Little Cayman or Bonaire

[BUDMANOK]

is to not dive Grand Cayman--it's over-dived and not at all interesting

agreed stay away especially north wall and east.

 

[scubadada]

Hi,

I've been to both, too, and each has its charms. Basically, it comes down to your deciding whether you want to do self-guided shore dives, the special aspect of Bonaire, or guided boat dives on Little Cayman.

The one piece of advise I would give is to not dive Grand Cayman--it's over-dived and not at all interesting. The only night dive I ever did where no fish showed up was off Grand Cayman! However, there is one kinda touristy dive we did off Grand Cayman that was fun: Stingray City. If you want a safe, fun, up-close-and-personal experience with stingrays, this is it. However, some folks object to it because it is "artificial" and may create an overly man-made sea environment: the stingrays are attracted to the site because they are fed by divers and snorklers. I still enjoyed the experience.

joewr

Sorry, I think this post is misleading. My son and I dived Little Caymant with LCBR/Reef Divers and dived entirely on our own rather than with the guided group. This was a perfectly acceptable alternative and our average dive time was about 65 minutes. We rarely saw anyone from the boat until we were under it at the end of the dive. This was great diving.

This is a very unbalanced and unfair characteriztion of Grand Cayman. Though some of the West side sites may be crowded and overdived, there are other places to go. My favorite is the East end. I had two very good recent trips where I stayed at Compass Point and dived with Ocean Frontiers. The diving was great, OF may be my favorite dive operator, period. I have also had two very good stays at Cobalt Coast on the NW point, diving with DiveTech. The boat dives, primarily on the North Wall are excellent, their two shore diving sites at the resort and at Lighthouse point are both very good.

Good diving, Craig

---------- Post added November 9th, 2013 at 05:12 PM ----------

agreed stay away especially north wall and east.

You're right, of course, my mistake

 

[AggieDiver]

I am late to this whole thread, and have never dove on Bonaire, but will agree with what many others have said based on conversations I have had on LC dive boats with folks who have been to Bonaire. It really does boil down to what you want out of your trip. If you want max bottom time over decent reefs mostly devoid of bigger creatures and don't mind having to work a bit to get it, Bonaire is the place for you. If you want to barely lift a finger, get 2-3 effortless dives in gin clear water over beautiful reefs and walls, with lots of variety in the fish life, Little Cayman is for you.

As for sites to request, I really like Jackson's Reef and Wall. I have seen what I believe to be the same Caribbean Reef Shark (tagged) there the last three trips. I also like Mixing Bowl, Great Wall East, and Nancy's Cup of Tea.

 

[Doctorfish]

Aggie, if you have never dived on Bonaire, how can you possibly render an opinion re a comparison?

 

[coldwaterlloyd]

Aggie, if you have never dived on Bonaire, how can you possibly render an opinion re a comparison?

there is something to the phrase "40'000 frenchmen can't be wrong"

 

[AggieDiver]

I thought that I very clearly explained the basis of my opinion in the very first sentence of my post. I have considered a trip to Bonaire for quite some time, and have spoken with numerous divers in LC about their experiences on Bonaire and how they compared to LC. My statement was based on those conversations and I clearly stated as much right up front in my post. Is there some reason why I shouldn't pass along information obtained from divers who were making the exact comparison the OP asked about, as long as I made clear that I was passing along secondhand info (which I did)? If you disagree with anything I said, feel free to let the OP know your opinion about the topic...we are all entitled to one.

 

[Doctorfish]

In a court room, they call second hand information "hearsay".

I do disagree with your analysis. Bonaire has very good diving, particularly for underwater photographers.
There are lots of bigger animals to be seen on the East ( wild ) Side, and the diving can be absolutely effortless on the West if you pick the right operator.

I prefer LC over Bonaire ( based on multiple trips to both ) but both are great places to take a dive trip.

 

[mbs]

I'm afraid I'm kinda with Doctorfish on this one... The only thing you left out on Bonaire was the sharp stick in the eye Again I love lcbr! Not sure why it has to become a contest. Any diver will have a great time on either island. I'm overdue for a return to lcbr! Belize is next up for us, just because we have never been before. Otherwise I could be happy to spend the rest of my diving days at either lc or bonaire. A shot from the southern bonaire site vista blue - easy entry, great reef, great turtles:

 

[tracydr]

I will mention, when people say that all the shore diving is the same on Bonaire, they obviously haven't dived the ends of the island. Red Slave and the North part of the island, particularly into the park, are some of my favorite dives. The park is very different, with elk horn coral and huge,huge lobsters, lots of rays. Its a long drive so we always snag three tanks each, take a soft sided cooler full of drinks and snacks and spend the day. It's well worth the drive, at least once a trip. Red Slave is our other favorite dive, we've seen a lot of pelagics that we don't see on any other area of the island. You do have to watch the surf and current,though.
Now that I've heard that there's shore diving on Little Caymen, I'm going to have to check it out!

 

[AggieDiver]

I am really not sure what I said that was so controversial? I said you get max bottom time over decent reefs. I meant no slight by calling them decent and there is nothing in that sentence that hasn't already been said by others, including doctorfish, who mentioned more coral bleaching on Bonaire on page 2 and others who mentioned less coral after the hurricanes. I also said you have to work a bit to get that bottom time. For those of us who prefer to do as little as possible on vacations, toting tanks to and from trucks, toting gear down to shore entries, etc qualifies as work, and that aspect was also mentioned by several others who posted to this thread.

So if in the course of asking several groups of divers about their opinions on how LC and Bonaire compare, I have come to the same conclusion that others on this very thread have come to, why is it that it is somehow controversial when I say the same thing others have said...especially when I start my post by clarifying exactly what my basis for my opinion is? Why is nobody jumping Dr. Rich for chiming in on page one even though he has never been to LC? He offered a very benign opinion on LC, "from forum posts, it is well liked". Why no attacks on his hearsay reporting? I truly am genuinely curious what it is that I said that made me a lightning rod here.