Bonaire

[2dive]

I am planning a trip to Bonaire. I have some health problems and plan on making mostly shallow dives along the reef system. Anybody have any comments about what dive shop to go with, places to stay...eat...ect? Ann

 

[Ann Marie]

Good Morning!

Just got back from Boniare. I joined the ScubaBoard group and met up with them at the Plaza Resort. I have no complaints about the Plaza. They include free Nitrox with their diving. That said, if I were to return to Bonaire I would probably stay at Buddy's Dive Resort. From what I understand, trucks are included with the rooms (I enjoyed driving to the different dive sites) and they have kitchens. Also at Buddy's they have a pier that you can do a giant stride off (easy entry) and a staircase to use to get out. The stairs end at the rinse/shower station and bar. How convenient is that!? Buddy's doesn't include Nitrox so I guess the cost to upgrade to Nitrox is about the same as renting a truck. As far as eating...I never got to a place that dazzled me. My buddy and I were hard-core diving and usually stopped ate at the hotel's breakfast, Subway for lunch, and some place for dinner.

My favorite dive sites were Witches Hut and Karpata. Most shore entries are difficult due to rocky entries. Just take your time getting in. That is why I liked the pier at Buddy's. Most of my dives were in the 50-70' range with the deepest being at the Hilma Hooker at 93'. If you want to see a sea horse or a frog fish, you may have to go out on a boat and specify with the DM that you would like to see them. They know where they 'hang out'. I wanted to find one on my own and looked during every dive....never did. Luckily, the DM pointed them out to us.

Enjoy!

Ann Marie

 

[RICHinNC]

Take a look at www.goldenreefinn.com as an alternative. i stayed they and it will be where i stay when i go again.
rich

 

[herman]

Welcome to the board.
There are a lot of good dive ops on Bonaire, honestly I have never heard anything bad about any of them. I have personal experience with Buddy Dive and Wannadivebonaire and can highly recommend both. There are a bunch of places to stay. What do you need/want? Is cost an issue or do you want first class? Does it have to be on the water or will an off water resort do? On the water means higher cost. Keep in mind that nothing on Bonaire is far from water and even when staying at an on water resort, I typically do most of my diving off site with the exception of night dives. There are dozens of sites that are completely open to the public. Give me a better idea of what type of accomidations you want and I can recommend some places.
Food is easy on Bonaire. I have yet to find a restaurant I did not like, some better than other but still all are good. The health standards on Bonaire are high so you can eat or drink pretty much anything anywhere.

I have a trip organized in Feb if you are interested in joining a group.
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=112956&highlight=bonaire

Another great Bonaire resource is www.bonairetalk.com Loads of great people on the board, both on island and around the world. If you need to know something about Bonaire, you can find it quickly there.

 

[blawler1]

As previously mentioned, Buddy's is a good dive operation and you can't go wrong with them. If you would like to do any training while on Bonaire, I would recommend Bonaire Dive and Adventure (formerly Sanddollar) as they are especially adept at one on one instruction and had on staff some of the top instructors in Fish ID and Underwater Naturalist.

Bonaire is the perfect place to do shallow shore dives as the reef starts in about 20' and in most places gently slopes down to over 100', but the most colorful stuff is under 50'. The shore dives in front of Buddys and Sanddollar are awesome for macro life as Bari Reef in front of Sanddollar has had the most species identified on it in the Caribbean according to REEF (around 400) and the facilities make entries and exists very easy. But as mentioned earlier, its hard to go wrong anywhere on Bonaire.

As far as places to stay, we always go cheap and stay at the Yachtclub Apartments across the street from Harbor Village. They are modest accommodations with full kitchen for around $65 a night for a one bedroom apt. The owner has recently build another location, the Den Lamen condos, next door to the Sanddollar Condos. These are a little more pricey, but look really nice. We plan to stay there when we go back next winter.

In addition to www.bonairetalk.com , also check www.infobonaire.com for more options.

 

[diversteve]

I am planning a trip to Bonaire. I have some health problems and plan on making mostly shallow dives along the reef system. Anybody have any comments about what dive shop to go with, places to stay...eat...ect? Ann

If you're looking for easy access to dive sites, I'd suggest staying at one of the dive resorts or condo properties that allow for that. Buddy Dive, Capt' Don's Habitat, Sand Dollar/Bonaire Dive Adventure, to the north of town all have excellent dive sites directly off their dive docks and incredibly easy access to the water with dive-only docks and broad flat steps leading into the water. Bari Reef off the Sand Dollar condos is an especially shallow site with a lot of interesting things to see in under 20' of water. It's the #1 rated dive site in the entire Caribbean for species diversity, you can even do an official REEF fishcount while diving there. It's a really easy entry/exit also.

