Dive Hut WARM water?

[Tunaman68]

Hey all,

Considering traveling to Bonaire in July with my daughter. We have been to Cozumel and Hawaii many times and are looking to expand our horizons. I have spent two days reading threads and found lots of information, but would love to cut to the chase with a couple of the 'experts'!

We stay at the Blue Angel in Coz and are used to 'rustic' accommodations (at least that's what we consider BA to be). We want to do this trip for as cheaply and safely as possible without being uncomfortable and we need two beds. Breakfast for us is usually a bagel/fruit and milk so full breakfast as a package is a waste unless it's included or dirt cheap.

Black Durgon is booked for our dates 7/6-7/13, but looks about right for us. We need simple accommodations with two beds, easy access to tanks and a shore dive (we will drive, but the thought of day/night diving by falling off a walkable pier is cool). We want to add a couple boat tanks to Klein, a rental truck with insurance, and nitrox. We'd like to get that for around $600pp or less. Is this possible?

We have looked at Buddy, Beachcomber condos, and Capt Don's but at around $1000 a head, it's over budget.

We are looking at Dive Hut and their other properties but I am seeing WARM water listed. My daughter and I tend to get cold after a long day of diving and love the ability to scald ourselves to warm up. The price there is right even if we go with an apartment, but concerned about not being able to have a nice hot shower.

What do you all think??

 

[wwguy]

I don't think you'll find other oceanfront accommodations in your price range, unless you find a VRBO with a motivated owner.

Here's my recommendation...

Stay at Happy Holiday Homes, located in the Belnem residential area south of the airport and a block in from the ocean. They're not fancy, but the fully-furnished apartments are clean with full kitchens and hot water. They don't have dive facilities on site, but each apartment has it's own rinse tub and area to hang wet dive gear. Their website rates advertise a 2 bedroom apartment for $90/night, or a 1 bedroom apartment with 2 twin beds (a.k.a. European king) for $80/night. The apartments have screened windows and doors for natural ventilation, as well as ceiling fans. The bedrooms have airco, but there's a $10/day energy surcharge if you use it. We didn't need the airco for a 3 week January stay, but June weather may be a little warmer.

Dive with Buddy Dive's shop at nearby Belmar Oceanfront Apartments. You can get tanks for shore diving here, and they run 2 or 3 boat trips a week from this location also. With the same dive package you can also get tanks and/or do boat dives at Buddy Dive's main resort location north of town. You can also do shore dives at either location.

Rent a dive truck from Budget for $45/day, including CDW insurance (which is a good idea on Bonaire.) I currently use Telerin Rental because I like the service better, but I think the prices and vehicles are comparable to Budget. You can search this forum for Telerin if you want to know more about them.

Summary:
$630 for 2 bedroom apartment ($90/night x 7)
$300 for 6 days unlimited shore diving, incl. nitrox ($150 x 2)
$104 for 2 one-tank boat dives ($26 x 2 dives x 2 people)
$315 for 7 days rental truck ($45 x 7)

That's about $675/person for the week, not counting food and some room taxes etc.

We did this plan for a 3 week stay in 2010, minus the boat dives. HHH supplied us with a small inexpensive charcoal BBQ, which we used to grill meats purchased at the local store. We had a great time there and would recommend it to anyone looking for a similar economical experience. We were planning to return to HHH again in 2011... but then we heard about Beachcomber Villas and decided to give them a shot. I won't waste time on comparison between the two properties, because they aren't really comparable in my opinion.

I just learned about Blue Divers Bonaire while reading another ScubaBoard thread. I know nothing about them, other than they appear to offer economical rates. You'll have to email them to get a quote specific to your requirements. Be aware that they advertise affiliation with VIP Diving. VIP is top notch and is well known for delivering high-quality guided shore dives, but they don't offer boat dives to Klein Bonaire.

Good luck. Please let us know who you picked when you make your choice.

 

[boat sju]

Tunaman,

We stayed at the Dive Hut in 2012 and I don't remember any hot water issues. They have a passive solar water heater that seemed to work just fine.

