Why Bonaire instead of Aruba?

[diverrex]

I'm making my first trip to Bonaire in June. I have been to Curacao. Some divers I know who go to Bonaire every year (as well as several other dive trips each year) say you never have a bad dive on Bonaire but you probably don't ever have a really great dive either and that it does get fairly repetitive diving 45 degree reef slopes. I'm really looking forward to my first Bonaire trip and while boredom may be too strong a word I can understand someone not thinking it's the greatest dive place on earth as others do. I'll let you all know my reaction in about 6 weeks.

 

[drrich2]

Following up what Diverrex posted, I can see where a lot of Bonaire dives basically look repetitive; walk in, get about waist deep, put on your fins, swim out several yards, dive in the 30 to 80 foot range browsing over the roughly 45 degree sloping reef, look at the hard corals, gorgonians and sea fans, watch the mostly fairly small fish (lots of French grunts!), and such.

But there's variety to be found. A site called The Cliff has a pretty straight up wall that's visually different. If you WANT some current for some reason, it's my understanding sites at the southern end have more of that - haven't sought it out myself. The Hilma Hooker is the main wreck dive, but there are smaller ones - I like the Bakanal and Our Confidence. The giant stride off Oil Slick Leap is always fun. And of course a night dive is, to some extent, a 'different world.' Cruising along the shallows can show you things; along the shallows at the end of dives at Oil Slick I've seen a huge porcupine fish and rainbow parrotfish ( way larger than the other parrotfish I've seen).

Boat diving at other sites can get repetitive, too, if you do enough of it. Bonaire lends itself to getting a lot of dives in over a few days, so people probably notice the pattern.

Richard.

 

[vladimir]

If you got bored diving Bonaire, you were doing it wrong. Over 80 dive sites you can get to by just walking into the ocean, day or night. Boat dives to Klein Bonaire if you choose (I don't) and if you want to do Tec diving, there's RecTec. Or you can go to the wild side of the island and go find the big beasts.

If you were trolling with your boredom post, you got me. But boredom and diving Bonaire don't belong in the same sentence.

I have been to Bonaire 4 times, so obviously I'm a fan. And I can find something interesting on any healthy coral reef--in fact, give me three square meters on any healthy coral reef and I'll find something interesting. However, I find diving to be more homogeneous on Bonaire than at many comparable dive destinations. In the Caribbean, Belize and Little Cayman offer more diversity from site to site, in my opinion. And not every diver gets excited by the commensal shrimp or the flamingo's tongue. Some divers want a legitimate wreck, a manta ray, a shark, a burst of color, surf, current, etc., most of which you're unlikely to see on a typical Bonaire dive. For those divers, Bonaire might be boring. I say good riddance--and spread the word to the cruise ship customers: Bonaire is boring.

 

[Lorenzoid]

Interesting comments about the "boredom" thing. I never thought about it in those terms, but I suppose there are the extreme opinions of "every 45-degree slope shore dive is like every other" and "I could dive the same site three times a day and still not see the same things on each dive" and then every shade of opinion in between these extremes.

 

[Ontwreckdiver]

Following up what Diverrex posted, I can see where a lot of Bonaire dives basically look repetitive; dive in the 30 to 80 foot range browsing over the roughly 45 degree sloping reef, look at the hard corals, gorgonians and sea fans, watch the mostly fairly small fish (lots of French grunts!), and such.
Richard.

This is exactly the expierence I had in Bonaire, except we dove off a boat. There were 12 divers and 1 non diver (my wife) in our group and we dove with Divi Dive. My main interest is wreck diving, but I went there excited and expecting alot (maybe too much) because Bonaire was supposed to be the best diving in the Carribean. We did 2 shore dives.

 

[vladimir]

t I went there excited and expecting alot (maybe too much) because Bonaire was supposed to be the best diving in the Carribean.

I am sorry you were disappointed. I think a lot of the Bonaire enthusiasm around here is for the whole experience, and it often gets misplaced on the diving itself. For many divers, Bonaire is the first place or the only place they will go that will afford them the opportunity to dive independently. Suddenly they're diving with just their buddy, or solo perhaps, and free from the rules and schedules of dive operators. And they realize that's what vacation should feel like. In my opinion all Caribbean diving is relatively dull, and Bonaire diving is duller than Belize and Little Cayman. But when I'm on that side of the world, there's nothing I'd rather do with a week off than spend it in Bonaire. Two weeks off is another story.

 

[Altamira]

Thanks to all of you that have responded to my initial question and provided great commentary on Bonaire. We are going! My wife and I decided we are going to love Bonaire and everything it has to offer. As luck would have it, we found out that our LDS was working up a trip to Bonaire about the same time as we were actually planning the trip. Although we only know the owner/dive instructor at this time, I think we are going to make some very good friends on this trip and have a wonderful dive experience as icing on the cake. After reading all of your posts and some other trip report threads, I suspect we will be at least once a year visitors to Bonaire.
Thank you all so very much.
Guy

 

[jlevine]

I have been diving in Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao. I felt the diving in Bonaire was the quality of the diving was superb. Diving is the main emphasis of the island. You can also do windsurfing and naturewalks. Beyond that, there isn't much to do. Aruba is definitely more touristy with shops, hotels, and casinos. The diving is good, but I wouldn't call it outstanding. Curacao has some real good diving spots (Playa Porto Marie, Klein Curacao), but there is also some industry in the island as well. If I had to live in one place full time, I would probably pick Curacao first, Aruba second, and Bonaire third.