Capt. Don's is another good site, they have lockers/showers directly off the dive dock, it's a 40' walk to a set of broad stairs into the water. Nice thing about it is that there's actually two different divesites off Capt' Don's Cliff and La Machaca. Cliff is probably one of the few vertical walls on Bonaire and both are just nice easy to dive sites - although there can be a little current running along Cliff at times. The best thing to do is head north first and ride it back to the exit point.

I can't speak for Buddys, I've been to their diveshop but didn't see their docks. I assume from what I've read it's similar.

South of town there's the Divi Resort, they have a nice easy dock entry, a sandy beach directly adjacent and a healthy reef just offshore. Only Casino on the island also.

A little farther south of there is the Plaza Resort, the 18Palms divesite is just offshore there. Also there's the Toucan Dive main shop, they have three boats there and run to Klein and some of the North Bonaire divesites daily. The Plaza is a full-service resort in addition to being a dive resort so they have a beach, restaurant(s?) etc.

Buddy's and Cap't Don's, Lions Dive etc. are really focused more on being Dive Resorts first, everything is more geared around diving. I liked the look of Lion's Dive, but they were just bought by Buddy's so you have to go next door to Buddy's for all dive stuff.

The Plaza is where the recent Scubaboard trip went last month. The only downside to the Plaza is that the way it's set up there's a really long walk from the resort to the dive site. It's a long carry with a tank, you can get the diveshop to deliver them for you, which they will do, but it's kind of hit/miss. They need to work on that part of their process, I heard the same thing from the SB group that was just there.

We stayed last year at the BelMar condos south of town. The other Buddy Dive op is onsite there and they have two dive docks with steps, showers rinse tanks etc. right off their swimming pool. It's literally 40-50' to the water from your condo if you're on the first floor. They also provide tanks on the dock 24/7 so you don't have to haul them around. They have a nice but not spectacular house reef that starts in about 20' and goes to maybe 90'. It's really a diver based condo complex, right on the water, two dive docks, dual rinse tanks, lockers, access to the diveshop 24/7 to use the Nitrox analyzer or get/return tanks etc. Also you can park right by the diveshop to load tanks if you're shorediving. No on-site restaurant though and since they're south of the airport in Belnem, everything is a 3-5min drive. But it's really quiet at night and since it's fairly new, everything is pretty nice. The staff are super helpful and friendly also.

The nicest resort on Bonaire is Harbour Village, it's priced accordingly. It's just north of town in a really nice beach area. I've also heard good things about Eden Beach and WannaDive but have no personal experience with them.

Although Bonaire is known for it's shore diving, a lot of the entries are rougher than you'd expect. Most of them have at least some ironshore both on and just offshore and there's coral and coral rubble just offshore at most locations. So a good pair of boots and good sense of balance - with your tank on your back - is required.

There are exceptions to this, at some of the dive locations there are breaks in the ironshore or sandy beach areas so easy entry is possible. One of the best dives, the Salt Pier is actually like this, there's a nice stretch of about 20' of sandy beach right north of the pier that makes getting in/out simple. There is some coral/ironshore offshore there, but at high tide, you're already floating before you have to walk across it. The dive is under the pier among the supports, there's a profusion of corals and fish life. It's now a DM-escorted only dive so have your diveop set it up. If you can go in the morning, the sun streaming through the piers between 7-10am (depending on the season) is an outstanding photo op. If you dive it, don't touch the brown stuff, it's firecoral!!

For Dive Ops, we went with Toucan at the Plaza if you're staying near there. Ebby and Monique are really good at their jobs. On boat trips they point out stuff that others miss. They run small groups on intermediate sized boats, one afternoon it was just us and a dutch couple out at Forest off Klein Bonaire, I think we could have stayed all afternoon the crew didn't seem to mind.

Or if you stay at BelMar, Erika is just one of the nicest people we met there. She used to work for Toucan but moved over to Buddy when the took over the dive op last year. One gotcha if you boat-dive with them, you'll almost definitely have to drive to the main Buddy Dive location to board the boat - it's 10-15 min. away.

If you're wanting to do some stress-free diving, I'd suggest staying at one of the full-service dive resorts, they have all the amenities plus are right on the water. Golden Reef Inn, while nice, is in a residential neighborhood so everything's a walk/drive away. It's near but not on the beach and not really close to any of the better divesites. Next time I go back if we're going to predominantly shoredive, I might stay there, it's certainly among the most reasonable new accommodations on the island.

