Bonaire is a shore dive with an island attached to it. If you can’t find dive sites to your heart’s content with a copy of BSDME, you should maybe consider another hobby.
Curacao, not so much. Many of its sites are easy to find. For some, you’d benefit from a little local knowledge (or a local guide). But for some, you’re gonna need a GPS, a 4WD, two native guides and a bloodhound named “Ol’ Blue”. One in particular could do with a rope ladder.
First, I’d recommend you get two maps. The “Dive and Drive” map (available locally and published by Caribbean Cartographics) shows the general location of 72 south shore dive sites (EDIT: as in located on the southern shore, which is not to say all are shore dive-able /EDIT). Those are pretty evenly split between the east of the island and the west (as divided by the oil port at Bullenbaai). I’d say roughly half that number are shore dive-able. Of those that are not, in the west it’s more likely to be because the shore is just plain inhospitable. There is a water taxi guy who operates (IIRC) out of Lagun who can get you to the shore-inaccessible sites, but I hear he’s not as reliable as he used to be. In the east, there’s quite a bit of privately held shoreline you aren't supposed to get on.
As for which end has the better diving, I’d have to give the nod to the west. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t any eastern sites on my “don’t miss” list. FWIW, my #1 don’t miss site, Superior Producer, is in the east. IMO, if you want to see the best shore diving the island has to offer, you
have to dive both ends.
The second map is Berndston Map’s “Curacao” (available online, ISBN 3-89707-501-6). It’s a far better road map than the Drive and Dive map, which shows precious little “small road” detail.
As for accommodations, the island has concentrated the lion’s share of its resources and its people around the central harbor. But once you’re outside Willemstad, it’s slim pickens. There’s little apart from resorts that lives up to American standards for comfort and cleanliness.
That said, the Clarion Hotel is on Piscadera Bay, very near the Marriott. It’s a very nice place (not merely ‘decent’
, and almost brand new. But they built two wings only to discover they can’t anywhere near fill the first. I drove past it today and every window in the second wing is still wide open, indicating that entire wing is still unoccupied. What that means to you is low rates. I spent three weeks there when I first arrived and I think it’s the nicest modestly-priced hotel here. It is close to town (five minutes by taxi to Otra Banda) but doesn’t have many restaurants nearby (not even the small, SRO ‘informal’ local cuisine restaurants called ‘snacks’
.
From The Clarion and Piscadera, it’s a short drive to Superior, Double Reef, Blue Bay’s house reef, Snake Bay, Boca Sami, Vaersenbaai and Pestbaai.
From Piscadera, figure 15 minutes drive time to Atlantis Diving and their house reef, which is the first named site to the east past the central harbor (except for the wreck of the Mediator, which is an “archaeological dive site” in the harbor itself). Director’s Bay and Small Wall are about the furthest east you can shore dive without risking being arrested for trespassing. Figure 35-45 minutes drive time from Piscadera.
I’ve been clocking driving distances in the west so I can speak more positively about the distances from Piscadera. The first dive site west of the
verboten zone around the oil depot is Sta. Mari. It’s Habitat Curacao’s house reef, about 22 km from The Clarion. It’s about 47 km to Playa Kalki/Alice in Wonderland, which is the furthest west shore diving site. If you’re not fussy about the speed limit (most here are not), you usually can average ~60 kph, which would have you arriving at Playa Kalki (house reef for Hura Kulanda) in ~50 minutes (or less, …
much less).
Another option is to dive with The Dive Bus. No one else dives so many locations on both sides of Bullenbaai. They even sometimes arrange boat dives with the north shore’s lone operator. They provide transportation, tanks, help you into and out of the water and feed you between dives. And they save you the hassle of finding those out-of-the-way dive sites.
The Dive Bus also can set you up with a modest apartment. It’s probably even less expensive than The Clarion, and you can prepare your own meals, but it puts you even deeper in the heart of civilization (Curacao style).
I don’t think any dive shop will refuse to rent you tanks for shore diving. Just bring your C-Card, your MasterCard, and be prepared to fill out a few forms.
