sujo
Registered
Would like to take a trip south to dive and looking at the ABC Islands ( Aruba, Bonaire and Curacuo). Which, in your opinion, would be the best to dive? Reefs, fish, accommodations, food, etc. Thanks
ABC Islands - which is the best for diving?
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Here's my subjective opinion.
Either Bonaire or Curacao. Having done both I'd lean towards Curacao. The underwater topography is much more interesting, the entries are much easier and there's a whole lot more to do topside. You'll also probably find it easier/less expensive to get to. Otoh there is something appealing about Bonaire - it's less commercialized and still has more of that smaller Caribbean island feel.
Both have a lot of the same diving, you'll see mostly the same fish at either. The reefs are almost identical (50 mi. apart) except that Curacao has the Mushroom Forest area which is unique to that island. A lot of Bonaire south of town is on a double reef. Actually although the Curacao Marine Park starts just east of downtown and goes east to the end of the island, I felt the western side dives were better. On Bonaire the whole island is the marine park to a depth of about 60? meters. And has been for decades.
One difference is that the dives on Curacao are mostly off the beach and just about all have on-site dive operators and usually some food option. On Bonaire once you leave the resorts in town, there are no facilities of any kind. And due to a small theft problem there you bring only what you need or don't care to lose. Curacao also has theft issues but twice the on-site operator told us (without being asked) that he'd watch our vehicles.
Bonaire entries are much more difficult also. Most are over ironshore and coral rubble. Both in and out of the water. It's almost like the reef starts 100 yds. further offshore on Curacao since at most we walked in off the beach and surface swam out to it. The few on ironshore had dive ladders. So do almost all the Bonaire dive resorts since all the north end resorts are on ironshore - except Harbour Village (not the best dive) or Eden Beach next to it.
On Bonaire there's about a dozen dedicated dive resorts on the water. On Curacao there's one. However almost every major hotel or beach resort also has an on-site dive operator. Most of Bonaire revolves around their core business - diving. So although there are some good restaurants, there's many more on Curacao. Plus beach bars, night clubs and casinos. Jazz seemed popular. Bonaire has one casino and one "night club" - Havana Cafe. Most people congregate at their resorts bars.
I haven't been to Aruba but from what I've read I don't think it's as good. Certainly much less shore diving there than either B or C. We never felt the need to go there since Bonaire and Curacao were the same distance. You will likely find it easier/cheaper to get to Curacao also. Many Bonaire bound flights stop there first.
Some links you may find useful
Curacao Travel- Caribbean, Curacao, Dutch Caribbean
Info Bonaire - The Bonaire Information Site - The Most Current and Up-To-Date Information
Scuba Shore Diving Region: ABC Islands
Either Bonaire or Curacao. Having done both I'd lean towards Curacao. The underwater topography is much more interesting, the entries are much easier and there's a whole lot more to do topside. You'll also probably find it easier/less expensive to get to. Otoh there is something appealing about Bonaire - it's less commercialized and still has more of that smaller Caribbean island feel.
Both have a lot of the same diving, you'll see mostly the same fish at either. The reefs are almost identical (50 mi. apart) except that Curacao has the Mushroom Forest area which is unique to that island. A lot of Bonaire south of town is on a double reef. Actually although the Curacao Marine Park starts just east of downtown and goes east to the end of the island, I felt the western side dives were better. On Bonaire the whole island is the marine park to a depth of about 60? meters. And has been for decades.
One difference is that the dives on Curacao are mostly off the beach and just about all have on-site dive operators and usually some food option. On Bonaire once you leave the resorts in town, there are no facilities of any kind. And due to a small theft problem there you bring only what you need or don't care to lose. Curacao also has theft issues but twice the on-site operator told us (without being asked) that he'd watch our vehicles.
Bonaire entries are much more difficult also. Most are over ironshore and coral rubble. Both in and out of the water. It's almost like the reef starts 100 yds. further offshore on Curacao since at most we walked in off the beach and surface swam out to it. The few on ironshore had dive ladders. So do almost all the Bonaire dive resorts since all the north end resorts are on ironshore - except Harbour Village (not the best dive) or Eden Beach next to it.
On Bonaire there's about a dozen dedicated dive resorts on the water. On Curacao there's one. However almost every major hotel or beach resort also has an on-site dive operator. Most of Bonaire revolves around their core business - diving. So although there are some good restaurants, there's many more on Curacao. Plus beach bars, night clubs and casinos. Jazz seemed popular. Bonaire has one casino and one "night club" - Havana Cafe. Most people congregate at their resorts bars.
