Bonaire, Is it worth the trip?

[adurso]

adurso...BelMar the condominium complex is NOT owned by Buddy Dive. Buddy Dive however does have a satellite operation there.

The BelMar people in the dive shop told me they were the same outfit, I may have misunderstood them.....in any case they were both good places to stay...

 

[ronscuba]

Which resort has the best house reef ?

Which resort has the best and most convenient house reef amenities ? Lockers, rinse tanks, showers, 24/7 access, etc..

How far are the rooms from the dive/shop/house reef ? Some of the resorts look a little big with some rooms far from the shop. Buddy's and Sand Dollar in particular look like you could have a long walk.

I've been to Habitat Curacao which has an awesome house reef and setup. Small resort, so all the rooms are close. I liked to do a dive before breakfast and 1 after dinner on the house reef in addition to driving around shore diving the other sites on the island.

 

[Trwmodela]

My Nekton Dive buddies have talked me into my first Bonaire trip. We are going January of 2008 and staying at the Belmar Apartments. I believe this to be one of the nicer resorts on the island. We are still adding divers to our group and trying to reserve more apartments. If you are interested send a PM and I will provide the dates. :14: I am lucky going with several divers that know the island and dive sites. This will be shore diving and our package includes 4-door pickup trucks. We are flying the Continental red eye from Houston departs around 11:30 pm.

I am out of town 09/15/07 to 10/03/07...Nekton Diving Cruises trip.

Belmar Apartments

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

 

[ronscuba]

I'll be doing my 1st Nekton trip in December to Belize. Any suggestions ?

 

[Trwmodela]

Here is a sample video of House Reefs on Bonaire

http://fw_scuba.permissiontv.com/index.html?showid=235082

Click on the above link and give it a moment to start playing.

 

[spectrum]

I am kicking around taking a dive trip to Bonaire. What is everyones opinion?
How is the Diving? What time of year is best? and most importantly, how is the night life?
Looking forward to some help.

If leisurley, easy shore diving with a vey short surface swim to a healty reef is your thing then it's top drawer. Many many acessible shore sites with warm water and nice visibility. Fish life will be a plethora of smaller colorful fish.

If you are a dive boat junkie I believe there are much more engaging destinations.

Late April put us just past the busy season but everything was open. It did not have an off season feel whatsoever and the tradewinds were just right. This time of the year can be hot with the doldrums.

Lightlife? People go there to dive. There are some bars but not much in the way of a club scene or that sort of stuff.

We stayed at Buddy Dive and wanted for NOTHING. I'd go back in a heartbeat.

Pete

 

[battles2a5]

Definitely worth the trip. I've been twice in the last year and racked up 30 and 35 dives, respectively. And I never got tired of diving. There is so much to see and the topography varies greatly from the north to south and east to west (if you are up for diving the wild side). I stayed at Eden Beach and dove w/ Wannadive. I would highly recommend them, especially Wannadive. Bart and Bob will take care of whatever you need. There is nightlife in terms of bars, but no real clubs or anything. But you'll be diving so much you won't have much desire to go out and party.

 

[Homunculus]

i really hope it's worth otherwise what all the fuss is all about
i'm going there in November.

 

[robint]

Which resort has the best house reef ?

Which resort has the best and most convenient house reef amenities ? Lockers, rinse tanks, showers, 24/7 access, etc..

How far are the rooms from the dive/shop/house reef ? Some of the resorts look a little big with some rooms far from the shop. Buddy's and Sand Dollar in particular look like you could have a long walk.

I've been to Habitat Curacao which has an awesome house reef and setup. Small resort, so all the rooms are close. I liked to do a dive before breakfast and 1 after dinner on the house reef in addition to driving around shore diving the other sites on the island.

Sand Dollar - Buddy Dive - Capt Don's is basically the same reef all in a line with no break. We stayed at Buddy's and when we got in the water we decided if we would go south towards SD or north towards CD each dive and basically did 2 reefs each time as you can easily spend over an hour cruising along at depth from 30'- +90' as it is a gorgeous wall. WE found the dive from Buddy's going north at 60' then loop up to La Machaca wreck at CD then back to Buddys at around 35' was the best route each day - eagle rays, eels, octopus, you name it. We never got bored with that dive and did it once a day.

Ron - check out my topside video to see how close the dive shop is to the water. All gear can be kept there in the gear storage room for shore diving. We took our regs/computers back to the room nightly but many people didn't. Several rinse tanks and showers right there at the dock which are changed several times throughout the day, too. Room is locked at night but during your briefing Day 1 they show you how to get the key for 24/7 diving. No problemo! At night we took our wetsuits and booties to our room and hung them on patio to dry overnight which was nice.

For dives elsewhere you can drive your truck right to the top of the stairs and load up (most people did this, we just carried ours to our room). Very very easy diving right there and the house reef is one of the best reefs we dove all week. For tanks, there are tanks stored down by the waters edge AND also the drive up tank station by the parking lot - you load up your gear then drive thru and pick up tanks on your way off the property to shore dive.

WE only did a cursory look at CaptDons and SD while there and though CD is fancier than Buddy's, the dive shop layout seemed too far from water for me. Buddys is way more casual too while CD seemed very formal. Layout seemed very awkward to me - lots of paths all leading to restaurant and pools not to water. Pretty but awkward. Maybe gear storage was down by dock but I didn't see it. I wouldn't want to carry tanks up and down those steep stairs. SD seemed very spread out, much larger than Buddys. We didn't find the dive shop or gear storage but we were there at night so maybe they were there just closed. Just our quick observations.

robin

 

[ronscuba]

Thanks for the reply Robin. I'm downloading your Bonaire topside video right now.

My new camcorder/housing is neutral UW, but a beast topside. Around 25lbs with the external monitor. That's why I'm looking for a resort where the rooms are close to the house reef. I don't mind leaving my regs and other dive gear in a locker, but my cam and housing comes with me back to the room.

I've just read about a small condo called Den Laman. Apparently it's located right next to the Sand Dollar diveshop/house reef. Sounds like exactly what I'm looking for, but I'll do more research to confirm.