Dive Review of Caribbean Club - Buddy Dive Resort in
Bonaire/N/A

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Caribbean Club - Buddy Dive Resort: "After some reflection, we'd return to the Caribbean Club", Nov, 2016, by George Constantino, AK, US ( Contributor 14 reports with 3 Helpful votes). Report 9294.
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
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	The good is that the Caribbean Club Resort is part of the Dive Buddy Operation. It is located close to many great dive sites north of town. Our dive shop arranged a package deal that included an air conditioned room (well just the bedroom); a small pickup; a free breakfast and nitrox; reasonable access to tanks from 9:30a - 5:00p. We got all of this and the chance to dive our faces off on a number of marvelous Bonaire dive sites for a little less than $1,000 plus airfare. The bad was that we often found the tank locker nearly empty every morning; the gear locker was small and dirty; there was no light over the rinse tanks, so cleaning up over a late night dive was aggravating, the maid only came every other day and left the room dirty, and the food and drinks were marginal and over priced,the regular waitress was grouchy, and the tiny gnats extremely bothersome. In summary, staying at the Caribbean Club is much cheaper than at Dive Buddy. You get a comfortable conditioned 2 room apartment with a kitchen; a free breakfast that will fill you up and provide the makings for a sandwich for lunch; a decent stick shift pick;access to both 60 cc & 80 cc yoke tanks at both this resort and the main Dive Buddy Complex during the day; the dive shop has a friendly staff and is well equipped with rental gear an guide books. If you want a better appointed and more modern resort go to Dive Buddy or Captain Don's. It took some time to master shore diving at some sites when the swells were high. We loved diving on Bonaire and couldn't get enough of it from dawn to night dives. The health of the reef system was amazing. We found small groves of large and healthy Staghorn Coral and amazing patches of Elkhorn Coral (some 50' in diameter and 6' tall) at several sites. Many times I would just swim way out from the wall and admire the health of the ecosystem and abundance/diversity of the reef life. Our group encountered yellow frog fish, spotted eagle and manta rays, green and hawks bill turtles, octopus, three varieties of eels, the list goes on and on. We truly enjoyed diving Kapata, Cliff, Coco Beach- easiest shore access), 1,000 Steps, the Himalaya Hooker Wreck, Salt Pier, and the Dive Buddy House Reef for night dives as the huge tarpons that swim with you are impressive. Final thoughts. Buy one of the local dive site books. You can rent a DIN to Yoke converter for very reasonable price. Most of the dive resort vehicles are stick shift, so talk to the resort before you go if you need vehicle with an automatic transmission. Get the extra tanks you need for a night or early morning dive well before the tank shop closes at 5pm because you'll like only find a sea of empty tanks after 6pm. They have to hot fill hundreds of tanks every day so consider yourself lucky if you get one with over 2,800 psi at the dive site. It may read 3,000 psi when you pick them up but after they cool down it will read 2,700 - 2,800.We also found many tanks with small to large air leaks so check every tank for leaks, psi level, and nitrox percentage before you put them in your truck. I have to be honest getting into the water from the shore from many sites can be extremely challenging for older folks with creaky backs or knees or those with mobility challenges. We over came that by having these those folks use 60s and we carried their kits down to and back up from the site and in/out of wave zone so they could get their BCs and fins on in the calmer waist deep water.
Websites	Caribbean Club - Buddy Dive Resort [same]
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Alaska, California, Georgia and Florida Coasts, Keys, Bimini, Bahamas, Philippines, Mexico, Red Sea, Fiji
Closest Airport	Flamingo International Airport	Getting There	Easy Flight from Atlanta, GA
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, cloudy	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	82-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Your on your own unless you hire a local dive master so plan your dive and dive your plan
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	[None]

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Dive Review of Caribbean Club - Buddy Dive Resort in Bonaire/N/A

Caribbean Club - Buddy Dive Resort: "After some reflection, we'd return to the Caribbean Club", Nov, 2016,

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):

Dive Review of Caribbean Club - Buddy Dive Resort in
Bonaire/N/A