Bonaire Final Trip Planning - double check and advice on dive sites?

[Diver-6873]

Thanks to all the wonderful information on this board! Here is what I have so far:

Group of 4 divers, staying in a rental home in Tera Kora. Experience ranges from 30 - 100 dives. Trip is from 3/17 - 3/25. Plan on Diving every day up to 3/23.

1. Rent manual truck from AB Carrental.
2. Rent air and equipment from Dive Friends. All 4 divers nitrox certified.

When we arrive, get truck and do check out dive from Dive Friends. Do they have lockers to rent to store equipment each night? Or will we have to haul everything into the house each day?

This is our first experience doing exclusively self-planned shore dives. Our most experienced divers have done a few live aboard. My wife and I have only done boat excursions. We would like to do 2-4 dives a day and plan on renting a dive computer. Does everything so far sound good?

I purchased a copy of Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy for info about entering each site. Can someone tell me though WHICH sites they would recommend? There are so many, it kinda' boggles my mind.

Any othe radvice or recommendations would be welcome. Thank you!

PSX .. please feel free to message me privately if you’d like. My wife and I moved on island earlier this year. We dive 2x/5-6 days a week on average. There is truely not a bad site on the island, just some different than others, We’d be glad to suggest sites, what you might see where, as well as restaurants, and of course our favorite rum.

I can certainly post publícly here as well or even turn the thread over to my wife ... she remembers exactly what we see on which site and in which direction.

I would suggest booking in advance one boat dive with East Coast Divers, you can always cancel if you change your mind. They are a great operator and will give you quiet the experience over on the East side ... expect to see 50-100 sea turtles.

 

[Trailboss123]

To answer your question regarding storing your gear at Dive Friends overnight, the answer is no. This is not an option and you will need to take it back to your rental home. Something to keep in mind/consider for future visits is to stay somewhere that has on site rinse tanks and a secure place to store gear (preferably outdoors), so as not to have to bring a bunch of wet gear into the house.

 

[Trailboss123]

Another thing to remember is that you will all need $25 cash to pay for your marine park tag upon arrival at Dive Friends. Also, have some sort of waterproof container to store your truck key, cash, drivers license, debit or credit card while diving.

 

[PStrangerX]

PSX ..

I would suggest booking in advance one boat dive with East Coast Divers, you can always cancel if you change your mind. They are a great operator and will give you quiet the experience over on the East side ... expect to see 50-100 sea turtles.

WHOA - you had me at sea turtle!

 

[uncfnp]

There is at least one Dive Friends location that does offer lockers. Df Port Bonaire. It is first come and first served but they have always had one available for our use when we stayed next door.

End of day we would use their rinse tanks there and store fins and bcd’s and sometimes suits but more often take those back with us to the condo. And we always brought dive computers and other small pricey gear home.

Next day collecting tanks for the day, we would grab our gear too. This worked well for us.

 

[diversteve]

One other thing to mention.

You may not want to leave gear outside overnight at the house unless it's in a pretty secire locked area.

A lot of rentals have such a place - even a rinse tank/tub. The owners know why you're there.

 

[diversteve]

Actually Dive Friends Port Bonaire might be the closest shop to your house - it should be due west from the Tera Cora area.

 

[diversteve]

WHOA - you had me at sea turtle!

If you boat dive Jerry's Reef we saw some living under the coral in the shallows back towards Klein from the mooring.

 

[Kharon]

I think the DF at Cliff (Hamlet Oasis) also has gear storage. I've sent tips by PM since I've posted them here many times and people are probably tired of seeing them. Also 50-100 turtles is IMO bogus.

 

[Willar]

Our favorites include Karpata, Witches Hut, 1000 Steps, Something Special, Salt Pier (day and night), and Hilma Hooker but more for the reef than the wreck.

I would skip the boat dives, we really didn't see anything fabulous and you are stuck diving with the whole group on the boat. One of the reasons to dive Bonaire is you have the peace and freedom to dive just with your buddies without all the other divers or schedule. With a boat dive you lose that freedom. But it's personal preference.

Ditto on getting yourself a computer rather than renting. There are great deals on the AquaLung i200 right now which is a fine computer. Sometimes local shops will have used rental computers really cheap or you can find a used one online but I'd rather buy new and have a good warranty. Getting to know your own computer is much better than renting something different each time.