June Liveaboard - Central America/Caribbean?

[Macgirl]

Hi all,
I know we're last minute here, but can't decide on a liveaboard trip this June. We were considering:
- Belize
- Honduras
- Saba/St Kitts

Or, failing the above, land-based diving from:
- Bonaire
- Costa Rica

The catch: we have an extra week, either before or after the liveaboard trip, to spend travelling, so there has to be something to see/do, other than hang out on a beach. I'm happy with the beach option, but my husband isn't.

I'm an experienced dive instructor, with over 5000 dives, having worked on liveaboards myself in Palau, Thailand and throughout the Philippines. He is hoping to complete his advanced OW while we are away.

Big fish and healthy reefs are a must, as is warm waters.

Tall order?

 

[DeputyDan]

did the same thing a couple of years ago - went to Belize see trip report linky

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/li...-report-sun-dancer-ii-belize-july-2009-a.html

There are many other trip reports to this area as well.
Just search the boat name or the town of San Ignacio

 

[diversteve]

Big fish narrows the list somewhat to: Belize

Also there's a lot of mainland activities to do outside of Belize City the 2nd week. Maybe stay at/near Dangriga (Hamanasi, Inn at Roberts Grove etc.) and you can dive mornings and tour the Mayan pyramids, jungle treks, jaguar preserve, howler monkeys, cave tubing, ziplines, river tours, Belize zoo, (tell me when to stop...)

If you do the Pearl it runs between Utila and Roatan. I've spent a week diving both. The Whale Sharks would be gone from Utila by June and the only other sharks we saw were occasionally on the north side. Like maybe every 3rd dive. One site on the south - Black Hills had bigger stuff, Oceanic Triggers, Cuda, Grouper etc. When the Pearl was the Utila Aggressor she was moored near there one day. On Roatan about the only sharks are at the Shark Dive - IDK if the Pearl stops there - it's done thru Waihuka Shark Dives. We dove the north side for a week and only saw turtles and a few grouper. The Dolphins are at Anthony's Key - IDK if the Pearl stops there either. She did moor one day out east of the town of West End so they may have that option. Sometimes dolphins are seen in the wild off SE Roatan also.

Roatan would be about the only nearby option for the 2nd week on shore - Utila is really small and quiet, not a lot of great beaches either - most of the island doesn't even have roads yet. Your husband would be bored the 2nd day. Roatan has the beaches (West Bay) diving, ziplines and a few local attractions but not much else IMO. If I wasn't diving I couldn't spend a week on either. You could dive, it's pretty cheap there. $30/boat dive in the West End for 10 or more. But you'd likely be looking for something to do most afternoons. You don't want Mainland Honduras, it's currently the murder capital of the world.

The other thing you may want to look at is flights. I believe you have to be in San Pedro Sula or Roatan early afternoon to catch the (extra cost) Utila charter flight to the boat. At least that's how it was when it was an Aggressor. There's no lights at the Utila Airport so it's all day flights. People have mentioned if you have to overnight in SPS to pick a nice hotel and stay inside...

I haven't done Saba/St. Kitts but when we considered it a few years ago trip reports I saw indicated it was mostly small stuff.

If you do the Saba/St Kitts return trip (ending in Saba/St. Maartin) - I think you can get to several other countries pretty easily thru San Juan, PR. I know it's possible to go from St. Maartin thru San Juan to St. Thomas in about 2 hours. Around $400 U.S. That would open up St. Thomas, St. John, St Croix, and Tortola or Virgin Gorda in the BVI's - all are within 1-2 hrs. of each other via the fast ferries. The BVI's in particular have stunning, isolated beaches. All the islands also have good diving and other things to do - Virgin Gorda is a little quiet. The Baths there are a good snorkel.

Antigua, Barbuda, Dominica, St. Lucia - all might be possible thru San Juan also - based on what I saw leaving the American Eagle terminal while waiting for a local flight a few years ago.

I think you can also get to Anguilla from the north side of St. Maarten so if you visited both the French and Dutch sides of St. Maarten first, there's three countries to tour. Anguilla is pretty small...

Could your husband find enough to do on Provo? - Turks and Caicos. Beautiful by Nature - Turks and Caicos Islands - there's some nightlife, fishing, at least one casino. For you, Grace Bay Beach is one of the finest in the world.

Either the Aggressor or the Explorer are big fish trips. Here's an example: Saudio's Trip Reports - thanks to Mike Southard for this. We saw the same stuff 2 years ago minus the dolphins - plus dozens of rays. Kind of pricey to stay on Provo though.

