Dive Review of Buddy Dive Resort/Belmar Apartments in
Bonaire

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Buddy Dive Resort/Belmar Apartments: "Bonaire is open and still wonderful", Nov, 2021, by David Stoll, FL, US ( Reviewer 6 reports with 10 Helpful votes). Report 11720.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation	N/A	Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Our group of 22 stayed in four comfortable three-bedroom apartments at Belmar Bonaire. The reasonable price included unlimited air and nitrox tanks and two cars per apartment. We did only shore diving, so this review does not apply to boat operations. Bonaire's reefs are healthy, with lots of fish life. For fish ID people, we saw massive schools of blue and brown chromis, lots of bar jacks and surgeon fish/tanks, several spotted drums, various parrot fish, lots of trunk fish and filefish, some cowfish, many sand divers, and plenty more. Visibility was incredible. Some shore dive sites are a bit challenging to get into because of pointy rocks. Have sturdy boots. I wear full-foot fins only and got quite beat up on some dives and skipped others. Many sites have sloping walls down to about 90 feet. My favorite, Karpata, has more vertical walls interrupted by narrow sand channels. The house reef at Belmar is wonderful. As Buddy Divers supplies the tanks for Belmar, we could also pick up and drop off tanks at Buddy and dive their house reef. Because Buddy resort is much bigger than Belmar, the house reef there is not as healthy. Bonaire is not known for pelagics, so I was not surprised to see only one sting ray, no sharks, and no turtles. Others in my group did see an occasional turtle. Of course, there are plenty of tarpon. The Belmar properly has a nice pool but no restaurant. While there are lots of good restaurants in Bonaire, we mostly cooked in. Groceries are surprisingly inexpensive, at least to this Key Largo resident. We loved La Cantina (aka The Brewery) on our last night. As of this writing, to get into Bonaire, you must complete a health form and have a negative PCR test. The form is due online 48 hours before the trip, but you must also have a printed copy. The covid test must be done within 48 hours; do it as early as possible so you get results in time for the trip. On our dry afternoon before departure, we went to the Cadushy cactus distillery, which was fun, and drove through the park, which was gorgeous. My one complaint about Belmar: they arranged a Covid rapid antigen test at 9:00 am on the day before departure, and by the time the tester arrived and took all of our tests, we had lost more than half the morning. Given that this was our last day--last morning--to dive, we were quite frustratied. This is the reason the resort gets only four stars. Having got that out of the way, the staff was friendly and helpful, as is just about everyone in Bonaire. Check-in at Bonaire airport is extremely slow and (being outside) uncomfortably hot. This may have been an issue with American Airlines, as my friends on United and Delta got checked in very fast.
Websites	Buddy Dive Resort Belmar Apartments
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Caribbean: Cayman Islands, Bonaire. Bahamas, Cozumel, Honduras, Belize, St. Lucia, Saba, St. Kitts Pacific: Costa Rica Pacific, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Thailand
Closest Airport		Getting There
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	no currents
Water Temp	84-86°F / 29-30°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	80-110 Ft/ 24-34 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	None
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
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	I did not bring my camera this time, but Bonaire is wonderful for photographers.

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Dive Review of Buddy Dive Resort/Belmar Apartments in Bonaire

Buddy Dive Resort/Belmar Apartments: "Bonaire is open and still wonderful", Nov, 2021,

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 Buddy Dive Resort/Belmar Apartments in
Bonaire