BONAIRE: THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY (Trip Report, May 16 - 23)

[RJP]

I also think staying at a place with a house reef can really make a difference. It was so easy to do a night dive after dinner and tip toe back to the room and to bed at the Plaza.

Depends on where your room at Plaza is. When we stayed there our room - which was great, and right where we wanted it - was in the wing closest to the dive shop. For us, it was less hassle to hop in our truck and drive somewhere than it was to drag all our crap to the water at Plaza. In fact, at Caribbean Club Bonaire I think Oil Slick Leap was just as close to our room as 18th Palm was to our room at the Plaza.

 

[mbs]

Depends on where your room at Plaza is. When we stayed there our room - which was great, and right where we wanted it - was in the wing closest to the dive shop. For us, it was less hassle to hop in our truck and drive somewhere than it was to drag all our crap to the water at Plaza. In fact, at Caribbean Club Bonaire I think Oil Slick Leap was just as close to our room as 18th Palm was to our room at the Plaza.

Doesn't really matter where your room is - same distance back and forth from lockers to the shore But I certainly agree that there is a lot of schlepping to do 18th Palm. Nice though...

 

[mmmbelows]

Depends on where your room at Plaza is. When we stayed there our room - which was great, and right where we wanted it - was in the wing closest to the dive shop. For us, it was less hassle to hop in our truck and drive somewhere than it was to drag all our crap to the water at Plaza. In fact, at Caribbean Club Bonaire I think Oil Slick Leap was just as close to our room as 18th Palm was to our room at the Plaza.

Didn't they let you use one of those nice little red wagons at the plaza to tote yer gear around?

 

[RJP]

Didn't they let you use one of those nice little red wagons at the plaza to tote yer gear around?

Using one would make the distance twice as long, as doing so would require walking down to the water to get one of those carts that the lazy folks in the waterfront units used to bring their groceries and beer to their rooms... and then left down there.

:d

 

[hroark2112]

Here's the thing...some people will never love Bonaire, for whatever reason. That's totally cool. Some people will love it, even if we spend a day in bed sick and barely break 20 dives. To each their own.

If you want to eat cheap, it can be done. Knowing in advance that you want to eat a certain way should make it easier to plan the trip. Just plan for your own particular diet. I'm a picky eater and I'm allergic to nuts. If I'm traveling without my wife, I eat cheap for the most part. Even with a few trips to Patagonia for dinner I spent under $300 for food & drink last trip. I also packed my own fruit snacks for between dives. I spent more on bottle rental, oxygen fills and sorb than I did on food.

I like hearing from people who say they're never going to Bonaire. More room for me Now all I need to do is find a fun group to go with!!

 

[mmmbelows]

Using one would make the distance twice as long, as doing so would require walking down to the water to get one of those carts that the lazy folks in the waterfront units used to bring their groceries and beer to their rooms... and then left down there.

:d

ha ha!

Unless you're one of those who 'borrows' one of the wagons and hides it under their bed from the prying maids so you have one when you want one...

I saw one couple who I thought were pretty smart, they brought along one of those little folding luggage tote carts, the kind that folds up real small when not in use, but folds out to be pretty amazing little tote, they were using it to move their dive stuff back and forth. Of course it probably got stolen a few days later out of their dive truck. LOL

---------- Post added June 23rd, 2015 at 11:13 PM ----------

If you want to eat cheap, it can be done.

I kind of don't really get the whole eat cheap while on vacation thing, personally I've never managed to save any money while on vacation, too much temptation, I like to experience what a travel location has to offer and the local food experience is as much a part of it for me as the diving is.

 

[Atom]

I feel everybody is pilling up on the OP but he brings a few valid points.

You got to be efficient and start early (or finish late I guess) if you want to do 4-5 dives a day in Bonaire... or anywhere else! Most liveaboards I've been to with that kind of schedule had you up really early to start diving. It's a bit easier on a live aboard since you don't have to deal with food or fetching new tanks, and very often you don't even need to switch tanks for a week.

Food... well I love to cook, and we usually rent a house/condo with a kitchen and a grill so we can cook our meals, and make wraps/salads/sandwiches for lunch. But this island is really in need of an efficient take out sandwich place, and yeah, dinner can get expensive if you eat out all week (it's not cheap and delicious food like Thailand).