On the land-based option - if you're talking 2 weeks, I wouldn't go to Bonaire. There's not even a lot of great beaches for you. Consider Curacao instead - same shore diving as Bonaire with much more to do. Also unlike Bonaire most of the shore dives are also just off pretty nice beaches. There's more people there so many more restaurants, about a dozen casinos, some nightlife etc. Bonaire can be pretty quiet...

It's also about $60 r/t mid-week to fly between them if you wanted to change islands for a week. Depending on connections, there's a chance your flight to Bonaire will first stop on Curacao anyway.

 

[Macgirl]

Big fish narrows the list somewhat to: Belize

Also there's a lot of mainland activities to do outside of Belize City the 2nd week. Maybe stay at/near Dangriga (Hamanasi, Inn at Roberts Grove etc.) and you can dive mornings and tour the Mayan pyramids, jungle treks, jaguar preserve, howler monkeys, cave tubing, ziplines, river tours, Belize zoo, (tell me when to stop...)

On the land-based option - if you're talking 2 weeks, I wouldn't go to Bonaire. There's not even a lot of great beaches for you. Consider Curacao instead - same shore diving as Bonaire with much more to do. Also unlike Bonaire most of the shore dives are also just off pretty nice beaches. There's more people there so many more restaurants, about a dozen casinos, some nightlife etc. Bonaire can be pretty quiet...

It's also about $60 r/t mid-week to fly between them if you wanted to change islands for a week. Depending on connections, there's a chance your flight to Bonaire will first stop on Curacao anyway.

Thank you so much for your very detailed and planned out response! Realizing that we are running out of time, as places are booking up, we are leaning more towards land-based and Bonaire is looking like the cheapest option. Most of the decent accommodation is booked from June 2-8, but have availability between 8-15. So, maybe we could take you up on your suggestion of Curacao, then head to Bonaire. Are either islands expensive - food and drink?

Belize sounds amazing, but it's turning out to look like a pretty expensive option for us.

 

[diversteve]

Neither is cheap but Curacao is cheaper. Curacao is the regional container port and most stuff to Bonaire trans-ships thru there so obviously Bonaire is a little higher.

On either island you can save money by not staying in an ocean front resort. We do on Bonaire (Belmar Apts.) but on Curacao found more affordable options. In Piscadera Bay - 10min. from downtown, there's a nice Marriott - it's $400nt. Across the street is Piscadera Bay Resort, 2BR duplex condos with full kitchens, yards, decks etc. They rent for $125-150/nt. A mile away is Centrum Market for groceries. Pirate Bay is a fun, affordable beach bar nearby. We just go across the street to the Marriott's bars, restaurants, casino etc. There's also a Hilton next door - older property.

Both also have a small influx of US chains. Bonaire has a KFC and a Subway - as well as local snack shops. We bought sandwiches at one for between dives for about $6 day a few years ago. There's also several pizza/pasta type places and oriental food options. All are reasonable - about what you'd expect to pay in a major metro area. It Rains Fishes is one step above, pricier but with great food and a harbor view. Some of the restaurants linked here list prices: Bonaire Dining Guide btw, the U.S. Dollar is the official Bonaire currency now.

Curacao has more - Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Denny's and others - mostly found in Willemstad. Many of the dive sites on Curacao have an on-site dive operator - often there's a snackshop or better there also. Or fine dining at the restaurant in the old fort. Landhuis Daniel on the main road west is known also. Quite a few dining options along the beaches ranging from bars with food to fancy waterfront dining.

If you want to save money on Curacao, Sunscape (former Breezes) is a full AI. They have an Ocean Encounters dive shop on-site also. Probably lots of kids also. Lions Dive next door is more upscale, has the main OE shop next to it and offers meal plan options thru their 3 restaurants. There's also other options in the Seaquarium resort area next door. About 5mins. drive to downtown from there.

On either Bonaire or Curacao the better shore diving is NOT downtown. For Bonaire it's north or south along the main road, most of the dive resorts are clustered a few minutes drive north of town. All have shore dives also.

If you haven't seen them:

Everything Curacao - Curacao Travel- Caribbean, Curacao, Dutch Caribbean
Everything Bonaire - Info Bonaire - The Bonaire Information Site - The Most Current and Up-To-Date Information

InfoBonaire has a page detailing flight options from the states as well as all the local Curacao/Aruba options. They also have acccomodations broken down by price range. Post what you're looking at - maybe someone can suggest similar properties. Except for Harbor Village - most of the dive resorts are pretty competitively priced.

