Suggestions for a beach day, plus 1 scuba diver

Greetings. We will be in Bonaire soon. There are 4 adults in our group. We all want a nice beach for the day, but we have 1 who would like to do a shore dive and would need a guide/equipment. Anyone have a suggestion where we can all go, enjoy the beach and our one certified diver do a shore dive from the same spot?

Greetings. We will be in Bonaire soon. There are 4 adults in our group. We all want a nice beach for the day, but we have 1 who would like to do a shore dive and would need a guide/equipment. Anyone have a suggestion where we can all go, enjoy the beach and our one certified diver do a shore dive from the same spot?

Wow, I could have wrote this post, except I won't be there till 2017. Bonaire reportedly does have some nice shore dives so this sounds possible. i hope you will report back what you do. I still have some time to prepare.

Bonaire reportedly does have some nice shore dives

that's an understatement! Bonair is all about shore dives. Very few dive sites require a boat; this is the place for diving on your own. Spending our first "week" on Bonair we found the included boat dives took us to the same places we could drive to on our own with the exception of going across to Klein Bonaire and that is not a 'necessary' destination to have a great visit.

The last time we went they still used this system: you pickup a guide book for the island's dive sites. As you drive the perimeter road around the island you see big rocks, painted yellow with a black number. Look up the number and you get info about the site ... where to enter, which way to swim, features to be on the lookout for, depth ... park the car, gear up and away you go ....

for example: #16 1000 Steps, This site was named for shore divers, who will find that the 64 steps leading from the road down to the beach seem like 1000 on the way back up. Immediately under the boat mooring are some outstanding formations of star coral. These have grown into high rising pagoda-like structures whose hollow cores provide homes for many reef creatures. Look inside for bluish of eggs guarded by the slate colored male sergeant majors. These ''pagodas'' are found in a few other places. Keep an eye out for handbill turtles and manta rays. Passing whale sharks have been spotted here. Depth 20-100 feet (6-30 meters)

http://www.tourismbonaire.com/includes/bonaire-dive-sites.pdf

to dive and snorkel at the same place you need a dive shop obviously so you best bet will probably be to use one of the dive resorts on the island. Most will have a "house reef" right next to their beach.

I'd start with Captain Don's

https://www.habitatbonaire.com/diving/

p.s. you will want to get familiar with the fee to use the underwater park ... as far as I know you must pay the ANNUAL fee even for one dive. A cruise excursion probably includes this in the price. It is mentioned on Captain Don's site

Thanks for all the input. I ended up booking a 2 tank boat dive with divocean.

They were great, picked me up, had my gear ready, nice boat, great diving, then they drove me back to the ship. I was back in time to go horseback riding with the rest of my group. Amazing day. Bonaire needs to be a week long trip for me to do more diving.

Enjoy!!!

Thanks for all the input. I ended up booking a 2 tank boat dive with divocean.

They were great, picked me up, had my gear ready, nice boat, great diving, then they drove me back to the ship. I was back in time to go horseback riding with the rest of my group. Amazing day. Bonaire needs to be a week long trip for me to do more diving.

Enjoy!!!

Hello there.

We will be there in Sept. Looking for a beach for the wives to hang out on while my buddy and I dive. Does Divocean have anything like that available?

Divocean would allow my wife to tag along for about $15, but she would have been bored on the boat. We did scuba off of Klein Bonaire where should could have hung out, but she opted to go to the beach with friends.