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Dive Review of Dive Friends Bonaire in
Bonaire

Dive Friends Bonaire: "Courtyard Marriott/Dive Friends", Oct, 2018,

by Bob Pennal, CA, US ( 1 report). Report 10571.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 5 stars Food 3 stars
Service and Attitude 4 stars Environmental Sensitivity N/A
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving 4 stars
Snorkeling 5 stars
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 4 stars
Comments [In 2016 I attended the SCUBA Show in Long Beach, Ca. The Courtyard Marriott Resort (CM) had recently opened in Bonaire, I spoke with their representative and decided to book a trip for 2018. I had always heard of Bonaire famous shore diving and finally decided to go, also I booked my lodging with Marriott reward points.

We flew San Francisco-Houston-Bonaire, United, easy flights. Rented a small SUV (Majority rent little trucks)and headed to CM next to airport. Beautiful resort, new, clean and very friendly staff. The restaurant is very nice, outside and covered. It has a nice swimming pool. Rooms were very nice and clean. In the morning we checked in with the Dive Friends (DF)dive shop and paid for our dive license(*STINAPA)and then headed to a shore based dive shop to be checked out (buoyancy test). We were good to go. CM Dive Friends shop is fully staffed (great people)and full service. We were given lockers and showed how to check out our air tanks. DF has agreements with 6 other air stations around the island for air.

Buy a Bonaire dive site book and hit the road. Just stop at the yellow rock "Alice in Wonderland", read dive description and jump in and dive. Hard sole booties are a must, a lot of walking on coral. Dives very easy-advanced, no gloves, not a lot of pelagic, large fish. However the reef's are very healthy and a lot of macro photo moments. We would break and eat lunch, they have some great food trucks, highly recommend Kite City and King Kong. Highly recommend a night dive at the Salt Pier and a Klein Bonaire boat dive.

What I enjoyed the most was the time schedule, NONE !! We normally dive resorts with scheduled boat dives in AM, and PM dives later. We slept in, grabbed tanks and went diving when we wanted to. US currency and you drive on right side of the road. We were very lucky because Bonaire was having the Bonaire Regatta (Oct 10-12), dancing, music and plenty of food vendors. Just a great trip !!None]
Websites Dive Friends Bonaire   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience Over 1000 dives
Where else diving Truk Lagoon, Palau, Fiji, Cayman Islands, Turk and Caicos along with the entire west coast of California
Closest Airport Fresno FAT Getting There San Francisco to Houston, Houston to Bonaire

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny Seas calm
Water Temp 82-86°F / 28-30°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 75-100 Ft/ 23-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Entire trip my wife and I did shore dives,we dived our own profiles. Set up a boat dive with CM Dive Friends for Klein Bonaire, short boat ride nice dive sites, boat limited dives to 60 minutes, divemaster guided however you could dive your own profile within the time limit.[Unspecified
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks None Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles 1 or 2 Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 2 stars
Large Pelagics 1 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 3 stars
Overall rating for UWP's N/A Shore Facilities 4 stars
UW Photo Comments Only used my GoPro
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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