One thing to note in your plan is you may have to stay overnight on Curacao at the end of your trip since the early flights leave before you can get there via a local island hop - at least American did for us. The airport hotel is a smoky dump so you'd have to find something in town. Figure on $40 cab ride also.

 

[Macgirl]

We are trying to stay away from resorts, and prefer to be near the water - this applies to both Bonaire and Curacao (I'm liking the Curacao idea more and more - is there a travel agent anyone can suggest that can arrange flights into Curacao and home from Bonaire?)
Here are some places we are considering in Bonaire:
- Belmar Bonaire
- Beachcomber Villas
- Sunset Rentals
- Coco Palm Garden
- Bridanda
- Bamboo Bali

Any pros/cons of the above accommodations?

 

[Macgirl]

Anyone have any reviews, comments, suggestions on those potential places to stay? Anyone?

 

[diversteve]

We've stayed at Belmar. They're nice, veryclean, and quiet. Full kitchens, west facing view, great sunsets. As typical on Bonaire A/C only in the bedrooms. Pretty quiet, most nights we left the doors open until we went to sleep. The pool is 20' from your patio on the ground floor. The upstairs units only have stairs in the back. If you have a ground floor unit, there's a personal locking dive closet behind the back door - 20' to the truck from there. Upstairs units have lockers at the dive shop - bring locks as they're kind of outside - but behind a locking gate. IIRC all the 1BR's are upstairs.

The other Buddy Dive is there at the south end of the property. Decent shore dive - an extension of the Corporal Meiss dive site. We did it twice besides our BMP orientation dive. I believe Buddy's brings a boat down several times a week for boat dives. You also get a pass to use the Buddy's drive-thru tank pickup anytime you're diving north of town - open 8-5. Tank availability is 24/7 at Belmar - your key gets you into the public areas of the shop, wetsuit storage, nitrox analyzer etc.

Downsides of Belmar - No beach on the property, the closest is Bachelors Beach (also a dive site) a few mins. walk away. Not a great beach though either - Panoramio - Photos of the World I think it mostly goes away when the tide is in, there's short steps leading down a cliff. Once when I looked people were going right into the water from them.

There's no food at Belmar except at Hotel Roomer nearby - we ate breakfast there once - it's decent but not something I'd do daily. So everything is a drive to at least the Plaza Resort or farther into town. About 5mins. Belmar is far enough south that you won't hear the airport noise either - some of the closer properties like Port Bonaire you do. Parking is pretty tight also, it's a compressed property and there's just enough parking - you park perpendicular just off the street. Usually the night watchman helps if the lot is full. Nice thing is it's 25' or so to your door or the stairs to the upper units.

I haven't ever stayed at Coco Palm but we did see it. It's on the opposite side of the road from the ocean (not much traffic ever) - IIRC Bachelor's Beach would be closest. They kind of cluster around the turn-off to Lac Bay so the farthest walk to the water would be about a block. I don't think they'd have much of a water view there as there's condos/houses waterfront in that area. Also some of their properties are walled off and that runs along the main road.

Those two properties are at very different price points - I think Belmar is even nicer than Buddy Dive, Coco Palm is more of an economy level.

Have never been there but Bamboo Bali is also on the opposite side of the road from the ocean farther north IIRC. I believe their view would be blocked either by Habitat or Hamlet Oasis on the opposite side of the street. Right near there is a road that leads down to public access to the Cliff dive site.

Try BonairePros.com. Caradonna.com can book the whole package for you also - they book Belmar. On Curacao they book All West Apts. it's ocean view (on a cliff - the beach is down several flights of stairs) in Westpunt on a very good dive site. Westpunt is 45mins. from town though and there's not much out there - 2-3 local restaurants and one small market. Go West Diving is their on-site operator. If you wanted any kind of food, I'd stop first at Centrum Market in town. They sell $1 coolers for the ride out - on top of the freezers.

If you're trying to stay away from resorts, Sunscape I suggested above is not for you. It's a fairly big AI. Probably not Lions Dive either since they're adjacent to the Seaquarium complex so it's a busier area.

 

[CanadianTravelAgent]

Hi MacGirl, I'm a travel agent in Canada and can help you with your flights and other travel plans. Feel free to send me a private message with your departure airport and approximate travel dates and I'd be happy to look into it. Or you can visit my facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/ChristyWainTravel?ref=hl
Christy