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Captain Don's Habitat

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3 Stars

Jan - Dec

14.5 Hours

Advanced

From £2465

Captain Don's Habitat

  • 24 ocean view rooms/16 bungalows
  • Bed and Breakfast basis
  • Car Hire/Internet/Restaurant/Bar/Spa
  • Dive centre on-site
  • Great for all types of divers
  • Resort overlooks the sea

Captain Don’s Habitat is built on the water’s edge with a small sandy beach about 5 minutes’ drive north of the island’s capital of Kralendijk. The resort was founded in 1976 by the renowned underwater legend Captain Don Stewart who was at the forefront of environmentally sound developments on the island of Bonaire for many years. The pristine house reef accessible from the beach is awash with colourful parrotfish, angel fish, feisty sergeant majors, butterfly fish, scrawled file fish, grunt, gobies and groupers. An abundance of marine life surrounds the waters of this resort and even the most experienced diver will not be disappointed with this world class diving destination!

The resort offers an array of accommodation to suit all needs and pockets with 57 different types of rooms available including 12 deluxe junior suites, 16 two bedroom bungalows, 2 one bedroom bungalows, 3 ocean view villas and 24 deluxe ocean view rooms. All rooms are modern and comfortable in design and the resort can also cater for guests with limited mobility.

The oceanfront restaurant boasts excellent international and daily local specials, while the Pizza Temple offers authentic Italian thin crust pizzas with a wide variety of speciality toppings. Breakfast is served buffet style from 7am to 10am with eggs cooked fresh to order. Delicious salads, sandwiches, burgers and snacks are served daily at lunchtime in the oceanfront restaurant from 11.30am to 2pm. Dinner is a la carte apart from Monday nights which is “eat as much as you like BBQ” buffet from 7pm till 10pm. The Deco Stop Bar is the perfect place to talk over the day’s events or to organise the following day whilst enjoying the wonderful views and sunsets. Here you will be able to just kick back and relax!

Captain Don’s Habitat is a PADI 5 Star Gold Palm IDC and National Geographic dive centre offering guests the opportunity to dive the beautiful shallow reefs teeming with a wide variety of tropical fish, sponges and colourful corals just a few fin kicks from shore and access over 50 world class dive sites within 15 minutes’ boat ride. In the surrounding waters, divers can experience delightful schools of blue tangs and jacks, camouflaging frog fish, sea turtles, eagle rays, sea cucumbers and if you are lucky enough you may even spot a passing whale shark, dolphin pod or a manta ray! Also known as “The home of diving freedom” the Captain Don’s Habitat is a resort created by divers for divers! The Habitat concept of "Diving Freedom" means you can dive 365 days a year in a relaxed, fun and hassle free environment.

Board Basis

Bed & Breakfast Daily breakfast
BED

Ocean View

The 24 recently refurbished ocean view rooms are all air conditioned with a lovely view of the freshwater pool and the Caribbean Sea. Each room offers 2 queen size beds and a secluded balcony or patio with comfortable furniture.

  • Hairdryer
  • En-suite Bathroom
  • Air conditioning
  • Tea and Coffee Making Facilities
  • Satellite Channels
  • Mini Fridge
  • T.V.
  • Balcony
  • Telephone
  • Desk
Bedroom

Deluxe Junior Suite

The 12 deluxe junior suites consist of a king size bed, a queen size sofa bed and are complete with all modern amenities. Each room is tastefully furnished in Caribbean style with a patio or a balcony.

  • Fan
  • Hairdryer
  • En-suite Bathroom
  • Air conditioning
  • Living Room
  • Satellite Channels
  • Patio
  • T.V.
  • kitchenette
  • Telephone
  • Desk
  • iPod docking station
Two Bedroom Bungalows

Two Bedroom Bungalows

The 16 two bedroom bungalows accommodate up to 4 people easily, all are air conditioned and decorated in typical Caribbean style with a fully equipped kitchen, living room and a large patio area, the ideal spot for a relaxing evening.

  • En-suite Bathroom
  • Air conditioning
  • Living Room
  • Dining Area
  • Patio
  • T.V.
  • kitchenette
  • Telephone
One Bedroom Bungalow

One Bedroom Bungalow

The 2 one bedroom bungalows are fully air-conditioned and consist of a beautiful garden view. Tastefully decorated, each room offers a spacious dining and living area, a kitchen, a large bedroom, a large bathroom and a patio area with furniture.

