Bonaire, What did you wish you knew before you went?

[mala]

I like the boat dive package. I usually do a few dives on Klein and do some of the regular west coast sites by boat, just because it's easier and I am lazy—particularly when I'm on vacation.

just got back from 14 days great shore diving.

unfortunately i had a free boat dive voucher for me and my buddy that i used.

what a waste of 2 hours of my life.

there is no option for indepent diving-you must follow the guide and in our case a boat load of muppets that thought a camera was a replacement for diving skills.

---------- Post added ----------

Sorry the restaurant in Washington slagbaai park is not there anymore, so bring the food too!!!

its open.

and its a good dive site as well.

 

[vladimir]

just got back from 14 days great shore diving.

unfortunately i had a free boat dive voucher for me and my buddy that i used.

what a waste of 2 hours of my life.

Either life is very good or death is imminent if two hours spent diving in Bonaire is a waste of your precious time. I would reassess the time you spend posting to ScubaBoard.

there is no option for indepent diving

...with the operator you used. I use Great Adventures, and they allow me to dive independently, but it did take a couple of dives for them to gain the comfort level with me to allow that. They remembered my face and generous tip after the first visit, and on subsequent visits gave me enough latitude to enjoy my dives.

-you must follow the guide and in our case a boat load of muppets that thought a camera was a replacement for diving skills.

That's not my idea of an ideal dive either, but I'd find a way to enjoy it.

Who was the dive operator? I would expect them to be wary of the shore-diving alternative and do their best to accommodate their customers, but I guess Bonaire attracts so many new divers that dive operators are geared to them.

 

[mala]

Either life is very good or death is imminent if two hours spent diving in Bonaire is a waste of your precious time. I would reassess the time you spend posting to ScubaBoard.

...with the operator you used. I use Great Adventures, and they allow me to dive independently, but it did take a couple of dives for them to gain the comfort level with me to allow that. They remembered my face and generous tip after the first visit, and on subsequent visits gave me enough latitude to enjoy my dives.

That's not my idea of an ideal dive either, but I'd find a way to enjoy it.

Who was the dive operator? I would expect them to be wary of the shore-diving alternative and do their best to accommodate their customers, but I guess Bonaire attracts so many new divers that dive operators are geared to them.

thanks for the info.

next time i do a boat dive in bonaire i will give the guide a generous tip so that i can dive independantly.

 

[vladimir]

thanks for the info.

next time i do a boat dive in bonaire i will give the guide a generous tip so that i can dive independantly.

It wouldn't hurt, but perhaps I was not clear: the tip is probably why he remembered me a year later, but he extended the courtesy of independent diving before I tipped him. On my first visit I got the "unlimited shore dives plus 11 boat dives" package, and tipped at the end of the trip.

The other information I provided, to use Great Adventures, might also be helpful. I would be surprised if every boat on Bonaire had the same policies, wouldn't you?

Which dive operator did you use?

 

[mala]

i dived from a jeep for 2 weeks and used buddies for air/nitrox fills.

it was quite obvious that the guide on the boat had no idea of the experience level of any of the guests despite all of the information being available to her.

 

[lcollar]

Whew! This has become a long thread. I found it interesting how some people can see, do and experience the same thing and have completely different impressions. I've only been able to go to Bonaire twice and am eagerly looking forward to going back many more times. If you love to dive and don't need someone to lead you around, this is your place to go.

I wish someone had told me before I went:

1) Put on 100% Deet before exiting the plane and waiting to be processed through customs. The first time I set foot on the island the mosquitoes were ravenous, the second not so much.

2) Don't bring a suitcase full of clothes. Tee shirts you can buy cheap and make good souvenirs. For a week's stay of diving, two or three tee shirts and two pair of shorts and maybe a couple swim suits. Bring shoes you don't care if someone steals behind in the truck while diving. That also goes for sun glasses, hats and almost anything else of value. Leave that stuff at home or in your room.

3) Pay attention when they tell you where the grocery store is. There are only a couple on the island that have almost everything you want in one place. There are dozens of little stores scattered around that may have some of what you want. You could literally spend hours driving around trying to buy Cheerios.

4) Bring something like Sink the Stink to rinse your dive skin and/or 3mm. After a week of living in the thing, the overpowering smell will almost make you sick the last day. And this is if you don't pee in your suit.

