Bonaire Help!

[scubastuff]

My friend and are going to Bonaire in the end of May to the beginning of July. We booked our airfare and now we need to figure out where to stay, which dive sites are essential for our trip, and where to eat. I figured this would be the best place to gather information....any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Becca

 

[The Chairman]

Plaza Bonaire has probably the most luxurious site as well as AWESOME diving right out of the door! You can't go wrong there!

 

[herman]

Bon Bini (welcome) to the board.

Bonaire has a bunch of places to stay and lots of good restaurants. Everyone has their favorite places. What your requirements and budget are will determine the best place for you. For on water places, Sand Dollar, Buddy Dive, Eden Beach, Capt Dons and Divi are a few of the well know places. Harbor Village and the Plaza are the more upscale places on the island. For off water places Happy Holiday Homes, Divers Paradise and Golden Reef Inn are good choices. My personal preferences are Buddy for on water resorts and Golden Reef Inn for off water accomidations but any of the above places as well as a bunch more are fine. Where ever you stay, be sure to do a good comparison of what is included in the price. Some places include room only, others include diving and still others include a vehicle. You will want a vehicle of some sort for shore diving, we prefer a small truck. I would not include any meals in the package except breakfast. There are way to many good restraurants on island to be stuck eating at the same place every day. Most of the bigger resorts do have good food however.
There is a lot of information on this board that others and myself have posted over the years. It would well worth it to do a search on Bonaire and read the many hints and suggestions. Another great resource is the Bonaire board. Anything you need to know about Bonaire can be found there. The board has a good many active members who live on island. www.bonairetalk.com

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Check out www.shorediving.com for a great resource on dive sites.

Here's where we stayed - more like condos than a resort really, but right on the water. No meal plan - no on-site restaraunt - full kitchen. Put breakfast and lunch / snack stuff in the refrigerator and cupboards and splurge on nice dinners. Reheat any dinner leftovers (put in boxes to save room for dessert - a necessity for me when on vacation) for lunches or the snack break between the afternoon dive and the night dive.

http://www.bellafonte-bonaire.com/

I have not stayed at the PlazaBonaire but my bet is this spot would equal if not exceed for 'luxurious'. It is more initimate and less advertised, which is more our style. Everyone has their own tastes, I'm sure you can find your best fit among the many offerings on Bonaire.

 

[diverdenise]

Stayed at Buddies in Bonaire in October. It suited us fine, we had a 3 bedroom room with a kitchen. I just bought groceries for the whole week and went out a couple nights, would rather be diving than eating. Diving right from the resort was great for night and predawn dives. They offered a little truck and have a pull in fill station which was a big plus. I think we only had breakfast included. Not a luxurious place but very functional and clean. Most people say you have to dive Salt Pier, Town Pier and Klien Bonaire(boat). We did Salt and it was good, we had to have a divemaster with us there. We couldn't do Town Pier because a yaht was there the whole week, darn rich people and I didn't do Klein. We enjoyed all the sites we went to, Hilma Hooker, 1000 steps (73 I think acutually), AndriaI, Margate, Invisibles, Witch's Hut, Alice in Wonderland, Red Beryl, ?Leap, Oil SLick. Have fun.

 

[Diver Kat]

We've stayed at Deep Blue View, and will be there again May 6-20. Great package deals, and it's almost like having your own house & pool. Esther serves a killer breakfast to boot!! Here's the website ...

http://www.deepblueview.com/

 

[El Orans]

Get a truck.

Go to Karpata.

Enjoy.

 

[scubastuff]

I've heard mixed things about Karpata.

Is it better to have a full wetsuit for bonaire or a shortie? Do they have equipment to rent there?

Thanks for all the great info! I really appreciate it.

Becca

 

[diversteve]

The water will be at least 80', probably 82'. Since you're staying a month, you'd probably be better off financially to stay off the beach - not that there is any good beaches - Plaza's is ok. Golden Reef Inn is an affordable alternative. dvrliz1 here owns it.

Bigger reason for a wetsuit is for ankle/shin protection. A lot of the shorediving entries are over ironshore and coral rubble, that and a good pair of treaded boots will save you from getting all scratched and cut up. I can't stress enough the need for good boots - the rocks are slippery and sharp and the coral rubble is unstable.

The reason they call Bonaire "Diver's Paradise" is because it is. You won't have any problems finding gear rentals. About the only thing I didn't see there were scooters(DPV's) but you shouldn't do that yet anyhow. Every dive resort has a fully stocked diveshop onsite and there's several in town also. So equipment is not a problem.

Do a search for my previous posts, I wrote two or three travelogues on Bonaire last year - I'd rather not do them again.

Divesites not to miss:

Rappel - via boat
Witches Hut
Bari Reef - Sand Dollars house reef
Cliff/La Machaca - Capt. Don's house reef
Angel City
Invisibles
Hilma Hooker(with a DM - it's deep)
Salt Pier

off Klein Bonaire:
Hands Off
Forest
Jerry's Reef - 2nd dive, it's shallow but look for Turtles.

Be careful south of the Salt Pier, some of those sites can have ripping currents, especially in the afternoon. I'm not sure I'd dive Red Beryl given your dive experience - we dove Vista Blue just south of there and the current was bending the coral over 90'. After about 15min. we just gave up and drifted back to our entry point.

Although in a month, I'd have to believe you can dive all the sites in Bonaire within your skill level. There's only about 60 total on the whole island. We did a quarter of them in a week. It's effortless shorediving there, just pickup tanks, drive to a marked divesite, park within about 30' of the water, gear up and wade in.

And most of the sites have either a shallow or a deeper profile depending on what you're comfortable with. Most of our diving was less than 60'(we were filming) and we saw lots of marine life. In some areas the bottom is so covered with soft corals and sponges that you can't see the reef below it.

Generally everything herman posts is right. He goes there often.

PM if you have any other questions, I won't follow this thread.

 

[herman]

Thanks Steve, not often enough to suit me.

I would agree on the Hooker, great dive but maybe a little much for a new diver due to the depth (90-100 ft), same goes for Angle City if you go to the second reef.
A couple of must do dives I would add are 1000 Steps and Oil Slick, the dives themselves are good but I also like area around the site. For easy starter dives try Old Blue and Windsock. A couple of pictures of some of the sites.
Pictures: 1000 Steps, Old Blue, 2 x Witches Hut