  • En-suite Bathroom
  • Air conditioning
  • Patio
  • T.V.
  • kitchenette
  • Telephone
  • Living Area

Map

Available Experiences

Washington Slagbaai National Park

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Bonaire Mangroves Center

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The Cadushy Distillery

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Itineraries available in this destination

Click the enquire button to make an enquiry for this resort or if you are interested in a bespoke itinerary. One of our experts will discuss the products available and create your personal itinerary.

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What Our Customers Have To Say

Reviews from our Clients, Journalists, Photo Pro's and our own Experts

Our reviews and blogs are an additional guide to evaluate if the holiday is exactly what you are looking for or not. Some love an Eco-Resort, some love air-con and a flat screen TV, we aim to ensure you get what you are looking for, at great value for money.

14 days at the Captain Don’s Habitat with unlimited diving

We thoroughly enjoyed our 13 days diving at Captain Don’s Habitat. The staff at the hotel, Rum Runners restaurant and the dive centre made us feel very welcomed and did their best to make our stay enjoyable. The diving was excellent and certainly as good as any other warm water diving we have experienced. One highlight was the fluorescent night dive provided by Bonphoto. We have never experienced a night dive like it in 27 years of diving. It provided a completely different view of the coral and night creatures. We are already planning to go back next year.

I & E

14 Nights at the Captain Don’s Habitat

We enjoyed our holiday, the diving was great. Every year there seem to be more fish probably due to the marine reserve. We were in one of the refurbished rooms at CDs. Very comfortable and kept clean. Walk-in shower room with really good modern plumbing and plenty of hot water. The dive centre was as good as ever. Same staff as previous years. They recognised us and there was no need to go through the bureaucracy that we associate with other dive centres.

Ian S

14 nights Captain Don's Habitat

Bonaire is a super dive destination – beautiful reefs, abundant fish life and pleasantly warm water. The boat diving at Captain Don’s is very well organised with helpful, knowledgeable dive guides. Nitrox is free and tanks are available 24/7 for unaccompanied diving. The meals at Rum Runners restaurant are excellent quality and variety. This was our fourth visit and the fact that we’re already planning our next one says it all!

T Moyes H McCallum

Click the enquire button to make an enquiry for this resort or if you are interested in a bespoke itinerary. One of our experts will discuss the products available and create your personal itinerary.

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Captain Don's Dive Centre

Captain Don's Habitat

Captain Don’s Habitat is a PADI 5 Star Gold Palm IDC and National Geographic dive centre a NAUI Dream Resort, a SSI Referral and a TDI/SDI Training Facility. The centre is consistently rated as one of the best in the Caribbean, from the novice to the most technical of diver, the Captain Don’s Habitat dive centre can fulfil your every need with a state of the art, fully equipped and spacious boat used to carry you to the over 82 dive sites scattered around the island.

Offering a range of courses from beginner to instructor, from shore to boat diving the fully qualified, multilingual and professional staff are on hand to teach, assist or advise in a relaxed and friendly manner. At Habitat’s Dive Centre you have the choice to dive on air or nitrox, they even offer nitrox for your rebreather and tri-mix is also available!

The dive centre is centrally located within the resort’s complex for easy access from all rooms. They offer you three 1-tank boat departures daily and scheduled night dives to various dive sites on the custom built dive boats. Each dive site is limited to 1 boat visit at a time ensuring divers will have the reef to themselves.

Everything from simple air fills to Nitrox fills to Nitrox for your Rebreathers and even Tri-Mix are available at Habitat’s Dive Centre.

Captain Don’s Habitat Dive Operation is centrally located within the resort complex for easy access from all rooms. We have three 1-tank boat departures daily and scheduled boat night dives to over 70 moored sights on our custom built, dive boats. Each mooring buoy is limited to 1 boat so you’ll have the reef all to yourself.

Important notices:

STINAPA has recently launched a website to enable online payment of the Nature Fee. The famous plastic tags are phased out to reduce the production of plastic waste. All guests MUST pay the Nature Fee online through: www.bonairenaturefee.org.