I haven't been to Aruba but from what I've read I don't think it's as good. Certainly much less shore diving there than either B or C. We never felt the need to go there since Bonaire and Curacao were the same distance. You will likely find it easier/cheaper to get to Curacao also. Many Bonaire bound flights stop there first.
Some links you may find useful
Curacao Travel- Caribbean, Curacao, Dutch Caribbean
Info Bonaire - The Bonaire Information Site - The Most Current and Up-To-Date Information
Scuba Shore Diving Region: ABC Islands
Donnah
Contributor
Been to all 3. Bonaire is the best. Good diving. If you don't do the beach diving thing, good dive operations. Nice places to eat at night. We go to dive, not to eat out, do casinos, or nightclubs.
Excellent summary.
I was on Curacao for two weeks in late-April, early-May. Easy, easy shore dives from beautiful white sand beaches. Everyone speaks English. I would suggest picking an operator near where you are staying and rent your tanks there and haul them to the dive sites. . We had no problem with theft, all the sites with operators have guards watching parking lots. Absolutely I'd go back !!
drrich2
Contributor
Been to Bonaire 8 times. Haven't been to Curacao except for changing planes getting to & from Bonaire. I agree that one of these 2 is probably your best bet for a dive vacation.
I recommend doing a forum search with Bonaire and Curacao as terms. I'm not being snarky; it's just that these 2 islands have been the subject of much comparative scrutiny in recent years and some of that info. might not get repeated in your thread. Following up on some of DiverSteve's post, if Curacao is larger, has easier entries, more non-diving diversions and is cheaper to get to and very close geographically, one might think it ought to be far & away the dive destination of choice between the 2.
And yet looking over the forum, I get the impression that Bonaire sees a lot more dive tourism. It'd be interesting to see comparative numbers. You could argue Bonaire is scuba-focused and strongly marketed, but look at all those people who stop at Curacao doing airport transfers to & from Bonaire. It's not like we haven't heard of Curacao.
A few things keep me going to Bonaire.
1.) People dive the west coast and there's a road that hugs much of the coast line. It's easy to drive up & down the coast, stopping when you see a yellow rock noting a site you want to hit. I spent last week in Bonaire and counting night dives at the resort, and basically not doing much of anything but eat, sleep and dive, racked up 28 dives for the week. It's easy to quickly do a lot of diving in Bonaire.
2.) From what I've been told, the equivalent road trip in Curacao entails driving along a road that doesn't closely hug the coast, and turning off onto a side road to get to the dive site, which often means getting site to site takes longer, and it may not be as obvious getting there (someone once even posted about asking for directions! Horrifying to an introvert like me...).
3.) A number of dive op.s in Curacao don't allow solo diving, from what I've read or been told (not that anyone's apt to follow you off on the road and control what you do). On the condition that you have a solo diver certification, I know Buddy Dive and Dive Friends allow it, and since WannaDive and RecTec at Captain Don's teach solo classes, I would think they would (that's all on Bonaire). Not an issue for most people, but a differentiator for me.
4.) I like the simple, straight-forward 'scuba workflow' of a Buddy Dive Resort trip in Bonaire. Get up, eat breakfast, put a couple of nitrox tanks & gear in the truck, head up north, dive 2 sites, come back, eat a PB&J sandwich & can of fruit cocktail for lunch, load 2 more tanks, head south and dive a couple of sites, come back, eat supper at Buddy's restaurant, do a night dive on the house reef, rinse gear, shower, do a little web surfing/e-mailing and go to bed.
5.) I like turn key simplicity for my dive vacation. I do my own airfare. For last week, I was traveling solo, wanted a 'hotel room' type setup (cheap as I could get at Buddy's), unlimited nitrox shore diving, breakfast buffet, an onsite restaurant, a rental truck upgraded to automatic since I can't drive stick, transfers to & from the airport, and thanks to a Spring special I'd have the option of extra boat dives & an on-site 50% off food credit up to $75. My airfare (out of Nashville) was around $930, the rest of all that except supper was under $1,800, spent just over $50 refilling the gas tank once, food, renting a pony bottle & reg. for solo diving & getting a water proof underwater pack was around $330, groceries at the supermarket up the road probably under $75, so even if we add baggage fees, airport food, economy parking at the airport, I probably got out under $3,700. And solo travel averages hundreds more per person. I don't know how easy it is to get a good 'one stop shopping' package on Curacao.