Trucks... I think people are freaking out way too much about the theft thing, we leave lunch in a soft cooler all the time in the truck and it never got stolen (nobody wants your lunch). But at the same time I really resent not being able to pack up a real save a dive kit (spare parts, batteries + tools to fix common issues), at least it's usually not a very long drive to go back to your hotel/condo/house/friendly dive shop and fix the issue. Still annoying.

Dive sites... on the west side... yeah it's pretty similar slopping reef with some variations in coral species, sometimes a bigger sand area, or a double reef. Some sites offer variations like the salt pier, the hilma hooker, la dania's leap (a wall!!! but really, no leap), cliff with the small wall, karpata with the sand channels. It's not all the same but the topology is very similar, and the fish life is also similar from site to site (or island to island in the Caribbean's, not all the same but similar). Topology wise the cool stuff is on the east side, but it's also a lot more complicated to get in & out. If you're looking for fishes all that doesn't really matter that much, it's about being there often and looking, the wildlife doesn't just stay there, a few dives on the same spot will yield different things. It may be the same dive site but it sure is a different dive.

Tanks/Dive shop... if you're worried about when the shop closes or how many tanks you can take, well.... all I've got to say is that you're diving with the wrong op. We had 24/24 access to tanks (nitrox) and it was fine like that. But I can totally see it as a bummer if you had to be there by 6pm to swap tanks or wait till the next day.

I like the place for the freedom, for not having to abide by a schedule, for not having to dive with a guide or with other divers I didn't choose to dive with, for not having to spend a week on a boat and for not having a 12h time difference from where I live with 2 days of travel time to get there. There are other ways to get those things but Bonaire is a good option if these are things that matter to you.

I wish it had the awesome corals of Raja Ampat or the good muck diving of Lembeh, or even just a more varied topology like Cozumel but that's just not the case.

 

[Hintermann]

hroark2112;7439405]If you want to eat cheap, it can be done.

Speaking personally, I was not looking to eat cheap in Bonaire but something to eat fast after 2 dives and get back to the other two. I had trouble finding suitable outlets but managed to whip-up something from stuff bought in the supermarket. But it was a minor issue really.

Atom : I wish it had the awesome corals of Raja Ampat or the good muck diving of Lembeh, or even just a more varied topology like Cozumel but that's just not the case.

Good point and perhaps that is where guys like me are looking at Bonaire the wrong way. As mentioned before, whenever I plan a dive trip overseas, the quality of dive sites is the principal consideration by some distance. That is one reason why I love liveaboard diving so much - those boats go to the best sites in that area including those that cannot be reached by dayboats and everything else is so simple and easy with no personal time wasted looking for a place to eat or getting from one site to another. I went to Bonaire expecting a lot of varied dive sites teeming with different sorts of marine life; while the marine life was good, I felt that a lot of sites were similar once underwater and with my priorities in mind I was not able to appreciate Bonaire was what it really is (something that drrich2 always points out). But then, spending a lot of time and money to go to a place where the main motto is simply "total diving freedom" is not really my thing. I know that a lot of others enjoy such a vacation and that is something I can understand. Each to his/her own.

 

[tridacna]

Personally, I find the diving access fantastic but the actual diving, meh. I guess that I'm just jaded from overdiving the Caribbean and Lower Antilles generally. Just came back from. Red Sea-it was a lovely change in seascape. Familiarity breeds contempt?

 

[RJP]

I went to Bonaire expecting a lot of varied dive sites teeming with different sorts of marine life;

Where'd that wildly inaccurate expectation come from?

But then, spending a lot of time and money to go to a place where the main motto is simply "total diving freedom" is not really my thing.

So why on Earth did you go to Bonaire?

Again, not trying to bust b@lls. As a marketer I'm just very interested in how two people in this thread, who both seemed to ask an awful lot of questions before going, ended up choosing to go to a dive destination that was so obviously going to disappoint them in several key ways from the very outset.

All of the things that the two folks took issue with about Bonaire are widely known, widely discussed, and by and large specifically unique parts of the Bonaire experience.

Sort of like reading a vegan's 1-star review of a Morton's Steak House.