Johncn
Contributor
Great resource thread, Richard. Thanks. Sitting here at a dive resort in Thailand on Christmas Day...talking about next year's trips with the wife. Loved the ease of shore diving from a rental truck with tank racks in Bonaire in 2019, and have been to Curacao on several port visits. We took the kids to Mambo Beach and a couple of others, snorkeled, and the usual tourist things in town and around. But, never did any dives.
Think we are now looking at a combined extended family and shore "drive & dive" trip for about ten days, and just bumped into your thread. We'll have several experienced divers in our bunch, and a mother / teen daughter pair looking to get OW certified. Then, our 20-something daughter (experienced diver) will have her non-diving boyfriend who MAY be taking an OW course. Finally, two non-divers round out our group. As you can see, a diverse group with diverse needs. ;-)
We live in Florida, and Curacao looks to be a good substitute for Bonaire, now that our preferred airline has eliminated their partnership with American. We loved that daily Miami <=> Bonaire flight American added in late 2018 (?), but can't get it at all moving forward unless we pay pretty silly fares. With family members coming during summer peak season from Minneapolis, California and Washington, DC, the combined, rather steep airfares to Bonaire just made it impossible this year. Curacao is still expensive, but looks like we may be able to make it work.
Anyway, we appreciate the effort and attention to detail that a "mega-thread" like this takes to put together!
Johncn
Think we are now looking at a combined extended family and shore "drive & dive" trip for about ten days, and just bumped into your thread. We'll have several experienced divers in our bunch, and a mother / teen daughter pair looking to get OW certified. Then, our 20-something daughter (experienced diver) will have her non-diving boyfriend who MAY be taking an OW course. Finally, two non-divers round out our group. As you can see, a diverse group with diverse needs. ;-)
We live in Florida, and Curacao looks to be a good substitute for Bonaire, now that our preferred airline has eliminated their partnership with American. We loved that daily Miami <=> Bonaire flight American added in late 2018 (?), but can't get it at all moving forward unless we pay pretty silly fares. With family members coming during summer peak season from Minneapolis, California and Washington, DC, the combined, rather steep airfares to Bonaire just made it impossible this year. Curacao is still expensive, but looks like we may be able to make it work.
Anyway, we appreciate the effort and attention to detail that a "mega-thread" like this takes to put together!
Johncn
