cachow6
Registered
My wife and I recently returned from a trip to Bonaire. I found the innumerable Bonaire threads on Scubaboard to be an incredible resource in planning this trip, so I wanted to return the favor by writing up a trip report. Thanks to everyone here for all of the advice, reassurances, and most of all getting me pumped up for the trip with all of your enthusiasm.
Context: My wife and I are in our late 20s. We got certified in Indonesia in summer of 2018. Dived a good amount while there, did a couple shore dives in San Diego, took a trip to Grand Cayman in December, and showed up to Bonaire with 29 dives under our belts. Picked Bonaire to try a more independent style of dive vacation, hoping to gain more confidence on our own and get a handful of dives under our belts.
Diving: Overall, we both thought the diving was excellent. We really enjoyed the shore diving experience and gained a lot of confidence in terms of navigation and just being without a guide in general. In total we did 21 dives in our 5.5 diving days. The first few days we did 4 dives per day (one day with 5 dives) and then backed down to 3/day later in the week. We found that although the topography and fish were very different from our previous trips to Indonesia and Grand Cayman, the overall dive quality compared very well, with very dense and healthy coral as well as some interesting sightings. I think some of the less distinct reefs did start to feel a little repetitive by the end of the week but luckily we also saved some of our anticipated favorites for later in the week as well. We did mostly shore diving but mixed in 4 boat dives as well. We finished off the week with our 50th dive at The Lake, which was a nice way to cap our vacation.
Fauna Highlights
* A pod of dolphins swam over us when we were 12m down at Tori's Reef. Probably 20 dolphins in total including a calf. It was over quick but unforgettable.
* Huge bait ball at Pink Beach. We got the tip from somebody else and we immediately headed over. You could see the dark shadow from the shore. I have to estimate several thousands of fish. Very cool experience to be completely surrounded by fish.
* Frogfish at Salt Pier
* Spotted eagle ray in the sand at Invisibles
* Two octopuses on night dive at Bari Reef
Site Highlights
* Karpata had the most striking topography for us, loved the sand channels running down through the reef.
* Invisibles and The Lake were our favorites for the double reef
* Thousand Steps had a great reef structure
* Tolo was really beautiful
* Oil Slick was cool for the giant stride as well as being able to see waves crashing against the cliffs from underwater
* For some reason I just really liked the balance of soft and hard corals at Margate Bay
* The Klein sites we went to (Leonora's, Knife, Hands Off, Sharon's Serenity) were nice, particulalry Leonora's had great coral
Dive Company: We used Dive Friends for our nitrox package. Checkout dive at Delphin's Resort was pretty low key, the guy from the desk came out with extra weight if we needed it then we swam out for a dive there. Overall we found the tank exchange to be pretty convenient and we used more of the locations than I expected. Fills were good and usually 31%. The boat dives we did with them were too crowded (10ish per group) and unfortunately we did not make it to Rappel or Forest due to others on the boat having already been there. That being said, I thought it was ncie to mix it up a bit with the boat dives.
Lodging: Air Bnb in Belnem near Bachelor's Beach. The proximity to the southern sites was really nice, not bad for downtown access, and the northern sites were honestly not a bad drive either.
Food: We mostly ate out for lunch and dinner. Loved the food trucks, particularly King Kong Burger, and had a great lunch at Between 2 Buns as well. For dinner the highlights were Sebastian's, It Rains Fishes, and Salatiga. Got takeout Pasa Bon and Babbejan's to eat at our Air Bnb a few nights which was also great.
Car: We used Bonaire Rent-A-Car which I honestly haven't seen mentioned on here but it's a top result on google with very good reviews. We were able to get a 2 door automatic truck for the week and had a good experience. The car had about 35k miles and seemed in good condition.
Travel: Delta through Atlanta, Sunday to Sunday. Pretty comfortable flight and we liked the afternoon departure so that we could dive Saturday morning.
Misc:
* No theft at all during the week, as we followed the windows down / no valuables policy. Our Airbnb also felt very secure.
* The ironshore entries weren't quite as treacherous as I feared but we were happy to have dive boots with sneaker-like soles, not quite Seasoft Sunray level durable but perfectly adequate https://www.amazon.com/Seavenger-Ne...er+dive+boots&qid=1562991021&s=gateway&sr=8-4
* One random highlight was after we dived Tolo and Karpata, instead of taking the road immediately inland to Rincon we swung a bit north and went by the flamingo reserve at Gotomeer, cool short drive and interesting to see the flamingoes. Highly recommend!
* Unfortunately due to windy conditions we weren't able to meet up with Bas Tol for an east coast dive, but randomly we did run into him at Babbejan's when he heard me tell the cashier my name. Had a nice chat - next time we'll dive!
Summary: We had a great time in Bonaire, and it was the perfect place for us at our level of dive experience to progress in our confidence and in our abilities. For people with mostly boat experience, the feeling of just the two of us on a dive was pretty magical. I think there are many more places that we will want to go see before we return to Bonaire, but I expect we'll be back in the not-so-distant future. Thanks again to all the folks here for the great advice. Happy to answer any questions about our trip.
