Bonaire

[padi1029]

Hi, this spring I will be making my first trip to Bonaire. The group of us traveling will be staying at the Divi Flamingo Resort and diving with the Divi daily. If anyone has every stayed at or dived with the Divi I would appreciate any insider info you can provide. How is the shore/dock diving? Is it as easy as the resort makes it sound....just walk down the dock, don your gear, enter the water and you are on the reef? How about Night diving? We have boat dives scheduled everyday, can anyone recommend some of the best dive sites to try and visit (or avoid), maybe a couple good wrecks, some sites with animals (large and small), healthy, colorful reefs.

When not in the water, what are some of the good spots for chow, drinks and entertainment.

How is the airport and getting through customs, both coming onto and off the island? Do you have to get to the airport 3 hours early? Any helpful hints to be aware of?

Thanks, I look forward to your replies.

 

[oly5050user]

Hi, this spring I will be making my first trip to Bonaire. The group of us traveling will be staying at the Divi Flamingo Resort and diving with the Divi daily. If anyone has every stayed at or dived with the Divi I would appreciate any insider info you can provide. How is the shore/dock diving? Is it as easy as the resort makes it sound....just walk down the dock, don your gear, enter the water and you are on the reef? How about Night diving? We have boat dives scheduled everyday, can anyone recommend some of the best dive sites to try and visit (or avoid), maybe a couple good wrecks, some sites with animals (large and small), healthy, colorful reefs.

When not in the water, what are some of the good spots for chow, drinks and entertainment.

How is the airport and getting through customs, both coming onto and off the island? Do you have to get to the airport 3 hours early? Any helpful hints to be aware of?

Thanks, I look forward to your replies.

its pretty easy ..night diving anytime you want easy..no large animals,though once swam with pod of dolphins lost count of them after 60..town is close by you can walk there..there is a italian retaurant in town called "capp---?? good food moderate to inexpensive..retaurant at lions in down by buddy dive resort good too.you are the entertainment ...get to airport on departure at least 2 hrs before flight..I prefer staying at Buddy dive..bigger rooms and our packages include a rental vehicle for the week at a lesser price than Flamingo..I have been to the island 12+ over the years and have stayed at flamingo-plaza(not really set up for easy,convient diving) capt dons which could be a good choice,and Buddies..

 

[scubaaaronh]

Diving is very easy all over the island. The best is is gently turn toward the ocean and enter. The reef is just a short swim away. When you get to the island ask for the yellow book it is about 12 bucks US and details all the sites entry, it points if it is for and advanced or beginner type diver, and the main types of life you can see there. There is anoter thread going right now one different places to eat and details a lot of different restaurants. If you didn't rent a vehicle you might want to consider it as after the boat gets in all you have to do is drive down the road a short ways and you will find site after site that is shore accessible.

here is the link to the thread on places to eat there.
http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=128138
Here is a link of a map to the dive sites:
http://www.geographia.com/bonaire/bondiv03.htm
Here is link that describes the sites:
http://www.geographia.com/bonaire/bondiv04.htm
here is a road map:
http://www.skyviews.com/bonaire/map.html
if you need a computer on the island to download pics to a disc or email:
http://www.chatnbrowse.com//
Anything else you might want to know is at:
www.inbonaire.com
A great experience diving and interacting with sealife:
http://www.touchthesea.com/reservations.html
We did a dive with dee and when we go back next year we are going to do the three day dive with her you feed angle fish from hand a snake eel by hand interact with an octo if he is in his den, and learn alot about the reeef in the hour talk she give before the dive. take a look at my link to my pics and you can see some of the pics from the dive we did with her.

Have a great time it is a great place to dive.

 

[herman]

Welcome to the board.

To what everyone else has said, I would add, do a search on this board on Bonaire. There are dozens of post with tons of helpful hints and information myself and many others have posted over the years.
One more helpful link, www.bonairetalk.com
And yes the diving is that easy.