This was my first trip to Bonaire and now I get why so many people return year after year! It’s only the second place I’d definitely go back to dive again as opposed to trying somewhere new. (The other one was the Galapagos.)
We were a group of 12 family and friends; mostly experienced divers from California, plus a few from Virginia. We had one snorkeler in the group, but she ended up taking a dive refresher course on this trip and getting back into scuba after a 15-year break.
We stayed at Buddy Dive. Since it was the first trip for most of us we decided to go for the one-stop deal rather than setting up lodging, rental vehicle and diving separately. Overall it worked out very well.
We had two 3-bedroom apartments right next to each other, so that worked out very well. We had a nice view from the rooms, and we were right next to the dive op and Blennies restaurant, which was very convenient. With 6 people in each apartment we got 2 minivans. Each could seat 7 or 8 people and had plenty of room for tanks and gear in the back. There were some minor issues such as there not being enough beach towels available from the front desk the first couple of days, and housekeeping didn’t always bring clean towels to all of our rooms. (One day our room got 1 regular towel and 3 bathmats. Another day we never got new towels but fortunately we had spare beach towels we could use.) The AC in one bedroom (out of the 6) was a little underpowered, but it still kept the room fairly cool.
We did not have breakfast included in our package because we planned to eat most breakfasts and lunches in the apartments. We did go to the breakfast buffet the day after we arrived and thought it overpriced, but then we hit Van den Tweel later that day and were set for the rest of the week. We ate several meals at Blennies, and enjoyed the goat cheese salad, grilled seafood salad, chicken quesadillas, and the rotisserie chicken. We also went to the Friday night BBQ, which was ok but not great. For our last night we went to dinner at Patagonia, which is an Argentine restaurant. It was EXCELLENT. Expensive but worth the price for a special meal.
We were pretty happy with the dive op. Most of us only did beach dives, so I can’t comment on the boat diving. Since we are all pretty experienced, it was nice to be left on our own to do what we wanted, rather than having to follow divemasters and get herded around. On several days we were at the drive through when they opened at 8:00 am, loaded up the tanks, drove off and did 2 dives, drove back, swapped tanks, had lunch, and then went out for 2 more dives. Paradise!
The water was 81 degrees and the visibility was virtually endless. Most of us dive regularly in Monterey, CA, where the water is around 50 degrees and the viz is 15 to 20 feet on a good day. Quite a contrast! (But we still love our Monterey diving!)
We dove the following sites. I found it hard to remember what I saw at which sites since all were so beautiful. And so many fish! Both the sheer number and the number of different kinds. Plus eels, a lobster, lots of shrimp and arrow crabs, scorpion fish, barracuda, turtles, rays,
Buddy’s Reef – did at least 4 dives here plus 2 night dives. Found an octopus out hunting on one of the night dives. Big silvery tarpon here.
Andrea II
Bachelor Beach – easy entry and exit; and a beautiful dive
Tolo / Ol’ Blue
Karpata
Hilma Hooker – not my favorite, but some people like it
Windsock (the resort) – stopped here because we saw the sign before we saw the dive site rock marker. Went down their stairs into the water; very nice.
Salt Pier – the only place we saw a seahorse and some squid, plus 3 turtles right as we entered the water
Invisibles
Alice in Wonderland
Windsock (the dive site) – decided to find the actual dive site. One of my favorites! Saw a spotted eagle ray here.
No issues with theft from the truck, but we followed the recommended practice of leaving them unlocked, with windows down and nothing of value in them. At one dive site the local police stopped by and reminded everyone about that.
We did make the drive up to Washington/Slaagbai National Park one morning. It was interesting, but I wouldn’t do it again. We were glad we had decided not to dive up there. The descriptions of the dive sites didn’t sound that great, and the divemasters at Buddy’s didn’t have good things to say about them either. And having 12 tanks bounce around in the back of the van on those bumpy roads would not have been a good thing. Maybe it would be ok if you have a pickup truck.
We wandered around Kralendijk on our last day and finally made it to Gio’s for gelato. We liked it so much we had some before lunch and then went back again after lunch!
