Question about Bonaire - Traveling solo - End of Jan

[brianeck]

I'm thinking of doing a last minute trip to Bonaire later this month. I'll be traveling solo since none of my friends can handle a last minute trip.

I have not been to Bonaire before. I've done about 100 dives (~80 in the last 12-15 months).

I don't want to dive solo. I'd prefer shorediving but would be open to a few boat dives.

Here are my questions:

Where should I stay? I'd like to stay somewhere (the downtown area?) that's easy to find other divers who'd be open to an extra dive buddy. I'd prefer to keep accommodations cheap since I expect to use the room for about 8 hrs a day. Are there specific dive shops that get more solo divers that would be open to extra diver?

Thanks for your help.

 

[diversteve]

Although downtown is IMO not the optimal area for either shore diving or finding buddies (that's the north end resorts) one that meets all your criteria is: Dive Hut Bonaire - at night walk over to Karel's Waterfront Bar and talk diving loudly.

IMO the optimal place to find a buddy is Buddy Dive. Just about everyone there is a diver or staying with one. If you can't find a buddy in their bar you're not trying. It's also about the best for shore diving elsewhere with the drive-thru tank pickup. But you won't like the single supplement price - it's about $600 extra/wk. Welcome to the Buddy Dive Resort website

Just north of there is Habitat, the other original dive resort. I was asked twice there (only visited twice) while waiting for mine.
http://www.habitatbonaire.com/

Maybe Eden Beach slightly farther south also. It's smaller, has WannaDive onsite and Bongoes beach bar for finding buddies. My subjective opinion is that they cater to the Dutch/German crowd. They seem to have gone more upscale recently so IDK if it's still a good value. http://www.edenbeach.com/index.php?lang=en

In town there's also the Divi Flamingo - it's pretty close to an AI dive resort - they have meal plan options. I don't know it well enough to comment on availability. One of few dive resorts you can walk to downtown from. http://www.diviresorts.com/diviflamingo/

Carib Inn is a smaller dive-focused resort just south. Probably more reasonable. Bruce is the go to guy on Bonaire if you have any gear that breaks while there. http://www.caribinn.com/ No restaurant but you can walk to several from there.

South of there is the Plaza - they offer the only real AI dive package on Bonaire. Kind of spread out but even if you don't stay there, go to the Beach BBQ on Tuesday to find other divers. My impression of the Plaza is a lot of non-divers stay there also. The ScubaBoard Bonaire Invasion last year was held there. http://www.plazaresortbonaire.eu/en

There's a lot of affordable smaller apt. rentals both in town and south in the Belnem area. While most bundle dive packages many aren't on the water so I don't think the odds of finding buddies would be as good. Belnem is generally pretty quiet at night.

Coco Palm Garden is one affordable option there - across the street from the water. Unless you find buddies there you won't find them nearby - it's all residential. http://www.cocopalmgarden.org/CocoPalmEnglish.html

Your flight inbound is a good option. We met three groups while waiting for our flight to be called (my buddy wears dive t-shirts on planes) one turned out to be on our boat that week, another we passed 3x at shore dive sites and the third we never connected with.

hth, anywhere there's a crowd they're likely to be divers. There's not a lot of other reasons to go there.

 

[KeithG]

Captn don, buddy's and divi would be the top 3 places to find buddies as they all have a large number of dock divers as well as house boats.

You could try a few boat dives to locate buddies and or just hang around the dock the first few days.

After that you should have met enough people to hook up some shore dives.

 

[Kharon]

+1 for Coco Palm Garden. As far as finding buddies - Dive Friends can probably hook you up. Also, Jan is high season. Almost every dive site you go to will probably have divers gearing up. Stop & ask if they'd mind a tag along. It's a very friendly island.

 

[Lorenzoid]

I would love to hear of someone's actual experience finding Bonaire buddies on short notice. While I would guess that most any group of divers would be receptive enough to say "sure, feel free to tag along," is that really the kind of buddy you want? Most groups that you come across while gearing up will already be paired up. Being the third wheel has its risks. It seems reasonable to believe that if you enlist the aid of a major dive op to help you find a buddy in advance, you might have better luck finding a dedicated buddy. You could also post on the BonaireTalk forum. But I would love to hear someone's actual experience finding a Bonaire buddy. If I recall, the topic has been brought up before on SB. I am not a Type A personality who can make friends at happy hour at Buddy Dive the day I arrive, and I wouldn't pick Bonaire as a destination for myself if I did not have a buddy lined up or at least some dive op's guarantee of buddying me up.

 

[Doctorfish]

Have not gone to Bonaire solo but have seen the other side of the equation with single divers sitting at the dock waiting for someone to hopefully pair up with.
If I were in this situation I would stay/boat dive at one of the larger dive lodges to increase the odds. Would also boat dive for a few days straight and chat up people you think you might want to dive with later.
The DM on the boat will organize buddy groupings and it would be pretty unusual for someone to decline. Sitting on shore is a different deal and the dive op does not have any obligation to help you here.
I would choose a lodge, an op and dates and then post on ScubaBoard.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Showing up on Bonaire without a dive buddy is like swimming upstream. The main draw in Bonaire is the shore diving, and there are people who have visited a dozen times who have not yet felt the need to do a boat dive. Starting a trip by doing boat dives, trolling happy hours, and badgering dive ops in hope of connecting with a dive buddy sounds like the proverbial trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. Why not just put Bonaire on the back burner for a time when you have a dive buddy to go with, and for this vacation go somewhere that does the more typical boat dive thing where there are more likely to be others in need of a buddy? A dive vacation should be as hassle-free as possible; why start out with a major hurdle to overcome?

If you decide to charge ahead with Bonaire, please do report back on your experience, as this is not the first time someone has asked about this potential difficulty.

 

[Doctorfish]

Lorenzoid makes a good point. There are lots of Carribean destinations where most or all of the diving is boat diving which would avoid the problem.
Worst case scenario on a boat is that you buddy up with the DM, not so bad.

 

[diverjen]

+1 for Bonairetalk and finding buddies ahead of time

 

[brianeck]

Thank you everyone for your suggestions (both sides of the aisle). It will give me something to think about for the next week.

My reason for picking Bonaire was that I want to do 4 dives a day (and maybe a night dive, too). Last year, I went to CoCoView Resort in Roatan. Although it was a lot of fun (5 dives a day), the house reef & drop-off dives got a bit repetitive by the end of the week.