OK to miss Klein Bonaire?

[Hintermann]

I have booked a week's dive package with VIP Divers and a day with Bonaire East Coast Diving in May. As I am on a tight schedule and diving with VIP (who do not use boats) I may not be able to visit Klein Bonaire. Of course, Bas Noij has suggested that if I was that keen to get to KB, I could switch to another dive centre for the day but I prefer not to do that unless there is something exceptional in diving in Klein Bonaire that is not found on the mainland dives. I prefer to remain with VIP.

Therefore, my question to Bonaire regulars is: Will I miss something special if I bypass Klein Bonaire and remain on the mainland for the duration?

 

[choiahoy]

The dives we've done on Klein were nice and definitely worth the time.

But it in answer to your question as to whether you'll "miss something special," I would say that in two trips to Bonaire, our Klein dives never were on top of our "best dives" list. Actually this past November, we did 38 dives in two weeks and never even made it to Klein. I would have liked to, and we were certainly planning to, but clearly, it wasn't a priority.

Whatever you end up doing, have a great trip and happy diving.

 

[diversteve]

There's a site there called Forest that should be on anyone's top 10 dive list that knows Bonaire. Fields of Black Coral at around 70'. We did a drift dive at Hand's Off that I could've skipped.

You might contact one of the shops directly across from Klein and see what they've got scheduled once you're on island. Bonaire Dive/Adventure goes there regularly since they're just across the channel from it. Or Buddy's, Habitat, probably the Divi also. BD&A maybe still goes out there later in the afternoon so you could possibly work that into your existing schedule with OB1 - their boat came back from there once around 2:30 while we were shore diving Bari Reef. And they'd been to Klein and seen the dolphins in the channel.

Another Bonaire site in my personal top 5 is Rappel on Bonaire - not Klein - but you can't get there from shore unless you do. (rappel down the cliff face)

 

[diver 85]

No..IMO......The day we dove it, it was no more than diving the 'mainland' ie we did 4 days of boat diving outta the 6 total days of diving & to me it was nothing special.....Now----, did we go to a great place off Klein??/---that I can not answer......

 

[uncfnp]

Just back from my 6th trip to Bonaire and I have yet to set foot on a boat to dive Klein or any west coast dive sites. On my second trip I did do a boat dive on the east side but since then only shore dives.

 

[MarineResearch]

There are more than enough good shore dives on Bonaire to have a great week. I have dove Klein many times and did not find it that spectacular, very nice, but I wouldn't miss it.

 

[Lorenzoid]

If you're venturing over to do some East Side diving, THAT's "something exceptional" that few visitors do. Like uncfnp, I've made several trips to Bonaire and not yet gotten around to checking out Klein Bonaire, because the people I travel with have been to Bonaire dozens of times and keep telling me it's worth doing only after I have visited just about every site on Bonaire multiple times and am desperate to do something else. Take this hearsay for what it is.

 

[oldschoolto]

Have spent a month diving on Bonaire so far in two trips... All mainland shore dives and still have more to see before taking a boat dive somewhere..

Jim....

 

[MarineResearch]

Have spent a month diving on Bonaire so far in two trips... All mainland shore dives and still have more to see before taking a boat dive somewhere.. <BR><BR>Jim....

Especially if you have deep diving capabilities and spend some time on the second reef.

 

[KathyV]

No guarantees, but the only seahorses that I have seen on Bonaire have been during boat trips to Klein, I'm just sayin'!

You'll have fun and nice dives wherever you go. You can't do it all so relax and figure that you'll catch the rest of the great stuff the next time you are there! Enjoy!