drrich2
Contributor
A few thoughts from my perspective. Yours may be quite different.
1.) If you anticipate hitting the Caribbean a number of times, and are quite curious about Bonaire and it's fairly easy to get to, fine, hit it. You may suffer the itch to check it out until you do.
2.) I love Bonaire; been 8 times, a week a piece, but I'm a shore-dive-aholic, and you are not. Warm, low current, high viz., decent sloping wall reefs, what's not to love? Well, a common criticism is there's not a lot of 'big stuff.' Tarpon & big green morays are fairly common, and tarpon buddies on night dives are almost a given, and I occasionally I see a decent sized barracuda. I've seen maybe 3 southern stingrays and a few eagle rays. Tiger grouper and cubera snapper aren't real big, but decent sized.
But I don't see black grouper, goliath grouper, any sharks, or as many big barracuda as diving out of Key Largo. I'm not saying these things can't happen; shark sightings are reported, and someone reported seeing a goliath grouper awhile back, but it's not the usual experience.
3.) If you may not hit the Caribbean again, or anticipate only rare trips, then I'd want to actually hit one of the top destinations. Judging from what others have posted on the forum, that's often cited to be Little Cayman, with Little Cayman Beach Resort the place to stay. I haven't been, but do a search & read from people who have. If I recall correctly it's not a big topside activities place, but if I could only dive once in the Caribbean and I wanted the best, from a boat but not a live-aboard, it'd be on my short list.
4.) Most Bonaire resorts are not all-inclusive, you'll likely go to a grocery store at least once, and you'll likely get a rental truck with your package deal (manual transmission unless you reserve & pay the up charge for an automatic, which can clear $200), so doing a few shore dives at some of the easier entry sites would probably not be a big deal. Since the boats may focus on sites that aren't practically reachable from shore (e.g.: Klein Bonaire, Small Wall, Rappel), you may not get some of the popular dive sites you might want to hit. When I was at Buddy Dive Resort, a number of the boat trips were single tank trips, which would have irritated me.
5.) What do you want to do when you're out of the water? It makes a difference. Bask on the beach, booze at the bar, hit on women, hit a casino, shop, landscape photography of the island, deep sea fish, hiking, explore ruins, rainforest tours, volley ball, sports activities such as windsurfing and kiteboarding or kayaking, etc…
While Bonaire has a rep. for being a dive-only destination, at least for one trip I think you could enjoy landscape photography in Washington-Slagbaai Park, visit the Donkey Sanctuary, take a lesson in Kite Boarding and a lesson in Wind Surfing, explore the town a little bit (don't get too excited about that), drive around the island one day, that sort of thing.
Richard.
