Bonaire Diving - Select the Right Dive Package (part 2)
Captain Don’s boat dock — right beside your breakfast table!
Boat diving on Bonaire is a bit different than a lot of dive destinations. Dive sites are clustered around Klein Bonaire (less than half a mile off the main island) and up and down the leeward coast (all within 50 yards of shore). This makes for very short boat trips which require less fuel — and that helps make boat dives pretty cheap compared to most places. The fact that Bonaire shore diving is so accessible and plentiful helps keep the price of boat dives very reasonable (remember, you don’t have to have a boat package to enjoy Bonaire diving.
That being said, how do you argue the pleasures of an attentive crew and a speedy boat to transport you to the best diving on Bonaire? And with a dive master aboard to point out that elusive seahorse or frogfish? Schelping all that gear around, in and out of trucks, and wondering where my swim ladder and transom deck are when it’s time to end a perfectly relaxing dive?
Nuff said. Boat diving works for lots of people. On Bonaire, you ‘ll find many operators such as Captain Don’s and Bonaire Dive & Adventures running multiple boat departures throughout the day, making the short trips for a single tank dive. A few operators, such as Divi Dive, Toucan Diving and Dive Friends offer morning 2-tank trips and afternoon 1-tank trips, as well as Buddy Dive offering a combination of both. At Wannadive, they mix 1-tank boat diving with guided shore diving on packages, depending on demand and the diver’s preferences. And all these come as multi-day packages including shore diving.
Many dive vacation packages come with a specific number of boat dives and shore diving, and these can yield the best value. In some cases, you can customize as desired and get exactly what you want. Be a bit flexible, and a professional will help point you toward the best deal for your Bonaire dive vacation. You can check out sample dive vacation packages at http://www.bonairepros.com/bonaire_diving_rates.php