captain don's habitat vs carib inn area

[T.C.]

Stay at the cheaper place; use the money to rent a truck. Drive to Captain Don's. Walk past sign demanding $5 to dive there. Dive. Enjoy!

 

[drrich2]

Habitat is not as convenient - you have to walk your gear up the hill from the dive dock which is a level below the resort level.

I've stayed at Buddy Dive, not Captain Don's, but similarly the gear room is lower than the main grounds, and a walk from where we parked.

That said, we kept our gear in our room, and had to walk to our truck from the room anyway.

Is that not an option at Captain Don's?

Richard.

 

[wwguy]

Just to clarify, cliff is the site in front of carib inn?

The Cliff is the house reef immediately in front of Beachcomber Villas, our current favorite property on Bonaire. Captain Don's Habitat is just to the south and Dive Friends Bonaire's Hamlet shop is just to the north. The Cliff can be accessed from these locations too.

 

[jimw]

So in regards to my particular situation, would you say that 160 extra per person per week is a justifiable cost to stay at captain don's?

For us, the good Captain's place is usually cheaper than other similar resorts, again we do a 6 boat-unlimited shore package from the gitgo. If Don's is $160. more than Caribe--yes it's worth it to me, as I don't care for the shore dive at Caribe Inn. If you are looking to spend less-consider Dive Hut in town-they have a shoredive package with a truck for $600. each.

Something Habitat has done recently to make shore diving out front more convenient is to fill some air tanks down by the gear storage so that there's NO lugging them up or down anymore!! Great for us old, lazy divers. The pic of the resort is an oldie:shocked2:. Many changes have been made since then including putting a nitrox and air fill shack on the boat dock and building a new dive shop and new Junior Suite rooms on the left of the picture.............Something I don't like though is for Nitrox out front one must still tote the tanks up and down. Their upcharge and extra work make it not worth it for Nitrox. As you may know, some other resorts include free 32% Voodoo Gas in dive packages!

You've asked a lot of questions here, I hope you're getting the answers you need to make decisions!

 

[diversteve]

I've stayed at Buddy Dive, not Captain Don's, but similarly the gear room is lower than the main grounds, and a walk from where we parked.

That said, we kept our gear in our room, and had to walk to our truck from the room anyway.

Is that not an option at Captain Don's?

Richard.

It is similar to Buddys but at Habitat you can briefly stop in front of the dive shop/front lobby on the upper level - there's a little turn-around, drop your gear then go park. From there it's a straight walk down the ramp to the dive dock/locker area. It's not as convenient for shore diving elsewhere. If I was staying at Habitat, I'd probably keep my gear in the room also after I did their BMP checkout dive. Especially from the 2000 numbered bungalows - the ones around the duck pond - you'll actually walk thru the parking lot to get to the dive dock. Be easier to drive up and pick tanks up.

Something I don't like though is for Nitrox out front one must still tote the tanks up and down.

Zoom in on this map to see it clearly: http://www.habitatbonaire.com/pages/Resort-Map.aspx

See the two dark openings in the wall behind the smaller dock in the photo above? That's the the dive locker area. Rinse tanks etc. are on the wall there but you walk to the left and uphill to get to the parking lot rotary.

Although the picture may be older, the basic layout is still the same. It won't get any more convenient till they let you back down the ramp...LOL.

 

[oly5050user]

I've stayed at Buddy Dive, not Captain Don's, but similarly the gear room is lower than the main grounds, and a walk from where we parked.

That said, we kept our gear in our room, and had to walk to our truck from the room anyway.

Is that not an option at Captain Don's?

Richard.

Having stayed at both over the years we now only stay at Buddy Dive..As I remember the cost for both are pretty much the same, except that Buddy includes a rental truck in package, along with 6 boat dive/free nitrox/unlimited shore dives ..we leave gear in the gear locker in a mesh bag.Never had anything go missing. People who claim things go missing usually are careless where they leave the gear and do not put it in a mesh bag, so the chance of it being taken by mistake is high. Alot of gear looks the same..

 

[KirkD]

I have been to Capt Don's twice. I was happy with the diving and the service. Can't comment on Carib Inn, haven't been before.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[Tunaman68]

We stayed just up the street from Carib Inn and would stay in that area again. We however did NOT dive anywhere around there, finding the shore dives with all the moored boats to be less attractive (to us) than the more secluded sites elsewhere. That area of the island is in the 'middle' and you have good access to the southern sites, grocery store, but the sites at Cptn Don's and north are worth the drive and not too far. The dive shop at Carib Inn was really well stocked and the property looked nice. They were letting people use the rinse tanks and dock that weren't even staying at the place. I would consider it for our next stay.

That being said, we did the dive at Captn Don's (to the north) twice, once at night with the tarpon, we were not charged. The dive site was great, and the rope marking the way back to the dock made it the easiest dive of the trip. It was a beautiful dive, and I could see doing it several times in a trip. We thought the food at Dons was good too and ate there twice. I would consider staying there in a heartbeat if I wanted a larger (and slightly more upscale) dive resort kind of experience. I had no experience with Don's boats, but we did several boat dives with Dive Friends and I would definitely recommend a few boat dives as part of a trip.

 

[chauncy19]

Have stayed at Blachi Koko and people who own it were great. did mostly boat diving with Carib Inn. was extremely happy with choice. however Carib Inn has no Nitrox. Was there 2008 or 2009.

 

[T.C.]

Having now stayed at Captain Don's; I say go to the other resort.

As one review stated on TripAdvisor; "this place is coasting on it's reputation from the 80's." I couldn't agree more.