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which dive shops for *unguided* shore diving on Aruba & Curacao?


jazzydiver
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Going on a cruise this fall to the ABC islands - I have previously visited Bonaire on a week-long dive trip and am familiar and comfortable with the shore diving there. I already have plans there for my diving (unguided, with same buddy & travel partner).

 

 

 

My question is, are there any dive shops in Aruba and Curacao which have any easy, close-by shore diving? From what I can tell, there is easy-entry shore diving available on both islands. But when I research specific shops, it seems that all I'm seeing for shore diving is guided diving. Does any place have a nice house reef where we can rent gear and just dive? And not have to rent a truck? There are many places you can do this on Bonaire without having to hire a guide - how about Aruba & Curacao?

 

 

Thanks in advance for recommendations.

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OK, thanks, I will look into The Dive Bus some more for Curacao. I may wind up just snorkeling in Aruba - looks like it is easy to take the public bus to the beaches to the north and a couple are rated as decent for snorkeling.

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OK, thanks, I will look into The Dive Bus some more for Curacao. I may wind up just snorkeling in Aruba - looks like it is easy to take the public bus to the beaches to the north and a couple are rated as decent for snorkeling.

I, personally, would not pass up diving in Aruba. It's not the best diving in the Caribbean but it certainly far from the worst. In my opinion, it gets a bad rap because Bonaire and Curacao are so much better. If you like wrecks, find one of the smaller operators recommended in this forum and go dive. There are GREAT wreck dives in Aruba.

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  • 2 months later...

Just returned from my cruise and thought I'd follow up to this thread.  We used SE Aruba Fly N Dive and I definitely recommend them.  They don't automatically set up the gear for you, but are very helpful if you need assistance.  Did two-tank boat dive to the wreck of the Jane C and Barracadera reef.  Safety protocol was very good.  When one diver was getting low on air, the lead guide signaled for one of the other dive masters to accompany the diver to the surface, and the rest of us got to finish the dive - I appreciated this very much.  All around good service and I wouldn't hesitate to use them again.  They picked us up at the cruise port (had a sign with our names on it) and also drove us back to port.

 

In Curacao we chose not to dive but walked all around downtown area instead.

 

For shore diving in Bonaire I recommend Gooodive (yes, three Os) but our schedule was pretty tight for renting a truck, picking up gear, getting in two dives at 1000 Steps, returning dive gear, returning truck, walking back to ship.  Port time was 9:00 - 5:00 and we cut it pretty close.  We were return customers to Gooodive so they knew we had been through the Bonaire Marine Park protocol - if we had had to do a check-out dive we would have had to cut the other dives short.  To sum up, I recommend Gooodive but if you are new to diving in Bonaire and aren't there on an extended stay, you might want to choose either more catered service or diving from a house reef close to port.  Our plan worked for us because we are familiar with Bonaire.

 

Let me know if you have questions.  I appreciate the info I get from Cruise Critic and would be happy to reciprocate!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Porto Maria on Curacao has a lil dive shop, a natural reef further out and artificial one near shore for snorkelers and breakwater. It's a small funky nature park, dirt parking lot, bar/food shack. You have to rent a car. Halfway up the island. Do NOT take a tour or guided car up the island; they will force you to go to the distillery.

 

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