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If you liked Roatan so much, maybe consider a week there and move over to Utila for a week. It's about $100 r/t via the ferries or a local operator who leaves from the West End public dock. Utila can be very inexpensive in town - it's a backpacker destination but even the AI resorts aren't too expensive non-whale shark season. Plus due to their location opposite a lagoon channel - they're boat accessible only - are full AI's bundling diving, room, meals etc. - typically 3x DM escorted boat dives (most are instructors) dives/day and some shore diving off their properties. Deep Blue Resort gets as inexpensive as $850/wk. in summer. The way the ferries run you can get an early afternoon flight out of Roatan at the end of your trip, you'll be back by about 11AM.
Anything with Cayman in the name is going to be a lot more expensive.
You can do Bonaire more reasonably if you stay off water. Most resorts/apts. also bundle a dive pkg. with someone. For example Dive Friends has 5 locations - in town, at Port Bonaire condos, Sand Dollar condos and 2 more I can't recall - you can exchange tanks, go on any of their boat trips. Or Buddy dive has 3 options, Buddy's on the water, Belmar south of town or Caribbean Club on a hill north of Buddy dive. It's the cheapest of the 3 since it's not oceanfront. Yet you still get use of Buddy facilities - including the drive thru tank pickup - the only one like it.
A place like the Dive Hut is basic but drive/dive packages there start at $600/wk d/o. For people who don't mind a little drive, Lagoen Hill is a very reasonable option also. Info Bonaire - Hotels & Accommodations - Resorts, Condos, Inns, Apartments, Houses and other accommodations lists them by price range - most have websites you can google for details. Also look at flying thru Curacao or Aruba to Bonaire, sometimes that can be less expensive. Not all of the local options show up on the big travel websites - for example Insel Air has a 2PM direct flight out of MIA - maybe you could fly down and connect with it? All those options: http://www.infobonaire.com/airlineinfo.html
Food costs are a little higher on Bonaire since it's all imported. Restaurant prices were considerably cheaper than Montreal...lol.
Boat diving is all DM escorted. Many of them freelance also - some will approach you about it if you show interest. We paid $25pp. for escorted night dives with our resort DM - using our own tanks. As mentioned, VIP Diving, Bas Diving, there's several others - also do escorted shore diving. It's a good idea to do that first since the entries can be tricky - it's ironshore (like Roatan) at the surf line so tricky access and if you fall you can get pretty cut up - I did.
You can also shore dive the resorts - many are on named dive sites with docks. At most you just need to check-in at the dive shop - Habitat is the only one that charges a small ($5? still) usage fee for their lockers/showers etc. One thing to understand about Bonaire is that at most sites outside of town there are no facilities at all - in the afternoons you may be the only ones there. Also the extreme north and south dive sites are considered advanced due to often strong currents. There's not a lot of infrastructure on Bonaire to come looking for you either - it's still a pretty small place.
Curacao is another option, it's pretty much the identical diving as Bonaire with slightly longer swims out to the start of the reef. The advantage to that is instead of entries over ironshore/coral rubble, most are off sandy beaches. In a weeks worth of (trying) to do 4x shore dives per day we only ran into two sites with noticeable current - one we picked to drift dive because of it. "trying" because due to the longer driving distances between sites, we only managed that twice by doubling on some sites. Many have dive docks also. Almost all have on-site diveops so you can arrange for a DM/guide as well. Curacao even has the Dive Bus - all they do is escorted shore diving - they pickup at most resorts and take you diving. Their house reef (across the street) is a decent dive also.
You can stay cheaper on Curacao if you know how. Again it's mostly off-water. For example the Marriott in Piscadera Bay (nice Marriott) is $400/nt d/o. One block away, Piscadera Bay Resort (not waterfront) rents a 2BR duplex for $125/day and up - per unit not per person. We've stayed there it's nice, clean, a little older but recently refurbished, gated and private. Centrum Market is a mile away and there's several options for dining besides the resort options. About a 10min drive to downtown from there. You don't want to stay downtown - all the better diving is either east or west of it. An SUV for the week cost us about $500 and tank rentals were under $10/tank at most shore dive sites. Across the street is the Marriott with Caribbean Sea Sports for diving and the Hilton next door has one of the Ocean Encounters shops - the biggest operator there.
