Planning a dive trip to Bonaire

[Sonic04GT]

What insight can you guys give? Never dived outside of the country.

My roommate and I get out of the Army in a few months and want to celebrate with a 4-5 day trip to Bonaire haha

What are your recommendations for travel, lodging, and dives?

 

[lmorin]

Look on the Lesser Antilles>ABC Islands forum (LINK) for tons more info about Bonaire.

 

[JoannSecor]

Desert Divers has a trip in July 23-31st to Bonaire here's the link for that trip: DiveRoster.com - Scheduling software for scuba diving:
Fantastic Shop and group to travel with...you'll have fun!

 

[herman]

There are hours of reading on the subject on this board. Do a search and then ask specific questions if you still have them. I know there are at least 2 and maybe 3 different groups from this board who are going to be on Bonaire the last week of June, mine being one of them. You are welcome to come hang with us if you like- no shop trip or anything, just friends diving together and unless I am way off, I am sure the other group would welcome you as well.
Thanks for you service to our country.

 

[Sonic04GT]

Thanks for the replies. I will research this a little more later using the info provided. Unfortunately I won't be able to make the trips mentioned but I really appreciate the offers. I don't get out until August so we are planning for September sometime so we can spend some time with the family first and then dive Palm Beach haha

As for the service, you are very welcome. :ar15:

 

[helimvee]

One word of advice. Decide whether you are going to dive or to "vacation". If you are going to dive then skip the fancy ocean front locations and go for something across the road. Much cheaper and quite fine if you are only using the room to sleep.

Stay alert and stay safe.

 

[drrich2]

I've been 3 times. Here's a link to my trip report from March 2010; that thread includes a link to my trip report from March 2009, which actually may make for a better 'Intro. to Bonaire' guide. I tried to cover good info. for newcomers to Bonaire, with plenty of photos so the read's not too thick.

Cost-wise, I think it was $835/person for the stay (room, scuba tanks including nitrox, wireless internet, truck rental), and since I was flying from Little Rock Arkansas to Atlanta and then on to Bonaire & back, I watched the fares via Travelocity.com & other sites & booked a round trip ticket for around $1,006 apiece (for me, my wife & a friend). A tank of gas late in the week was $51.46 (U.S. dollars; gas is HIGH in Bonaire). Eating out can be pricey; we hit Zhung Kong Supermarket & Cultimara Supermarket so we'd have food for breakfast & lunch, and ate out evenings for supper. There's a marine park fee ($25 apiece I think) & a departure tax ($105 for the 3 of us).

When you pay the marine park fee, keep those paper receipts they give you, so you can get in Washington-Slagbaii Park for a drive through later in the week, free instead of $10 apiece.

Richard.

 

[skynscuba]

What insight can you guys give? Never dived outside of the country.

My roommate and I get out of the Army in a few months and want to celebrate with a 4-5 day trip to Bonaire haha

What are your recommendations for travel, lodging, and dives?

4-5 days may be tough, unless maybe you connect through Curacao. As far as I know, the only non-stop flights from the U.S. are mostly on Saturday (Continental and Delta and Insel Air), and Continental on Sunday. A week makes a nice trip anyway, if you have the time and money. You can also connect via Curacao, followed by a short flight (~35 miles) to Bonaire, which may let you travel on other days, and can sometimes be cheaper. Insel Air flies from Miami.

Diving on Bonaire is easy, and very pleasant. The shore diving is great, so you really don't have to pay for boat dives. If you do want to go to Klein Bonaire via boat, the good news is that boat diving on Bonaire is pretty cheap too.

 

[Belce]

When it comes to flights Bonaire is a bit off the beaten path, flights for a 4 to 5 day trip the US can hard. If you do a week or two then it is easy as mentioned earlier.

YouTube - Bonaire Adventure 2010.mov

Spent two weeks there in March, you can shore dive all you want so don't pay extra for boat dives. See if you can rent an apartment/condo with a kitchen for meals, rent a truck

 

[DiveMaven]

I agree that 4-5 days just simply isn't enough, particularly since you can't dive on the last day due to flying out. If you can manage it, go for at least a week.

Although I understand the recommendation to not stay in an oceanfront place if you're just going to dive, I'll have to respectfully disagree. We go to Bonaire to dive, doing 4-5 dives per day, everyday. The advantage of being able to dive right in front of your condo is worth the extra cost IMO, and I also really enjoy being able to have a beer at the end of my dive day out on my lanai, and see the ocean and watch other divers on the dock coming and going. We can decide spur of the moment to do a night or dawn dive by simply walking out of our condo and falling in the water without having to plan and drive.

We've looked at staying at GRI and the facilities and price is always very tempting, but the convenience of being ON the water and not having to always drive to dive has kept us going back to Den Laman and Bari Reef. Just my perspective.