Bonaire, What did you wish you knew before you went?

[dolesorchard]

+1 on VIP Divers. We have done the ultraviolet night dive, the drift from La Dania's to Karpata, a day and a night dive at Lac Cai and a dive at Boca Onima with them and all were well worth it. Boca Onima was worth it just for the entry. I had a hard time with the redeye as well. We saw a good deal of bleaching in Dec. 2010, but in the two weeks we were there you could see the color coming back. Even in 2010 when it rained every day we were there we have never had less than 75' visibility.

 

[chauncy19]

Red eye problem is over stated. book the room for the night before if its a big issue for you. agree that VIP diving is great. Bas rules!!

 

[Mike]

don't bother to 'catch the redeye' flights to Bonaire, you'll be too exhausted from the overnite travel to want to dive the next morning, you'' arrive too early for your rooms to be ready, so you'll hang around waiting for other guests to leave, then waiting for housekeeping to prep the rooms for the new arrivals, so you won't be able to catch some desperately needed sleep from staying up all night doing the red eye thing, and by the time you get to move into your room and unpack and maybe catch a nap, you'll have missed the required new diver orientation/check out dive scheduled for thate day so you won't be allowed to dive until the next day anyway AFTER you attend the next day's orientation dive 'window'. That whole 'catch the redeye' and start your diving vacation early is a bunch of silly propaganda!

Be prepared for paying as much for a liter (quart) of gas as you pay stateside for a Gallon of gas!

Restaurant service is VERY, VERY slow! Eating out will substantially reduce you dive time, so cook in your room and bring food with you.

Bring high quality thick soled booties or you'll be sorry...Bonaire is very rugged ironshore diving. Prepare to do a recon at most dive sites for how you plan to get to the water and back out of the water, especially while wearing all your dive gear, most entry/exits are tricky and the potential for injury due to slipping/falling is high.

Don't try to scrape the rust off of the dive truck you'll be issued, the rust is actually what's holding your truck together.

Dutch groceries are somewhat different than what you may be used to in the states. The tastes of things in some cases was very different than what I was used to in the states, so don't be surprised.

At night not a bad idea to stock up on NITROX tanks (late each evening I'd make runs to the tank farm and stockpile tanks in our room so we'd be covered the next day as often the resorts can't keep refilling tanks fast enough to keep up with demand during the day)

Be prepared to be a pack mule, you will expend significant energy constantly loading multiple tanks/gear sets/weights in and out of your truck, which is tedious, especially in the hot sun...yet another reminder of why I GREATLY prefer liveaboards and haven't returned to Bonaire for some years now.
There's lots of sun and very little shade so be prepared with water, sunscreen.

I'm not a Bonaire groupie, but I'll sound like one shortly...

Just so newbies get to see there are two sides to every coin -

The red eyes suck from a stand point of - they are red eye flights! The upside is you can reserve your room for the day before, that way when you get there your room is ready and waiting for you. Being that you're getting their early in the morning you get a whole bonus day on your vacation! Take a nap in your nice reserved room, easily do the orientation and check out dive, grab some lunch, head out and do 2-3 dives on your first day.

As for gas being more expensive then the US, groceries being different then the US and food being different then the US, well... you're not in the US anymore, that might be expected and welcome and part of the adventure of traveling outside the US. For service being slow, once again, you're not in the US. Never really had an issue of being in a hurry, while being on vacation. Bonaire means you can dive 24 hours a day, go five, six, ten times a day, the only thing limiting you is your nitrogen load, there is no schedule to keep, you do what you want, when you want. As for the Nitrox issues, I think your mileage will vary greatly depending upon where you stay and who you dive with. About being a pack mule? I think the truck you rent does the work, never expended much energy diving in Bonaire. Also I certainly hope there is lots of sun and need for sunscreen, that's why we go to the Caribbean for dive vacations isn't it?

Certainly don't hold anything against scubafanatic for his take on things on Bonaire, just shows you that there is a great variety of diving available around this planet and you should do the diving that suits you.

