If you’re visiting Bonaire, it is almost illegal to leave without experiencing our beautiful underwater world. And yes, of course, you can discover a lot while snorkeling, but the experience of snorkeling is not comparable to diving. Bonaire is the diver’s paradise, make sure you’ve been in paradise as well.

There actually are a few reasons why you should seriously give scuba diving a try. The first one: It’s a completely different world. Oceans cover more than 70% of the earth’s surface and we still don’t know very much about all the animals living in it. But the animals we do know are literally amazing. There are so many different types of marine life all over the world. And don’t forget about the corals, it may sound weird, but it is not guaranteed that we’ll always have these beautiful corals. Try to make sure that you don’t miss out on them and go for a dive in shallow water.

Diving is not just a funny activity; it is a way of life! Diving connects you to lots of new people, people who travel the world and go on underwater adventures. Always think about the next place you want to dive and meet new people, cultures and destinations. You’ll for sure meet a lot of new Dive Friends! While you’re busy exploring the marine life, you’re actually working out as well. During a 45 minute dive, you burn the same number of calories as during a low-speed run. And be honest, do you really want to prefer a low-speed run over DIVING!?

Feeling stressed? When diving the only thing you’ll hear is the bubbles rising to the surface and the sounds of aquatic organisms. If you get lucky and are on the right place at the right time, there even is a change to hear the singing of whales and dolphins. Because of neutral buoyancy, it feels like you’re flying underwater, become a pro and fly over shipwrecks and swim amongst big schools of fish. If you’re going to scuba dive for the first time, please accept that you won’t be able to feel 100% relaxed. Once the fear of being underwater disappears, you’re at the diver’s paradise, the best place to discover and relax at the same time.

Diving is a never-ending education process. It requires you to develop your knowledge and get a perfect technique. It is not only the marine life you should know a lot about, but you also have to know every detail of your equipment and how it works. Once you’re really comfortable underwater you should definitely look at the career opportunities, you’ll be able to work all over the world! Everyone at Dive Friends Bonaire would be pleasured to have you as our dive guest.

 

Dive everywhere with your marine pass

Everybody who wants to go diving on Bonaire is required to pay nature fee. The waters around Bonaire and Klein Bonaire are protected by STINAPA and called the Bonaire National Marine Park (BNMP). The park surrounds the entire island till 60 meters deep and you have to pay for all water activities. The scuba diving fee is $45,- and runs for one calendar year.

Once you’ve paid for your nature fee, you’re allowed to literally dive everywhere on the island. On Bonaire you can just drive somewhere and make a nice dive or use one of the dive sites for your adventures. Shore diving is the most popular way of diving on Bonaire. When you’ve had enough of all the shore diving, take a look at our boat dives. Come to our Dive Friends Bonaire @ Port Bonaire location and join our one or two-tank boat dives. If you want to know which dive sites you really do not want to miss, check out our blog about The best dive spots on Bonaire.

Bring boots, not gloves

While diving on Bonaire, it is not allowed to wear gloves. If you must wear gloves during your dives, make sure to bring a doctor’s declaration, not older than 30 days. Bring your declaration to the headquarters of STINAPA at Barcadera to get a permit allowing you to use gloves. If you’re catching, collecting, or killing lionfish, you can wear gloves, but do need

Something you really do need when diving in the beautiful waters of Bonaire are boots. At almost every dive site you’ll be able to enter from shore. To protect yourself from the reef, please make sure to bring boots or buy them at our Dive Friends Bonaire @ Retail & Dive store.

Buy reef safe sunscreen & leave everything underwater

To help STINAPA we can all do our part in protecting the waters of Bonaire. Starting from the moment you arrive on Bonaire. It’s very important for all of us to start wearing reef-safe sunscreen. A lot of sunscreens are really bad for our ocean ecosystem, but did you already know that the ingredients are also toxic to our human bodies? Especially when we’re exposed from a young age throughout our lives. Not only sunscreen is destroying our reefs, body lotions and shampoos are also very bad for corals. That’s why we at Dive Friends Bonaire use Sun Bum and Vertra, their mineral sunscreens are 100% reef safe, and they also have other body-related items. We’ve got a big collection of Sun Bum and Vertra at every location, our crew can’t wait to tell you all about 100% reef safe sunscreen.

As you might know, it’s also really important to not touch anything underwater. The reason you’re not allowed to wear gloves is to keep you away from touching corals. Try to keep a good distance (with your fins too) to make sure you never touch anything underwater. Keep in mind that you are NOT allowed to bring shells home from Bonaire. Everything except garbage has to stay underwater.

Bonaire’s climate

On Bonaire, the Caribbean sun shines all year round. It is almost every day 30 degrees Celsius/86 degrees Fahrenheit, and the water doesn’t get colder than 27 degrees Celsius/80 degrees FahrenheitAlthough the weather at Bonaire is perfect, we do have some rainy days. The ‘rain season’ runs from November till January and from may till august it’ll be windy. Which makes December till April peak season, everybody is trying to escape their cold winters.

Cameras

If you don’t take a camera to Bonaire, you should go back home and get it or rent it at one of our locations. At the surface you’ll be able to shoot beautiful nature pictures, or just you with a Caribbean cocktail, it doesn’t really matter the view will make everything look great. Especially for diving we’d recommend you to take an underwater camera with you. The visibility here is perfect, so if you’re new with making pictures underwater, Bonaire is the perfect place to expand your skills. If you’re already an underwater photographer, but want to be a real expert, follow our underwater photography course. If you’re planning to do something with underwater photography, be sure to visit the photography center at our Retail & Dive location,

Rent a car

Last but not least, rent a car when you’re on Bonaire. Without a car you won’t be able to do some exploration. Of course, you can go scuba diving somewhere close to your accommodation, but if you want to get to other places, you definitely need a car on Bonaire. We offer guided shore dives or boat dives, but if you want to go for a dive yourself, no one is going to bring you to the best spots. If you’re planning on diving with Dive Friends Bonaire, we can rent you a pick-up truck at one of our partners. For more information and prices, send an email to: info@divefriendsbonaire.com. We really recommend you to be independent and rent a cool pick-up truck while visiting Bonaire, it will be worth it!