Bonaire, we're finally going.

[Dragon2115]

Originally we were going to vacation on Aruba again, but after much deliberation with my wife and way more hours in front of my pc than I care to remember doing trip research. We finally decided to go for it and switched destinations to Bonaire. We booked a stay at the Deep Blue View and decided to go for their all-in dive package and a nitrox specialty course with unlimited tanks. It's a small place with only four guest rooms which should be a nice peaceful change from the crowds at the high rise strip on Aruba.

Always second guessing until I've actually been there I have to ask, has anyone here had any experience with them recently?

 

[D_O_H]

Originally we were going to vacation on Aruba again, but after much deliberation with my wife and way more hours in front of my pc than I care to remember doing trip research. We finally decided to go for it and switched destinations to Bonaire. We booked a stay at the Deep Blue View and decided to go for their all-in dive package and a nitrox specialty course with unlimited tanks. It's a small place with only four guest rooms which should be a nice peaceful change from the crowds at the high rise strip on Aruba.

Always second guessing until I've actually been there I have to ask, has anyone here had any experience with them recently?

I just bit the bullet and booked a trip to Bonaire, too, though I haven't taken the plunge on lodging yet. Deep blue view got a great review from frommers and is raved about on tripadvisor, so I bet you've done well for yourself. It's on my short list, along with the Plaza, the really fancy expensive place I can't remember the name of at the moment and the Tivi. It looks like my trip is earlier than yours, so if we go with DBV, I'll be sure to post a report when I get back.

Incidentally, I was going to just blindly pick the Plaza, since it seems to be the Bonaire lodging du jour on this board (and this board has not steered me wrong yet), but a fair number of people claim to have had really bad experiences there on tripadvisor. I thought maybe they was just a contingent who is wound too tightly to enjoy bonaire that was reporting, but the other highly regarded resorts don't seem to share this problem. Deep blue, for example, had almost all perfect scores from its guests.

If you haven't done so already, you may also want to check bonairetalk.com for reports on deep blue. I haven't done so yet, but I'm sure there are a few reports, since they've got nothing but Bonaire to talk about on that board.

 

[Dragon2115]

I looked at all the resorts on the waterfront and the packages they were offering. It was close but they were either missing something, like a rental pickup truck, or they were priced higher than I wanted to pay. Not trying to be a cheapskate on this but I do have a finite amount of money to spend and my wife and I want the nitrox course so we can get the most out of the shore diving, and for that we need wheels.

The one thing I really like is that DBV doesn't atke kids under twelve. It's not that I don't like kids, I raised one already, I just don't want to listen to them when I'm on vacation. Where this is a special vacation for us, 20th anniversary and my birthday, this becomes a little more important to us than usual. I almost went out of my mind flying back from Orlando on business when the little princess beind me wouldn't quiet down for the entire flight. To be far she was a very happy and polite child. Unfortunately she was at the age where her voice was about as soothing as nails on a chaulk board. So after 3.5 hrs, well you know...

I'm hoping some of the regulars here see this thread and will chime in with some tips on any "things you should know" or "places you shouldn't miss" about Bonaire. Sounds like that would be good for both of us.

 

[WarmWaterDiver]

Well, my first suggestion is check out

www.shorediving.com

in addition to things you've already looked at.

We had two adult gentlemen who REALLY liked the free champagne on Air Jamaica, who both wore the headphones for free music, who had to shout to each other while arguing good-naturedly, especially about how the music they were listening to was better than what the other gentleman was listening to. The flight attendants had to treat them like misbehaving little children, and none of the rest of us on the flight could keep straight faces - including the flight attendants when they were around our row, three rows behind these gentlemen.

The day we drove through the big park up north, we had my non-diving in-laws with us, whose main thing was wanting to see flamingos, so we didn't have tanks & gear with us. I regretted that after we stopped for them to take photos at Boca Slaagbai - we'll definitely dive there if / when we return to Bonaire.

The KFC downtown has to win my award for biggest demonstration of oxymoron for 'fast food'. I ordered, received, and ate my delicious pizza from the stall across from KFC while my wife was still waiting to get to the front of the line at KFC - it was a 'shopping day' afternoon with the in-laws.

My favorite restaraunt there was 'It Rains Fishes' - the Shrimp Newburg was fantastic.

Between the Bonaire talk site, the shore diving site, and this board, you should have just about all the resources you could need for before you arrive, and your hosts at DBV can undoubtably provide others after you arrive.

We stayed at Bellafonte Chateau de la Mer, for similar reasons that you chose DBV, and DBV was our runner-up, so I think you should be in good hands. The Bellafonte had a good arrangement where we rented a 2 bedroom and got a break on the rate for the days just my wife & I were there vs. the days her parents joined us. Take a look at that property while you're puttering about as something to consider for a return trip - my posts on the shore diving site regarding it are under the 'North Belnem' site listing.

If you've already got a truck reserved, you might check for gasoline vs. diesel powered. Diesel was way lower price (about 1/3) than gasoline when we visited last year, and we took the Musso 4WD truck from AB Car Rental with full insurance package special, and always locked it (knowing the 'full insurance' would cover most anything) - and the savings using diesel paid for the differential vs. a lower priced gasoline engine truck.

http://www.abcarrental.com/travelguide/

Have a great trip!

 

[scubaaaronh]

I and SJSPeck have a couple posts ant this link

http://www.scubaboard.com/t91809-plaza-resort-bonaire---villa-or-suite.html

take a look and if any questions just ask.
Also do a search for Herman and read his posts on bonaire, He is almost a native there and can answer any question you have. Seach my posts and you will see lots of answers to your questions.