I've never found the entries on Bonaire to be difficult. Seems 90% of them wouldn't offer anybody any problems at all, the other 10% the entries are part of what adds to the uniqueness of diving there.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Maybe the number one thing I wish I had known before my first trip to Bonaire was just how similar the dive sites are to each other. I know that's a controversial statement. People rave about certain "can't miss" sites. But with four Bonaire trips under my belt now, my impression is that all the sites have much more that is similar to each other than is different. On my first trip, I fretted too much about sites, asking people for recommendations about which sites to dive. But I quickly discovered that any site is pretty much just as good as any other site, and that whether the dive was good or not largely depends on what critters happened to wander by or have planted themselves on that site at that time. You could blindly throw a dart at a map and dive the nearest site, and it would probably be a great dive. Sure, some sites have the double reef and others don't, and some have entries/exits that are easier or more challenging than others, and a handful might have unusual or notable features (okay, the Hilma Hooker if you're into wrecks), but with few exceptions they are all just as great as each other. Don't give yourself anxiety by thinking too hard about what site you need to dive next so you can tick the box off on your list. Eventually, after a few trips, you will have dived most of them.

 

[herbdb]

I agree about the similarity of dive sites for the most part. I really do like the Hilma Hooker and Oil Slick Leap a lot. We try to get several dives on both.

On our last trip, we dove Margate Bay site #55 on our last day. This was possibly the nicest site we have found to date. The soft coral "forests" were amazing. Entry was fairly easy with a short swim to the reef. This could become my favorite dive.

---------- Post added May 3rd, 2012 at 04:59 PM ----------

As to a previous posters comments about the difficulty of entries, it varies by dive site. Even someone like me, over 65 with two artificial hips can find lots of sites to dive. The first time you dive a site, you should walk out and look over the entry. Most places the best entry is marked for you by other divers with signs or piles of rocks.

Comments about hauling equipment and availability of nitrox vary with the dive operation. Most places have loading zones near the dive lockers and tank storage. One has drive through tank drop off and pickup. Sometimes they close the nitrox storage at 5 or 6 PM. No problem, just pick up extra tanks for night diving before they close.

We don't buy much in the way of groceries, just drinks and snacks. We tank up at the breakfast buffet (we get that included in the package), have a snack for lunch and eat dinner out. I think dining out is one of the great things about Bonaire. Its part of the experience. The only meal that disappointed me was a much talked about pizza operation. You can't find a bad steak or pasta dish.

 

[RJP]

The only meal that disappointed me was a much talked about pizza operation.

It's the best pizza in all of Bonaire!

(The culinary equivalent of being the tallest midget.)

 

[Mike]

Maybe the number one thing I wish I had known before my first trip to Bonaire was just how similar the dive sites are to each other. I know that's a controversial statement. People rave about certain "can't miss" sites. But with four Bonaire trips under my belt now, my impression is that all the sites have much more that is similar to each other than is different. On my first trip, I fretted too much about sites, asking people for recommendations about which sites to dive. But I quickly discovered that any site is pretty much just as good as any other site, and that whether the dive was good or not largely depends on what critters happened to wander by or have planted themselves on that site at that time. You could blindly throw a dart at a map and dive the nearest site, and it would probably be a great dive. Sure, some sites have the double reef and others don't, and some have entries/exits that are easier or more challenging than others, and a handful might have unusual or notable features (okay, the Hilma Hooker if you're into wrecks), but with few exceptions they are all just as great as each other. Don't give yourself anxiety by thinking too hard about what site you need to dive next so you can tick the box off on your list. Eventually, after a few trips, you will have dived most of them.

I kind of understand what you're saying but I think all you have to do is dive a site down by the light house to have to rethink what you're saying.

One of the reasons that people get the impression you have is because of the dive friendliness of the west side of Bonaire, instead of your typical 10 dive sites you've got what close to 50? You're basically have a reef system that is diveable from one tip of the island to the other, so in a sense you are diving the same reef. However I think there's a tad bit more variety there then you're giving credit. Like I said dive the light house area on the southern point, dive up at the northern point from the park...

 

[BEM]

The increase in smokers at the restaurants. Now that it's a Dutch province there seems to be lots more people smoking: before, during and after dinners.

Try to get a seat so the breeze carries smoke away from you.

The donkey sanctuary is a nice place to visit and the donkeys love the hand-outs - they have "soft mouths" that don't dribble all over your hands - like my black lab.

 

[DeputyDan]

Just returned from France.
It seemed like 75% of the people smoked...

 

[jghflash]

The change to a "Dutch special municipality" on 10-10-10 didn't change the smoking habits and didn't bring any more Dutch people there......they have always been there.......and they always smoke! It's a Euro thing for sure. I am amazed that they don't all die from lung cancer when you see them rolling their own cigarettes (with tobacco this time) with no filters. Wow!