ronski101
Contributor
4 of us are going in april but can't decide between Bonaire or Curacao. Been to Bonaire a bunch of times but never Curacao. Is the diving comparable? How about value? What don't you like about each? Let's play nice...
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4 of us are going in april but can't decide between Bonaire or Curacao.
Yes with exceptions. There's nothing like Mushroom Forest/Blue Cave on Bonaire. Both have a pier dive - Curacao's also has the Tugboat on-site. And Curacao has the Dolphin dives thru Ocean Encounters. Only the east side of Curacao is a marine park and it shows in some areas - more hard debris in the water. Equally good viz at either location. Same basic fish/animal life. In fact I told my non-Bonaire friends that one site we did out west could've been either island. Klein Curacao is an all day trip as the island is several miles south of the East End. Never been there.Is the diving comparable?
About the same at either place. I paid about $2K for diving, a room in a condo/apt., food and shared vehicle rental. I don't remember airfare costs but for us Curacao was much easier to get to. Left Phoenix at 6AM and was in my apt. 30mins. outside of town by 3PM. Even did a dusk dive nearby - they have no Orientation although I think we did buy a tag once.How about value?
Curacao is more crowded - esp. downtown since there's a cruise dock, container port, oil refinery and larger city center there. Otoh there's much more to do at night - a dozen casinos, nightclubs, dancing, beach clubs, many good restaurants etc. The west end of Curacao is even quieter than the Belnem area of Bonaire - we stay at BelMar. There seemed to be more potential theft on Curacao - both resorts we stayed at had entry gates, barred windows at one and our rental agent made it clear that certain areas were "iffy" - at night. And to lock everything up.What do/don't you like about each?
Wrong - only certain operators do. At one a staff member helped me turn on my tank valve after I'd geared up and walked 60' down the dive dock. I think he'd have said something...Last trip I did about 6 solo dives - no one noticed/cared. But I didn't dive with the biggest operator - except for the Dolphin dive.5.) Curacao forbids solo diving, but it's thought this hardly gets policed, so it's doubtful the authorities will be following you around watching for it.
Apparently dive shops on Curacao are anal about solo diving - "no solo diving under any circumstances" (equals none of my money under any circumstances). Had not a whit of trouble on Bonaire and was even asked if I wanted to solo on a boat dive and hadn't even asked.
Last thing is Ocean Encounters has an enforced no solo diving policy. So does Go West. And although a flag is required, we never did. Many sites are listed here: Scuba Shore Diving Site Listing for: Curacao, ABC Islands
Ronski101's small group may well not have any intentions of diving solo; I, however, do, so I mentioned it in case it became an issue.
Richard.