Alexandra
Contributor
Dive trip to Bonaire:
Travel
Is any air travel easy these days? Quite rarely. As such, my flight to Bonaire had a transfer in San Juan that was supposed to be 2 hours and ended up being close to 4.5 hours. So, we finally landed in Bonaire close to 12:30pm.
Accommodations
Rented a 2 room/2 bathroom suite at the Bellevue condos, just down the street from Belmar and about 5mins south of the airport. It was definitely a very nice place, beds were extremely comfortable and the kitchen living room area very nice. We also had a balcony that looked right out on to the ocean and had a nice breeze. However, I donÃÕ know if I would give it high marks for diver friendliness. There was a closet on the ground floor (we were on the 2nd floor) to hand dive gear but nothing in our apartment or our balcony. There was only one rinse sink by the closet on the ground floor and not particularly convenient to wash out our gear. No restaurants or bar nearby and although the quiet side was great, it would also have been fun to meet some people and socialize a bit. For $100/night/person, it was a bit overpriced for what you get. Maybe more convenient if you stay on the ground level.
Although there isnÃÕ an official dive marker behind the hotel, I did a dive walking right into the water from the hotel, swam out to the reef and it was just as nice as up the beach a bit at Bachelor reef.
Diving
Ok, Bonaire is just an extraordinary place to dive no two ways about it. Dive sites are all of the place and marked quite well on the side of the road by yellow painted rocks. I highly recommend the local dive site book that explains a bit about each dive site, the entry, and depth. It helps you plan your day. We did a few boat dives out to Klein Bonaire that was fabulous as well. The water was about 78-79 degrees, overall mild conditions with a rare small current on some dives. Entry was the only thing that was a bit tricky on some of the locations due to slippery rocks. Most of the dives were between 30 and 60 feet, except for the Helma Hooker shipwreck where the bottom is at 90 feet.
We got our air package with Belmar that is associated with Buddy dive so we could exchange tanks either at Belmar or Buddy Dive. That was a great deal as Buddy is on the north side and we therefore had options for tanks at either end. Nitrox was around 31-32% and I would definitely recommend if you are doing 3-4 dives a day. Tanks were always abundant just needed to watch the time as they closed at 5pm so if you do a late afternoon/evening dive be sure to pick up tanks before hand. They let you pick up 2 at a time which also makes things easier.
Let me know if you have any questions about the sites I dove while I was there.
Meals
First full day on the island, besides our 'check out' dive where no one really checked anything out just interviewed us and sent us our merry way to dive in back of Belmar, we went food shopping. We hit the "supermarket" right outside of town that has a pretty good selection of stuff including wine and booze. Restaurant wise, we ate a bunch of lunches at Buddy Dive which were pretty good and not too pricy. For dinner, we went to Richard's (totally overpriced, fish I had was overcooked, and the wine was horrible - the location is nice but frankly not all that either), Patagonia (WOW!! loved it!! delicious food, fabulous atmosphere, super nice staff, did I say the food was excellent, and nice wine -- and cost less than Richards), La Luna (great tuna dish, not that expensive and lovely outdoor dinning), and Donna something Italian restaurant (very good pasta and reasonable prices).
I'll be posting photos shortly and will add a link then.
Travel
Is any air travel easy these days? Quite rarely. As such, my flight to Bonaire had a transfer in San Juan that was supposed to be 2 hours and ended up being close to 4.5 hours. So, we finally landed in Bonaire close to 12:30pm.
Accommodations
Rented a 2 room/2 bathroom suite at the Bellevue condos, just down the street from Belmar and about 5mins south of the airport. It was definitely a very nice place, beds were extremely comfortable and the kitchen living room area very nice. We also had a balcony that looked right out on to the ocean and had a nice breeze. However, I donÃÕ know if I would give it high marks for diver friendliness. There was a closet on the ground floor (we were on the 2nd floor) to hand dive gear but nothing in our apartment or our balcony. There was only one rinse sink by the closet on the ground floor and not particularly convenient to wash out our gear. No restaurants or bar nearby and although the quiet side was great, it would also have been fun to meet some people and socialize a bit. For $100/night/person, it was a bit overpriced for what you get. Maybe more convenient if you stay on the ground level.
Although there isnÃÕ an official dive marker behind the hotel, I did a dive walking right into the water from the hotel, swam out to the reef and it was just as nice as up the beach a bit at Bachelor reef.
Diving
Ok, Bonaire is just an extraordinary place to dive no two ways about it. Dive sites are all of the place and marked quite well on the side of the road by yellow painted rocks. I highly recommend the local dive site book that explains a bit about each dive site, the entry, and depth. It helps you plan your day. We did a few boat dives out to Klein Bonaire that was fabulous as well. The water was about 78-79 degrees, overall mild conditions with a rare small current on some dives. Entry was the only thing that was a bit tricky on some of the locations due to slippery rocks. Most of the dives were between 30 and 60 feet, except for the Helma Hooker shipwreck where the bottom is at 90 feet.
We got our air package with Belmar that is associated with Buddy dive so we could exchange tanks either at Belmar or Buddy Dive. That was a great deal as Buddy is on the north side and we therefore had options for tanks at either end. Nitrox was around 31-32% and I would definitely recommend if you are doing 3-4 dives a day. Tanks were always abundant just needed to watch the time as they closed at 5pm so if you do a late afternoon/evening dive be sure to pick up tanks before hand. They let you pick up 2 at a time which also makes things easier.
Let me know if you have any questions about the sites I dove while I was there.
Meals
First full day on the island, besides our 'check out' dive where no one really checked anything out just interviewed us and sent us our merry way to dive in back of Belmar, we went food shopping. We hit the "supermarket" right outside of town that has a pretty good selection of stuff including wine and booze. Restaurant wise, we ate a bunch of lunches at Buddy Dive which were pretty good and not too pricy. For dinner, we went to Richard's (totally overpriced, fish I had was overcooked, and the wine was horrible - the location is nice but frankly not all that either), Patagonia (WOW!! loved it!! delicious food, fabulous atmosphere, super nice staff, did I say the food was excellent, and nice wine -- and cost less than Richards), La Luna (great tuna dish, not that expensive and lovely outdoor dinning), and Donna something Italian restaurant (very good pasta and reasonable prices).
I'll be posting photos shortly and will add a link then.