From the U.S. Curacao is typically easier/cheaper to get to also. www.curacao.com has everything you need.
Since it's a larger, more populated island, there's more to do there also, casinos, nightclubs, several good restaurants waterfront. The west end is really quiet at night - most things are 30-45mins drive back to town from there. All West Apt's is an option there if you like that - it's one one of the best shore dives off Curacao.
Anything with Cayman in the name is going to be a lot more expensive.
You can do Bonaire more reasonably if you stay off water. Most resorts/apts. also bundle a dive pkg. with someone. For example Dive Friends has 5 locations - in town, at Port Bonaire condos, Sand Dollar condos and 2 more I can't recall - you can exchange tanks, go on any of their boat trips. Or Buddy dive has 3 options, Buddy's on the water, Belmar south of town or Caribbean Club on a hill north of Buddy dive. It's the cheapest of the 3 since it's not oceanfront. Yet you still get use of Buddy facilities - including the drive thru tank pickup - the only one like it.
A place like the Dive Hut is basic but drive/dive packages there start at $600/wk d/o. For people who don't mind a little drive, Lagoen Hill is a very reasonable option also. Info Bonaire - Hotels & Accommodations - Resorts, Condos, Inns, Apartments, Houses and other accommodations lists them by price range - most have websites you can google for details. Also look at flying thru Curacao or Aruba to Bonaire, sometimes that can be less expensive. Not all of the local options show up on the big travel websites - for example Insel Air has a 2PM direct flight out of MIA - maybe you could fly down and connect with it? All those options: http://www.infobonaire.com/airlineinfo.html
Food costs are a little higher on Bonaire since it's all imported. Restaurant prices were considerably cheaper than Montreal...lol.
Boat diving is all DM escorted. Many of them freelance also - some will approach you about it if you show interest. We paid $25pp. for escorted night dives with our resort DM - using our own tanks. As mentioned, VIP Diving, Bas Diving, there's several others - also do escorted shore diving. It's a good idea to do that first since the entries can be tricky - it's ironshore (like Roatan) at the surf line so tricky access and if you fall you can get pretty cut up - I did.
You can also shore dive the resorts - many are on named dive sites with docks. At most you just need to check-in at the dive shop - Habitat is the only one that charges a small ($5? still) usage fee for their lockers/showers etc. One thing to understand about Bonaire is that at most sites outside of town there are no facilities at all - in the afternoons you may be the only ones there. Also the extreme north and south dive sites are considered advanced due to often strong currents. There's not a lot of infrastructure on Bonaire to come looking for you either - it's still a pretty small place.
Curacao is another option, it's pretty much the identical diving as Bonaire with slightly longer swims out to the start of the reef. The advantage to that is instead of entries over ironshore/coral rubble, most are off sandy beaches. In a weeks worth of (trying) to do 4x shore dives per day we only ran into two sites with noticeable current - one we picked to drift dive because of it. "trying" because due to the longer driving distances between sites, we only managed that twice by doubling on some sites. Many have dive docks also. Almost all have on-site diveops so you can arrange for a DM/guide as well. Curacao even has the Dive Bus - all they do is escorted shore diving - they pickup at most resorts and take you diving. Their house reef (across the street) is a decent dive also.
You can stay cheaper on Curacao if you know how. Again it's mostly off-water. For example the Marriott in Piscadera Bay (nice Marriott) is $400/nt d/o. One block away, Piscadera Bay Resort (not waterfront) rents a 2BR duplex for $125/day and up - per unit not per person. We've stayed there it's nice, clean, a little older but recently refurbished, gated and private. Centrum Market is a mile away and there's several options for dining besides the resort options. About a 10min drive to downtown from there. You don't want to stay downtown - all the better diving is either east or west of it. An SUV for the week cost us about $500 and tank rentals were under $10/tank at most shore dive sites. Across the street is the Marriott with Caribbean Sea Sports for diving and the Hilton next door has one of the Ocean Encounters shops - the biggest operator there.
From the U.S. Curacao is typically easier/cheaper to get to also. www.curacao.com has everything you need.
Since it's a larger, more populated island, there's more to do there also, casinos, nightclubs, several good restaurants waterfront. The west end is really quiet at night - most things are 30-45mins drive back to town from there. All West Apt's is an option there if you like that - it's one one of the best shore dives off Curacao.
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