Beyond Bonaire: Shore Diving In The Caribbean

by George
(Sandpoint, Idaho)

We have gone scuba diving and done shore diving in Bonaire several times. Unfortunately, my wife gets sea sick at the drop of a hat.

We would like to try some other Caribbean shore diving destinations and would like a recommendation on other islands that offer something close to Bonaire. Any suggestions?

Hi George,

Don't I wish there was something close to Bonaire and its ease, quality and quantity of shore diving! It really does stand alone in that respect. However, there are some options that may work for you.

Bonaire's sister island, Curacao, is probably the next best option. They have about 40 wall dive sites that are accessible from shore. I talk about it on my Curacao diving page.

Curacao even has a dive bus that you can take to different dive sites and do shore dives from there. I haven't used it so I can't give you a personal review but it looks interesting. You can find a link on our Curacao diving page.

Roatan, Honduras is another place we have done some shore diving. We stayed at CocoView and you can dive off the shore there 24/7. There is a wall that goes off to the right and left.

While that may get old if you are there for a week, many of the other sites they go to are a very short boat ride away. Many are a 2-5 minute ride.

There are also more shore diving sites on the other side of Roatan from CocoView. The big dive place on that side is Anthony's Key Resort. I haven't stayed there but we have friends that did and they only had good things to say about the resort and the diving.

A little closer to home is St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. I know they have some shore diving - of course not as much as Bonaire.

When we went to St. Croix we went out on a boat. The diving was OK - but certainly not up to Bonaire standards.

Hopefully this has given you some ideas. It's a bit harder when you start at the top but there are some places worth considering.

If you go, please let us know how your trip went. We would love to hear.

Great diving!

Dianne