Dive Review of Dive Bus Curacao/we rented an AirBnB house near the in
Curaçao/16 sites spanning the island

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Dive Bus Curacao/we rented an AirBnB house near the : "Fine diving for the Caribbean, good dive operator for shore diving", Oct, 2023, by Lee The, CA, US ( Sr. Reviewer 7 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 12624 has 2 Helpful votes.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	We normally dive in the Philippines, Indonesia and New Guinea. Nothing in the Caribbean comes close to the diversity found there. But for the Caribbean, Curacao was excellent. Everyone else in our dive club has dived Bonaire so we were the first to try Curacao. Judging from what our friends say about Bonaire, it's still mostly shore diving but the beaches tend to be more developed, some with restrooms and restaurants and even some dive shops. The Dive Bus would have us load our gear from the drying racks into our boxes (one per diver) and then the panel van would take us to the site(s) of the day. We always had a dive guide from the Dive Bus with our group of four on each dive, often sculling backward to make sure we were all safe, towing a float at the surface for boat diving days. Reefs were healthy with abundant coral and fish (by Caribbean standards). This was our first diving since 2019 for the usual reasons and I'm 79, so we asked for and received assistance shlepping our gear from the van into the water, so we didn't have to carry it in on our backs. Likewise for the boat dives we got to hand up our gear rather than try to get into the zodiac-style boat with our gear on our backs. We did a night dive and that was nice and again well-supervised. We had asked in advance for a 20M depth limit for our dives and what I described above and they provided exactly what they promised beforehand. My sole complaint is that the boat they chartered lacked a rope along either side, no rope trailing behind, and a ladder that naturally slung itself under the round sides of its zodiac style, making it more challenging to get back in the boat than other types of dive boats would be (other than fishermen's jukungs in Indonesia). It wasn't a major hassle and you don't need a boat for most Curacao diving--mostly for the very fine diving off the NW tip of the island. Curacao is very civilized as Caribbean islands go, and we enjoyed poking around Willemstad the main town and other parts of the island when we weren't diving. The island also has a submarine operation that can take you down 500 or 600 feet for a lot of money and we did that too one day. Very interesting to do once. We would use the Dive Bus again for a return trip and we'd seriously consider a return trip for when we don't have the time for the looong journey from California to Indonesia. Prices were roughly the same as for America overall, unlike Indonesia.
Websites	Dive Bus Curacao
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	California, Canada, Mexico (Baja and Playa del Carmen/Cozumel/cenotes), Caymans, BVI, Hawaii (Maui and Big Island), Florida (E. coast and Keys), Philippines (Mindoro, Cebu, Negros), Indonesia, Australia (Lady Elliot Island+)
Closest Airport	Curacao	Getting There	redeye from SFO to Miami, morning flight direct to Curacao
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	80-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	just normal safe sport diving
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Well, go to Indo-Pacific for fabulous rarities. It was good here otherwise. The one fish we saw that we hadn't seen before was a spotted eel that was very active in daylight--reminded me of how sea snakes behave. Highly photogenic. The healthy reefs were good. Not much in the way of walls. Mostly sloping substrates out from the shore. Good for night dive photography--not a lof of backscattery stuff in the water. Fish weren't huge but not just teeny either. I like to take available light panoramas of the reefs and I got some decent shots of this type. And not a lot of surge & current to make it challenging. Most of the beaches we went to didn't have rinse tanks but the shop did so we'd do our camera rinsing there. So you need enough battery life for two dives.

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Dive Bus Curacao/we rented an AirBnB house near the in Curaçao/16 sites spanning the island

Dive Bus Curacao/we rented an AirBnB house near the : "Fine diving for the Caribbean, good dive operator for shore diving", Oct, 2023,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

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

Dive Review of Dive Bus Curacao/we rented an AirBnB house near the in
Curaçao/16 sites spanning the island