If you head far enough north, the west coast-hugging road becomes one way, committing you to a long round trip home. A very popular dive site up there, one of the farthest northern sites, is
Karpata. It's nice, lush, and you can enter beside a large concrete block. There's also a road sign for the region Karpata, but that's not the yellow rock, so don't let it fool you. Another fine dive site in the 'one way zone' is
Tolo (a.k.a. Ol'Blue). To the north of the entry, in the shallows, is a large area of stag horn coral where I saw a large southern stingray nearby. Do Tolo, then Karpata, one morning.
Moving southward from the north,
1,000 Steps is a nice site. You'll feel the burn climbing 60 something steps in gear, but once down, the entry's pretty nice, and it's a good site. The stone staircase is nice for couples shots with a spouse.
Oil Slick Leap is a very nice site; very short swim out, the 'leap' is a signature drop off worth doing at least once, and I've seen nice stuff there.
Northern Bonaire is hilly, in places somewhat mountainous, with dense shrubbery and more thorns than you knew there were in the world, perhaps.
Andrea I & II are side-by-side, and pretty nice sites.
The Cliff is distinctive; a shallow vertical wall. It's the house reef for Hamlet Oasis and Beachcomber Villas, I believe, and just north of Captain Don's. Not only is it good, but you'll want to know what it's like in case you ever consider staying at one of those.
Buddy Dive Resort, just south of Captain Don's, has 'Buddy's Reef.' I combine that with Captain Don's house reef, since I find heading north from entry at Buddy's a better dive than heading south (like both, though). If you stay at either of those, try it. Even if you don't, you couple probably ask & dive there. Again, be mindful you might stay here next time.
Bari Reef - famous for species diversity, a very nice wall dive, in front of Sand Dollar Condo.'s just south of Buddy Dive Resort. If not staying here, head south to the round-a-bout, turn off toward the ocean, & head down to an area you can park (unlike those marked Verboten, I'm guessing), and walk right in & swim north.
If by chance you stay at Eden Beach Dive Resort, the Eden's Rubble Dive site was mostly sand & rubble (don't know what the Bakanal wreck looks like now), but at the north end of the property, you can enter & head north - the Front Porch dive site, I believe. Fairly nice, but if you're not staying here, I wouldn't go out of my way to do it.
Never dove Something Special; never really figured out how to get to it.
As we move southward, the island gets very flat and vegetation much more sparse. Swim outs can be longer, but you don't have to climb down (with or without stairs) to get to the ocean, unlike up north. The farther south you go, the more you need to watch the wave action & consider whether conditions are sufficient for you.
Windsock - nice site, big wooden pier you can use to guide your exit from night dives, pretty easy entry & exit near that pier. I like it for night dives, but a good site by day, too.
Bachelor's Beach - remarkable for the cute little sandy area entry/exit, unusual in Bonaire, but seems to be a reputable dive site, too.
Hilma Hooker - the signature recreational wreck of Bonaire famous for being found abandoned with a bunch of pot on it. Of course you must dive it. Pretty nice reef, too.
Angel City - near the Hilma Hooker, a nice site, but swim right out past that nice reef across a sandy canyon to the 2'nd reef; yeah, this is the 'double-reef' system the south of Bonaire is known for. Dive that 2'nd reef, because it's a good one and so you can say you did.
Alice in Wonderland - another reputable site in that area.
Aquarius - this one I'm warning about from years ago. It had a nice sandy channel through submerged iron shore. Going out was easy. My wife got sea sick and insisted on going directly in, and I had to go to. NOW! Which meant crawling over that submerged iron shore. You can't do yourself some damage doing that. I'm not advocating or condemning this site, but if you've got a sea sickness-prone tag-along, this may not be your site.
Salt Pier -
if a ship's not in, pull in and do it. Shallow dive with lots of large pilings, which attract life. One of those distinctive dives that breaks the stereotype that most Bonaire dive sites are quite similar.
White Slave - in case you want to dive near these slave huts, a buddy & I did it once, and here's my tip. We headed south at 1st, and the reef drop off was really deep by Bonaire standards. Then we headed north, and it was a good deal shallower. So at this site, if you enter beside the huts, head north if conditions are favorable. I'm not pushing the site, but the topside connection to slave huts might make it (or Red Slave) memorable.
Red Beryl - a nice dive on a lush reef.
Vista Blue - somebody (DiverSteve maybe?) has posted before I think indicating it had a sandy entry? I don't know, but I believe it's a nice site.
Sweet Dreams - really lush, beautiful site underwater; don't know what I don't hear more people talking it up. It was very nice.
Red Slave - can be a good site, but watch the currents.
If you consider east coast (a.k.a. 'wild side') diving, I recommend Bas Tol as your guide and you can read
my dive report here. I've done Cai with & without the guide, and I recommend doing it
with! Cai was a lot different from any west coast Bonaire site I've dove.
Unless you're with a knowledgeable guide, I recommend you not try southern tip sites like Lighthouse.
Not counting house reefs (other than Cliff and Bari, which you can access without needing a resort's permission), I gave you 18 of what I consider the mainstream 'signature' sites of Bonaire. You can hit a lot more sites than that, but by the time you're done with those, you'll be comfortable picking your own anyway.
Richard.
P.S.: We want a trip report!