Context: My wife and I are in our late 20s. We got certified in Indonesia in summer of 2018. Dived a good amount while there, did a couple shore dives in San Diego, took a trip to Grand Cayman in December, and showed up to Bonaire with 29 dives under our belts. Picked Bonaire to try a more independent style of dive vacation, hoping to gain more confidence on our own and get a handful of dives under our belts.
Diving: Overall, we both thought the diving was excellent. We really enjoyed the shore diving experience and gained a lot of confidence in terms of navigation and just being without a guide in general. In total we did 21 dives in our 5.5 diving days. The first few days we did 4 dives per day (one day with 5 dives) and then backed down to 3/day later in the week. We found that although the topography and fish were very different from our previous trips to Indonesia and Grand Cayman, the overall dive quality compared very well, with very dense and healthy coral as well as some interesting sightings. I think some of the less distinct reefs did start to feel a little repetitive by the end of the week but luckily we also saved some of our anticipated favorites for later in the week as well. We did mostly shore diving but mixed in 4 boat dives as well. We finished off the week with our 50th dive at The Lake, which was a nice way to cap our vacation.
Fauna Highlights
* A pod of dolphins swam over us when we were 12m down at Tori's Reef. Probably 20 dolphins in total including a calf. It was over quick but unforgettable.
* Huge bait ball at Pink Beach. We got the tip from somebody else and we immediately headed over. You could see the dark shadow from the shore. I have to estimate several thousands of fish. Very cool experience to be completely surrounded by fish.
* Frogfish at Salt Pier
* Spotted eagle ray in the sand at Invisibles
* Two octopuses on night dive at Bari Reef
Site Highlights
* Karpata had the most striking topography for us, loved the sand channels running down through the reef.
* Invisibles and The Lake were our favorites for the double reef
* Thousand Steps had a great reef structure
* Tolo was really beautiful
* Oil Slick was cool for the giant stride as well as being able to see waves crashing against the cliffs from underwater
* For some reason I just really liked the balance of soft and hard corals at Margate Bay
* The Klein sites we went to (Leonora's, Knife, Hands Off, Sharon's Serenity) were nice, particulalry Leonora's had great coral
Dive Company: We used Dive Friends for our nitrox package. Checkout dive at Delphin's Resort was pretty low key, the guy from the desk came out with extra weight if we needed it then we swam out for a dive there. Overall we found the tank exchange to be pretty convenient and we used more of the locations than I expected. Fills were good and usually 31%. The boat dives we did with them were too crowded (10ish per group) and unfortunately we did not make it to Rappel or Forest due to others on the boat having already been there. That being said, I thought it was ncie to mix it up a bit with the boat dives.
Lodging: Air Bnb in Belnem near Bachelor's Beach. The proximity to the southern sites was really nice, not bad for downtown access, and the northern sites were honestly not a bad drive either.
Food: We mostly ate out for lunch and dinner. Loved the food trucks, particularly King Kong Burger, and had a great lunch at Between 2 Buns as well. For dinner the highlights were Sebastian's, It Rains Fishes, and Salatiga. Got takeout Pasa Bon and Babbejan's to eat at our Air Bnb a few nights which was also great.
Car: We used Bonaire Rent-A-Car which I honestly haven't seen mentioned on here but it's a top result on google with very good reviews. We were able to get a 2 door automatic truck for the week and had a good experience. The car had about 35k miles and seemed in good condition.
Travel: Delta through Atlanta, Sunday to Sunday. Pretty comfortable flight and we liked the afternoon departure so that we could dive Saturday morning.
Misc:
* No theft at all during the week, as we followed the windows down / no valuables policy. Our Airbnb also felt very secure.
* The ironshore entries weren't quite as treacherous as I feared but we were happy to have dive boots with sneaker-like soles, not quite Seasoft Sunray level durable but perfectly adequate https://www.amazon.com/Seavenger-Ne...er+dive+boots&qid=1562991021&s=gateway&sr=8-4
* One random highlight was after we dived Tolo and Karpata, instead of taking the road immediately inland to Rincon we swung a bit north and went by the flamingo reserve at Gotomeer, cool short drive and interesting to see the flamingoes. Highly recommend!
* Unfortunately due to windy conditions we weren't able to meet up with Bas Tol for an east coast dive, but randomly we did run into him at Babbejan's when he heard me tell the cashier my name. Had a nice chat - next time we'll dive!
Summary: We had a great time in Bonaire, and it was the perfect place for us at our level of dive experience to progress in our confidence and in our abilities. For people with mostly boat experience, the feeling of just the two of us on a dive was pretty magical. I think there are many more places that we will want to go see before we return to Bonaire, but I expect we'll be back in the not-so-distant future. Thanks again to all the folks here for the great advice. Happy to answer any questions about our trip.
