Bonaire, Cayman or Turks and Caicos - Need help

I haven't been to any of the 3 spots above and from my research they are the top destinations in the greater Caribbean and Bahamas area.

I am planning a dive trip with my brother in November who will be flying from Brazil, and I am in California. Bonaire seems to be a little bit more difficult for me to get to, having to fly to Miami and then to Bonaire. So it will cost more as far as airfare, but will it cost less once I am there since most dives are shore dives and many hotels packages include boat dives?

It would be great to get your feedback as to which of the 3 destinations have more marine life, better visibility, but also how is the cost once there. Trip will be over thanksgiving break.

I have been diving in Maui, Oahu, Big Island, Yucatan peninsula, Cabo, Great Barrier Reef, California coast and Brazil's coast. Not sure how those 3 spots compare to any of the places I have been before. From california it would be much easier to go to Hawaii or Cabo, but I have always been curious about these 3 spots.

Any feedback will be much appreciated.

Thanks

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No feedback? :crying2:

My vote is turks and caicos. So much so that I go there every year at least once a year. Costs are similar to the Caymans but the islands are just a little more laid back. That being said I don't think you would be disappointed at any of the three destinations you mention.

If you can score reasonable air fare....try Fiji. Other than air fare you can get some real deals if you know where to look and the diving is fantastic.

I've been to all three. I'm kind of short on time so I'll just make a few comments. Search my posts, I've commented on my trips to all extensively in the past. Feel free to PM also.

Also look at both the Cayman Islands and ABC islands sub-forums if you haven't already.

Grand Cayman/Turks&Caicos are pristine, clear deep wall diving. Like you'd see off Lanai but with a lot more coral substrate. Lots of fish, turtles, rays, larger pelagics. Sharks off Turks/Caicos often also. They're also both really expensive to stay/dive/eat. Cayman Islands | Caribbean Vacation Packages, Honeymoon Caribbean has all the options. You can offset some of the cost by shorediving on Grand Cayman Scuba Shore Diving Site Listing for: Cayman Islands, Caribbean but in the Turks/Caicos you typically either base on Providenciales (Provo) and boat dive - no shore diving there - or move to the much smaller Grand Turk where there's an accessible wall - and the cruise port. The best diving off Provo is West Caicos and French Cay - both about 45mins. by dayboat. So 2-3 dives on-site is all you'll probably manage. This is a liveaboard trip report but it gives you a good idea of what to expect there: Saudio's Trip Reports - thanks to Mike Southard.

From Phoenix we were able to get to Provo by 1PM on USAirways - Grand Cayman was closer to 7PM.

Bonaire is all about small stuff. The biggest thing you'll see there is tarpon and turtles. Seahorses, Scorpionfish, lots of eels, squid are pretty common. It's all shore diving - but the entries can be rough over coral rubble/ironshore both just on and off shore. Water is equally clear as the whole island is surrounded by a marine park and there's no river run-off. Examples in the site listings here: Scuba Shore Diving Region: ABC Islands Most of the dive resorts bundle truck/room/some boat dives or offer a discounted shore package. Personally I would buy the shore package and alacarte a few boat dives - 4-6 should cover the best of what's not shore accessible. Info Bonaire - The Bonaire Information Site - The Most Current and Up-To-Date Information is a good resource.

You might look hard ar Curacao also. It's the same diving as Bonaire but a larger, more populated island. So more to do. Entries are easier - most off the beach or a dive dock over the ironshore. Most also have an on-site operator/snack shop - the only place you'll see that on Bonaire is at the dive resorts. There are no facilities of any kind at most of the Bonaire shore dive sites. Curacao should be easier for you to get to also - from here - leaving Phoenix at 5AM = I can get there by 2PM thru IAH - to Bonaire it was closer to 9PM. And that flight (thru San Juan) doesn't exist anymore. If you still wanted to do Bonaire - there's a red-eye from IAH on Friday night - arrives around 5-6AM. I think your brother can get to Curacao easier also - probably thru Venezuela. Curacao Travel- Caribbean, Curacao, Dutch Caribbean

Food was high on Bonaire since it's all brought in. Cheaper on Curacao since they're the deepwater container port for the region. Also they have the U.S. chains, McDonalds, Pizza Hut etc. up to fine dining. Even a Denny's we ate breakfast there. My group rented condos and cooked some meals also, there are many more markets there than Bonaire.

