GREAT Bonaire shore diving guide?

[WarmWaterDiver]

We printed out the details for all the sites listed for Bonaire & Curacao at

www.shorediving.com

before we took our trip to those 2 spots a couple of years ago. We left the copies with the accomodations / dive shops we used on those two islands.

Since you'll be taking a laptop, you can review at your leisure before or during your trip - and the price is right!

 

[scubaaaronh]

Here is what i used to plan my dives before we left and it was pretty accurate. We also bought the yellow book on the island and used both in planning our dives.

Dive site map:
http://www.geographia.com/bonaire/bondiv03.htm

Dive site description:
http://www.geographia.com/bonaire/bondiv04.htm

Road Map:
http://www.skyviews.com/bonaire/map.html

We planned our dives off the links and found it to be accurate

 

[DriveBy]

I to agree with Rotan Man, to find the cool stuff it a must to be relaxed. Go slow. My wife and I went to Bonaire May/June 2005. It was great lots of frogfish. Turtles coming to shore to lay their eggs, Tuna feeding. Well I could go on and on.... we are already booked to return in11/06...does that says it in a nutshell?

 

[Jetwrench]

Because of the island layout and the type of sites there, BSDME has more than enough info to navigate the area. Great detail really isn't needed because it's just too easy to shore dive there. Too much detail would be a waste of paper. You may agree after your first trip is over.
As far as the comment of sites being pretty much similar u/w... that lost me. Karpata vs Oil Slick Leap vs Red Slave vs Knife(Klein) vs... all quite different. And then there is the east side. IMO

Jet

 

[boulderjohn]

As far as the comment of sites being pretty much similar u/w... that lost me. Karpata vs Oil Slick Leap vs Red Slave vs Knife(Klein) vs... all quite different. And then there is the east side. IMO

I made the comment. My observation was in comparison to other locations. While I have not dived all the sites you mentioned, I never saw anything like the variation from site to site I have seen in other places I have dived, like Cozumel, the Great Barrier Reef, Fiji, Thailand, all the Caymans, etc. When I was in Bonaire, I heard more than a few people make that comment as well.

I am not saying it is a bad diving location by any means.

 

[scubadobadoo]

As usual, thanks for all the info and input gang! Over the last few years we have done Cayman, California, and Cozumel many times as well as other areas that start with a "C" and have really started to prefer shore diving. We also love to go to Cape Ann here in the NE and shore dive, lol. We just can't get enough shore diving! This obsession has lead us to the "B" place. From all the great things I have read, it looks like Bonaire may end up trumping our old favorite Cozumel. We shall see...

We are due for a great dive vacation. The last was spent riding out Hurricane Wilma in Cozumel.