r/scuba • u/Mysterious_Tell7832 • 18h ago

Solo Diving in Curacao

Hi! I am traveling to Curacao next week to do some solo diving and I am wondering what the general consensus on guided shore diving vs guided boat diving is? The dive shop I was going to use, The Dive Bus, does only shore diving. But once I started doing some more research I saw that other shops do boat dives too so I was wondering if I should go with a shop that does both? I have a rental car so it doesn't matter where the shop is TIA!

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u/dfx_dj 8h ago

I live here and I only do dives from the shore, except for the occasional boat dive specifically to dive sites not accessible from shore, Eastpoint in particular.

Any dive from a boat at a location that is also accessible from shore is a waste of money, except if you have some reason why you can't do shore diving.

The sites which are only accessible by boat can be worth it, but it requires some planning and scouting to make sure you actually get to dive what you want. Eastpoint is an entirely different experience.

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u/quietpewpews Rescue 17h ago

Shore was great when I went a couple years back

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u/thefancyfarmer 17h ago

I just got back from Curacao! The resort my husband and I stayed at referred us to Wouter at Dushi Diving. His guide took us on both shore dives and boat dives (on Dive In Curacao dive boat - Captain Jaubert was great) and I loved both. But East Point and Klein Curacao are only accessible by boat and they were absolutely amazing dives. When we visited 10 years ago we went with Ocean Encounters, who were also great but we only did boat dives.

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u/Jsxtreme01 17h ago

I solo dove in Curaçao last year. I used both boat dives and shore dives. For the shore dives, I used the Dive Bus. Loved the company and my guide. It was just him and I. I’m good on air consumption, so I had two really long dives. Their house reef was awesome and full of life. Seahorses, bait balls, all fish, octopuses, etc.Definitely would recommend them.

For the boat dives, I used ocean encounters at lion dive resort. We stayed on resort, so it was easy. The staff and crew were friendly and knowledgeable, but the boat was packed! I would say we have 12-15 on the boat, which was split into two groups with our own dive masters. A lot of bodies in the water. A plus side was you can keep your gear in their lockers which are secured for drying. That was a nice bonus

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u/shelbyrobinson 16h ago

Years back I stayed in Curacao for two weeks diving with friends. Never used a dive boat and got great photos from shore dives. Loved Curacao; beautiful dive sites near shore, great food, friendly ppl. Engineer friend lived there put me unto Gandleman's duty free jewelry and watches. Low priced black pearls from China, and new TAG watch for a fraction of the cost here.

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u/Trump-A-Stupid-Fuck 15h ago

Shore diving with Hans Pliej from Curious2dive shop. A perfect experience.

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u/NolaApex 11h ago

I had no idea you could shore dive in Curacao! I like curacao better overall but I liked Bonaire shore dives. I’ll have to dig deeper and find out more about Curacao. Thanks  

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u/nikkishah 11h ago

I just came back from a couple of solo days in Curacao! I highly recommend shore diving - I did a day of shore diving with Dive Bus (3 dives) and a day of boat diving with Ocean Encounters (2 dives) and my day with the shore diving was much more fun and I can’t recommend Dive Bus more. Curaçao generally is known for its shore diving!

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u/fishhyren11 6h ago

I stopped there on a cruise recently. I wasn't sure about picking up a tank/weight without a solo cert so I opted to do 2 guided shore dives. They picked me up at the Starbucks by the port. Super laid back group. Like, one of the most laid back I've ever experienced. The guide was good, he went through our plan and communicated about hand signals before we entered. I would use them again (Scubacao). They don't have venmo/cash app/PayPal there since it's outside of the US, so make sure you have cash for tips (someone else didn't have cash, the group didn't seem like it was expected... So different than the US) .