I have been to Little Cayman. There the dives can be wall dives or shallow reef dives. I regularly see reef sharks, nurse sharks, turtles, sting rays, eagle rays, large nassau grouper there. The reef condition is usually pretty good. The visibility is usually at or above 100' and the water is warm with about no current. Little Cayman has virtually no night life, shopping or anything like that. It is diving, fishing, bird watching or nothing. Grand Cayman has a large population and quite a few diversions.

I have been to Salt Cay and South Caicos in the Turks and Caicos. Now, the wall diving at South Caicos is very good. There are numerous schooling reef sharks at the wall and eagle rays. You will also see quite a few small critters. The marine sanctuary is fished so the larger fish are pretty much absent. I don't even know if South Caicos currently has a dive operation. By the way, South Caicos has virtually no tourist accomodations. I understand that Grand Turk has good wall diving and the sites are very close to the dive operations (as is the case in Salt Cay and South Caicos). Outside of the diving, Salt Cay is a hoot to go to. The population of the island is about 70. The people are quite friendly. In a week of staying there, I think I met and had conversations with over half of the local population.

How would you compare Grand Cayman with Turks and Caicos in terms of dive costs and surface costs such as good and lodging?

Thanks

Here are my thoughts on the three based on what I know about them, having only dove on the Cayman sister islands out of the 3 you asked about. It really comes down to what type of diving you want to do, what kind of vacation you want, and what you want to see, because all three places offer something very different.

Bonaire - The place to go if you want self-service diving. You can dive as much as you want, whenever you want...BUT...you will carry your own gear everywhere to do it, you will clean your own gear every day, you can't leave anything in your truck while diving or risk having it stolen, and most resorts/hotels are not all inclusive so you will end up going out for most meals or paying ala carte at the hotel restaurant. The diving is mostly very shallow, macro critter intensive diving. Seeing anything big like sharks, rays, dolphins, etc. is pretty unlikely. There are nightlife and beaches and shopping available if you want your vacation to include that (or if you have a non-diver).

Turks and Caicos - What you get here largely depends on which island you stay on. Grand Turk has cruise ships now, so you can get all the things pod people like...nightlife, shopping, tours, etc. The beaches in T&C are arguably the best in the Caribbean/Bahamas region. The diving is mostly wall dives and will be deeper and shorter. Water temps in winter will be slightly cooler than the Caribbean. You are more likely to see sharks, dolphins, and other big critters here, but as was said above, because they do fish more on the reefs, you won't see big schools of reef fish, and due to depth, you probably won't spend as much time macro hunting if that is your thing. The dining is again mostly off-site and can be very expensive even for normal every day meals. I assume you can dive from shore, but it would be small patch coral, not the actual reef, and the wall is not generally accessible from the shore. Vacation-wise, it is a very laid back place, but you will still have to go pay for meals and might have to be shuttled to your dive op depending on where you stay.

Grand Cayman - Very similar to T&C, but there is more shore diving readily available, so it is kind of a blend of T&C and Bonaire. You can dive with a dive op or shore dive, and can reach the wall from shore at a number of locations. The wall tops will be shallower and the dives can be longer as a result if you stay shallower. The vis is outstanding most of the time and there is a nice mix of opportunities to see larger critters and macro. There are also unique attractions like the Kittiwake and wrecks like the Oro Verde if you are into that. There is all kinds of nightlife and good beaches as well. Food can be expensive, but there are some cheaper options if you know where to look. It is still an island, so food is always expensive, but it doesn't have to be exhorbitant. You can go the dive til you drop route here or the laid back relaxed route if you want.

Cayman Sister Islands (Little Cayman and Cayman Brac) - I list these separately because they are a very different place than Grand Cayman. To start with, pretty much all the resorts are all inclusive. You can get non-inclusive packages, but there are only a couple of outside restaurants, so not much choice and not cheap either. The diving here is better than on Grand Cayman, and is a very nice combination of shallow wall tops, shallow sandy areas, sheer walls, and protected marine life. So you will see rays, eels, tons of turtles, a few sharks, enormous friendly groupers that like to be petted, as well as tons of macro life. With the walls starting as shallow as 20-30 feet at some sites, you can get long dives and do a wall and a shallwo dive in the same dive. There is no nightlife to speak of, and the beaches at most of the resorts are not great for wading or snorkeling, so if that is what you need, go elsewhere. A vacation to the sister islands is about diving and relaxing. All of the resorts have great food, and most of them do "valet diving" where you setup your gear once and they handle it and rinse it for the rest of the trip. So in terms of level of effort, it is the easiest diving you will ever do...no currents, shallow depths, excellent visibility, and valet service.

