Bonaire Scuba Diving Trip

mjburian

mjburian

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Marty
I know at least a few of you have discussed scuba diving before, so figured I'd check with you regarding a trip we'll be taking later this spring. We're headed to Buddy Dive Resort in Bonaire. It'll be a group of 4 divers (all AOW certified) who have never been there before. We've read reviews that mention either leaving things in your apartment or taking them on the dive with you, but leaving valuables in the vehicle while you're diving isn't a good idea (sounds fairly common for things to get ripped off). Anything else we should know? Any particular dive spots we should make an effort to see? We'll be there for a week with boat dives some (most?) of the days, but also plan to venture out on our own quite a bit.

Thanks in advance for any info/advice you can offer!
 
I did a dive trip to Bonaire several years ago. The attraction of Bonaire is the shelf diving. Rent one of their small vans, get a dive buddy or three, and hit the beaches. You can get a guide map with descriptions of dives right off the beach, and they are clearly marked. There are also dive boats, and trips but you have to do the beach dives, as the walls are spectacular.

We did not find Bonaire unsafe, but we never left valuables in our vehicles either. Take normal precautions with stuff, and you'll be fine. It is a great place to enjoy the beach, water, and diving. I really like the ABC islands due to their dryer climate, and the fact they are out of the hurrican belt.
 
I never thought the ABC diving was all that great, but the safety rules are the same as anywhere.
 
does your room have a small safe?
I'd feel better about personal items in the room vs in a van while you are shore diving.

I've been diving to Bonaire a few times, you'll enjoy it
 
Anthony said:
I did a dive trip to Bonaire several years ago. The attraction of Bonaire is the shelf diving. Rent one of their small vans, get a dive buddy or three, and hit the beaches. You can get a guide map with descriptions of dives right off the beach, and they are clearly marked. There are also dive boats, and trips but you have to do the beach dives, as the walls are spectacular.

We did not find Bonaire unsafe, but we never left valuables in our vehicles either. Take normal precautions with stuff, and you'll be fine. It is a great place to enjoy the beach, water, and diving. I really like the ABC islands due to their dryer climate, and the fact they are out of the hurrican belt.
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Thanks for the info. Part of our apartment rental includes vans or pickups, so each couple will have their own vehicle. Can we get the guide map once we're there or is this something I should order before we go? (I assume we get it there.)

I don't think I read anything about the area being unsafe, just a bunch of reviews from people who came back to their vehicle after a dive to find a window had been smashed and their valuables had been stolen. So, obviously, we'll not leave any valuables in the vehicles. There were also a few mentions of gear being stolen from the lockers, but I'm guessing we'd just take the gear with us back to the apartment.
 
Henning said:
I never thought the ABC diving was all that great, but the safety rules are the same as anywhere.
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I'll bet the ABC diving is better than Midwest USA diving. ;-)

Most of our diving has been done in the Caribbean (Mexico, Jamaica, etc) but we've never taken a 100% dive trip before. My wife and I are a little concerned about it, since we tend to enjoy lazy days on the beach and/or late, booze-powered nights.
 
Badger said:
does your room have a small safe?
I'd feel better about personal items in the room vs in a van while you are shore diving.

I've been diving to Bonaire a few times, you'll enjoy it
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I don't know if there's a safe or not, but obviously we'd use it if it's available. I didn't mean to make it sound like we were concerned about the valuables in the van thing, just that it was one of the things we'd read in some of the reviews for the area and as a lead-in to "Any other advice?"

Where did you stay in Bonaire? I haven't looked all that closely, but I know it's a small-ish island and we'll have a vehicle. Are there any (non-diving) sightseeing trips we should take? Or specific dive sites we should check out?
 
Bonaire is great, I was there a year ago.

Never had a problem with getting stuff stolen from the pickup. We just never left anything of value in the pu, just flip flops and old shirts.

You can get the maps at any dive shop of all the shore dives, and a brief description. For free. Go explore. Have fun.

A day trip to the east side is fun break from diving, just to see.

A trip north to the park should also be on your list.

We used Dive Friends and their string of shops were lots of help, good people. And, I felt safe leaving gear in their lockers.
 
mjburian said:
I'll bet the ABC diving is better than Midwest USA diving. ;-)

Most of our diving has been done in the Caribbean (Mexico, Jamaica, etc) but we've never taken a 100% dive trip before. My wife and I are a little concerned about it, since we tend to enjoy lazy days on the beach and/or late, booze-powered nights.
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If you want to take a "dive vacation" do it on a liveaboard boat, if you want a mixed tropical vacation do it on an island. You'll enjoy Bonaire fine.
 
JoseCuervo said:
Bonaire is great, I was there a year ago.

Never had a problem with getting stuff stolen from the pickup. We just never left anything of value in the pu, just flip flops and old shirts.

You can get the maps at any dive shop of all the shore dives, and a brief description. For free. Go explore. Have fun.

A day trip to the east side is fun break from diving, just to see.

A trip north to the park should also be on your list.

We used Dive Friends and their string of shops were lots of help, good people. And, I felt safe leaving gear in their lockers.
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Perfect, thanks for the info! I saw the park to the north and wasn't sure if it was for conservation or if it was worth going to see. I assume there's no diving on the east side of the island?
 
