Bonaire vs. Grand Cayman

Does anyone have any suggestions of where you would rather go - Bonaire or Grand Cayman?

We haven't been to either, and I'm sure both will be awesome, but I just wanted to get some feedback, from people who have been to either or both.

Bonaire's shore dives vs Cayman's drop-offs and Stingray City?

Thanks everyone ...

Having been to both islands multiple trips, I would have to say I prefer Bonaire a little.

Bonaire is a little harder to get to and has less night life (it does have 2 casinos) but is generally a lot cheaper especially for longer trips. We can rent an apartment for around $50 a night on Bonaire that would run $150 to $200 a night on Cayman. Food, drinking and diving are all much less on Bonaire where you can get unlimited tanks and weights for a week for about $100.

Both have first world infrastructure, potable tap water and are extremely safe. Grand Cayman has all the conveniences of the USA including cheap public transportation, but does have some of the downsides like traffic jams on the West Bay road and gets cruise ships in port seemingly every day.

Grand Cayman has very good wall diving and plenty of good shore diving, but the dive operators are not configured for the 24/7 convenience of picking up tanks anytime that Bonaire operators have adopted. The charm of Bonaire is that there are many fewer people on the island and it still has a frontier feel to it (I think it's all the cacti and the wild donkeys)

Bonaire and Grand Cayman get the same number of cruise ships**.


**Bonaire gets the same number of cruise ships per year as the Cayman's has dock in ONE DAY. If you REALLY want to dive Bonaire is the only choice.

If you want to be on an island that can support 35,000 cruise ship passengers PER DAY and has all the fast food, cheap tourist shops, and overdove and destroyed reefs that you can only find in a few overpopulated areas - - then you want to look at Grand Cayman.

Been to both in the last three years and I would not even rate Bonaire in any catagory expect in their cheaper rooms (if you just what a bed) and shore diving (4 out of 10), Grand Cayman shoredive 10 of 10. Grand Cayman has so much more to offer above (Land attractions, movie theaters, restrurants and etc.). The reefs and marine life is the best on Grand Cayman's Northwall.

We really enjoyed Cobalt Coast Resort (newly built) and their on site dive operator DiveTech. All the research and reports were right on. They were the best and espically the staff. The dive boats were big with small groups and their 24 hours shordiving policy was a blast. Have to do their West Bay Express trip, 1.2 miles, one way on a underwater scooter with guide; experience of a life time.

Never had a problem with cruise ships in Grand Cayman because Cobalt Coast Resort is miles away from it all. Off the beaten path.

This is interesting because this is the exact choice I am down to for our next trip.

Currently I am leaning towards Bonaire (we prefer shore diving) but I REALLY want to make that 1,000' manned sub dive in GC.

Can you please be a bit more specific as to why you prefer the GC shore diving to Bonaire?

Thanks

Grajan once bubbled...
I REALLY want to make that 1,000' manned sub dive in GC.
Thanks

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Hi Grajan,
We've taken that deep dive, and it was awesome, the sponge belt starts around the 4 to 3 hundred foot level.
The wreck is way cool too. It's a totally different kind of dive, very enjoyable.

We have done both places multiple times. The shore diving can't be beat on Bonaire, but the walls on GC (especially the north) can't be matched on Bonaire. I agree there is more to do in GC, and last time in Bonaire the cruise ships were a real turn-off. The food is cheaper in Bonaire, but the beach is alot nicer in GC.
What's better, a peach or a pear? There are alot of differences between your two choices..but you can't lose.

Dive Safe,
Caymaniac

Bonaire is nice, the shore diving is easy, and it's a good place to get away from it all. But I've found the diving looks mostly the same after a bit. Much as I like little critters, I also like variety and "views." There's some areas that have a a little different UW scenery and and topography, but they're not the ones some boats seem to frequent. I've stayed at Sand Dollar once and Captain Don's a few times. Also haven't seen much of a selection of good food/restaurants, but I haven't been there in quite a few years and I keep reading that it's better.

I think GC has more variety in the diving, and it's easier and cheaper to get to. (Of course you can easily spend all those saving once you get there!) More civilization, for better or worse. I've usually not been too impressed by dives on the West, often very crowded, kicked up, or overdived sites. But North/East/South are great. It's harder to get to all the different diving on GC, certainly not from one place, and have it be convienient too - there's no really nice place to stay, with nice boats, where I can walk out of my room and get on a boat (or at least van) to wherever, or jump right in the water and have a good shore dive. (Yeah, I know, I want everything.)

We liked Cobalt Coast a lot, and were pretty happy with Dive Tech. Lovely place, away from everything, yet not too far to drive to shop, eat, whatever when you were in the mood. One problem was that it was rough when we were there (April 02?) so we were never able to shore dive from Cobalt Coast and had to drive to the Turtle farm shop all the time for shore diving. They advertise the facilities at Cobalt Coast, but don't go out of their way to mention they might get blown out alot. I did figure that was a possibility on the North wall, but had hoped April was late enough - oh well. We got driven to various locations every day to get on the boat, and most of the boat dives were to the west, again because it was rough. Hauled gear all over the place that week. From what I saw, I do think Dive Tech was a bit too conservative on declaring the North wall too rough all the days they did; they were catering to the least experienced people. One of the DMs admitted this to us. I might try there again at a time when there's better odds of it being calmer, maybe split the trip and try OF on East end.

Yes, the weather can come into play, but that is one of the reasons that makes the Northwall so heathly. DiveTech say they are North when ever possible, which is about 260 days a year to the Northwall. This comes from 7 year of tracking.

The East End does not have any shore diving access.

kevink once bubbled...
If you want to be on an island that can support 35,000 cruise ship passengers PER DAY and has all the fast food, cheap tourist shops, and overdove and destroyed reefs that you can only find in a few overpopulated areas - - then you want to look at Grand Cayman.

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35,000? Only in McKeeva's dreams. In reality, on the rarest of exceedingly busy days GC can get up to 8 ships in harbor. At an exceedingly generous estimate, suppose 2,500 persons per ship. That would make 20,000 on the absolute worst day. A more realistic estimate is 8,000-12,000 per day on the days with ships in port. And all summer long there are no ships in on any Friday, Saturday, or Sunday.

Grand Cayman is a busy cruise ship destination, but in 15 months of living and working as a dive instructor I have been diving with precisely zero, zip, nada, zilch, cero cruise ship passengers. Just dive East End - the cruise shippers don't usually venture that far from port.