Hi, I'm planning to come to Bonaire in May and would be grateful for any advice on the following:

Should I book accomm and a diving package before i arrive or check it out once there (I have 1-2 weeks)?

Any recommendations on good dive operators? - I'm experienced (cert since '95, Deep diver qual, have dived over 100 dives, love walls ... -would prefer to dive with experienced divers, a small group)

What should I pay for a package" and single dives? (need wettie, weights and tank)

Are there any really good accom and fdive packages - I love good food and am not averse to a little luxury but can rough it too

Advice graetly appreciated

Gina

Gina

Welcome to BT, I would recommend Capn Don's Habitat from my own experience. Other good Hotels with Diving would be Buddy Dive, Eden Beach and Harbour Village. I would book diving with the Hotel you choose dive packages including Tank and weights and weight should be around $20 to $25 per day for unlimited diving.

I would recommend buying a 3mm full wetsuit and hard soled booties for shore entries. Rental for a shorty wetsuit would be about $6 a day. Food is very good on Bonaire have look at the Dining section.

Hi Gina, welcome. If you're staying 2 weeks, I would purchase my own wet suit because by the time you paid $6 a day, the suit would be paid for. You'd know it was your size etc. I use an old waterskiing shortie (not really designed for diving but it works ok for me) and a skin in July, and am most comfortable.

Be prepared to love it!

Welcome to BT, Gina! I see you are from Australia. Wow! You just have to come for two weeks then for sure. LOL! You won't be disappointed. Most of all resorts on Bonaire have restaurants, dive shops, and good accommodations, that said, check out the following website: http://www.infobonaire.com/index.html and see what appeals to you and then post some questions about those you liked. Everyone here on BT has a favorite, so click away and let us know. I would definitely book your accommodations prior, the diving you can do when you get there, shore diving is super on Bonaire and you may want to do that or just do boat dives with the dive shop you choose or both. Pure diving freedom on Bonaire! Good luck in your search, let us know what you come up with! I have always wanted to go to Australia, just the jet lag, long trip always stopped me. Beautiful place.

Gina, welcome to BT! To help with accommodation requests:

1. Do you want to be on the water?
2. Do you want a kitchen?
3. Do you want a pool?
4. Do you want a restaurant on the property?

Most hotels have a dive shop on the property, or have one that delivers tanks to the hotel for the guests. All of the dive shops have VERY good reputations, so I wouldn't really worry about having to choose a dive op. Focus on the resort choices. There are a lot of options.

Again, welcome to BT!

gina, welcome to BT. as far as diving with experienced divers, you will find that there might be divers with all levels of experience on your boat. but the dive operators that i know allow you to do your own dive...you can either stay with the group and dive master or not. i've heard of places (not bonaire) where everyone goes in the water about the same time and groups together. then they all do the dive together until the first person hits' 1500#. at that point the entire group must turn back and as soon as the first diver is at 500# the whole bunch has to board the boat. this is not the case on bonaire. i've been on boat dives where the first divers were back out of the water in 30 minutes and i didn't surface for almost another hour and nobody cared.

also, most places will give you prices for dive packages (6 or 12 boat dives a week and unlimited shore diving) then figure the cost at the end of your trip...so you don't pay for 12 boat dives when you only did 10 for example.

while there are no real "luxury" accomodations on bonaire (harbor village is the only one that comes close) all are general nice and clean and comfortable. there is something for everybody.

enjoy your trip.

Definitely Capt Don's Habitat. I was there last June and had a GREAT time. The Staff are a great group of people - they treat you more like a good friend than a guest staying at the Hotel where they work. Don't be surprised if they invite you to join them for drinks in town. Like I said a Great place and great group of people. Will be heading back this June too!

Welcome Gina,
Cyn's questions will point you to the right place.
Answer her questions, sit back and read the the posted messages. You can't go wrong on Bonaire as far as diving goes. Few big walls here, but it's so easy.

Bought a wetsuit on Bonaire this trip. I had my old 3-mil with me but it's getting worn, torn and, well, a little tight. I had priced a new henderson hyperstretch at my local shop. Note, I live in NJ where the suit is made. Went in to the shop at Carib Inn to have a leaky hose checked and found the suit for $50 LESS than in NJ. Also $20 cheaper on the PC cable for my Suunto Cobra, and had the USB version my shop told me didn't exist. So if you are going to buy a suit, you may as well get it there.

