Bonaire or Curacao?

[under water]

When you come back.. All your friends will say.. You were THAT close and didn't dive Bonaire????
Ok, I can't compare them, since I have only dove Bonaire, but there must be something to the fact that Bonaire is geared for diving and Curacao isn't.
I loved Bonaire and will go back there for the diving.

 

[Fab]

Now you've got me thinking about Bonaire. :^)
LOL..I still have my heart set on Curacao...I've heard nothing but great things about Sunset Waters Curacao. Just trying to figure out the flight issue. It would be great if I lived in Miami...and not Toronto.

 

[drrich2]

I've got to wonder how much you want to do besides diving, & how intensively you plan to dive (# of dives, frequency, # of different places, etc...).

Bonaire has a lot of dive sites & a number will be close to you, there's a Shore Diving Bonaire Made Easy 5'th Ed. to give you the skinny of the different sites (& other people can tell you about them, too), your resort will likely be near the capital city (which is nice to walk around) & diving focused, & it'll be easy to get around. There are some good restaurants to eat at. The donkey sanctuary & a drive through of Washing-Slagbai (? spelling) Park, plus a drive around the island & maybe through the rural heart of it to look at the plants & terrain, are worthwhile.

My wife, friend & I all enjoyed Bonaire a lot & would love to go back someday (although my wife's set on a cruise next year instead).

For heavy diving & a little tooling around on the side off & on, Bonaire is great.

From what I'm reading, is the extra driving around Curacao & the less 'diver-focused facillitating' overall setup a worthwhile trade-off for the additional non-diving activites?

Richard.

P.S.: You probably won't do as much on a vacation as you think you will. Scuba diving is, after all, some work to load up, drive out, gear up, go in, get out & gear down.

P.S. #2: Might be worthwhile to hit Bonaire this time, dive a lot & get a feel for what it's like in the region (since Curacao sounds somewhat similar geographically), & plan to hit Curacao later, when you've got more experience shore-diving at Bonaire & want to broaden your focus into other things.

Richard.

 

[divengolf]

Just got back from there a couple weeks ago. Stayed at Sunset Waters and used Sunset Divers. The dive op is located at the hotel, but is separate.

I'd suggest that you look into this option. Only big negative is that they are about 40 minutes from town, but are close to the best diving on the NW side of the island.

PM me if you want any more info.

 

[chachita]

Thanks for the great advise.
I'm leaning pretty hard toward Curacao, but the arguments for Bonaire are strong too!

I was also looking at All West Apartments and Diving in Westpunt, which is also serviced by Ocean Encounters West. http://www.allwestcuracao.com It looks great, but...
Is this place totally isolated?
Is OEW really bad?

So, it looks like Lions is out.

Here is a link to the St Michiel Bay Inn. http://www.stmichielbayinn.com/

It looks like its west of Willemstad in St Michiel. Not nearly as far west as Habitat. The emails that I have exchanged say they have an excellent Dive Op nearby, but I haven't gotten the name of the Op yet.

Anyone know about this?

I will also look further into Kura Hulanda.

Westpunt is an old fishing village and is as far away as you can get from downtown - all of 45 minutes by car, which for locals is a journey... The area around Westpunt is Curacao's countryside, so it's quiet and somewhat isolated, but since the diving boom it's being developed and resorts are popping up all along that part of the coast. There are now several places where you can go for dinner and hanging out without having to drive into town.

The Kura Hulanda Lodge is beautiful and I believe that if you stay there you can also opt to spend a night at their hotel downtown, which is fabulous and a great spot for lunch or drinks. The All-West apartments have been renovated and spruced up, but I've only driven by, so I don't know what they're like inside. It's not one of the top spots to stay at...Never heard of the St. Michiel Bay Inn - sounds like a fairly new place.

Two other great options are Chogogo and Papagayo Resort, which are beautiful bungalow complexes in Jan Thiel, which is just past the Seaquarium and Lion's Dive on the way to Oostpunt. There's a dive op at Jan Thiel Beach. You can get info on both resorts on the Curacao Tourist Board website.

 

[ronrosa]

When you come back.. All your friends will say.. You were THAT close and didn't dive Bonaire????
Ok, I can't compare them, since I have only dove Bonaire, but there must be something to the fact that Bonaire is geared for diving and Curacao isn't.
I loved Bonaire and will go back there for the diving.

If I listened to my friends I would end up at Atlantis. LOL

I haven't been to Bonaire because of the limited flights. I'm sure the diving is fantastic.

Don't automatically assume Curacao diving is inferior just because you don't hear about it as much. Curacao has many other industries to drive it's economy and doesn't depend on dive tourism the way Bonaire does.

 

[Damselfish]

Should your trip be Scuba centered go Bonaire (I´m going there on April 4th!!!! Yeeehaaa!!! :monkeydan - 1st time there ), if your companions (and yourself) don´t care that much or just want to do "some" diving, then go Curacao. Never been to neither, but have been doing some heavy reading and enquirys.

Curacao is likely a better place if you have companions that don't dive, but that doesn't mean you can't have a scuba centered trip there. The point has been made, diving in Curacao just hasn't been as heavily promoted as Bonaire so you could incorrectly get that impression from reading. When we go to Curacao we pretty much do nothing but dive. And eat.

When you come back.. All your friends will say.. You were THAT close and didn't dive Bonaire????
Ok, I can't compare them, since I have only dove Bonaire, but there must be something to the fact that Bonaire is geared for diving and Curacao isn't.
I loved Bonaire and will go back there for the diving.

It's not that Curacao isn't geared for diving. It's just that Curacao has a much bigger and more varied economy. So there are places geared for diving like (almost everyplace) on Bonaire. And then there are places geared towards other things. Like European visitors that often do fewer dives and more other stuff. Or people that are there on business, there is even a real conference center there with hotels around it. Or people mostly there for a typical beach vacation.

 

[Divedoggie]

Thanks for everyone's advice and observations.

Since we only have a 8 days, we can't afford the possibility of long layovers hurting our island time. Even if we made the best of it and included Old town San Juan as part of the adventure!

Also, things work out best around my house if the vacation is more "well rounded." History, markets, hiking, biking, art, museums, architecture, etc, must be a part of the trip.

So, we go Denver-Miami-Curacao, for a couple hundred less per ticket.

We are going to stay in Westpunt at the All-West Apartments. Our package includes lodging, car rental, transfers, taxes, u/l nitrox, and 2 two nitrox tank boat dives.

Flights and the above package are $1215/pp!!

I look forward to chatting with you all before the trip, and then writing a trip report in May!

 

[scubawife]

Thanks for everyone's advice and observations.

Since we only have a 8 days, we can't afford the possibility of long layovers hurting our island time. Even if we made the best of it and included Old town San Juan as part of the adventure!

Also, things work out best around my house if the vacation is more "well rounded." History, markets, hiking, biking, art, museums, architecture, etc, must be a part of the trip.

So, we go Denver-Miami-Curacao, for a couple hundred less per ticket.

We are going to stay in Westpunt at the All-West Apartments. Our package includes lodging, car rental, transfers, taxes, u/l nitrox, and 2 two nitrox tank boat dives.

Flights and the above package are $1340/pp!!

I look forward to chatting with you all before the trip, and then writing a trip report in May!

Which dive shop are you using? I like the idea of unlimited Nitrox included. I'm just starting to look at a trip to Curacao for September.

 

[Divedoggie]

scubawife, I pm'd you.

Curacao!
Booked it!
Also got a better fare and dropped the TOTAL price down to $1215 pp!!