5) Take at least one boat ride to Klein Bonaire to dive those sites. After a week of boat dives per day you still have only hit less than 1/2 the sites. Many of these are some of the most beautiful and less traveled because a boat is required.

6) Buy a two liter bottle of water the first day and thereafter fill it up and freeze each night for the next day worth of diving. The tap water is really good and you will literally go through gallons of the stuff. I don't know about the rest of the year but October is really hot in Bonaire.

7) Don't sit on the toilet seat to trim your overgrown toe nails. They break really easy and it's hard to explain to housekeeping how you broke it.

8) Bring an underwater camera with you. Take lots of pictures. Your friends will be impressed.

 

[gypsyjim]

Whew! This has become a long thread. I found it interesting how some people can see, do and experience the same thing and have completely different impressions. I've only been able to go to Bonaire twice and am eagerly looking forward to going back many more times. If you love to dive and don't need someone to lead you around, this is your place to go.

I wish someone had told me before I went:

1) Put on 100% Deet before exiting the plane and waiting to be processed through customs. The first time I set foot on the island the mosquitoes were ravenous, the second not so much.

2) Don't bring a suitcase full of clothes. Tee shirts you can buy cheap and make good souvenirs. For a week's stay of diving, two or three tee shirts and two pair of shorts and maybe a couple swim suits. Bring shoes you don't care if someone steals behind in the truck while diving. That also goes for sun glasses, hats and almost anything else of value. Leave that stuff at home or in your room.

3) Pay attention when they tell you where the grocery store is. There are only a couple on the island that have almost everything you want in one place. There are dozens of little stores scattered around that may have some of what you want. You could literally spend hours driving around trying to buy Cheerios.

4) Bring something like Sink the Stink to rinse your dive skin and/or 3mm. After a week of living in the thing, the overpowering smell will almost make you sick the last day. And this is if you don't pee in your suit.

5) Take at least one boat ride to Klein Bonaire to dive those sites. After a week of boat dives per day you still have only hit less than 1/2 the sites. Many of these are some of the most beautiful and less traveled because a boat is required.

6) Buy a two liter bottle of water the first day and thereafter fill it up and freeze each night for the next day worth of diving. The tap water is really good and you will literally go through gallons of the stuff. I don't know about the rest of the year but October is really hot in Bonaire.

7) Don't sit on the toilet seat to trim your overgrown toe nails. They break really easy and it's hard to explain to housekeeping how you broke it.

8) Bring an underwater camera with you. Take lots of pictures. Your friends will be impressed.

Rinse, and repeat the whole experience often!

 

[joel.boswell]

1. The new grocery store (very nice) has awesome seasoned meat for grilling and a great A/C system
2. How good The Divehut was going to be.
3. I was warned about the Tarpon on a night dive but I wish I would have let it sink in.
4. It take a VERY LONG time to get around the national park and the crazy time rules. The gentleman at the gate was as nice as can be but had a look on his face that you knew he meant business.
5. Salt Pier is UNDER RATED. One of my favorite dives. Octopus, Tarpon, Turtles and crazy amounts of school fish in the shallows.
6. The laundry place across from the stadium does an awesome job but weighs clothes when you bring them in wet not when they are done and clothes are dry. none the less I did go back two more times just with not so wet clothes.

 

[boat sju]

Kaya J.N.E. Craane looks like a fun walk on a Friday or Saturday night if you're looking to have a beer and people watch.

 

[jewelofnile69]

Do the park. Get tanks, bring beers, dive the park - while touring the park. Make a day of it. Eat at the restaurant in said park.

We'll never do the park again...we were warned by many not to and now we see why. The diving there is mediocre and much of hte time the north road is washed out. Those from Bonaire told us the same thing.

1.) Most of the rental trucks are manual transmission. Some places can get automatics for an extra charge (like $154 - $200 for the week).

2.) Do not leave any sort of valuables in your trucks; divers' rental trucks are sitting ducks for petty theft.

3.) Hit Washington-Slagbaii Park up in the day when the lighting's good for photos.

4.) Wear thicker-soled boots like SeaSoft Sunrays, because that jagged ironshore can damage your feet through regular thin-soled scuba boots.

5.) Some favorite restaurants: Wil's Grill, City Cafe', Bon Appetit, Cactus Blue.