In general shore diving packages work out if you average 2 dives a day or more. Dive shop at Belmar is 10 bucks a tank a la carte. Did our few boat dives with toucan, $35 for a 1-tank, $50 for a 2 tank.

We have dived with several operators on the island with no bad experiences. Hard to go wrong...this is the major industry on the island and with so many choices a sub-par operator won't last long. We've found some (BDA comes to mind) less friendly than others.

The other thing with regard to a package is that many shops will let you get the package after the fact if that works out cheaper. We've never pre-paid a package, but they always check when we check out at the end of the trip. For our last trip my wife and I got the package and my daughter did not, based on the tank tally our last day.

No true walls on Bonaire but some dramatic sites.

David

david, a few years ago my mask developed a small crack on my first dive of the trip. we were staying at carib inn at the time so i asked bruce to figure out why i had a leak. he found a minute crack in the frame and i bought a new mask. when i got home i mentioned to my LDS that i had just bought a new mask while on bonaire. he asked what i paid for it and then said that he was selling the same mask for $5 more at his shop. that's why i recommend the carib inn as the place to buy dive gear on bonaire...hey, you're on vacation, you're isolated on an island, you could get gouged...but you don't. you get great service and good, honest prices.

Pat,

Exactly my experience. My high pressure hose was leaking at the swivel joint with my Cobra. They took the fitting apart, cleaned it up, tested it, spent about 15 minutes, charged me 5 bucks. Of course I then spent about $300 in the store! Since I do 75% of my diving on Bonaire I now consider Bruce's shop to be my "local dive shop" and will buy equipment from them when possible. I'd have my gear maintained there too but that's not practical. Also sent a Bonaire 1st timer I was diving with there because he wanted a new computer. He priced it at several places on the Island, and bought it there.

David

Thanks a lot for all the advice! That's especially great to know about retrospective packages.

I'm getting more and more excited ....

No doubt I'll have more questions as it gets closer

King regards

Gina

Check out the Drive and Dive Special at Buddy Dive Resort.

Bruce at the Carib Inn is a great guy. Last trip my spare air was malfunctioning. Brought it in to him & he had it fixed within 24 hours & his repair charge was EXTREMELY reasonable. So much so that my wife felt he didn't charge enough so she continued to shop and buy some clothes!

vince, true shoppers have a way of rationalizing things like that, don't they.

Pat, LOL! I went to see Bruce about a new snorkel for my son, his wasn't working properly and I indeed walked out of there with these really cool Mare split fins for myself and some clothes, license plates ect. too! Oh, I did manage to purchase my son a better snorkel as well. I got a great deal on the fins too! I just love them!

Pat.. Yup, I agree..We can rationalize almost anything.There was an article I read recently (I think in Newsweek) & it explained that when shopping, the brain releases endorphins which in turn create a very pleasurable sensation. So to all shopaholics out there, just note your satisfaction is purely the result of operant conditioning (you know when rodents in a cage get a piece of cheese when they hit a button.. before long they will not stop hitting the button)generated by endorphins.

Since this is a Bruce love in, you may want to stay there as well. Most of the folks diving with him are experienced. His dive masters are very good and the prices on his rooms are extremely reasonable. My wife and I have stayed there 4 times, twice for two week stays, and have not been disappointed.

Our first stay there we had some plane issues and arrived extremely late. When we got there the key to our room was on the bulletin board with a note listing the opening time at the store in the morning and instructions on where the room was.

The only reason to stay anywhere else on the island is that you are tied to a time frame and the Carib Inn is booked.

Bruce and his staff are the best we have aver dealt with. The only bad point is no on site restaurant, but with Divi right next door and Richards Seafood Restaurant just up the street it isn't an issue. The walk over to Divi is less than the walk from the back of some places we have stayed to the restaurant.

The dive masters are extremely friendly and will do their best to point you to toward what you want to see and give you details on the dive sites.

There is also a little book at all of the diveshops listing the sites and describing them. Buy it.

we did stay with bruce a number of times...however, he and his staff were among the reasons we fell in love with bonaire and now we own a place of our own. we still dive thru carib inn tho.