Louise N
03-07-2005, 19:34
If you're thinking of going to Bonaire, let me highly recommend Bonaire Fun Travel to organise your trip. I don't work for them! My boyfriend and I went in Feb/March this year, and Bonaire itself was great.
The reason I am posting this is because, these days, there are generally so many companies out there offering crappy, impersonal, corporate service who don't give a toss once they've got your money. I was so pleasantly surprised by Bonaire Fun Travel that I felt I had to let the diving world know about them. So often we complain about companies but we ought also to give some publicity to those who get it right. You never know, it might make the others raise their game a bit.
Many people may have seen BFT's adverts in the Diving mags. They also have a stand at the Dive Show. They are a Dutch company, and currently have a sole fellow in the UK taking bookings from British divers. His name is Douglas Durrant and he really went out of his way to help, from shopping around for the cheapest and most convenient connecting flights to calling us after our trip to make sure we had a good time, and to see if there were any problems. How often does that happen?
He organised flights, self catering accommodation, pickup hire and diving (with an outfit called Wannadive - again excellent). He told us where we could go shopping and his favourite restaurants and dive sites. He is very familiar with the Dutch Antilles (visiting the islands every year to check out the accommodation), and encouraged us to call him at any time if we had any questions at all about the place.
To top it all, they offered the cheapest deal by MILES. The only downside (to some, maybe) is that they didn't accept payment by credit card (although you can use credit card cheques). We didn't mind as they were a good couple of hundred pounds cheaper than the nearest competitor. It's not often we go back to the same place, but we were so impressed that we decided to go back next year. No prizes for guessing who we'll be booking with!
The reason I am posting this is because, these days, there are generally so many companies out there offering crappy, impersonal, corporate service who don't give a toss once they've got your money. I was so pleasantly surprised by Bonaire Fun Travel that I felt I had to let the diving world know about them. So often we complain about companies but we ought also to give some publicity to those who get it right. You never know, it might make the others raise their game a bit.
Many people may have seen BFT's adverts in the Diving mags. They also have a stand at the Dive Show. They are a Dutch company, and currently have a sole fellow in the UK taking bookings from British divers. His name is Douglas Durrant and he really went out of his way to help, from shopping around for the cheapest and most convenient connecting flights to calling us after our trip to make sure we had a good time, and to see if there were any problems. How often does that happen?
He organised flights, self catering accommodation, pickup hire and diving (with an outfit called Wannadive - again excellent). He told us where we could go shopping and his favourite restaurants and dive sites. He is very familiar with the Dutch Antilles (visiting the islands every year to check out the accommodation), and encouraged us to call him at any time if we had any questions at all about the place.
To top it all, they offered the cheapest deal by MILES. The only downside (to some, maybe) is that they didn't accept payment by credit card (although you can use credit card cheques). We didn't mind as they were a good couple of hundred pounds cheaper than the nearest competitor. It's not often we go back to the same place, but we were so impressed that we decided to go back next year. No prizes for guessing who we'll be booking with!