Henning said:
If you want to take a "dive vacation" do it on a liveaboard boat, if you want a mixed tropical vacation do it on an island. You'll enjoy Bonaire fine.
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There's a little history of seasickness on a cruise ship and an inability to be in close quarters with more than a person or two (public transportation is NOT an option) for at least one in our party. I'd like to do a liveaboard at some point, though. We actually looked for an "intro" liveaboard (just 2-3 days) to see if we could make that work for the "difficult" person, but could only find one week minimums on them.
 
mjburian said:
There's a little history of seasickness on a cruise ship and an inability to be in close quarters with more than a person or two (public transportation is NOT an option) for at least one in our party. I'd like to do a liveaboard at some point, though. We actually looked for an "intro" liveaboard (just 2-3 days) to see if we could make that work for the "difficult" person, but could only find one week minimums on them.
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You can do a private charter for 2-3 days in the Bahamas for not too much, and there is some magnificent diving there. My favorite reef/wall dive is there with an irridescent reef at 30' going down a ski jump to another reef at 100', then down into the abyss. If you bounce to darkness and look up you can see all the big pelagics in silhouette, really cool view.
 
Henning said:
You can do a private charter for 2-3 days in the Bahamas for not too much, and there is some magnificent diving there. My favorite reef/wall dive is there with an irridescent reef at 30' going down a ski jump to another reef at 100', then down into the abyss. If you bounce to darkness and look up you can see all the big pelagics in silhouette, really cool view.
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That sounds pretty awesome. Definitely something we'll keep in mind for our next trip. Do you have any contacts/resources for the 2-3 day charters in the Bahamas? I swear we spent a couple of days looking online and making calls, but couldn't seem to find anything less than a week.
 
mjburian said:
That sounds pretty awesome. Definitely something we'll keep in mind for our next trip. Do you have any contacts/resources for the 2-3 day charters in the Bahamas? I swear we spent a couple of days looking online and making calls, but couldn't seem to find anything less than a week.
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It would be with a private charter company/owner-operator, not Hughes or Aggressor type.
 
Henning said:
I never thought the ABC diving was all that great, but the safety rules are the same as anywhere.
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Hmmmm.... A SCUBA dive trip with you in the mix of people.... That might be an interesting and fun time.

Any possibility with you finding a decent live-aboard boat, divemaster, place to go, equipment rental, crew/logistics, and then setting up a 5-7 day excursion for those amongst us who'd like such an adventure?
 
AggieMike88 said:
Hmmmm.... A SCUBA dive trip with you in the mix of people.... That might be an interesting and fun time.

Any possibility with you finding a decent live-aboard boat, divemaster, place to go, equipment rental, crew/logistics, and then setting up a 5-7 day excursion for those amongst us who'd like such an adventure?
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Yeah, potential exists, need to know how many though and what people want to spend.
 
Henning said:
Yeah, potential exists, need to know how many though and what people want to spend.
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Last trip I did was back in 2010 to Cayman Brac (Reef Divers?). I think the resort, food, diving, drinks total was about $1500-ish for 8 nights 7 days. I had brought my own equipment short of tanks and weights.

I'd need to rent nearly all but mask and fins today.

So something along that line, scaled up a smidge for economy.
 
Thanks again for all of the info, guys. We had a blast there last week and are already looking forward to the next time we can get away for some diving (liveaboards were mentioned quite a bit during this trip). All four of us made all 20 planned dives (6 boat dives, 14 shore dives) and we even had some time/energy left to do a little sightseeing, have a few drinks and get some relaxation in throughout the week.
 
Buddy's Dive Resort is barebones but more than adequate. The dive sites are marked by numbers along the coast roads and the map from the resort is good. I have my photos that include the resort photos here; http://clarityphotos.smugmug.com/Travel/Caribbean/Bonaire-1
You will need to take a short class about protecting the reefs that will take only an hour. Each day you decide where you want to go, load your tanks in the jeep type vehicle and you should be able to do 4 dives per day plus morning and evening dives right out the back door of the resort. Downtown is a nice place to degass and do not forget to get to a grocery store. You can purchase wheels of Dutch cheese. The restaurant food is good and the dive masters and staff are very friendly. Enjoy.
 
winrose46 said:
Buddy's Dive Resort is barebones but more than adequate. The dive sites are marked by numbers along the coast roads and the map from the resort is good. I have my photos that include the resort photos here; http://clarityphotos.smugmug.com/Travel/Caribbean/Bonaire-1
You will need to take a short class about protecting the reefs that will take only an hour. Each day you decide where you want to go, load your tanks in the jeep type vehicle and you should be able to do 4 dives per day plus morning and evening dives right out the back door of the resort. Downtown is a nice place to degass and do not forget to get to a grocery store. You can purchase wheels of Dutch cheese. The restaurant food is good and the dive masters and staff are very friendly. Enjoy.
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Haha. Thanks for the info, that's actually where we went (Buddy Dive). See in the post above yours that we had a great time there last week. Great photos, thanks for sharing!
 
If you're ever in Texas, there are a few operators that do 2-3 day liveaboard trips to the Flower Gardens for a reasonable price. I've never been but I hear it's a nice trip.
 
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