First Bonaire Trip Planned... Advice and Questions.

[Kharon]

++1 for Dive Friends BOnaire. With 5 pickup/dropoff locations they can't be beat. Also the staff is extremely helpful anf friendly.

 

[wwguy]

Congratulations on your upcoming adventure. We were a similar demographic when we first visited Bonaire 20 years ago. There's a lot of great advice in response to your post already so I'll try to keep it brief (or my version of it anyway.)

VIP Diving is on the opposite side of town from your currently booked accommodations. For convenience I'd look for a dive operator closer to your villa and/or with more locations for tank exchange. Our favorite in recent years is Dive Friends Bonaire. Their Yellow Sub shop is 3 minutes from Dormio Bonaire Village.

I've never heard of Dormio Bonaire Village previously. After looking up the location on Google Maps I can understand why. I'm not a fan of flat inland locations, especially in late summer and early fall when Bonaire's cooling trade winds are sometimes reluctant to blow. If you only return to the apartment to sleep it's probably not a big deal, but if you like to spend time on the patio or around the pool the lack of breeze can be noticeable.

Poppy is a woman. Her rental fleet is older and well-used, and she doesn't worry much about scratches in the paint etc. There's maybe a 50/50 chance that your vehicle will have working seatbelts (if that's important to you.) Manual transmission is the norm on the island, automatic transmissions are rare, and I'd be surprised if Poppy has a vehicle with auto transmission in her small fleet. Whomever you rent from, I recommend specifically requesting one of the ubiquitous small pickups set up for diving.

Bas Tol has a great reputation, but he's made it repeatedly clear that his niche is east coast (a.k.a. wild side) shore diving. If you want guided shore dives on the calmer and more popular west side you can't go wrong with Bas Noij and crew at VIP Diving.

A hearty +1 for the previous suggestion for hard-soled booties for Bonaire's rocky shore entries and exits. I read a previous comment suggesting a compass, followed by another one that poo-pooed the suggestion. Most folks that use them (like me) find them helpful for navigating underwater from shore to the reef drop-off (often near a mooring buoy) and back again. Most folks who don't use them swim to the drop-off and back on the surface. IMHO this is wasted energy and opportunity to enjoy great shallow water diving and offgas some nitrogen at the same time.

For similar price to Dormio you might like this Hamlet Oasis apartment (circled in the photo below.) The dark building with the awning in the background is Dive Friends Bonaire's Hamlet shop with unlimited air and nitrox filled on-site. The reef behind that is the popular "The Cliff" dive site, which is a great place to dive morning, noon, or night.

 

[noj3333]

I rent tanks from Wannadive. Unlimited air/nitrox about $125.00/week.

I'll reach out to Wannadive. Do you normally make a reservation before you get there, or just stop by once in town? I'll be there from Sept 16-23, so it will be the beginning of the low season.

If you like food Bonaire has some excellent restaurants (At Sea, Capriccio, Sebastians, La Cantina are my top 4).

I'll have to check them out when I'm in town, ty.

Crucial, in my opinion.

As are heavy duty booties, which as not yet been mentioned here.

Oh, and a compass!

I have a pair of Henderson boots. I'll have to grab my wife a set of booties and open heel fins. We've done 3 dives on Bonaire before. One Discover Dive several years ago, and then a trip with VIP diving when our cruse stopped there. I loved the limited time I had there, and I think it'll be a great first spot for us to plan our own diving.

Poppy is a woman. Her rental fleet is older and well-used, and she doesn't worry much about scratches in the paint etc. There's maybe a 50/50 chance that your vehicle will have working seatbelts (if that's important to you.) Manual transmission is the norm on the island, automatic transmissions are rare, and I'd be surprised if Poppy has a vehicle with auto transmission in her small fleet. Whomever you rent from, I recommend specifically requesting one of the ubiquitous small pickups set up for diving.

Bas Tol has a great reputation, but he's made it repeatedly clear that his niche is east coast (a.k.a. wild side) shore diving. If you want guided shore dives on the calmer and more popular west side you can't go wrong with Bas Noij and crew at VIP Diving.