But as you will see, everybody's different, and has different goals & priorities. Read the other threads. I'd be interested to hear your decision & reasoning once you come to a conclusion.
Richard.
I recommend doing a forum search with Bonaire and Curacao as terms. I'm not being snarky; it's just that these 2 islands have been the subject of much comparative scrutiny in recent years and some of that info. might not get repeated in your thread. Following up on some of DiverSteve's post, if Curacao is larger, has easier entries, more non-diving diversions and is cheaper to get to and very close geographically, one might think it ought to be far & away the dive destination of choice between the 2.
And yet looking over the forum, I get the impression that Bonaire sees a lot more dive tourism. It'd be interesting to see comparative numbers. You could argue Bonaire is scuba-focused and strongly marketed, but look at all those people who stop at Curacao doing airport transfers to & from Bonaire. It's not like we haven't heard of Curacao.
A few things keep me going to Bonaire.
1.) People dive the west coast and there's a road that hugs much of the coast line. It's easy to drive up & down the coast, stopping when you see a yellow rock noting a site you want to hit. I spent last week in Bonaire and counting night dives at the resort, and basically not doing much of anything but eat, sleep and dive, racked up 28 dives for the week. It's easy to quickly do a lot of diving in Bonaire.
2.) From what I've been told, the equivalent road trip in Curacao entails driving along a road that doesn't closely hug the coast, and turning off onto a side road to get to the dive site, which often means getting site to site takes longer, and it may not be as obvious getting there (someone once even posted about asking for directions! Horrifying to an introvert like me...).
3.) A number of dive op.s in Curacao don't allow solo diving, from what I've read or been told (not that anyone's apt to follow you off on the road and control what you do). On the condition that you have a solo diver certification, I know Buddy Dive and Dive Friends allow it, and since WannaDive and RecTec at Captain Don's teach solo classes, I would think they would (that's all on Bonaire). Not an issue for most people, but a differentiator for me.
4.) I like the simple, straight-forward 'scuba workflow' of a Buddy Dive Resort trip in Bonaire. Get up, eat breakfast, put a couple of nitrox tanks & gear in the truck, head up north, dive 2 sites, come back, eat a PB&J sandwich & can of fruit cocktail for lunch, load 2 more tanks, head south and dive a couple of sites, come back, eat supper at Buddy's restaurant, do a night dive on the house reef, rinse gear, shower, do a little web surfing/e-mailing and go to bed.
5.) I like turn key simplicity for my dive vacation. I do my own airfare. For last week, I was traveling solo, wanted a 'hotel room' type setup (cheap as I could get at Buddy's), unlimited nitrox shore diving, breakfast buffet, an onsite restaurant, a rental truck upgraded to automatic since I can't drive stick, transfers to & from the airport, and thanks to a Spring special I'd have the option of extra boat dives & an on-site 50% off food credit up to $75. My airfare (out of Nashville) was around $930, the rest of all that except supper was under $1,800, spent just over $50 refilling the gas tank once, food, renting a pony bottle & reg. for solo diving & getting a water proof underwater pack was around $330, groceries at the supermarket up the road probably under $75, so even if we add baggage fees, airport food, economy parking at the airport, I probably got out under $3,700. And solo travel averages hundreds more per person. I don't know how easy it is to get a good 'one stop shopping' package on Curacao.
But as you will see, everybody's different, and has different goals & priorities. Read the other threads. I'd be interested to hear your decision & reasoning once you come to a conclusion.
Richard.
As most people would tell you on this forum, it really depends on what you want. I have been to Bonaire 3 times and by far the best diving I have done in the Carribean. It's also far enough south that it's not in the hurricane belts so going there in the summer is not an issue. Here's the thing, really, truly, diving is about the only thing to do on Bonaire. You really do just "Eat, Sleep, Dive." If you want a trip to do 3-5 dives a day, then it's well worth the cost. With unlimited Nitrox at Buddy's it's by far the best price per dive if you take advantage. If you can find a diveshop doing a group trip, they usually have some good packages. There is also a lot of freedom with the easiest shore diving in the planet. If you want more from your dive vacation and bigger town, then Curacao is the place to go. If you do go to Curacao, we were very happy with the Dive Bus. I would also recommend if you do go to Bonaire if you can't find a reasonable ticket to fly to Curacao and then get a hopper on Insel. Hope you have a good trip!
