Bonaire, Is it worth the trip?

[vladimir]

For me, Bonaire's appeal is the laid back diving. And my girlfriend likes to snorkel there. No scheduled dive every few hours like a liveaboard. I love liveaboards, but I feel like I need a vacation when I'm back. Grabbing a tank when the whim strikes, strolling in, and diving for an hour--that feels like vacation to me. I have about 80 dives in Bonaire; I've yet to see a shark (but I haven't tried the "wild side" yet) and much of the underwater topography is similar. I have seen a lot of dolphins though. It depends on what your looking for--if you want thrills, I recommend Cocos or Palau. If you want a relaxing vacation and relaxing diving, Bonaire.

 

[DiveMaven]

I'm not sure what liveaboard you've experienced, but not all have scheduled dives. I've been on the Nekton boats and they simply open the dive deck twice a day for you to dive at your pleasure. Clearly not as free as Bonaire's 24 hour "open pool", but far from "scheduled" too.

 

[lorien]

Best place I have been yet! I LOVE Bonaire, going back ion April.
If you are going to dive, see lots of life, great coral reefs, lots of color, lots of little stuff to poke around and see than Bonaire is the place. If you are going for night life forget it, not the place for that and not the best place to bring non-diving friends as there is not much to do outside of the resorts and diving. But the diving is the best! We did 4-5 dives a day. Night was for night dives and then for falling into bed so we could get up next AM and dive some more. We did boat dives in the AM's and shore dives in afternoons and nights.
Every place I go I tend to compare to Bonaire. Wish I could stop doing that as I get disappointed everywhere else

 

[vladimir]

I'm not sure what liveaboard you've experienced, but not all have scheduled dives. I've been on the Nekton boats and they simply open the dive deck twice a day for you to dive at your pleasure. Clearly not as free as Bonaire's 24 hour "open pool", but far from "scheduled" too.

Yes, you are right. On the Belize Aggressor, for example, you can jump in whenever. I was on a private charter in PNG where we pretty much came and went when we felt like it, and I was able to solo for ten days. Same thing on the (now defunct) Truk Aggressor. But in places like Palau, Cocos, or the Coral Sea for example, where you are diving off skiffs in serious currents, scheduled dives are the norm.

 

[ianr33]

I thought that the diving was nice in a gentle sort of way. I missed the walls that I like so much in Cayman and was disappointed that the one site I really wanted to dive was (and still is I believe) closed.

Getting there and back with all your luggage can be a pain.

The flamingos were neat !

I enjoyed going there,not sure I would go back.

 

[Buc Chick]

Stayed at the Den Laman and highly recommend it. I don't care for big resorts, so this place was perfect. The units were clean and modern. The house reef, Bari Reef, was brilliant. Bonaire Dive Adventures, the dive op, and the condo staff were very helpful. Bonaire is great--I love the fact that you are not on any schedule and can dive anytime you want. But if you are looking for any nightlife, definitely not the place to go.

 

[vladimir]

Getting there and back with all your luggage can be a pain.

I don't know where the OP is located, but I'm pretty sure there are direct flights from Newark on Continental now.

 

[herman]

Cont has direct flights out of Houston and Newark. If Delta goes through with plans they will have a direct flight out of Atlanta starting in Feb.
As far as I am concerned luggage is no more of a pain to/from Bonaire than any other international destination. Pain or no, it's still worth the effort to me.

 

[Warmwater Wank]

We found the night life to be hopping. Well, up until around 7pm when the Cultimara market closes. Then the action shifts to...night diving, woohoo. Of course if you bump into Herman, as we had the pleasure of doing at one of Liz' GRI parties in July, then the action really gets going. (If the OP wants to save some serious $$ then you need to contact Liz at Golden Reef Inn.) Have had great weather in Dec. and July. The diving is always so-so: SO great and SO fun! Wonderful to ck the Bonaire webcams this morning and see that Felix passed on without stopping to party too much! // ww

 

[jfcl01]

For me, Bonaire was great in every respect, except for the diving. I found the reef to be incredibly homogeneous and basically pretty dull. Topside, it is probably my all time favorite place....very friendly people, natives and transplants alike. Seemed like just the right size community, not over-developed, but enough to be interesting. I loved every bit of it, but not for the diving, I was disappointed the whole time, and for the time and effort involved in getting there, it really wasn't worth it to me.