Bonaire good in late April? ...better than the Keys?

[keysdvr]

Thanks to everyone for the advice. Sounds like Bonaire is the place to go - I think the wife (dive buddy) and I will be heading there for our break. Happy diving!

M

 

[Rick&Lori]

Hi Guys,
Enjoyed your info on Bonaire.
My wife and I are going diving in Curacao and Bonaire in late March, any advise on good hotels?
Also, never have done a shore dive, any special advice?
Thanks,
Rick

 

[DeputyDan]

Hi Guys,
Enjoyed your info on Bonaire.
My wife and I are going diving in Curacao and Bonaire in late March, any advise on good hotels?
Also, never have done a shore dive, any special advice?
Thanks,
Rick

If you are only going for a week - I would pick one or the other but not both.
You could easily lose a day or two's diving by island hopping.

 

[diversteve]

Hi Guys,
Enjoyed your info on Bonaire.
My wife and I are going diving in Curacao and Bonaire in late March, any advise on good hotels?

The Marriott Emerald Beach Resort/Casino was very nice. Beachfront, good pool area, small casino and Caribbean Sea Sports diveop on-site. It's in Piscadera Bay so semi-close to the airport. And just a few minutes from downtown. There are often cruise ships in port so downtown is not optimal for getting to the better diving - most of it is either east or west of town. We drove out to the western dives sites from PBay a couple of days also - about 20-30mins. max. The Hilton next door is really old - like from the 60's. The lobby area was nice, IDK about the rooms.

Also, never have done a shore dive, any special advice?
Thanks,

On both islands the reef parallels the shore line so it's usually a simple matter of swimming out to it, determining any current (there won't be much) and heading into it. Many of the dive sites on Curacao are a little farther out requiring a short surface swim. Some entries are also off small coves between the ironshore cliffs so make sure you take a reference to get back to the same one. It's really not that difficult though, I don't even own a compass and did fine. Many of the sites have been improved by an onsite dive operator - many of them built docks to get you a little closer to the reef. Usually you pay a small fee (in guilders) for that. They'll also rent tanks/weights if you don't want to haul them.

Off Bonaire the reef is closer in. At many sites you'll see the mooring ball just offshore - at a lot of them it's about 20yds. out or so. Same general instructions except you likely won't run into any currents except at the advanced sites south around the Lighthouse or possibly in Slagbaai park. The difficulty on Bonaire is the entrance - at many sites there is ironshore, ironshore just offshore and coral rubble tumbling in the surfline. So good treaded boots are a must. Take it slow and rely on your buddy for support. Carry your fins out and put them on in deeper water. At some sites there's also a sand channel bisecting the ironshore. Look for them. At many of the sites other divers have piled up coral rubble indicating the entry point. What we did in the south - north is too rocky/hilly - is park the truck behind the entry point - makes it easier to see from water level. Often on Bonaire the water is so clear that you'll see the mooring ball/rope as you get close to your exit point.

Bring everything you need with you as none of the sites except at the resorts have any facilities. Don't bring extra stuff as you'll be leaving the doors open/windows down per the rental company's request (saves the broken windows) so it might walk off while you're diving. The standard dive vehicle on Bonaire is a 4dr. small pickup so the back seat makes a good place to store loose gear. No one touches tanks as they're only refillable by the renter so they can stay loose in the back. We carried about 6-8 all week.

It's not a bad idea to dive a couple of the resorts first to get familiar with the area - many are on named dive sites. 18Palms, Calabas Reef, Bari Reef, Buddy's Reef, LaMachaca/Cliff are all in front of a resort. In a very general sense, we found that most of the south sites were pretty similar - some are only a couple hundred yards away from each other. At many you'll see other divers nearby - esp. in the morning.

A better visual on the differences can be found here: Look at the individual site pictures, many show the entries. Scuba Shore Diving Region: ABC Islands

 

[kydivegirl]

I've been to Bonaire 7 times and have stayed at the Divi and rented a house.

The staff at the dive shop at the Divi is fantastic. They also have a great house reef, Calabas. There are gear storage lockers on the dock and tanks are always available.

Some of the shore sites are difficult to enter. Some that aren't too difficult are Oil Slick Leap, Windsock and Andrea I and II.

I have stayed at the Hilton in Curacao and it was nice too. They also have a house reef and the dive shop has gear lockers there but they aren't as accessible as the Divi.

Hi Guys,
Enjoyed your info on Bonaire.
My wife and I are going diving in Curacao and Bonaire in late March, any advise on good hotels?
Also, never have done a shore dive, any special advice?
Thanks,
Rick

 

[Ben Prusinski]

Well I am heading to Bonaire in June for my dive trip and staying at Buddy Dive Resort. I like shore diving and look forward to the trip. Will provide a full report after I get back.

 

[dolesorchard]

We have been to Bonaire twice in November and December. We dove once in the Keys in January and j were just in Roatan last November. Would go for Bonaire hands down. Roatan had very few fish, a couple of dives that had fairly strong current had moderate numbers of fish only, and the second week we were there was very windy with highs in the low 70's. The Keys for us was a real bummer, but it was a bad time of year. Bonaire had outstanding fish populations on every dive with enough other critters to make every dive interesting. December 2010 we were there for two weeks, it rained some every day, the air was mid 80's and the water was low 80's and visibility was in the 75-100ft range. If you want to see some bigger life, do a few east coast dives. On the west coast we have seen the same eagle ray twice in two years (broken tail made it easy to identify) in one east coast dive we saw twenty seven eagle rays and the biggest green turtle we have ever seen.