As you can see, I am partial to the sister islands, particularly Little Cayman, but I think each place you asked about has something different to offer, so you need to figure out which things are important to you and what kind of diving you prefer, and the choice will become pretty easy after that.

I've been to Cayman Brac and Turks & Caicos, and will be hitting Bonaire this November. Cayman Brac and T&C both have terrific diving. If I had to chose one to return to, it would probably be T&C, as I love the big stuff, and we had reef sharks, nurse sharks, eagle rays, and/or turtles on every single dive. Beautiful walls, too. If you're considering T&C and can swing the cost, I'd highly recommend a liveaboard, as the best sites are 45 minutes away from Provo (French Cay, West Caicos). I dove with Explorer Ventures and highly recommend them, but have read good things about the Agggressor boat, too. Both seem to run specials with some regularity.

On Cayman Brac I stayed at Brac Reef Beach Resort. Also highly recommended. I haven't been to the sister resort, Little Cayman Beach Resort, but will get there one day, as the one of the dives we did at Little Cayman was the best dive of the trip (Little Cayman and Brac are only 7 miles apart, so you typically visit the other island once during a week-long stay).

Haven't been to Bonaire yet, but based on my experience booking my upcoming trip, it is quite a bit cheaper than the other two options.

James

divebrasil:

How would you compare Grand Cayman with Turks and Caicos in terms of dive costs and surface costs such as good and lodging?
Thanks

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Very comparable.

On Grand Cayman everything is expensive. Most dive operators do 2 dives for $100 +/-. But there's about a dozen decent shore dives - at most there's an onsite operator so you rent tanks from them for a nominal fee - none of them let you remove tanks from the premises. There's actually so few well-known shore dive sites outside of the resorts that it's hard to rent tanks to take off-site, the only two places I know of that you can are Eden Rock and Divers Direct.

To save a little look for a condo off the beach. Sometimes I've seen good deals on vrbo.com - usually in the NW Point area. Several have shore dives off their property at good sites also. Not a lot else nearby though so you'd likely want a car in that area also.

There's two semi-AI's - Cobalt Coast and Sunset House. Both aren't exactly inexpensive but do bundle accommodations/diving and IIRC breakfast. They also have meal plan options. For Cobalt Coast you'd want a car, it's on the north wall and not near much of anything. From Sunset House you could walk to south Georgetown. One thing that makes Cayman so expensive is the CI$ is fixed at .80 to the U.S.$. A good meal was in the $40 range with drinks. There are less expensive options on Cayman also besides cooking - some of the U.S. chains are there - Burger King, Subway, Dominos, there's a Hard Rock downtown. Some of these restaurants have menus on their websites. Grand Cayman Islands Restaurants Guide

I only spent 2 days on Provo (Providenciales) before and after a liveaboard but it seemed pretty upscale. (Gucci store next to the Rolex store) A couple of the crew told us they don't even have a place there because it was too pricey - and they're gone most of the year anyway. Grace Bay is one of the nicest beaches in the world and priced accordingly. I don't know local dive prices there. Caicos Adventures is often mentioned here as a good option.

One of the best deals on either is Comfort Suites. On Cayman it's on the opposite side of the road from Seven Mile beach and they have compact kitchens if you want to cook to save money. Ambassador Divers is on-site - they're often recommended here also. To save a little money try to schedule your boat dives back to back on some days then rent a car from Andy's when you need it. They have an office on south SMB and one at the airport. And they'll pick you up with short notice. If not, SMB is actually only 5-3/4 miles long and Andy's is near the south end - so a short cab ride. There's even a local bus (vans) that run up and down SMB all day.

I've never been there but I understand Comfort Suites is set back from the beach on Grace Bay - and walking distance to one of the larger shopping areas. If it's where I think it is, there's many dining options nearby also. So that might be an option for Provo.

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AggieDiver:

Provo has cruise ships now, so you can get all the things pod people like...nightlife, shopping, tours, etc.

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Really? Besides Grand Turk, they're calling in Provo now also?

I don't think your can make a bad choice. I have been to all three, Bonaire more than the others. I would put them in this order based upon my experience, factoring in cost, dive conditions, and personal preference: Cayman; Turks: Bonaire. But all are excellent dive destinations. Throw a dart at a map, if you like. You'll still end up with a great dive destination.
DivemasterDennis