6.) Some favorite dive sites, roughly north to south: Kapata, Tolo, Oil Slick Leap, Andrea (I or II), The Cliff, Buddy Dive's house reef, Hilma Hooker, Angel City, Windsock.

7.) Get some apples at the store to feed wild donkeys you run across driving around the island. Also for iguanas and Bonaire whip-tail lizards (which in some places will eat out of your hand if you're patient and have some broken up apple in it).

8.) Since I'm pretty much limited to 80 cf aluminum tanks down there, I wish I'd known about this DiveRite Travel Stage Strap device, which along with an extra reg. & SPG should let me dive 2 tanks at a time next trip (hoping to try this).

9.) Food is expensive; plan to load up at the grocery store (Warehouse Bonaire may be your best bet on price, Van Den Tweel for selection, but a lot of VDT's isn't in English) on soda & food so you can eat in for breakfast & lunch & keep costs down. Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwiches, cereal, that sort of thing.

10.) Windsock is a good site for night diving, as are some others. The Buddy Dive house reef is also good.

Richard.

Agree with everything Richard said.

I wish i knew I could get by with only two pairs of Shorts and buy a T shirt or two!

So true! I learned on the first trip and packed light on the 2nd and 3rd and will for the 4th!

Sorry you had a negative experience. My wife and I have been to Bonaire about 9 times in the last 3 yrs and never had less than 75 ft vis with wonderful color, if the sun was out. Moreover, we have never seen systematic coral bleaching. There has been hit or miss damage, but nothing wide spread. There are some sites which suffered significant loss of corals and sponges because of a major storm. Others lost nothing.

Agreed!

Knowing that the red eye out of Newark on United leaves at 11:58 and has to be searched for on the day prior to arrival!!!

---------- Post added May 2nd, 2012 at 11:20 PM ----------



Besides Thousand Steps are there any others that are best avoided? - Thanks

We had a great experience with our dive at Thousand Steps this time around (2/12).

As I was told by a waitress once "We're not in a hurry... and you shouldn't be either."

Expect this!!

Wow a different take on Bonaire but not sure I agree with you on the red eye flight. My other option if I dont take the red eye is Newark to Miami to Curacao to Bonaire. For that flight I still need to get up at 3am to get my 6:00 flight from EWR to MIA. I spend all day traveling and get into Bonaire at 5:00 to 7:00pm depending which Divi flight I make. I have two opportunities to miss connections and three opportunities to have my luggage lost and so from a pure convenience point of view the red eye wins hands down !!.

As far as diving on the day of arrival - yes you are right it is not going to be a 5 dive day but I can certainly leave my bags in storage with Buddy Dive, have breakfast, do the checkout dive, maybe even a house dive and maybe even a twilight dive and be in bed at 8pm and all ready to dive at dawn the nest morning.

Thanks for the heads up on the tanks and the service - from what I am getting the food at the restaurants is somewhat high priced and often somewhat dissapointing and so will likely stick to the quicker cheaper places to start with. Also looking forward to burning off some of my executive muscle but if the tanks get to heavy to throw around I always have my dive buddy RadHal to do the heavy work. He was more built for that than I was LOL.

Absolutely disagree with negative comments on redeye flights. We get our rental truck, breakfast and attend the dive brief the day of arrival. If our room is ready, we catch a nap and get at least two dives in that day/night. If its not ready we do a couple of dives on the house reef while we wait.

As to things we have learned, we have decided that it would be worth the extra money for an extra night to guarantee our room will be ready on arrival. Next time we will book Friday through Friday.

The great thing about the United schedule is you can dive Saturday after your arrival and get two or three dives on Friday morning. (We use 18 hours dive to fly time.) It really lets you maximize your diving.

Agree with the red eyes...we were glad we took it. Had our check dive in by 10am and then got into our room by 1pm (Buddy dive held our luggage for us) and then we had 2 more dives in that day.

Others:
- Drink Amstel Brights
- Eat at Rosie's in Rincon
- Try windsurfing (I had an awesome lesson and it was fun to learn)
- Locals told us to try kite boarding next time
- Enjoy the rum punch party at Buddy Dive on Friday night....just don't get too drunk like we did or your flight home the next day won't be the best. But we got to know the dive masters really well.
- Do just 1 boat dive and that is enough but it's nice to get to know your dive masters at the resort you are staying at because they will likely remember you the next time around
- Buy some meat and cheese and make a gouda cheeseburger...delicious!