Anyone recommend Bonaire

[iratnl]

I'm thinking of going to Bonaire at the beginning of May for a couple of weeks. Can anyone recommend it ? Where would be a good place to stay (thinking about Capt Dons Habitat). Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Kirstie]

Oh, you jammy devil! Turbanator and I are hankering after a trip to Bonaire. Neither of us have ever been, but we've seen several programmes about it and it looks fabulous. There's a webcam here (dark at the moment!) that shows the water temp at the moment of about 28 degrees.

http://www.bonairewebcams.com/BonaireReefCam.php


If you do go, let us know what it's like.

[ScubaSue]

Originally Posted by iratnl

I'm thinking of going to Bonaire at the beginning of May for a couple of weeks. Can anyone recommend it ? Where would be a good place to stay (thinking about Capt Dons Habitat). Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated.

A mate of mine went a couple of years ago and loved it, I think she stayed at Captain Dons too.

As I recall she said it was a little scruffy - but nothing to be concerned about - but then that was two years ago, so things probably have changed.

The diving, apparently, was brilliant

Jealous? Me? Absolutely

[DanE]

According to Mrs DanE, it's now only 4 weeks and 6 days until we go...

It looks superb, the reviews have been great. Will do a write up on our return.

dan

[ChrisP]

Originally Posted by iratnl

I'm thinking of going to Bonaire at the beginning of May for a couple of weeks. Can anyone recommend it ? Where would be a good place to stay (thinking about Capt Dons Habitat). Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated.

It is no secret that I love the place.
I am off for my 5th trip in 8 days time.
I have always stayed at Sanddollar which is very near Captain Don's. I believe Captain Don's is the place most frequented by Brits - although a Dutch owned island Bonaire is a very popular dive place for the Americans.
The first time I went I just snorkelled but on my return to the UK I booked an OW course and the rest is history as they say!!!
I have been back more or less each year since.
The main advantages as I see it are:
very relaxed and safe diving,
you can dive when you want and at any of the marked dive site entry points which are all down the west side. All the sites on the main island can be done as shore dives - only dives on Klein Bonaire require a boat trip so it makes the diving relatively cheap.
We got a free nitrox upgrade - so worth asking.
nice people and very safe to wander around at will, only a bit of petty theft from cars which are best left open so the windows don't get broken.
excellent diving, very little current, reasonable viz - rarely <20m sometimes more.
lots of reef fish and other critters.
the island is quiet and apart from diving and a few restaurants there is not much going on - some might say that was a disadvantage.
Possible disadvantages:
very quiet apart from the diving!
on my first dive trip after a few dives i wrote in my notebook that all the reefs looked the same brownish colour and that they lacked the colour of the red sea, but the more you dive there the more you see and identify and the more interesting the place becomes. Last time we went we did more than half of all our dives on Bari Reef - the house reef at Sanddollar (famous for Frogfish and Seahorses).
not that cheap especially to eat out, although with a more favourable dollar pound rate the last two trips have seemed cheaper.

As I said I love the place. From what I have heard I think Captain Don's would be a good place to stay.
I would book a Toyota dive truck for the trip as it gives you the freedom to move around as you wish and dive any sites you want.
I believe they are just starting to do some more technical diving and explore some deeper reefs as well as finding sharks etc but I think much of that is on the east side of the island which tends to be quite rough. I will find out more about that in the next couple of weeks.
If you go I am sure you will enjoy yourselves.
Cheers

[John Gulliver]

I love the place too! I'd more or less decided not to go back to the Caribbean to dive but stick to the Indopacific in future until friends persuade me that I simply must go to Bonaire, so I went with a Swedish group of 25 divers last September. Of all the Caribbean islands I've dived (Barbados, Tobago, Grand Cayman, Roatan, Cozumel and Bonaire), Bonaire has by far the best diving, in my opinion. We stayed and dived with Buddy Dive Resort http://www.buddydive.com/ , which was excellent in every respect. The resort also has a fantastic house-reef. Just climb down the steps 5 paces from the divecentre, where you pick up your tank, and you are surrounded by big shoals of fish. Swim 20 metres across the sandy bottom and you are on the edge of the wall. The amount of life is amazing and the corals and sponges are wonderful. There are lots of easy shore-entries, of course, each with its own advantages, but about a third of the dives I did were on the house-reef.
I'm told Buddy Dive Resort works out a bit expensive if there are only two of you and that nearby Divers Paradise is quite a bit cheaper and newly renovated and fresh. A friend of mine who goes regularly usually stays there unless he is with a group. He always dives with Buddy, though. It costs the same whether you stay at the resort or not and gives you access to their house-reef. Whatever you do, don't miss a guided dive at the Salt Pier, by the way. It's a world-class site.
People in our group who dived on "The wild side" (the east side of the island) said it was fantstic but only for experienced divers, due to currents etc. There are a couple of firms that specialise in guided dives there.

[rooster]

What John said. We just got back from 3 weeks in the Dutch Antilles, including a week in Bonaire.

We stayed at Buddy dive (partly at John's recommendation, thanks John!) and it was excellent. The house reef is a great dive and the diving in general is very good. Some of the best I have done Caribbean side (it's up against Bahamas, Virgin Islands, Cozumel, Honduras and the Keys). Do the House Reef at dusk/ night time at least once. It was very special at this time.

We booked a package that included 6 boat dives (normally at Klein Bonaire) and a truck. These were great dives but if we went back a second time we would just go for the truck, only because we have now done a few sites at Klein and it is not THAT much better. If it was my first time I would probably do boat dives as well though.

The freedom is great, no early starts for us lazy bones! If you get a package and do 4-5 dives a day it doesnt work out at bad value either.

Week commencing Feb 13th the water temp was 26-27 degrees.

Enjoy!

[Druid]

I went there a couple of years ago, I posted a trip report here.

[budda]

try www.scubadiving.com the should have loads as they are an American dive mag and regularly have Bonaire stuff

[iratnl]

Thanks for all the info. We've booked for the 30 April - 14 May; staying at
http://www.diversparadisebonaire.com...modations.html