Bonaire: Divi or Habitat?

I recently went to Habitat Curacao and had a fantastic time...looking to try Bonaire now and am not sure where to stay. Habitat Curacao didnt offer much for cuisine and I have read Divi Bonaire would be the better bet for food in the area. Is the diving just as good?

any comments would be helpful

Did not stay at either but had a great time in Bonaire. I would not do a package deal because there are so many great places to eat, boat dives are a waste of money and there are great places to stay. Book a trip with Larry's Wild Side Diving and book Town & Salt Pier dives on arrival. Also get some booties with a heavy shoe sole. Here is a trip report and slide show link that will give you an idea...

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t...aire+a+la+carte

http://www.photodex.com/sharing/viewshow.h...l=2307605&alb=0

Man, Bonaire has some great food and there's no reason to sign up for food at just one resort. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

I also agree that the boat dives are a waste. You're catch the boat around 8:00 to 8:30 and you're lucky if you get back to the dock by noon for a one tank dive. I would have rather done two shore dives and be in town for lunch in the same time.

If you want to dive Town Pier or Salt Pier, you need the harbormaster's permission. So you'll need to get your dive shop to make the arrangements as soon as you check in with them. I missed Salt Pier because I didn't make arrangements soon enough. Town Pier is a pretty good night dive, but its still got too many folks on the site for me.

I bought my fiancee an interactive dive with Dee Scarr and Dee took us to Town Pier one afternoon. We got almost 2 hours on the site and there were only three of us on the pier. She knows where all the critters are on that site, and has named most of them. She also shows you a bit about the ecology and environment of the reef. Fantastic. You might could probably get her to DM/critterspot for you if you asked for a trip on Town Pier. Well worth the money, I thought.

When we went to Bonaire, we stayed at Yacht Club Apts. Basic and cheap, but we only slept there. You'll want/need a truck rental to get to all the sites on the island... and then you'll be diving at your own pace.

It's hard to beat Buddy Dive....IMHO

Karl

Both Habitat and Divi have good food options in easy walking distance but most people rent a vehicle or get one as part of their package so if you have a car you can eat wherever you want.

Divi is within walking distance of town. The property is not as nice as Habitat but a good value.

Habitat is a nicer property and has a slightly better house reef. You can walk to several other properties from Habitat (with restaurants/bars) but it's a little too far to walk to town.

The dive op's at both are good. Restaurants are about equal at both - not the best on the island by any stretch - but good.

I go a little against the grain here and usually do more boat dives than shore dives. The shore diving options are without a doubt the best in the Caribbean but I like the convenience of the boat dives and you get a lot less sand on your O-rings. I'd get a package that includes at least some boat dives and then you can make up your mind about which you prefer for your next trip to Bonaire. Believe me, there will be a next trip

I stayed at Captain Don't Habitat many time and the house reef is spectacular. Although I never dived at Divi, I am told by many divers that the house reef in Habitat is superior. The restaurant at the Habitat, as well as the resort in general, is excellent. Habitat has the best thin-crust pizza I ever had in my life!

Tov

Just got back from diving with Divi all week. We boat-dove lots of the shore sites as well as Klein sites. DMs did a great job of finding the seahorses, frogfish and lots of little stuff. We didn't get harassed for doing longer dives, which has happened to me in other places before. Felt like I was diving on my own time with my own personal fish-finder....

Paul Allen's little boat finally moved off the pier, so some of us got to night dive town pier (which now requires prior authorization from harbormaster, passports etc) which DMoss has some incredible photos from...

They have great breakfast at the Divi too! Ate at most of their other restaurants which were all good. Every restaurant we ate at, except maybe Mona Lisa, were all fairly reasonably priced ($20.00ish dinner US) for a 'destination' restaurant, but growing up the son-of-a-butcher, I know most of the steaks I had were not beef..

I would take a group back with no worries.

Haven't been to Habitat...