oldschoolto
Contributor
It's solo for me... The trip is the adventure... Maybe that's why my Wife and I fell in love with Bonaire..
Jim...
Jim...
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"Group" travel works well on the more far flung, road less travelled trips. Why? The group leaders should (must) handle all the connections. Not a big deal in the Caribbean, even the rarely used islands, but once you get out of our backyard, the world gets confusing.
Easy to get to Male Airport in Maldives, how do you transit to the diving islands and LOB?
Easy to fly to Egypt. Can you point me towards a bed and the Red Sea? Maybe throw in a pyramid?
I got a ticket on Philippine Air to Manilla, where's the Ocean from there?
Connections.
Bonaire has taken hold of our hearts for sure. We are heading back for our 6th trip in a few weeks. We have had opportunity to travel there with groups many times, but have found that we can 1. Do it cheaper on our own, and 2. We like the freedom that Bonaire provides, and in a group, you can sometimes lose that. However with that being said, on trip #3, we met a really cool couple after a dive at Vista Blue, and we ended up talking for almost an hour. in the parking lot. We actually "ran" into them later in the week underwater on a dive and recognized them. We met up for dinner after that and became fast friends. Now we have ended up going to Bonaire the same week for the last 2, and now our 3rd time together. They have become our Scuba soulmates. LOL We live in Phoenix, AZ and they live near Baltimore, MD. Bonaire is magical! Cool people go thereIt's solo for me... The trip is the adventure... Maybe that's why my Wife and I fell in love with Bonaire..
Jim...
The only potential downside in going with a LDS is that the price may be higher than if you were to book directly with the dive OP.
There was a time when some LDS would add on a premium like you said to cover their "cost" of promoting the trips, etc. I've seen as much as $200 to $250 added on what you could book yourself. Of course when I first started diving, pricing at all the resorts was not as readily available to the general public like it is now. I don't think I have seen any of the LDS around here do that anymore for a long time. It becomes a tough sell and it's hard to convince folks that there is that much added value, if any, going with the LDS.
Bonaire has taken hold of our hearts for sure. We are heading back for our 6th trip in a few weeks. We have had opportunity to travel there with groups many times, but have found that we can 1. Do it cheaper on our own, and 2. We like the freedom that Bonaire provides, and in a group, you can sometimes lose that. However with that being said, on trip #3, we met a really cool couple after a dive at Vista Blue, and we ended up talking for almost an hour. in the parking lot. We actually "ran" into them later in the week underwater on a dive and recognized them. We met up for dinner after that and became fast friends. Now we have ended up going to Bonaire the same week for the last 2, and now our 3rd time together. They have become our Scuba soulmates. LOL We live in Phoenix, AZ and they live near Baltimore, MD. Bonaire is magical! Cool people go there
(Our next liveaboard trip is with a shop we haven't traveled with before, and they appear to be putting little to no effort into it - simply using the free spots but so far have not added any value that I can see, and I'm not happy about it. The only other shop I've traveled with is much more active and organized about their trips, and earns whatever they get out of it.)
I guess what you can in this instance is find out when and where the group is traveling and then book the reservation directly with the company.