Narrowing down honeymoon options

[keesmon]

It sounds like a lot of dives in Curacao are shore dives but more on Bonaire are boat dives?

Actually, no. Bonaire would be the shore diving mecca. You can boat dive in Bonaire, but most people find it unnecessary. Nice thing for the honeymoon would be not having to set a schedule. Wake up, dive..........or not. Up to you

 

[diversteve]

It sounds like a lot of dives in Curacao are shore dives but more on Bonaire are boat dives?

Not really. You actually may do more boat dives on Bonaire. As some of the better diving is off Klein Bonaire just across the channel.

On Curacao the divesites themselves are farther apart - some require returning to a main road and then driving back into the next site. There's really only a couple of sites that require a boat, Watamula, Lost Anchor and Mushroom Forest come to mind - and Klein Curacao is a several hour excursion. But there's probably more boat accessible sites off Curacao since there's a lot more ironshore cliffs dropping off into the ocean. At one place there was the option of a vertical 60' ladder to the water or a boat from a nearby resort.

On Bonaire in certain areas in the south, they follow right after on another. Since it's flat and open, I've been on sites and seen dive vehicles parked at the next 2 or 3 divesites farther down.

A week on Bonaire we did 3 days of 2 tank morning dives. 4 probably would've been enough. About 9 days on Curacao we dove Lost Anchor once. Technically we could've dove it from Shore, there was a series of crazy steps that went down the hill. Our DM lived near there, he said they don't even do it.

 

[Damselfish]

Lots of people go to Bonaire for the shore diving but there's nothing to stop you from boat diving (unless there's no room on the boat!) That's what we mostly do on Bonaire because we just prefer boats. Curacao has plenty of shore diving too though but boat diving is probably a bit more common than on Bonaire, again it's really your choice. Moving between shore dive sites is a little less convenient on Curacao because of the jogs in the coastline and the way the roads are laid out, but the sites have a bit more variety too.

 

[lazybees]

You've gotten lots of good advice already, but thought I would throw in my thoughts also. Our favorite Caribbean spot is Bonaire as we love the freedom of the shore diving there. However, as someone else stated there is little else to do besides dive. We have been to Bonaire in the summer and in the winter. Both are OK, but we will avoid the winter in the future as it is the rainy season on that little desert spot and the mosquitoes were terrible where they were not a problem in the summer.

You seem to have ruled out Fiji, but we claim that as the best vacation we have ever taken. We visited Beqa Lagoon Resort in December 2003 when it was called Marlin Bay Resort. The diving was stunning, much more colorful than Bora Bora. But the top reason we love the place is the Fijian people. On Beqa Island, you have the chance to interact with the local villages and the people will truly change your life. There is ample opportunity to hike to a waterfall, snorkle, dive, beach sit at your private bure on the beach, and the food is to die for. We are going back this October and hope it still ranks number one in our dive and non dive experience.

 

[ericande]

I keep going back and forth, lol. I'm not sure if I'm overly concerned about hurricane danger but given the possibility we're thinking of avoiding that area and either doing Fiji or Thailand. I know Thailand will get some rain while we're there but really won't bother us much unless it rained all day, everyday. After doing some research on Thailand last night it seems like it might offer us the perfect mix of adventure, seeing exotic places, really luxurious lodging we can afford and great diving. Seems easy to get around as well.

Of course the other effect from this thread is I'm trying to book a dive trip next spring to Bonaire with some friends

Thanks again for the help everyone, looks like I added about 5 must-do trips for the future.