A hearty +1 for the previous suggestion for hard-soled booties for Bonaire's rocky shore entries and exits. I read a previous comment suggesting a compass, followed by another one that poo-pooed the suggestion. Most folks that use them (like me) find them helpful for navigating underwater from shore to the reef drop-off (often near a mooring buoy) and back again. Most folks who don't use them swim to the drop-off and back on the surface. IMHO this is wasted energy and opportunity to enjoy great shallow water diving and offgas some nitrogen at the same time.

For similar price to Dormio you might like this Hamlet Oasis apartment (circled in the photo below.) The dark building with the awning in the background is Dive Friends Bonaire's Hamlet shop with unlimited air and nitrox filled on-site. The reef behind that is the popular "The Cliff" dive site, which is a great place to dive morning, noon, or night.

View attachment 400951

Thanks for giving me a heads up on Poppy... Lol...
I thought Bas would be a good option for me to do some diving on the East Cost, while giving my wife a break. She can hang by the pool while I head off for a dive with Bas.
I'm looking into Hamlet Oasis right now. They have good facilities for divers? Lockers? Rinse Tanks?

 

[diver0008]

I'll reach out to Wannadive. Do you normally make a reservation before you get there, or just stop by once in town?

Just stop by. The main location is at Eden Beach.

 

[DustyC]

Poppy is pretty unreliable for initial contact. I'm planning trip number 3 and have never been able to get ahold of her. Though apparently, once you get the 1st contact, she's pretty well on the ball.

 

[wwguy]

I'm looking into Hamlet Oasis right now. They have good facilities for divers? Lockers? Rinse Tanks?

The DFB dive shop is on Hamlet Oasis property and is open from 8 AM to 5 PM daily. They have rinse tanks and gear storage at the dive shop. If you want to dive before or after the shop closes you'll need to take your gear to your villa. (The villas have outdoor showers.) DFB staff usually fills the rinse tanks before they leave for the evening. I haven't stayed in a Hamlet villa, but I have spent many weeks at another oceanfront villa in the same complex and have enjoyed the Hamlet pool etc. We've been happily using that particular dive shop for our previous 21 weeks of diving on Bonaire.

I rent tanks from Wannadive. Unlimited air/nitrox about $125.00/week.

You must be getting special pricing from Wannadive if you're only paying $125 a week. The published price on their website is $195 for 6 days unlimited tanks. DFB's price is currently $180 for 6 days. Some properties, like Hamlet Oasis, will issue guests a 10% discount voucher good towards DFB rates.

Bart (Wannadive's owner) is a great guy. I remember when he was running Buddy Dive's dive operation in the 90's. His personality was a major part of Buddy Dive's vibe and customer experience back then. I miss those days on Bonaire... and my youth that went with them.

 

[boat sju]

AB truck rental is another option. Most professional of the rental agencies in my opinion. Nice trucks but manual. Full insurance makes pick-up and drop-off painless, no worrying about scratches.

We stay at Caribbean Club so we use them for tanks of course. They are a sister property of Buddy Dive so you can get tanks there too. The CC location has never been crowded so we get the orientation from them pretty much whenever we want.

We've used Wannadive too, when we were staying more in town. Good people yes.

 

[Skb]

I rent tanks from Wannadive. Unlimited air/nitrox about $125.00/week.

I rent trucks from AB. Manual, AC, full insurance. About $40.00/day.

I second wannadive. They don't care how many tanks you take

We also used AB rental. No problems there either.

We did 3 dives a day no problem

 

[AdivingBel]

For the OP and others researching future Bonaire excursions, be sure to run your own numbers before you budget. Some of the numbers floating around on this thread are either dated or folks are getting some significant discounts (if this is the case, please share with some of us other poor divers ). That said, Bonaire dive freedom is a wonderful thing.

 

[diver0008]

You must be getting special pricing from Wannadive if you're only paying $125 a week.

Perhaps. I get a voucher from the place I stay. I was not aware of their published rates. And in thinking about the details, it's probably not a week rate that I get, but for 5 days...a week minus the flight days.