Just a few days ago, Scuba Diving magazine released its 2011 Readers’ Choice Awards. Once again, this year, Bonaire earned several top votes, including four #1s and 7 #2s in categories such as best diving, best macro life, best value for the dollar, best reef health, and many more.
I just had to say, I couldn’t agree more. Well done, readers.
I have been to Bonaire for 4 dive trips in 4 years, and am planning my 5th in 5. It is just an incredible place. Everything about it is wonderful. From the moment I touched down at Flamingo International Airport on June 21st, 2007 (yes I remember the exact date- it was that important), I was hooked. I was only 14 months certified, but I knew I was on to something pretty special.
The people there are incredible, the island such a rare and unique blend of ecosystems that amount to unspeakable beauty. The other divers you meet are most often quite friendly- it just seems that everyone on the island is very happy to be there.
The diving, even several hundred dives later, keeps me coming back. It truly has something for everyone. I know people who have taken their first breaths there, and tech divers doing stage decompression on the Windjammer up north. From 0-5000+ dives, I don’t know anyone that doesn’t have a great time every time they dive there.
Visibility is excellent, with the worst in 4 years for me being about 55 feet. Water tempertature hovers above 80 year round. Coral and fish life is excellent, thanks to Bonaire’s decades-old pioneering marine preserve. Currents are almost never there, and on the majority of my dives I have had to sit for a minute or two and try to figure out which way it was flowing in order to start my dive into the current. That mild. The weather is very mild (especially compared to my Florida summers) due to the lack of humidity. Rain is pretty infrequent there, minimizing chances of having weather ruin your trip.
You may have had the pleasure of being on a customized dive boat, where everything just seems to fit together perfectly, and be right where it needs to be, with no detail overlooked, making for a great experience. Bonaire is like that, just in island form.
The ease of entries for the shore dive there makes for an incredibly relaxed and incredibly rewarding style of diving, found in very few other places.
To be certain, there are many other places that boast extraordinary diving, there is just something really special about Bonaire. I can’t say enough about it or recommend it strongly enough to every diver (and their non-diving friends and family!). Many pictures on my site were taken there, and it holds a special place in my heart.
I receive many inquiries for trips on my site, and no matter where people want to go, or where else I recommend, or what they are looking for, I always seems to come back to Bonaire (if only for comparison in my mind), for the value or experience or quality.
It is just a tough place to beat, no matter how you look at it.
Dive in!
All the best,
Devon