Planning a trip in 2010 family(2y/o, and 13 y/o diver. How jr-open water friendly are the dives? How about safety topside? loved bonaire but would like to try roatan.
You should try Roatan, among other destinations.
I found
what little current there was on Bonaire to be slightly more prevalent than anything on Roatan, really a non issue on Roatan. There are certain places on Roatan, most notable the "Shark Dive", of which current warnings and precautions are obvious.
Bonaire's
shore dives easily qualify as an "advanced diving skill" as entries are made on uneven "ground" (broken rip-rap coral) and often some wave action to contend with... tougher when you are shorter! Most all dives on Roatan are boat dives, the exception being CCV; BIBR; FIBR; RHR which do have legit shore dives (in descending order of actual usage by divers)
AKR as mentioned above, is extremely "kid friendly"- they go out of their way to invite families and offer any number of
non-dive activities to entertain the youngsters.
Contrary to popular belief, CCV (photo) welcomes young
divers, IF they are well behaved and absolutely centered on a dive experience above all else, they fit right in and are generally welcomed by all. It's a pretty high level of maturity for some kids, but expectable from a 13 yo.
If you are looking for diving every day, looking for more than 2 dives on any given day, an AI resort makes sense monetarily as well as in terms of hours-in-a-day budgeting. Guest Houses and ala carte dive ops might make better sense if you don't need that kind of frequency.
On Bonaire, you may well have been used to an op that offered a two tank boat dive in the morning and then let you off to go shore diving by rental car in the afternoon.
On Roatan, it works a bit differently. You might go that above mentioned guest house ala-carte route, selecting on or two trips on single tank boat dives spread out up to four times during a day. Pure convenience- pick your dive time, it's just very hard to make two boat trips in succession- so spread them out, say- one at 0900 and another at 1300 (If they offer runs at 9, 11, 1, and 3, for instance).
That way, using a typical West End Dive Op, you can do a bit of diving and some sitting on the beach. AKR (BIBR, IoLR) is near enough to this West End zone to also enjoy easy daily access to other Roatan topside diversions. (Horseback riding, jungle canopy tube, etc).
It all depends on what you want out of it- a dive vacation or a vacation with some diving.
Safety? In the AI resorts, it is a
non-issue. On the wild party scene of the West End... how much trouble can a 13 year old get into?
Not much. Just tell them to stay on the main drag and
be as smart as they are back home. It's not exactly a den of sin and drunken debauchery,
but for the motivated adult, it can be.
When you talk about "safety topside", it leaves the true question you are asking open to a lot of interpretation. If you are talking about medical support service, it is absolutely non-existent. You're much better off with health concerns on Cayman, Nassau, Grand Bahama, Bonaire, Jamaica (about in that order) with the Bay Islands in the bottom 10%. Many people don't see this as a viable category for selecting an island, some feel mentioning it is an intrusion on their right to chose. On the contrary- all information is valuable for your consideration- you must then decide.
If you are looking for babysitting for the 2yo, this can easily be arranged- many resorts keep someone on call for this. there's a lot of Grandmothers down there that will spoil your kid rotten.
A 13 year old should be just fine without supervision. Any younger than that, they will likely be adopted as a weekly mascot by one of the local shops. :blinking:
^^^^^^^^ This lucky guy and his dad saw a Hammerhead on a drop-off Shore Dive at CCV in April 2009 ^^^^^^^^