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I thought I'd mentioned it but drrich is right - you will do more driving on Curacao.
A quick look at a map shows that the western half of the island is bisected by two main roads. All the sites are a short drive in off that main road - some a few blocks, many a mile or more. Many are dirt roads also. And road signs seem to be a new concept in that area. If you're directionally challenged and have a GPS - coordinates for either island are listed on the Shorediving.com site.
On Bonaire the only main road there runs north/south along the waters edge. Most sites are marked with a yellow rock roadside also. That road is paved all the way south to the Lighthouse and almost all the way north.
The difference for us was that we didn't always manage 4dives/day on Curacao. On Bonaire we pretty much always could if we wanted to. If you look at a dive site map and pair logical sites - you can do four dives on Curacao also. Some are different in either direction also.
As convenient as the Buddy drive-thru is - and it really is - it's only one location. They have another shop at Belmar to the south. I found that on Curacao if we had tanks with us, we used them. But when we needed them, having them available at the on-site operator was a plus. And there are several similar operations on Curacao - one out west has a drive-up tank dock that's truck bed height. Another is a fill station on the main road west - we passed it every single day. Some of the resort operations were less convenient though also - requiring longer carries. So are some on Bonaire.
Solo diving on Curacao is a non-issue - I did anywhere I wanted. Except for two operators that do not allow it. And state so plainly on their websites.
A quick look at a map shows that the western half of the island is bisected by two main roads. All the sites are a short drive in off that main road - some a few blocks, many a mile or more. Many are dirt roads also. And road signs seem to be a new concept in that area. If you're directionally challenged and have a GPS - coordinates for either island are listed on the Shorediving.com site.
On Bonaire the only main road there runs north/south along the waters edge. Most sites are marked with a yellow rock roadside also. That road is paved all the way south to the Lighthouse and almost all the way north.
The difference for us was that we didn't always manage 4dives/day on Curacao. On Bonaire we pretty much always could if we wanted to. If you look at a dive site map and pair logical sites - you can do four dives on Curacao also. Some are different in either direction also.
As convenient as the Buddy drive-thru is - and it really is - it's only one location. They have another shop at Belmar to the south. I found that on Curacao if we had tanks with us, we used them. But when we needed them, having them available at the on-site operator was a plus. And there are several similar operations on Curacao - one out west has a drive-up tank dock that's truck bed height. Another is a fill station on the main road west - we passed it every single day. Some of the resort operations were less convenient though also - requiring longer carries. So are some on Bonaire.
Solo diving on Curacao is a non-issue - I did anywhere I wanted. Except for two operators that do not allow it. And state so plainly on their websites.
irie1029
Contributor
Someone recently posted "curacao is where vacationers dive and bonaire is where divers vacation" we love Curacao it is not nearly as Americanized touristy and crowded as Aruba nor is it as spartan as Bonaire. It is perfect for wife and I and the people are just fantastic. Personally I use 2 dive ops Hans at Home he is located on the east end of island and GO WEST Diving - EN - Curacao Padi Scuba Dive Center - GO WEST Diving located on the west. My goal this november is 2 weeks east and one week west! I should know if I can pull it off in a month or so. If you want big resort life then Aruba and there I use JADS Aruba | Where underwater dreams come true. - dive, aruba, scuba, padi, diving, operator, dive tourJADS Aruba | Where underwater dreams come true. ? dive, aruba, scuba, padi, diving, operator, dive tour To be honest the diving on Aruba is underrated. In March I saw 7 different Turtles of 2 varieties and a stingray the dive was too cool. If you chose Curacao or Aruba and have further questions let me know.
I'm heading to Aruba and Bonaire (with a flight transfer in Curacao) next month. I have friends who absolutely love Bonaire and will be spending the majority of my time there since my purpose for going is to gather as much underwater footage as possible. Dive, eat and sleep is my expectation. I did have an instructor friend who spent a week diving in Curacao and liked it.
nharring
Registered
Curaçao for me. My wife and I have been there several times and have never been disappointed by the diving. The food ?!?! That's another story. Don't expect fine dining and great taste. For some reason it was always very bland.
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