Also am peeking for when it's time for my retirement.... Off the cuff thoughts:
Are your budget numbers for one person?
$1k per person per week, if the flight cost is spread out over 5 to 10 weeks, seems very doable on Bonaire if the rooming cost and truck cost are split between 2. Going single and rooming single and bearing the truck cost single it will be quite harder, maybe too hard? Maybe try a smaller car rental than a truck then (that may have you sign you don't use it for diving ... well, don't drive it in the water then
, but a pick-up is so convenient.
But to do 10 weeks on Bonaire w/o the significant other, without a DM stint, without being in a group with good friends, one would have to be very, very diving & maybe photography focussed, make friends, look into wind surfing... IDK...
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Something like splitting the time between a few Philippine Islands and maybe low cost dive safari/so sounds more exciting.
But more deeply exploring say the dive sites on, say Bonaire does not sound un-appealing either...
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You may just be able to stay around 1k/week with back to back to back LOBs on the Red Sea... but with tips and, if necessary an interim night, counted in (which was not necessary when we did back to back RSA weeks, but that boat would, tips and fees considered, have been above budget even at 50%off). Realistically, the best you can do is a bit above 1k all considered and you still need to factor in flights (costlier from the US, cheap from Europe). And would you really want to do that much back to back LOB diving? It would be interesting to see if one could finale a deal if one contacted "a fleet" and told them: So, I am not bringing a group of 8 or 10 people, but I plan to do 10 back to back weeks on your boats. Will you give me a deal equivalent to your group deals?
But then you still have to want to do that much boat time and LOB diving in a row... Maybe too much LOB based "group diving" for me...
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