Is the shore diving on Bonaire as accessible as it is on Curacao?
Been to Bonaire 8 times; haven't dove Curacao yet. The 2 are often compared on ScubaBoard. From what I've read, if I've understood correctly:
1.) Curacao has more sandy beach; Bonaire very little.
2.) Bonaire entry & exits tend to be iron shore, and rather rough. Usually not a big deal, but you do need to be careful going in & out.
3.) Bonaire swim outs tend to be shorter.
4.) In Curacao, from what I gather the road around is inset farther from the coast, & you often take a side road to reach a dive site. In Bonaire, a road basically hugs the west coast (& much of the east), close to the water, so you can go site-to-site faster.
5.) Some Curacao facilities have onsite operators with some sort of facilities, sometimes with a fee. Most Bonaire sites do not; you can pee in the ocean, and you can go get lunch at a store or back at your room. Not a lot of beach umbrellas to sit under.
6.) Airfare to Curacao is often cheaper.
7.) Bonaire markets hard to diving tourism; the license plate says mentions it being a diver's paradise.
Some of the comparisons basically broil down to Curacao having more non-diving things to do, a larger land mass & more to explore, but Bonaire being a place where you can probably more handily cram in a larger number of dives in a week, mainly shore dives. Each has a number of fans who think it's the better of the two.
If any Curacao divers see an error in my reasoning, I imagine they'll point it out.
Richard.