You can also just go to the different dive resorts and use their facilities. We did about 1/3 boat dives, 1/3 dock dives and 1/3 shoredives, the shoredives were by far the most difficult entries/exits. And frankly a lot of the south sites look similar since in some areas they're 100 yds. apart. The north is a little more diverse, but more difficult to access, either a longer walk or more rocky entries typically. The only place that charges is Capt. Don's it's $5.00 to use the facilities if you're not a guest. But worth it, they have showers, lockers and rinse tanks 20' from the water.

Any of the resorts have restaurants, but the better restaurants on Bonaire are in or near town. Casablanca and it rains fishes were among the better places we ate. Casablanca was rated the best restaurant in the Caribbean last year in ScubaDiving, it rains fishes, while nice, was pricey. It's a good place to go for dinner your last day, the views are outstanding. Richards and Chibi Chibi are also supposed to be good but we didn't get there. For Pizza it's Donna & Giorgios in town. Although there's a wood-oven pizza at Cap't Don's that's far better than you'd expect. I don't like Capt. Don's as it's somehow more Americanized than the other resorts - but if that's your thing, it's a good place, good oceanfront bar and restaurant.

Most of what I learned about Bonaire came from Bonairetalk.com. They're really nice people and right on. When we arrived, I felt like right at home just from what I'd read.

PM if you have any other questions,

 

[2dive]

Thanks for the info...I have looked into Capt. Dons and he is doing his best to work with us. As a cancer survivor, I think that we have touched his heart a bit. I have to be very cautious. I am glad that you brought his name up. Thanks....Ann

 

[scubaaaronh]

As for other places to eat Richards was outstanding. A little more than it rains fishes but my wife and i both thought the food was better. dining is on a deck over the water with great evening sunsets. dinner there with soup was about 60 U.S.
Bistro De Paris is very good italian make reservations there as it is a very small place. Casablancas was outstanding for steaks and the Mixed Grill for two, it will give you lunch for two days for about 45 us. City Cafe downtown has one of the best burgers i ever ate. Old inn right by the plaza entrance was godd for lunch. they have baquetts which are subs to us which were pretty good for lunch about 20 U.S. per couple for lunch. There is a kentucky fried chicken there. We ate at a couple of the resorts and next time there will not waste my time at their restaurants again.
As far as the diving the others covered it pretty well. I would recommend getting the yellow book on dive sites its about 12 dollars but has invaluable informatio in it on the different site and what you will see there.

 

[Wristshot]

FWIW, I was in Bonaire with the ScubaBoard group last month. On many of the dives we were constantly reminded that there are plenty of interesting things to see at relatively shallow depths. While some of the people consistently headed for the deeper water (because not everyone realizes that It's Not A Competition) others that stayed in less deep water were still treated to great amounts and varieties of sea life.

Of all the Frogfish that we were shown, I don't remember any being very deep.

On several dives, the last minutes in very shallow waters (12 - 25 feet) we saw a number of interesting things. NetDoc and I found a brain coral that would have been perfect for the NBA. NetDoc spotted a large ray in the distance, and we found out that Bo and Nancy got to watch it feeding in the shallows. We found Lizardfish and Flounder in the shallows.

Some of the tiniest juvenile drums were at relatively shallow depths. I think that the Scorpionfish that Bo and CR located was in less than 25 feet of water.

There were a LOT of eels on the dives I did, and while we didn't see many of them in the really shallow water, there were plenty in the 40 - 60 foot depth ranges.

The biggest octopus I saw on the trip was found in less than 20 feet of water. He was a big boy, hiding in a hole that was almost hidden. He was found because one woman knew to look for empty shells.

Granted I didn't do any dives over 100 feet deep, but I doubt that the life was significantly better or denser down deeper. The key is that there is PLENTY good stuff to see even if you are limited in your depths.


Wristshot

 

[mccabejc]

I'll second the Buddy/SandDollar recommendations. As blawler said, they are both have an incredible "house" reef, and are designed with diving in mind. I found Buddy (next door to Sand Dollar) to be a little bit livelier, it was a lot busier, the restaurant was much better, and Sand Dollar (where I stayed), was very quiet and laid back. Fewer people, but the diving facilities were great. At SandDollar they also had free nitrox, a photo shop attached to the dive shop (got a great UW photo lesson there), and a resident naturalist who gives a fantastic marine life class. He also DM's on some of the boat dives. You could go for a nice quiet sunset dive off the dock at SandDollar and be the only one around. At the same time you could hear a lot of folks at the bar at Buddy's partying.

When I go back I'll stay at SandDollar, and eat at Buddy's I'd also recommend staying somewhere that is on the beach, and also has a nice "house reef". Makes it nice to roll out of bed in the morning, put on your gear, and fall in the water. Sweet. I did most of my dives that way, and as wristshot said, you can spend most of the time in 25-35 ft of water and you'll be amazed.