So we definitely see another trip to Bonaire in our future! But maybe in a couple of years. We still haven’t been to the Philippines. Or Australia. Or…
We were a group of 12 family and friends; mostly experienced divers from California, plus a few from Virginia. We had one snorkeler in the group, but she ended up taking a dive refresher course on this trip and getting back into scuba after a 15-year break.
We stayed at Buddy Dive. Since it was the first trip for most of us we decided to go for the one-stop deal rather than setting up lodging, rental vehicle and diving separately. Overall it worked out very well.
We had two 3-bedroom apartments right next to each other, so that worked out very well. We had a nice view from the rooms, and we were right next to the dive op and Blennies restaurant, which was very convenient. With 6 people in each apartment we got 2 minivans. Each could seat 7 or 8 people and had plenty of room for tanks and gear in the back. There were some minor issues such as there not being enough beach towels available from the front desk the first couple of days, and housekeeping didn’t always bring clean towels to all of our rooms. (One day our room got 1 regular towel and 3 bathmats. Another day we never got new towels but fortunately we had spare beach towels we could use.) The AC in one bedroom (out of the 6) was a little underpowered, but it still kept the room fairly cool.
We did not have breakfast included in our package because we planned to eat most breakfasts and lunches in the apartments. We did go to the breakfast buffet the day after we arrived and thought it overpriced, but then we hit Van den Tweel later that day and were set for the rest of the week. We ate several meals at Blennies, and enjoyed the goat cheese salad, grilled seafood salad, chicken quesadillas, and the rotisserie chicken. We also went to the Friday night BBQ, which was ok but not great. For our last night we went to dinner at Patagonia, which is an Argentine restaurant. It was EXCELLENT. Expensive but worth the price for a special meal.
We were pretty happy with the dive op. Most of us only did beach dives, so I can’t comment on the boat diving. Since we are all pretty experienced, it was nice to be left on our own to do what we wanted, rather than having to follow divemasters and get herded around. On several days we were at the drive through when they opened at 8:00 am, loaded up the tanks, drove off and did 2 dives, drove back, swapped tanks, had lunch, and then went out for 2 more dives. Paradise!
The water was 81 degrees and the visibility was virtually endless. Most of us dive regularly in Monterey, CA, where the water is around 50 degrees and the viz is 15 to 20 feet on a good day. Quite a contrast! (But we still love our Monterey diving!)
We dove the following sites. I found it hard to remember what I saw at which sites since all were so beautiful. And so many fish! Both the sheer number and the number of different kinds. Plus eels, a lobster, lots of shrimp and arrow crabs, scorpion fish, barracuda, turtles, rays,
Buddy’s Reef – did at least 4 dives here plus 2 night dives. Found an octopus out hunting on one of the night dives. Big silvery tarpon here.
Andrea II
Bachelor Beach – easy entry and exit; and a beautiful dive
Tolo / Ol’ Blue
Karpata
Hilma Hooker – not my favorite, but some people like it
Windsock (the resort) – stopped here because we saw the sign before we saw the dive site rock marker. Went down their stairs into the water; very nice.
Salt Pier – the only place we saw a seahorse and some squid, plus 3 turtles right as we entered the water
Invisibles
Alice in Wonderland
Windsock (the dive site) – decided to find the actual dive site. One of my favorites! Saw a spotted eagle ray here.
No issues with theft from the truck, but we followed the recommended practice of leaving them unlocked, with windows down and nothing of value in them. At one dive site the local police stopped by and reminded everyone about that.
We did make the drive up to Washington/Slaagbai National Park one morning. It was interesting, but I wouldn’t do it again. We were glad we had decided not to dive up there. The descriptions of the dive sites didn’t sound that great, and the divemasters at Buddy’s didn’t have good things to say about them either. And having 12 tanks bounce around in the back of the van on those bumpy roads would not have been a good thing. Maybe it would be ok if you have a pickup truck.
We wandered around Kralendijk on our last day and finally made it to Gio’s for gelato. We liked it so much we had some before lunch and then went back again after lunch!
So we definitely see another trip to Bonaire in our future! But maybe in a couple of years. We still haven’t been to the Philippines. Or Australia. Or…
