We are planning a 12 days diving trip to Bonaire at the end of this month (Feb). It's our first time to Karibia. We are from north Europe.

Would it be easy to visit Belize and dive the Blue Hole with the same trip?

Toni..Welcome to BT. Personally it's tough enough to get to Bonaire from Finland. My advice once you're on Bonaire, stay there, dive and relax. The diving and island will keep you more than satisfied.
Perhaps I'll see you on island since we'll be down there that time frame. Enjoy!
PS since you're from Finland, REALLY watch the sun.

(Message edited by vini85 on February 3, 2010)

The sun is not a problem. We love it.
We are quite an active couple and we wish to do some other stuff too, not just diving. And my wife wishes to see the Blue Hole. We have already been diving in few of the best places in the world. The Blue Hole is in the list of places we wish to see some day.

So we are trying to think how to visit the Blue Hole and Bonaire in 12 days... And not much time to think anymore.

I checked some routes for you, thinking that maybe getting to Puerto Rico (SJU) or St. Maarten (SXM), then to Belize City (BZE) might work.....but I couldn't find any flights that didn't connect thru Miami (MIA).

So, from Bonaire to Belize is: BON/CUR/MIA/BZE.
From Bonaire to Curacao there are 4 airlines: www.fly-dae.com
www.fly-inselair.com
www.flydivi.com
And Easy Air: no site (that I know of), just: flyeasyair@gmail.com

From CUR/MIA, either Insel Air or American Airlines (AA also flies from MIA/BZE).

Good luck!

Toni, There is blue hole diving in the Bahamas, too. We did a few dives in one.
Here's a link to my little video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhB_gkTIvvM

Thanks for the tips. Is it really so that there is no boat connection between Bonaire and Curacao that we could use? Curacao is so close and it would be easier to fly from Curacao to Belize and have few dives in the Blue Hole. Bahamas is as difficult to visit and too close to US (full of turists?). Perhaps some other trip for it.

If we arrive to Bonaire is it NOT possible to go anywhere else for a couple of days by boat?

Toni, No one is answering you because there is no boat transpertation from Bonaire to other Islands. There used to be a shuttle to Curacao, but they discontinued it. Your only option is to fly to Curacao, or charter a private plane.

Toni, use search engines for CUR/BZE. There are no non-stop flights from CUR to BZE... If you really want to go to Belize from Bonaire, you must fly via Curacao and Miami.

I know geographically we look close, but the only way to get from BON to CUR, Aruba or South America is by plane. The seas are very rough, and the ferry trips were 4-6 hours long (vs a 25 minute flight) and bumpy when they did exist many years ago (read: people crying and vomiting for hours--extremely unpleasant).

If you want to see the Blue Hole, go ahead and see it, but I found it to be the least interesting dive in ten days of diving there...maybe that's just me. Other diving was nice, and cruising among all the tiny islands was fun, but the only interesting part of the Blue Hole, to me, was looking at the little creatures that had figured out how to live on the rim.

For me, this would be lots of effort for not much bang....

CB, I have to agree with you. That had to be the most boring dive i did the week i was there also.

The hole was boring?It was devoid of much life but far from boring.The huge stalactites and sharks kept me awake.The narcosis was also fun when my rented bc started free filling at 135 ft.

The other two dives that day were much more fun and beautiful!

That's my opinion, and I'm sticking to it. Never saw big sharks....that might change my mind.

The divemasters were also so freaked out that somebody might go deep that they herded us around like they were cattle dogs or something...they all seemed to do it.


The other diving there was fine; I just wouldn't go out of my way for the Blue Hole....


Toni, if you go, please tell us what you think.

We chose to go to Sint Maarten and Saba instead of Belize after diving in Bonaire.

Saba was chosen to 2nd best advanced diving place 2010 in the world.
http://caribbeantl.com/divings-2010-readers-choice-awards

I quess mainly beacuse of US voters? I can't imagine it would be better than Sipadan (Malaysia) or Similan (Thailand). But I hope it would be as good as Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt), exept there the Thislegorm wreck was just amazing!!

toni, how did you like Sint Maarten? We dove there and it wasn't great. They have no reef so it's mainly sunken barges to attract life. Any dive is better than no dive IMHO, but it certainly couldn't hold a candle to bonaire. while we were there, a day boat was going to Saba for diving. By the time they got to Saba everyone was seasick and opted to tour the island instead of diving...my husband and I made a little song about it (cause we got to dive St Maarten and at least got to dive)...

Saba Saba Saba Saba...please don't make me dive today...

wow, toni, just looked at your link....uh...I would NOT put St. Maarten at the top of the list for best diving...not even close. I've been diving St. Croix, BVIs, Bonaire, Mexico, Hawaii, and St. Marteen would be at the BOTTOM of the list. Seriously...I have heard great things about Saba. Hopefully you will be staying on Saba and not on St. Maarten and taking the "boat" over for dives.

Tink, we are going to Saba on next month. Belize was too expensive. We chose Saba based on that Diver's Magazine ranking. Now I am having doubts, but we already have booked accommodations on Saba and the flights from Bonaire to Sint Maarten. We'll arrive Bonaire at the end of this month.

My travel motto kind of is..."Even if you dodnt't like it, now you know.". But I hope you like it!

Toni, I think you will be in great shape if you are staying on Saba and diving there. If you were staying on St. Maarten and had to take a boat to Saba to dive, I'd be nervous.

Are you going to be staying on St. Maarten at all? If so I can recommend a couple of awesome topside activities on the water A couple of dives would certainly be OK. They do have BIG swells and so the boat ride is "fun" lol! My hubby and I were the only one's not sick...I like it like that though, an e-ticket! We used Dive Safari. They have a shop in Fredericksburg and Simpson Bay and I would highly recommend them.

"Toni, I think you will be in great shape if you are staying on Saba and diving there."

Why staying at Saba needs shape?
Do you mean the ferry trip to Saba? We have been in hard waves in Egypt and Thailand, 2-3h driving on one way. I never feel sick. I like waves! When I don't like them is after diving when getting back to boat...

We are at St Maarten for one night first, because we arrive there in the evening and the only ferry leaves early in the morning. After Saba we'll spend on St Maarten 3 nighs before leaving to home. We plan to dive one day on St Maarten. I just booked Le Flamboyant Hotel.

Toni, I like the big waves too and never get sick Again, it's an e-ticket! I see that Le Flamboyant Hotel is on the French side. We did like the French side better, it was less crowded. I can't recommend any dive shops there, but if you like to sail, I can highly recommend the 12 Metre they run out of Phillipsburg (not Fredericksburg). They have retired America's Cup Sailing boats and you can crew on one for a Regatta Race. It takes a couple of hours and was a complete hoot!

http://www.12metre.com/

I perused through this forum a lot before my trip and had a lot of questions answered.

http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/postlist.php?Cat=0&Board=stmartin

Toni, I think the word "shape" got lost in translation. I meant, if you were staying on Saba you would have great diving and no "worries." But, since you like the waves like me, you will be fine as well. I couldn't tell from the map I looked at if parts of the hotel are on the French, and parts are on the Dutch side. Dive Safari does have a shop in Simpson Bay, which is "fairly" close to where you will be.

Have a great trip and please let us know how it was!