE... very little rain, so water was clearer than our previous trip, in Nov, where it rained daily. Horrible vis that trip for the first several days before it cleared up.


Just my 2 cents.... Cozumel is best diving in Caribbean, Bonaire and Roatan are tied for second for very different reasons. Bonaire more fish, Roatan more amazing reefs and coral. Both have decent macro.

 

[KathyV]

...Just my 2 cents.... Cozumel is best diving in Caribbean, Bonaire and Roatan are tied for second for very different reasons. Bonaire more fish, Roatan more amazing reefs and coral. Both have decent macro.

Have you ever dived Bloody Bay Wall in Little Cayman?