General questions before first trip to Bonaire.

[FIST]

Planning a trip to Bonaire sometime in May of 2014 and just wanted to get some general questions answered.

I have been looking at staying at Buddy Dive but a lot of the comments seem to be completely random about this place. Some say great, some say never go back. I am looking for a place with easy tank pick up, maybe breakfast included, rental vehicle availability, and a good house reef would be great. Any suggestions for a place to stay like this would be appreciated.

I am am assuming yoke valves are the norm. Is that correct?

The places with drive through tank pick up do they have nitrox analyzers there for verification or do you bring to bring your own?

What are some good things to do on the island above water

What are some general culture dos and donts for Bonaire.

Thanks for any comments and suggestions.

 

[tajkd]

Everyone has a favorite place to stay. Take your choice. We stayed at the Plaza and everything was great; breakfast, tank pick up, house reef. I'm sure others are good places too. Since we planned to alternate north & south on our surface intervals, we wanted a place that was central to all dive sites. That may not be right in town. Plaza worked out for us.

Yoke is norm as almost always. I can't answer whether shops have din available. bring your adapter.

I didn't do drive-through but everywhere you got a tank had their own analyzer.

We hung out in town on off time. The pier area is pretty cool; lots of restaurants and shops. We visited Larry's (from the Wild Side Diving) house - his wife is an artist and has a gallery in the house. That was really nice. Other than that, there is a LOT of diving to be done.

There is some strange Dutch food there you may not want to try. The culture seems suited for tourists, that is there isn't much you can do to offend.

Tips:
I suppose you know that you need to rent a vehicle there. We rented a pick-up and it turned out to be a very good idea for getting around the rough sites (at the park). Speaking of which, the park is one way in/out so take everything you need in. Many tanks, food, water, etc. Take a whole mess of tanks when you go out. It was normal for us to stock 4 -6 each so we wouldn't have to return to the hotel between dives. Do the Hooker - it really is very cool and accessible.

I'm sure you'll get a whole load of other advice here.

 

[mala]

its yoke or bust baby

that's about the only bad news.
I found buddies fine-the drive thro has an analyser and you can get the truck rented there.
House reef is ok but generally the further you travel to the north or south the better the reefs.

have fun

 

[digdug87]

I was in Bonaire, in July of 2013, and stayed at Buddy Dive. There are several trip reports in the Bonaire forum that you might find useful.
Would I stay at Buddy Dive again? Yes I would. With your “looking for a place with easy tank pick up, maybe breakfast included, rental vehicle availability, and a good house reef would be great.” I would say that you should find Buddy Dive to your liking, as it should meet all these things.
All the tanks I saw at Buddy Dive had yoke valves.
Both places at Buddy Dive where you pick up tanks, at the dock and the drive through, have nitrox analyzers. Unless they have changed their policies, you are required to test the tanks you take, record the O2 content, the MOD, your room number, and tank number.
There are some good places to eat in town.
I didn’t get out as much as we wanted, and didn’t see as much of the rest of the island as I wanted to. I’ll guess I’ll just have to go back... J

 

[offthewall1]

Bonaire is a total "crap" shoot with the emphasis on crap.

I have stayed at both Buddies and Captain Dons... they are literally right nest door to each other and you'll be diving the same house reef no matter which of the two you stay at.

We had much better luck at Captain Dons than at Buddies. At buddies, a number of rooms were "broken" into and gear stolen - apparently by staff because no damage to the doors or windows and a number of items were stolen. Also had several guests get food poisoning at Buddies... not to mention when we were there they were jackhammering all day repairing the concrete. The stairs are extremely slippery when wet... one of our guests was seriously injured slipping on the steps and couldn't dive the remainder of the week. The attitude at Buddies was what got me the most... they didn't give a crap about anything that went wrong... "oh well" was the attitude.

Captain Dons was much cleaner, the food was better and the people more friendly. We had no problems for anyone in our group. Buddies drive up fill station is more convenient than wheeling tanks on a handtruck at Captain Don's... but I'd live with this minor inconvenience if I ever went back... which I won't - because despite all the hype about diving in Bonaire... I think it sucks compared to everywhere else I've ever been diving... and that is a quite extensive list.

I had more fun topside at Slak Bay doing windsurfing and visiting Slagabaii National Park feeding the igaunas... and don't forget the Donkey Santuary... that's fun.

No cultural issues in Bonaire

Have fun... and look for the Donkey Coral underwater at Slagbaii... hope he's still there.

Planning a trip to Bonaire sometime in May of 2014 and just wanted to get some general questions answered.

I have been looking at staying at Buddy Dive but a lot of the comments seem to be completely random about this place. Some say great, some say never go back. I am looking for a place with easy tank pick up, maybe breakfast included, rental vehicle availability, and a good house reef would be great. Any suggestions for a place to stay like this would be appreciated.

I am am assuming yoke valves are the norm. Is that correct?

The places with drive through tank pick up do they have nitrox analyzers there for verification or do you bring to bring your own?

