Dive Review of Buddy Dive Resort in
Bonaire

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Buddy Dive Resort: "Nice resort but too crowded", Feb, 2017, by Todd Lichtenstein, NJ, US ( Contributor 12 reports with 5 Helpful votes). Report 9487 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	My wife and I stayed at Buddy Dive in January. There was nothing drastically wrong with this resort, but for us it was way too crowded. The hotel itself is very nice. The grounds are pretty and the restaurants were very good. I really liked the breakfast buffet. We had a one bedroom suite. It consisted of a separate bedroom, bathroom, kitchen area and living room. The room decor was spartan. They could have used some more artwork on the walls. One especially bothersome feature was the sliding glass door to the patio which took brute force to open. The handles on the door were broken off and the aluminum door track was corroded and needed lubricating. I called the front desk to alert them of the problem but nothing was ever done about it. The dive operation was well run but again very crowded. If you didn't want to do shore diving (as we didn't) there were dive boats that went out at 8am,10am and 2:15p. In order to reserve your space on a particular boat you had to put your name on a blackboard. Sometimes we couldn't get on a particular boat because there were so many people wanting to dive. Dive gear was stored in an enclosed area and every couple had to share a locker. We have a lot of gear as divers so we had to shove all of our gear into a small locker. Buddy Dive needs to rethink their gear storage so that there is more room for each person. We hung our wetsuits up in this gear storage area. There were not enough hangers or space and sometimes we had to hang our gear up far away from where our locker was. Also I was so afraid that someone would take my wetsuit and dive skin by mistake. There should have been some sort of tag system so that one could easily identify one's wetsuit and other hanging gear. The boats, crew and dive masters were very good. The dives ran very smoothly except for one boat dive which left more than a half hour late. With our package we had a truck to do shore diving and drive around the island. The condition of the truck left a lot to be desired. The suspension was shot and it was incredibly hard to get the manual shift into reverse. I also suspect that the tie rods were going because sometimes when I turned the wheel there was a clunking sound. To sum it all up Buddy Dive is great if you don't mind being with a lot of people. It is crowded but well run. It was not the place for us. Next time we will try and find something smaller and more intimate.
Websites	Buddy Dive Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	251-500 dives
Where else diving	Lembeh, Maldives, Galapagos, Cocos, Dominica, Cayman Brac, Little Cayman, Papua New Guinea, Andaman Sea, Raja Ampat, Blue Heron Bridge, Philippines
Closest Airport	Bonaire	Getting There	Non stop on United from Newark
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	79-81°F / 26-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-75 Ft/ 15-23 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	1 hour time limit
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	[None]There is no photo room at the dive dock. There are 2 rinse tanks dedicated only for cameras.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

Subscriber's Comments

By Greg Bruce in WA, US at Feb 17, 2017 08:24 EST

Next time, go with Den Laman condominiums. In the same vicinity as Buddy Dive. A bit south from Buddy, just off of the roundabout. It is exactly what you are looking for.

By report author: Todd Lichtenstein in NJ, US at Feb 17, 2017 08:36 EST

Thanks. We stayed at Den Lamen a year ago. We loved the place. We didn't like the dive operation. I have since learned that the dive operator there has changed. Dive Friends now run the dive operation.

By Greg Bruce in WA, US at Feb 17, 2017 08:42 EST

We were not fans of the dive op either and it was the one thing that had me second guessing returning there. We are mostly shore divers though, so not as affected, but we still hated their lengthy orientation talk on day 1 that ruined 1/2 a day and their tanks always leaked and had bad o-rings and I could go on. We loved the condos though. We stayed in a 2 bedroom waterfront with another couple. Now that Dive Friends is the new dive op, we will definitely return.

By Lynn Thorne in NC, US at Feb 25, 2017 17:33 EST

We like Belmar Oceanfront Apartments. Small resort with great house reef. We mostly do short dives though.

By Lynn Thorne in NC, US at Feb 25, 2017 17:33 EST

We like Belmar Oceanfront Apartments. Small resort with great house reef. We mostly do short dives though.

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Dive Review of Buddy Dive Resort in Bonaire

Buddy Dive Resort: "Nice resort but too crowded", Feb, 2017,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subscriber's Comments

Dive Review of Buddy Dive Resort in
Bonaire