Please help me find a House Reef somewhere warm

[tarajcosta]

Hello. I'm trying to plan our next diving holiday. Love having a house reef, love only needing to wear a shorty and trying to go somewhere new.

Already been to Red Sea and the Maldives. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

 

[Dirty-Dog]

It might help to know a general time frame... but most of the carribean would work. Any of the ABC islands, for example. Belize. The Virgin Islands.

 

[Bubble Junky]

Check out Lumba Lumba on Pulau Weh, Sumatra.

They have an awesome house reef. I've seen frogfish, seahorses, various ghost pipefish, cockatoo waspfish, mimic octopus, lacy scorpionfish, flying gurnard, stonefish, loads of mantis shrimp (spearing & Peacock) and even a few eagle rays.....

 

[tarajcosta]

Thanks to Dirty-Dog and Bubble Junky. We're flexible time-frame wise and I'll def check Lumba Lumba!
I should also add that I'm looking for @4* accommodation. Thanks!

 

[victor]

Bonaire.
Great diving, you can shore dive 70% of the dive sites. Some of the best macro diving around.
Easy to get to, non stop from Amsterdam
Wide range of options for accomodation.
Not much to do above the water so its dive, dive, dive.
Look at Curaco and Aruba if you are looking at more entertainment.

 

[robint]

yup, Bonaire.... try Buddy Dive Resort. Any of the resorts that are oceanfront will have a great house reef though. We just really enjoyed Buddy's.

what type of house reef are you looking for in particular? Are you looking for tons of critters to watch, photos, or lush coral?

By 4* accomodations... what exactly are you looking for? I might have other suggestions for you depending how you answer that and my other question.

robin

 

[vladimir]

Is that 4 out of 5✭? I can never keep track of what the standard is.

The Mimpi resorts are pretty nice for the north shore of Bali, but they might be a star short for you. The diving out front of the Mimpi Tulamben is quite nice for macro lovers. Last time there I was entertained by an octopus going from coral head to coral head, covering each one and picking out morsels of unfortunate crustacea.

I like Harbour Village Beach Club in Bonaire, but the house reef is pretty shoddy directly out front--not bad if you don't mind swimming south a little, though. It offers the only luxury accommodations in Bonaire--perhaps not up to the standards of a true luxury hotel, but little to complain about unless you're really fussy.

It's hard to find great accommodations near great diving because the amount of infrastructure and tourist traffic needed to support hotels like that is not compatible with pristine reefs, for the most part. A nice liveaboard is the best compromise, in my opinion, but again, you're usually a star or two short on the accommodations scale.

 

[tarajcosta]

@victor - Thanks, great info. You're right we can get to Bonaire via Amsterdam easy. Also looked at going to Aruba via a city break in NYC.
@robint - Thanks for your reply. House reef expectations; nice coral, some diversity would be great, macro, always love to get a few snaps so clarity is important. We've dived the Maldives so our expectations are skewed in that we like beautiful reefs, easy diving and luxurious resorts if we can get it.
@vladimir - Great info! Bali's a good option - I'll check it out. Looking at ABC too!

All great info; everyone is so helpful. It's been really hard finding what we're looking for but these forums really help - Thanks everyone!

 

[robint]

I would not consider Aruba as the diving there is nothing comparible to Bonaire. Aruba is a party island, mostly just tourists, not a true dive destination. From what I understand, there are some resorts on Curacao that might meet your expectations.

Cocoview Resort on Roatan has a fantastic house reef with unlimited 24/7 diving but it is not a fancy resort, very rustic but all rooms right at water. I don't think you would like it compared to Maldives. Check it out though: CoCo View Resort Roatan, Honduras

robin

 

[Damselfish]

While I like checking out new places too, if the Maldives were closer to me I'd go back there repeatedly before I'd go anyplace in the Caribbean.

If you want a house reef, "most of the Caribbean" doesn't work. Not a lot of places have shore diving of any note, never mind good shore diving in front of a luxury resort. (And if it's easier for you to get to places in the Indo Pacific with that combo they will probably be better.) Belize was mentioned, but it's not a shore diving kind of place - best bet there for a house reef is a liveaboard! Bonaire is popular from the US and nice for the Caribbean, but does not remotely stack up to the Maldives, and that goes for pretty much all the popular dive areas in the Caribbean. The grass is not always greener on the other side of the fence...

If you really specifically wanted to go to the Caribbean for some reason, Kura Hulanda Lodge in Curacao is very nice and the dive from the adjacent dive shop is one of the best house reefs I've seen in the Caribbean. While not perfect, from the US it's a good option for "very nice resort with very good and easy on-site diving" But again, if Maldives or Bali or lots of other places were a more reasonable distance for me to do on a regular basis, I wouldn't even consider it.

If you haven't tried a nice liveaboard yet you might want to. While I too am always wishing for a gorgeous resort with great diving out front, the all around convenience and experience on a good liveaboard I consider a fine tradeoff.

You might also check out this old thread, which seems to live on.