What are some good things to do on the island above water

What are some general culture dos and donts for Bonaire.

Thanks for any comments and suggestions.

 

[highlandfarmwv]

I go every year for a month. This year 2 months (Jan-Feb). Does that tell you anything about how I like it?! Buddys is a good place for first timers, due to the convenience factor. Not so luxurious, but It has everything you asked for. The joy of Bonaire is renting a truck and exploring all 82 dive sites. You must do that to get the true feel of it. Every site is different and each one has different critters each day.

 

[drrich2]

I've been to Buddy Dive twice & enjoyed it.

The rental trucks on Bonaire are overwhelmingly stick shift (manual transmission). If you want an automatic, arrange it in advance and expect to pay about $150 extra. Speed limit signs are posted in km. Road signs won't make a lot of sense, and they have a couple of 'round a boats' at intersections, as opposed to the U.S. use of stop signs.

Definitely get thick-soled boots so walking on jagged ironshore in heavy scuba gear doesn't injure your foot. Happened to me before I got SeaSoft Sunrays, which I and a number of other people like a lot.

Richard.

 

[Gdog]

+1 on the thick soled dive booties. And toss in a pair of synthetic socks with it. It will keep your toes from getting rubbed raw in your booties from walking over the coral with wet feet. I learned that one the hard way, almost ended my dive trip.
I would say on all the things you have heard about buddy dive, and bonaire in general, throw out the worst and the best comments, and sort thru the rest! We enjoyed Bonaire quite a lot for the ease of diving, and the visibility. Would we return? Yes, but after we hit some other places again first.

 

[drrich2]

In the past when I researched different package deals, I noticed that while nitrox was generally a free part of the package deal at Buddy Dive, it was at least sometime an extra cost add-on at Captain Don's Habitat. I don't know whether that's still the case, but the frequent diving on Bonaire lends itself to nitrox use.

...but I'd live with this minor inconvenience if I ever went back... which I won't - because despite all the hype about diving in Bonaire... I think it sucks compared to everywhere else I've ever been diving... and that is a quite extensive list.

From both my experience and that of many others on the forum, I'd say the quality of Bonaire's reefs is very subjective. Many people love the freedom of diving 24/7, day or not, when & where you want to, with hardly any navigation skill required on many of the main west coast sites, a sloping reef where you can tailor your depth to whatever you want, and lots of reef and considerable numbers of small fish. All without needing a dive guide, so you're not playing follow the leader, diving on a charter op.'s schedule, or feeling obliged to tip.

Bonaire is 'all-you-can-eat buffet' diving. Just as the food on such often doesn't quite measure up to made-to-order entree's at an upscale restaurant, you may find better diving elsewhere, often guided, and often less of it (on Bonaire 4 dives per day is common; aside from live-aboards, charter boats may vary on how many you get per day).

Bonaire doesn't have a lot of big stuff. Some barracuda (mostly small to medium), occasional big green morays, tarpon in places, a few tiger grouper, a few midnight & rainbow parrotfish, once in awhile an eagle ray, never any sharks, that's my 7 1-week trips with > 100 total Bonaire shore dives experience.

But pretty good reefs, and lots of smaller fish; French grunts, some blue-striped grunts, black margate, stop-light & other parrotfish, school masters, yellow-tail goatfish, sergeant majors, spotted morays, golden-tail morays, sand divers, graysbys, coneys, trumpetfish, spotted drum, etc...

By comparison, in 5 days with Rainbow Reef Dive Center out of Key Largo last September, I got in 20 dives, saw a few reef & nurse sharks, a number of big barracuda, goliath & black & Nassau grouper, more fish in places, a number of big green morays and some big brown stingrays, and in general more big stuff. But I dove on the boat's schedule, got out at 50 minutes or so because that's what the schedule required, went to the sites they chose and followed the guide. Which is fine; I had a great time & would like to do it again. A charter boat op. offering 4 dives/day at low cost with a free guide, hey, great!

But I don't go to Bonaire expecting it to be Key Largo, Cozumel, etc... And I eat at Ryans or local Chinese buffets not expecting them to serve filet mignon.

Enjoy Bonaire for what it is, and you can have a great time, especially if you appreciate the merits of self-directed shore-diving.

Richard.

 

[wwguy]

Funny (the peculiar kind) how different folks have different expectations and experiences regarding dive vacations. We stopped visiting other Caribbean dive destinations years ago in favor of Bonaire because it fits our vacation style and budget. Where else can you enjoy unlimited shore diving for $150/week, with no requirement to get on a boat or following a guide, and have 60+ dive sites to choose from? And the diving is pretty damned good. Just Google the Internets for recent Bonaire videos and you can see for yourself.

As others chimed in previously, Buddy Dive isn't perfect but it's a great place for a first timer looking for one-stop shopping. It has all the amenities requested by the OP. We stayed there our first couple of trips, before refining our expectations and booking our accommodations, rental truck, and diving separately.