Bonaire vs. Roatan

[drrich2]

By the way, Curacao has a reputation for the coastal road being further inland, requiring turn offs to get to dive sites, and taking longer to get between dive sites than Bonaire. More sites have onsite business operations, so people may rent tanks onsite at those, and have amenities available vs. Bonaire's rustic approach (though a few dive sites have food truck setups now). Whether the Curacao sites with amenities have anything much to keep non-divers happy I don't know. Someone shore diving Curacao might opt to do a couple of dives at a site (say, head one direction and back, then the other on the next dive), whereas in Bonaire one might drive 5 minutes up the road and dive a 2nd site.

In a nutshell, I think Bonaire may be logistically simpler, but Curacao has some potential advantages. From other reports, I've seen it claimed Curacao tends to have easier entry/exits (more sandy beaches) at the cost of longer swim outs at times.

If you consider Curacao to entertain non-divers with civilized delights, I doubt you'll stay in the Westpunt area, probably something around Willemstad.

A bigger place with more options tends to involve more complex trip planning. Eye-balling it on a map, Bonaire looks roughly 2/3rds the size of Curacao.

P.S.: You mentioned the Caymans as a possible option. With 2 non-divers in tow, assuming we're talking about the common 7-day trip, I suspect you'll be looking at Grand Cayman (a cruise port with topside offerings) rather than Little Cayman or Cayman Brac, and somewhere in or in the vicinity of the 7 Mile Beach/Georgetown region (as opposed to the east end of Grand Cayman). Nearly all my Caymans diving was via liveaboard; you'll find a number of trip reports. When I checked in the past, Comfort Suites and Sunshine Suites Resort were reported as good budget options. If you've got a more liberal budget, or want onsite shore diving, you might want something else.

 

[Jake 10]

We are in the same situation, so we planned on diving Bonaire late June - early July 2023 and DW does not dive. 2xDS and I will be diving, DW will snorkel.

 

[Doc]

Favorite shore dive sites on Bonaire, Curacao, and Roatan.
View attachment 772425
Karpata-BonaireView attachment 772427
Playa Porto Marie-Curacao







Non Existent-Roatan

Non existent-Roatan?

Umm, not quite…

 

[The Chairman]

Just do both. Problem solved!

 

[arew+4]

For me non existent because I never stayed at coco view.

Do they allow non guests to use the entry?

 

[The Chairman]

Do they allow non guests to use the entry?

I've always wondered that. It is available by boat.

 

[Doc]

For me non existent because I never stayed at coco view.

Do they allow non guests to use the entry?

No non-guest access, no cruise ship, no. CCV tried that a few years back, but didn’t like the impact on the weeklong guests. They even turned down a reality show that would have been a 4 month buy-out. It’s a dive resort. Nothing more, nothing less.

CCV is a very unique property in that the only access from the main of Roatan to it’s 13 acre key is by resort’s shuttle boat. When you’re on ‘the rock’ (as it is called) your only companions are staff and guests, no unidentified others.

This is a big plus for me. They give you keys for your room, very few divers lock their doors. I leave my SLR & IPad plopped on my favorite dining room table, there it sits. My dive computer, and Ball Trieste watch sits on my porch, there it remains. I like to leave my housed camera outside to avoid condensation. In 39 years, since 1984, never ever had a problem. I have seen island changes, i like the isolation of ‘the rock’.

The shore dive is two vertical walls that are the closest off of any resort. We dive these walls 3x a day (and 2/47) including that night shore dive. Some non-guests get a glimpse of this by mooring at the just-offshore placed Prince Albert, a 140’ upright tanker placed wreck, siting upright in 55’ of sand. Not many day-dive ops will take you there. I have spent 1.75hr BTs just at this structure… as a shore dive.

There is a possibility of getting shore access by using Fantasy Island‘s dive services. Even though the FIR hotel and F&B operation has just simply hit rock bottom, I see no reason to not use their dive op and slightly less inviting shore dive access to the aforementioned wreck. Some arrangements to be made, but worthwhile.

On Roatan, the only other shore dive access is by AKR (West/NW) and of limited restricted hours of access. It is not the same by any stretch of imagination, very few do it, likely not more than once. Reef House has an access (far East end, South side) but is most often difficult use due to wave action.

Not a big fan of shore dives anywhere else (Bonaire can be rocky, but worthwhile) …. CCV is an easy walk out on sand, gear up at a wooden platform, paddle 3 minutes and you’re in a diver’s playground.

Yes, I am a fanboy, but I have been diving with most any relevant dive op on Roatan.

 

[Lorenzoid]

@Doc covered everything!

I would distill the decision down to this: How strongly are you attracted to the idea of diving the Bonaire way, where, entirely on your own schedule, you drive a rented pickup truck (with tank racks) to any of the dozens of well-marked sites up and down the coast road and do a dive, have a surface interval, and repeat, or not--you are 100% in charge of your decision what to do next. This is unique in the Caribbean. I like it, but I have some friends who like it even more--would rather not dive anywhere they had to conform to a boat schedule. If diving the Bonaire way isn't a huge draw for you, and you are fine with traditional dive resorts, mostly boat diving, then flip a coin; both Bonaire and Roatan are great. You can do boat dives on Bonaire, too,

 

[Brett Hatch]

I'll just say that I've been to Bonaire before, and have vague plans to go again this year. Being from Monterey, I love shore diving, and the "Bonaire way" as Lorenzoid calls it. After reading this thread, I kind of want to give Roatan a stab this time around, so I might try to nudge my little dive group into heading down to Roatan next time, and see how we like it.

The last time we considered Roatan, Anthony Key was the main point of comparison, and we shot it down due to a high price and, I dunno how else to say it besides "very all-inclusive-y vibes". It seems like a stationary cruise ship. CoCoView's quirky hybrid has some qualities of an an all-inclusive resort, some qualities of a LOB yacht, and and some qualities of a DIY shore diving location like Buddy Dive in Bonaire, for comparable cost.

For the OP, though, I will say that Bonaire does have some cool stuff for non-divers. I went with a group of 4 divers and 0 non-divers, but one of us got an ear infection right before the trip. S***! Disaster! But, it ends up that there were fun things for him to do for half the week until his ears cleared up, and we did some of them together. He spent a couple days learning windsurfing on the south side (it's world-class, apparently). We also all went on a little detour to Lac Bay on the SE side, where we spent a couple of hours kayaking and snorkeling in the mangrove forest. If you're going to go to Bonaire, carve out an afternoon for the mangroves, it was the coolest non-diving activity I did, and one of my most memorable experiences on the island.

Cheers

 

[arew+4]

There are other options on Roatan, my wife an I did Anthony's back in the 90s. Like you said all inclusive grounded cruise ship kind of thing has it's charms, but overall not for us. When we took our the kids there in 2018 we rented a VRBO in Sandy Bay, and dove with a smaller shop. Because there are five of us and we were diving 2-3 times a day for 9 days, I was able to get a really good per tank price. Rented a van thru the VRBO. All in all a little more work, but a broader and deeper experience of the island. It was good for our kids to see how a large portion of the world lives, armed guards clutching shotguns, and ARs at Atms and grocery stores was a bit of a shock for them. They also meet quite a few very happy people living with a lot less than they could imagine.