netherlands antilles

[haizel]

Unfortunately I went diving in Bonaire last year - and i say unfortunately because i am not only a beginning diver who is now spoiled, but also because i have this particular illness in which I always *really* would rather to go to new places with my finite amount of vacation time and budget.

I am toying with Curacao, but i can't seem to find trustworthy information about the diving.

Is Curacao worth a trip? Or if I am going to go down thataway, is Bonaire the only real option?

thanks and cheers!

[NADS]

Hi Haizel,

I returned from Curacao 4 weeks ago. I cannot compare the diving as I will not have tried Bonaire until September this year. I traveled solo and here are my thoughts.

The diving is good for carribean standards, I do find the carribean to be below the Red Sea, Maldives and Thai/Indonesian diving standards, The dive op's and there did not appear that many to me are hotel based so you need to be in one of the dive hotels like Lions Dive or Habitat to get the best service. There is no pick up from other locations. Unfortunately for me I decided on a price thing to stay at The Plaza which was in town, so had a $10 cab ride each morning because the beach cuortesy bus did not start until 9.00am

I originally enroled with Toucan Diving because of there Bonaire reputation. However these are two completely sparate operations Toucan is a trade mark of Plaza not the dive school management. On arrival, although I had dived in the 3 months previous I was asked to take a check dive. That's OK with me , a little safety first attitude is very good. However this was the only organised dive this school did in the first 3 days of my holiday. On the 3rd morning of little or no diving I packed my gear and walked up the beach to Ocean Encounters. Dived with them for 6 days. Did the same sites on 2 or even 3 occasions. That's also OK because I expect that traveling alone. At the end of the day I enjoyed my time, saw seahorses for the first time and thats what I went to see. But I have been better catered for on all of the other dive destinations I have been to and Curacao is bottom of my list so far although, Hawaii, Bali, Red Sea, Turks & cacios and Maldives are pretty steep competition.

I left with the impression that The island is fine for those who travel in 2 buddy pairs rent a pick up get there own fills and do there own thing. I am traveling to Bonaire in a group of 20, so we have 2 boats to ourselves and can do our own schedule, so that will be very different and hopefully will give me a real Antilles experience.

Please feel free to ask specifics

Neil