If you don't mind staying outside of town a little bit check into the Carribean Club. It's up by Oil Slick. They had plenty of tanks on site and it's part of Buddy Dive so you can get tanks there when you dive south. We did night dives at BD too.

 

[herman]

I don't know if it's still the case- I stayed there just after Bart opened it years ago- but they did not have "hot"
water then- that was common on the island. After a day of soaking just inches under the surface, the tap water is pretty warm but not hot by any means. An early evening bath was warmer than a late evening or morning one. It was plenty warm for us but I know what you mean about a HOT bath, I like those as well....email them and ask but my bet is they don't. Hot water cost money.

 

[Tunaman68]

Roland replied that they do have HOT water at Dive Hut. Got a package deal from them that's going to be hard to beat. My only concern is the neighborhood being 1) safe (theft and my teenage daughter) and 2) noisy at night with locals or dogs or whatever. I'm a bit of a light sleeper and like it nice and quiet!

Thanks, I'll look at the other properties as well!

T

 

[gert7to3]

I stayed at Dive Hut's facility in 2011. It is 2 blocks away from the main street and is quiet. There are no bars or anything very close so there is no traffic or loud goings on. It was a quiet neighborhood. We had a locked gate courtyard. There was a glass topped wall surrounding the place. Roland (the owner) lives in a house abutting the Dive Hut property.

Our dive op was Dive Friends, a short two block walk away. They have satellite tank pick-up/drop off sites on the island; pleasant staff; reasonable prices. I have used BDA, Buddy, Captn. Don's and Divi on previous trips.

The only downside with Dive Hut was that they packaged a vehicle rental that was a little too economical. There was only one truck, however they were repairing the tailgate, using standard residential door hinges. Since the hinges were welded to rust, the tailgate fell off the next day. We threw it on our stack of tanks, wedged a 2 x 8 board across the truck bed and went diving.

 

[DiveMaven]

If you're open to spending a little more than $700pp, check out a dive/drive/stay studio package at Den Laman (you can easily add an extra bed). You'd have to add boat diving ala carte, but you might find you don't need to boat dive. Den Laman is ocean-front, a very secure complex, has a full kitchen, very quiet, close to downtown, small (16 units), excellent dock in front, on Bari Reef, super easy tank access (from both dock and for your truck), 24-hour secure gear storage, 24-hour tank access, free nitrox, and the drive/dive/stay package is a no-brainer since all of your shore diving needs, rental truck, and condo are included. It fits your "gear up and fall into the water" description perfectly.

 

[morecowbells]

My husband and I stayed at Bonaire Seaside apartments in Jan. Easy walk to restaurants and downtown, next door to the Dive Friends Bonaire Yellow Submarine location. I am also a light sleeper and seek out quiet accommodations. The layout of these apartments had the living area and kitchen near the road, with the bedrooms facing a very quiet courtyard. Absolutely no noise from barking dogs, roosters, cars, nightclubs etc. The disadvantage was the chilly, postage stamp sized pool. Units were clean, modern and had hot water-although the supply was very limited due to a very small tank. I am the biggest wuss when it comes to cold water. Inevitably, by the time I would rinse the conditioner out of my hair, the hot water supply quickly dwindled. However, it was tolerable and I never felt cold.

If you check out the link below, there are some good rates when purchasing a dive package(rate includes all taxes). With only one visit to the island, I a hardly an 'expert'. I am a planning junky when it comes to vacations. After all, half the fun is in the planning and researching

bonaire vacation packages

 

[jimw]

Habitat may meet your needs right now as they are ofering a dive pkg from around $440. for a week. Room, shore diving, and 6 boat dives. We like the 1 br bungalow because we can do some cooking with the minimal tools they provide. There are only 2 of these units and they are right behind the dive shop.........

 

[boat sju]

We had a locked gate courtyard. There was a glass topped wall surrounding the place. Roland (the owner) lives in a house abutting the Dive Hut property.

gert, That sounds like you stayed in Bonaire Fun. Also owned by Roland and Irene. When we stayed at the Dive Hut the trucks were through Island ? Rental and the vehicles were fine. The dive op was Wannadive. Maybe that's changed.

The parrots were the only things that were noisy