Superb night diving with a kind nature expert - We were lucky enough to do two twilight dives with Martijn twice during our week long trip to Bonaire, and my husband and I immediately agreed this is the only... read more way we will do night dives in the future! Our trip coincided with the full moon, so when I learned about the ostracods, I knew I had to see them. Only problem is that I’ve had bad experiences on all three night dives I’ve ever done! So I was conflicted about how to make this happen, and so glad when I stumbled on Twilight diving. Corresponding with Martijn was easy and he picked a great spot for our first twilight dive, salt pier. It was just him, me, and my husband, and we had a phenomenal first dive - 6 or so octopuses, a seahorse, so many eels, gorgeous mini crabs we never would’ve seen, and afterwards he sent us a list of all the creatures! He is a nature expert and it shows (he also leads bird tours). A few nights later was the ostracods and words don’t describe how amazing that was. He was able to make it a twilight dive for us, which meant that our excellent dive culminated in the spectacular show. Martijn also makes things work - on the first dive my flashlight battery died mid-dive and he had backups, and on the second dive, my husband managed to forget his weights! Martijn gave him some of his and dove underweighted so we could still have this experience. Both dives were almost 70 minutes. I truly don’t have the words to capture how amazing our experience diving with Martijn was, and hope to have the chance to do this again. Night dives with Twilight diving are a must! (But also I wanna keep him secret so people can still have this special 1:1 experience).

  Very professional Martijn, highly recommend for personalized guide service - Martijn is a good communicator. While he could not host a blackwater dive, he suggested we do a bonfire dive with him. Despite an unforeseeable glitch in the parking situation... read more next to the Eden Hotel (the lot was packed for a HUGE party) Martijn readily assisted us with getting as close as we could to the shoreline entry point, safely. After a brief description of what we might see, he assisted my petite senior buddywith her gear. Historically, not a fan of night diving, this was very easy, the resorts a sparkling with lights, the bonfire lights are strong and the vertical columns of larvae and plankton are easily observed. Martijn shows his enthusiasm for his speciality and I would recommend him for any dive when you want an expert shore guide at a reasonable price . We appreciated that he was straightforward that not every night is a 'best night'. We observed the unusual ribbon fish in a post embryonic form that was attracted to our torches and interacting with the light beam:fascinating

  Unforgettable dives and excellent service & guide  - If you don't want to read my whole review, this is the very short summary: diving with Twilight Diving Bonaire has been unforgettable & is highly recommended!!

Now... read more for the long version: My buddy and I try to visit Bonaire every year and we both adore all the creatures under water, big and small. We’ve been doing a fair bit of “regular” night diving to get to know the critters who come out after sunset. But we’re no night diving experts, so this time we thought we’d up our night diving game by doing two guided dives with Twilight Diving Bonaire.

The first one was a “regular” night dive to a famous spot, where our guide Martijn Hickmann showed us many things I’d never found before, including gorgeous nudibranchs and the gaudi clown crab which had been on my wish list forever. This alone was enough to keep me smiling the whole day after! A few days later we also went with him on a so called “bonfire dive”, which is a type of blackwater diving I’d never heard of before.

For a bonfire dive, a light is placed under water well after sunset. This light attracts plankton which migrates from the sandy shallows every single night. The plankton in turn attracts larger critters who come to their own buffet, which are all fish and invertebrates in their larval stages in the most incredible shapes and forms. This may sound a bit vague if you haven’t experienced it yet, but I can best describe it as a shimmering black & white scene that feels like you’re looking into a microscope to witness the weirdest possible creatures moving right before your very eyes.

After a thorough briefing by Martijn (who is clearly one of the most relaxed and well-prepared dive guides on the island) we went in for an exhilarating experience. We saw the larval stages of tarpons, moray eels, mantis shrimp (they look like the happiest little creatures!), the larval stages of other shrimps and crabs, teeny tiny translucent baby fish and squid, the strangest and smallest jellyfish and so many things that we still need to ID.

I thought I knew a thing or two about ocean life, but clearly I knew nothing! This whole experience totally blew me away. For me personally it was an underwater rollercoaster of emotions when witnessing these insane shapes and beings – from laughter to yelling into my regulator in disbelief, from total joy to even a bit of crying-in-awe. Even if you’re less emotional than me, I’m sure you’ll have a completely unique experience that will forever change the way you see the underwater world.

I highly recommend Martijn and Twilight Diving to experience this with. He'll care for your safety, generously share his vast knowledge and helps you ID all the weird things you'll see. A truly unforgettable experience!

  Go-to for a night dive guide! - We cannot recommend Martijn and Twilight Diving enough! We went on a night dive at Salt Pier with him and he was an excellent guide. He pointed out... read more so many interesting critters that you normally would not spot. And after the dive he sent us a list of all the creatures we spotted on the dive. He was informative and made us feel super comfortable on the dive. We can't wait to get back to Bonaire and dive with him again!