 

[herman]

Don't I wish!! (and thanks)

I doubt you will have any problems with kids at any resort on Bonaire. It seems like all the one's I see are also divers and are well above your average rug rat in behavior.

DOH- I think you are talking about Harbor Village and Divi.

I don't know much about Deep Blue but I would suspect it's fine. Go to Bonaire talk and do a search, if its got problems you will most likely find out about them.
The one thing I would suggest it that you NOT get an all inclusive (meals). Breakfast is fine but there are so many good places to eat on Bonaire I would hate to think I had to be stuck at a resort. Most of the resorts do have good food but why limit yourself. I like to explore and get some local food. The smaller places like Bobby Jans are very good and if you want to really go local, look up Gibi. A super nice guy who run a restaurant out of his home. I try not to miss seeing Gibi. You also really need to slow down and get on island time. The go go go attitude many of us have just gets in the way on Bonaire.
I have posted a lot over the years on Bonaire but this tip needs repeating. When in a restaurant, it is considered impolite to give you the check until YOU ask for it--meals are to be enjoyed and not rushed. This is mistaken for slow service by americans. To get your check, make eye contact with you waiter and make a sign like you are writing on your hand. While I am on the subject of food and "slow service" it's important to remember that they actually cook to order on Bonaire, nothing dipped out of pot so don't expect your meal to come quickly Cooking to order requires time but the food is worth the wait and special request are not a problem. Slow down, enjoy the time with friends and talk about all you have seen that day.

Darn you Aaron, my PBD is flaring up

 

[Dragon2115]

Wow, thanks folks. This is great stuff.

I've been through Bonairetalk and found a recent review on DBV which was well, almost hard to believe in that it was so positive. So far I haven't been able to find any bad reviews on the place which is making me feel much better about my decision.

I've also been all over Shorediving.com as well. That site is great. That's pretty much what made us change destinations from Aruba to Bonaire in the first place. I just couldn't get the amount of diving, on my schedule(or lack thereof), that I wanted. I also wasn't thrilled with the answers, or lack there of, from some of the operators on Aruba. Getting a straight answer from them was like pulling teeth. All I wanted to know was can we dive our computer or does everyone have to come up at a certian time or when the first hoover runs out of air? I think they knew that I wasn't going to be happy with the answer so they avoided the question. And before anyone says I should have talked to Clive, I didn't because I didn't like the lack of shade on his boat. Shade is very important to someone with the skin color of a cod fish. The other main issue was that of nitrox. Where I intend to be doing a lot of repetetive diving I would like to use nitrox. On Aruba there is only one supplier, S.E. Aruba Fly & Dive. I got my OW from these guys and I like them, but they only do two boat dives per day and there's no provisions for any shore diving. And since they're the only game in town nitrox is over and about the cost of an air fill. When I took all that into consideration Bonaire won out hands down.

Thanks for the suggestion on the diesel pick-up truck WarmWaterDiver. That's a great idea, I'll ask Menno at DBV about it.

Thanks for all the information everybody. Keep those favorite spots (food and dive sites) coming. I'm compiling a list of them to check out.

Herman, on the all-inclusive. DBV calls it an All-in but it only includes breakfast, one evening BBQ, and a rum punch sunset cruise. The rest is up to us. I agree with you that it'll be fun to explore the different places to eat around the island. Luckily for me there are folks like you that can advise on the ones to hit and the ones to miss. I hear what you're saying about island time so I'm thinking that depending on what the plans for the day are I might brown bag it for lunch a few times. Especially if we go have that huge meat platter thing I've been hearing about.

One of my main missions of this trip is to put my wife up close and personal with a turtle. This was one of her main goals when we decided to get into diving. I got to see one a few weeks ago on a business trip (yeah I got to slip away one afternoon so I snuck in an afternoon dive) in West Palm Beach, FL and she hasn't let me live it down since. I even brought her a little crystal sea turtle to make up for it but no dice, she wants the real deal.

Thanks for all the insight and advice. Keep it coming.

 

[diversteve]

One of my main missions of this trip is to put my wife up close and personal with a turtle.

Try Jerry's Reef at Klein. We filmed turtles there in less than 20' under the rocks. They seemed to live there. Maybe 50-60' towards the island from the mooring - really shallow. It's not an especially great site otherwise though but it's good for a second dive coming back from Klein as it's on the Bonaire side. This was last summer though, ymmv.

Steve

 

[herman]

We usually eat a big breakfast, do PBJ for lunch and then eat a good leisurely supper. The Cultimara supermarket has a good bakery which is where we get our bread. Not too sure what kind of bread it is, I don't understand Dutch (we just pick a couple that look good) but so for it's always been good. We buy a 1 L bottle of water at the first of the trip and refill it from the tap for the rest of the trip. You need to drink a lot of water as you dehydrate quickly on Bonaire.
Empty 2L bottles make great solar showers. I put several holes in a top at home and carry it with me. I fill the bottles with water and put them in the sun at the dive site, swap the tops and shower away after the dive.
Shade is scarce on Bonaire but 3 sites that come to mind are Windsock, 1000 Steps and Old Blue. Each of these are nice dive sites with easy entry points and have some good shade, esp 1000 Steps. Sun screen and a full dive skin are a big help.

The big meat meal is the mixed grill for 2 at Casa Blanca. That thing is huge.

You will not likely find "diesel" at the gas stations on Bonaire...they call it gasoil. I have heard of several people discovering "gasoil" does not work well in gas engines.

 

[Scuba65]

I'm heading there in 28 day's and can't wait...should be tons of fun. staying at the Plaza Resort and diving with them also. I'll have a report when i get back. God i still have to do my trip report to Dominica..