First time in Bonaire (mid 2013 plan)

[KneeDeep]

Hello all,
The wife and I, plus a couple other couples are thinking about do a Bonaire dive trip.

Where are some places to stay, that's not far off the beach (beach side would be nice) and must have all you can eat Nitrox.

Post some places were I can weed through the lists. a package deal (minus air) would be grand... room, boat dives blah blah. Looking for options.

 

[drrich2]

There's more than one place, but Buddy Dive is reputable and very popular. It's got a good 'house reef' for diving right at the resort. Fairly centrally located, so neither the northern nor southern sites are too far from it. Breakfast buffet is included, which is a nice touch. They pick you up at the airport, take you back to the airport at the end of your stay, and your truck rental is on resort grounds.

Calling Bonaire shoreline 'beach' might be a bit of a stretch.

Eden Beach Resort has a sandy beach, but the house reef is more barren - though it can be fun if you like diving out to the wreck of the Bakanal (boat, not ship). Just north of the resort is the Front Porch dive site, which was fairly nice.

Richard.

P.S.: You may read some other threads, but just in case, be mindful trucks are manual transmission unless you arrange & pay for automatic, take thick soled boots since iron shore can mess up your feet in thin soled 'booties' (SeaSoft Sunrays work), and plan to have a good time.

 

[WebmasterJ]

take thick soled boots since iron shore can mess up your feet in thin soled 'booties' (SeaSoft Sunrays work), and plan to have a good time.

I have heard that booties are basically mandatory in Bonaire, I have dove around the Caribbean and Curacao without using booties (I prefer full foot fins) but for my trip down there I may have to bite the bullet and get a set of open heeled fins with some booties.

 

[DiveMaven]

We always stay at Den Laman. Small condo (16 units), all (except 1) are on the second and third floors, with a key card required to access the stairwells, big lanais, ocean front units, full kitchens, parking close to the building, drive up tanks, all you can use nitrox with the drive, dive, and stay packages, a great location near town, and Bari Reef is the home site.

We can't wait for our two week stay there this summer! We're in a third floor ocean-front unit and I can't wait to sit on my lanai with just the ocean and Klein Bonaire in my view! That and 4 wonderful shore dives per day!

But honestly, there are so many good choices that its hard to go wrong.

 

[diversteve]

The difference between Bonaire and Curacao is that the ironshore comes right up to and onto land on Bonaire. So there's virtually no sites where you can get in w/o having to climb over it. Even the few "beach" sites will have coral rubble in the surfline. You'd likely shred your feet or even dive socks getting out.

The only place you could use your FF fins is the resort docks. But most aren't on the best dive sites. Exceptions being Den Laman/Sand Dollar which is on Bari Reef and Capt. Don's - Cliff starts there and goes north. You can also walk in off the beach at Divi (Calabas Reef) and the Plaza (18 Palms) barefoot. But you'll miss 90% of what makes Bonaire special doing only that.

This explains it better than I can - it shows entry pictures: Scuba Shore Diving Region: ABC Islands

For the OP:

We liked BelMar Oceanfront Apts. - it's in the quieter area south of town. (not that anwhere on Bonaire is really loud, but the cruise ships downtown can be annoying) It's a 5min. drive to the start of the southern dive sites and a smaller compressed property. Every unit faces west and it's right on the ironshore (no beach but a small pool) and 50' to the water. Decent house reef (Corporal Meiss) and the other Buddy Dive shop is on the property which means you get use of the Buddy drive-thru when diving north also. Parking can be a little tight and you'll drive 5mins. to town for any kind of food.

Next time I go to Bonaire I'm probably staying at Den Laman though.

 

[drrich2]

You need to ditch the full foot fins for shore diving Bonaire.

Standard operating procedure is to wade it from shore till in waist deep water, then don fins & swim out. That submerged terrain you'll be walking across has rough coral rocks that are abrasive and can do a number on exposed skin. You will not wade in barefoot! Also, those rocks can't clearly be seen because of the waves coming in, so trying to 'duck walk' with fins on with such an irregular bottom is impractical.

Richard.

 

[KneeDeep]

Wow.. thanks every one.. keep them coming!!!

 

[cardzard]

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[Jersey]

I have heard that booties are basically mandatory in Bonaire, I have dove around the Caribbean and Curacao without using booties (I prefer full foot fins) but for my trip down there I may have to bite the bullet and get a set of open heeled fins with some booties.

More power to you if you want to walk across this barefoot. The pic isn't the greatest, but you get the idea, add some surf and let the entry-ex it games begin!
I think this may be one of the Andrea's or slightly north of, the light brown in the water is all rock, if you look in th lower left corner you can make out some of the rocks and boulders you have to navigate, with gear on. The light blue area is a sand bottom, then you hit the reef edge with the darker blue.

 

[gbf]

This is Nukove, one of my favorites. I would not do it barefooted, or in Tevas.


When I was a kid we had this saying about West Texas: "Everything there will sting you, stick you, or bite you." I think you could paraphrase a little for Bonaire (there's not much to bite you).