 

[keysdvr]

All -
Wanted to thank everyone for the info. Just got back from the trip. It was a really great trip. Bubbletrouble and Diversteve are right on the mark. Lots and lots of small stuff to check out, tons of fish. Not a lot of big stuff, but we were skunked on the east coast diving (shore diving was too rough and the boats were all booked). Shore diving on our own program was just what we were looking for in a relaxing dive vacation. In case anyone else is going, here's some things about our trip:

Stayed at Bamboo Bali Bonaire. Nice, small, quiet, clean place to stay. It's just a short drive N of town with a half dozen individual cabanas to stay in. Sebastian, Arno, and Vera were really great and we'd definitely stay with them if we were going back.

Wannadive - unlimited tanks for the week, with a free upgrade to nitrox, super convenient - they have filled tanks in two different locations on the island. Drive up, throw four more tanks in the back of the truck, and off you go to the next dive site. Only did 1 'guided' dive with them - night dive off of salt pier, as you're 'supposed' to go with a guide. Worth while, but don't know if i'd pay the $ ($40) to do it again. Definitely deal with them again.

Food/Restaurants: We like good food and were willing to try 'better' restaurants. There are a couple of supermarkets on the island (Van Den Tweel is the nicest inside and a bit pricier, the warehouse was probably the best bang for the buck). We had a small kitchen in our place, so we only went out for dinner - saved ALOT of time and some $. Sounds silly, but make reservations at the restaurants. Many places wouldn't seat you unless you had them.
Mona Lisa - our favorite. we ate here twice. REally good food, well prepared. In town on a back street, so less ambiance.
Rum Runners - good food, not as quite as good as mona lisa, but still pretty good. Nice atmosphere on the water. AND they do take-away.
Bistro de Paris - dissappointing. Main entre was good, but sides (veggies, salad, etc) were lackluster. And it was just as expensive as the others.
Casa Blanca - okay all around.
Cactus Blue - not great (and still not cheap)
Elle's Deli - great (and quick) place for lunch - take-away too.

Random notes: there's an island guide that tells when the cruise liners are coming to town. Stay away from downtown and close dive sites when they're around - it's crazy and there are people everywhere. But - going north or south away from town and you're still the only ones in the water.

Diving: Tons of fish - everything from fry to 2' mutton snapper. Lots of eels (green morays, spotted, goldentail, sharp tail), shrimp, crabs, etc. We did a sampling of the dive sites, from the very north (two in the park), down to red slave. Didn't make the east coast (which is a disappointment). Standard profile is sand / small coral heads from shore out 20-35 yards where it drops to roughly 20-30'. At that point there's lots of coral, the terrain drops sharply to about 100-130', turns sandy and goes deeper. There are a few places with a double reef system. Coral is all in pretty good shape (in sharp contrast to the keys which is really starting to bleach, and Roatan). I had read the 'must do dives', but frankly, the 'no name' dives were just as nice. Surprisingly, fish life at the sites in town was just as nice as the stuff further away. We'd drive until we'd see a site that didn't have any cars and jump in. Driving through the park was really cool - it's a long trip (4-6 hours) but worth the time. The dive locations / settings were really cool, but I felt that the diving wasn't as great as some of the other sites further south. I was fully prepared to go there a second day (gas the truck, pack lunches, load the tanks in the backseat of the truck so that they didn't bounce around, etc), but after two dives we pulled the plug and headed back south. Do the drift dive between La Dania's Leap and Kapata - its pretty cool. The 'leap' off shore into the water is only 5' or so, but the wife got a round of applause from the folks in the dive boat moored on the reef.

All told - great trip. Would do it again, time and money permitting. Thanks again to everyone who provided some info towards our trip.

M

 

[Angry Turtle]

All -

Food/Restaurants: We like good food and were willing to try 'better' restaurants. There are a couple of supermarkets on the island (Van Den Tweel is the nicest inside and a bit pricier, the warehouse was probably the best bang for the buck). We had a small kitchen in our place, so we only went out for dinner - saved ALOT of time and some $. Sounds silly, but make reservations at the restaurants. Many places wouldn't seat you unless you had them.
Mona Lisa - our favorite. we ate here twice. REally good food, well prepared. In town on a back street, so less ambiance.
Rum Runners - good food, not as quite as good as mona lisa, but still pretty good. Nice atmosphere on the water. AND they do take-away.
Bistro de Paris - dissappointing. Main entre was good, but sides (veggies, salad, etc) were lackluster. And it was just as expensive as the others.
Casa Blanca - okay all around.
Cactus Blue - not great (and still not cheap)
Elle's Deli - great (and quick) place for lunch - take-away too.

This is interesting, and a good example that good restaurants have their ups and downs.

We had the exact opposite experience with Mona Lisa and Cactus Blue. In our experience Cactus Blue was AWESOME (my wife still calls it her favorite restaurant) and Mona Lisa was well, ok.

 

[drrich2]

Thanks for posting a follow up and letting us know how the trip went. Good to see how things actually went. Many happy returns.

Richard.