I've been reading the message board over the last few days, and there seems to be a wealth of knowledge out there that I'm hoping some of you will be able to share with me. I have a trip booked to Bonaire with my husband at the end of September. We are staying at Divers Paradise and have a shore diving package with Toucan Divers. Any experience of either? I know that you have to do an orientation dive, is that so you get weight sorted out or does someone come in with you and watch to make sure you know what you're doing? Also is it advisable to prebook this dive or can you just turn up? Sorry if these questions seem a little mundane, but being a first timer we want to get it right! Hope someone can help, thanks in advance.

I wish I would have found this list before my third trip. This is the best source for information for any destination that I have found.

Divers Paradise looks nice. We stayed at Lagoen Hills and dived with Toucan. It looks like Divers Paradise and Lagoen Hills are somehow connected.

Toucan has their orientation every morning at 0900 at the dive shop at the Plaza resort. We got there a little early to submit the diving voucher and get the key to the dive shop at Lagoen Hills. My guess is that Toucan probably has a place for you to pick up tanks close to Divers Paradise.

After the orientation, you put your gear into one of Toucan's trucks and they take it down to the beach at the Plaza. You gear up there and walk down to the water and enter and do your dive. (18th Palm is the site) They did not send a divemaster or anyone else with us. They had extra weights on the truck so that you could fine tune.

If you dive with Toucan, you can get tanks for shore diving at several of their operations around the island. We found them to be very nice to deal with. We didn't do any boat dives with Toucan, we like the crew at Divi from previous stays, so we used them.

Divers Paradise is north of town in a really nice area. We drove past it on the way to some of my favorite dive sites, Andrea 1 & 2 and oil slick leap.

Try Rum Runners restaurant at Capt. Don's. We were surprised by the diversity of the menu. Prices were reasonable and the service was good and the sunsets were fantastic. (actually saw the green flash one evening)

Have a great time.

Welcome, Nicola and Jeff! You are right...you will not find a better place for help, information, fun and good people than on Bonaire Talk. I cannot help you out with your inquiries as my husband and I are snorklers and we stay at the Divi Flamingo Beach, but just hang in there for a little while and you will receive a wealth of information from many of our "regulars" on this wonderful site.

You will absolutely fall in love with Bonaire and all that she has to offer...and that is a lot! Good selection for a dive destination on your part. Your fun will really begin when you land at the airport. How long will you be staying on Bonaire?? Carole

We are staying for 2 weeks. We're coming from the UK so it's a long flight but I'm starting to get seriously excited! Looking forward to seeing loads of fish, I would love to see seahorses, where's the best place to try? Any larger sea critters lurking around anywhere?

Hi there nicola,

I stayed at Divers paradise in August and thought it was great. The prices are cheap-and the apartments are clean and well maintained. There is only air con in the bedroom, but with the doors open you get a good cross breeze- and there is a fan in the lounge. They have a coffee maker in the kitchen and a stove top with 4 gas rings(no oven or microwave) and a big fridge-freezer. I would advise to bring matches with you as there were non in our apartment(although we left a big pack if you end up in number 6!) and some mosquito coils or sticks. I got eaten quite badly- but they love my skin!!!

We were grouped with Buddy dive- so you might want to check with the operator whether it is still toucan divers. At the apartments there is a rinse tank and storage lockers- but it is just as easy to leave your gear at the reosrt.

The location is nice and quiet, and close enought to walk to Buddy resort and Captain Dons, so you can go and drink in their bar and not worry about driving.

If you have any other questions, you can message me- other wise, have a great time!!!
Jacqueline

Oh- and to answer your other questions- the orientation dive is done on your own- they give you the advice and leave you to sort your self out. You do not need to book this- just turn up at the dive resort at 9 am or 2 pm.
We failed to see seahorses, but saw turtles at the cliff and margate bay and so many fish we became almost complacent.
you will have a great time.

Hi Nicola, it's nice to have another Brit on the board. Where in the UK are you? We are pretty spread out araound the country. Are you flying from your local airport to Amsterdam? It takes a long time but it is worth it!

Hi Julia, thanks for the message. We live in Cheshire so we'll be flying from Manchester to Amsterdam and then on to Bonaire. We are flying with KLM are they ok? Do you know if weights provided are in kilos or pounds, just so we can work it out in advance.Any idea how "salty" the water is? we have dived the Red Sea, where we needed a lot more weight than we thought we were going to.

Nicola, the weights are in pounds, but if you tell them in kilos, they'll know how much you need. The water is pretty salty.

I like KLM, it's much better than the charter flights, but less than some US airliners.

Nicola, KLM are great but they are being very strict about the weight allowance at the moment. If you get your travel agent to ring them you can ask for an extra allowance for your dive gear. You need to know how much your BCD, regulator and dive skin weighs and tell them if it is in your luggage (safest) or a separate bag. If you don't ask and they are feeling mean they could charge you $20 a kilo! There is a bit of leeway but not much! e mail me direct if you need any more help!

Nicola,
Are you asking about saltiness because you're bringing your own weights? You really don't need to do that - you can get them from the dive shop - they're usually (always? - I should think so, but I'm not positive on that) included with the dive package.

Hi all, thanks for the messages. Susan, we do have weights included in our package, it's just that we wanted to have some idea of what we would need before we went in for our orientation dive. Thanks Julia for the info on KLM. I've been in touch with the travel agent and they are going to request an extra 10 kilos each for us, hopefully they'll agree.
Any other tips or advice? Any info gratefully received!

Nicola,
Just one point about KLM. We were out windsurfing in April. We arrived at the check in at 12:30am for the 2:30 am flight and were bumped to the mid-day flight the next day. Plus side was the 300EUR each compo subbed our trip this month (first diving trip -excellent). Having learned our lesson we checked at midnight for the return this time. A group of four after us were bumped. Both times we were groups of four so maybe less of a problem for a couple but worth considering. On the other hand if you don't need to rush back and plan to return to Bonaire(why not) it is cost effective to be less than prompt for check-in.
Have a great trip,
Ian