Where would you go for your honeymoon - with the following restrictions . . .

[spanky]

I just came back from cozumel last week the diving was
great .If you go you might want to use deep blue
divers,there an excellent dive shop.

 

[Ber Rabbit]

We went there a couple of years ago. We booked a package with Oasis Divers and stayed at the Arawak Inn for about $800 pp for 6 days/7nights. The dive sites are close to the island and you return to the island for lunch. The locals say Grand Turk is the way the Bahamas used to be before they were commercialized. We liked it because we went in June and literally had the beach to ourselves. The Arawak Inn used to be an apartment building so your room is actually an apartment! I think the web site is Oasisdivers.com, you might check it out. Best part about it was you could drink the water from the tap! The people were great and the diving was amazing! You can dive the Columbus Trench which is a wall dive with a max depth of 3000 feet! There is even a mini "stingray city" you can take a side trip to on one of the local cays. The island is rustic and we thought it would make a great place for a honeymoon.

Just my .02!
Ber

 

[dvleemin]

OK,
I'm definately leaning towards Bonaire. Seems like you can get a really good bang for your buck.

I definately love the shore diving. Not having a dive master make you come up after 30 mins because one diver is an air hog - thats priceless. Even just being able to dive alone with my fiancee - thats fantastic.

So would you purchase any boat dives in advance? My fianceee and I haven't done much shore diving before, if that makes a difference. Is there any sites, only accessible by boat, that you must dive?

Thanks for all the replies,

Darryl

 

[herman]

The 6 dive boat packages run about $100 and indv trips are $20 each so you really don't lose much. I have had no trouble getting dives on a daily basis for the most part. There are several dives up North and over at Klien Bonaire that are good and require a boat but there are so many good shore dives (around 80) that I don't see a need to take a boat, esp on your first trip. I think you will fall in love with shore diving. Your own sched, pace and locations. The profile of the reef on Bonaire is such that it is real easy to do and not get lost. You do have to watch your dive profiles as the bottom of the reef is at about 100 ft and it is very easy to drop below your intended depth. On the other hand, the best coral and fish are at the edge of the reef where it's slope changes from a very gradual slope (about 35 ft)to about a 60 deg angle that drops to a sand bottom at 100 ft. My dives average 70 mins and some go as long as 90 min. The one shore diving suggestion I have is to get booties that have hard soles. The shore is rocky with a lot of coral rubble so the hard sole booties are a lot easier on the feet. The one dive we usally don't miss is the Helma Hooker, a 275 ft freighter that sunk on it's starboard side in 100 ft of water with it's keel against the reef dropoff. This wreck can easily be dove from shore and safety stops are great, find a place in the sand at 15 ft and watch the fish go by. There is a paperback book avalible at the dive shops called something like "Bonaire diving made easy" that sells for $10 US that is well worth the price. It gives locations and descriptions of the dive sites. It also rates them in difficulty and gives entry suggestions. By the way, US $ are taken almost everywhere on the island. I understand from some Canadians on the Bonaire board that the way they handle money is to convert to USD at home and spend USD on Bonaire.

 

[dvleemin]

Thanks Herman,
We already have good boots - they're good rubber soled 7ml boots we use because we coldwater dive.

Is there wall diving in Bonaire?

I'll definately pick up that book before I go. I'm also going to do a bunch of research, and get a bunch of opinions on what dives are a necessity before I go. There's just too many of them to get them all in.

Its so far away yet, but I'm so excited.

Anything else I should be aware of regarding Bonaire?

Darryl

 

[herman]

The book was written by a local and to the best of my knowledge it's only avalible on island. I am going back in June, be happy to pick one up for you. I don't want to make a bigger deal of this than it really is but the biggest "tip" I can give is how to avoid petty crime. There are some kids that will steal valuble items if you leave them in vehicles. The prevention is easy if you simply don't take anything with you to remote sites that's worth stealing. If you are not taking it in the water with you, leave it at the hotel. DON'T take or leave cameras, expensive sun glasses and the like in the car. LEAVE THE CAR UNLOCKED and the windows down. Old tennis shoes and T-shirts are safe and coolers are never taken....you may loose a drink or 2 so carry extras (although I have never lost any, I have heard of some who have)The island is small so it's just not necessary to carry a lot of stuff with you. Your never more than a few miles away from your hotel anyway. I take a credit card and $50 or so, all of which goes in the water with me. My camera is an UW one so it goes under too. We have found that a thin dive cap, 1/8 inch or so, helps a lot. While the water is 80 deg+ it still takes a toll on us after 3 to 4 dives and the cap seems to help reduce fatigue a lot esp after several dives. Nylon dive skins are useful to prevent sunburn and shield against jellyfish and coral stings. I am unaware of any big walls but I understand that there are some small ones tward the northern end of the island. Matter of fact, the underwater web cam is located at a site called "Small Wall". There seveal ATM's on the island that you can get money from, either in Guilders or USD. By the way, the exchange rate is 1.77 and is fixed to the USD. This works out to 1 Guilder= about $0.56 US but I usally use $0.50 USD = 1 Guilder for estimation. A 10 Guilder hamburger is a little over $5 US. I can't wait to get back myself, I love the place in case you couldn't tell.

 

[dvleemin]

Thanks Herman,
We were planning on wearing 3ml shorties. Weren't planning on wearing a dive cap, and actually don't even own won. Might not be a bad investment though, and it can't be that expensive - and considering you do lose most of your heat through your head. Especially for night dives.
I'm aware of the theft problem. Everywhere I read about Bonaire its constantly mentioned. Its a suprise in some ways. Considering Bonaire gets such a large percent of their revenue through tourism - especially diving - you'd think the government would crack down on that type of thing.

We were roughly budgeting $50US/day for food. For breakfasts, and a lot of lunches, we were planning on making food ourselves. Does this sound like a reasonable estimate?

Thanks,

Darryl

 

[dvleemin]

Well,
I'm going to Bonaire for 15 nights in Sep. We're staying at the Aqua Viva apartments.

This is going to be a very long 6 months waiting for this.

Thanks to everyone for their help.

Darryl