It’s mandatory to print and bring your proof of purchase of your STINAPA Nature Fee and present it to the dive shop. Dive shops are not allowed to issue weights and gear without the payment proof. You need this proof of payment also to enter the National Park.

Diving Courses:

All courses include 5% sales tax. Study materials are included with the Open Water Course and EFR only. Certification fees are not included and will be charged at the dive centre.

Marine Park Fees of USD45 (annual) per person payable at the resort



Equipment Rental:per day

  • Mask, fins and snorkel USD10

  • Regulator USD16

  • BCD USD16

  • Wetsuit USD8

  • Computer USD13

  • Diving torch USD8

PADI Open Water Diver (Inc Equipment)

This is the most popular dive program in the world! And can be your chance to have a lifetime of intense adventures.

The PADI Open Water Diver course consists of three main phases:

Knowledge Development ( online, independent study or in a classroom) to understand basic principles of scuba diving
Confined Water Dives to learn basic scuba skills
Open Water Dives to use your skills and explore!

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PADI Advanced Open Water Diver

The Advanced Open Water Diver program gives you the opportunity to take your diving skill to the next level through three new areas of diving.
You complete your Deep Dive, Underwater Navigation Dive, Night Dive and two other dives for a total of five to attain your Advanced Open Water Diver certification.

This certification includes five dives, including the Deep Diver, the Underwater Navigation Diver and three of the following: You’ll plan your learning path with your instructor by choosing from a long list of Adventure Dives. There are two required dives – Deep and Underwater Navigation – and you choose the other three, for a total of five dives. During the Deep Adventure Dive, you learn how to plan dives to deal with the physiological effects and challenges of deeper scuba diving. The Underwater Navigation Adventure Dive refines your compass navigation skills and helps you better navigate using kick-cycles, visual landmarks and time.

The other knowledge and skills you get vary with your interest and the adventures you have – photography, buoyancy control, fish identification, exploring wrecks and many more.

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PADI Discover Scuba Diving

This course is a subset of the PADI Open Water Diver course. If you're short on time but really want to become a diver, the PADI Scuba Diver rating might be right for you.

The PADI Scuba Diver course consists of three main phases:

  • Knowledge Development (online, independent study or in a classroom) to understand basic principles of scuba diving – just the first three of five sections of the Open Water Diver course.

  • Confined Water Dives to learn basic scuba skills – just the first three of five dives of the Open Water Diver course

  • Open Water Dives to use your skills and explore – just two of four dives of the Open Water Diver course.

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PADI Open Water Referral

This is the most popular dive program in the world! And can be your chance to have a lifetime of intense adventures.

From the beginning to end of the course, you will learn the fundamentals of scuba diving, including areas such as dive equipment and techniques that will give you the confidence and skill to become a responsible diver.

You attain this rating by completing five pool dives and a number of knowledge development sessions with a final exam (which is not rocket science its just diving) and by completing four open water dives.

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PADI Rescue Diver

Become a Rescue Diver. A great level to be. You will have the skills to aid your fellow divers in an emergency.

The PADI Rescue Diver course prepares you to deal with dive emergencies, minor and major, using a variety of techniques. Through knowledge development and rescue exercises, you learn what to look for and how to respond. During rescue scenarios, you put into practice your knowledge and skills. Topics include:

  • Self-rescue

  • Recognizing and managing stress in other divers

  • Emergency management and equipment

  • Rescuing panicked divers

  • Rescuing unresponsive divers



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PADI Divemaster

Be a leader who mentors and motivates others. Gain dive knowledge, supervision abilities, and become a role model to divers around the world.

The PADI Dive master course teaches you to be a leader and take charge of dive activities. Through knowledge development sessions, water skills exercises and workshops, and hands-on practical assessment, you develop the skills to organize and direct a variety of scuba diving activities. Topics and practical workshops include:

  • The role and characteristics of the PADI Dive master

  • Supervising dive activities and assisting with student divers

  • Diver safety and risk management

  • Dive master conducted programs and specialized skills

  • Business of diving and your career

  • Awareness of the dive environment

  • Dive setup and management

  • Mapping an open water site

  • Conducting dive briefings

  • Organizing a search and recovery project and a deep dive

  • Conducting a scuba review and skin diver course

  • Assisting with Discover Scuba Diving and leading Discover Local Diving programs.



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