Dive Review of Buddy Dive Resort in
Bonaire

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Buddy Dive Resort: "Great shore diving in Bonaire", Aug, 2015, by Alice Ribbens, MN, US ( Contributor 19 reports with 21 Helpful votes). Report 8339 has 2 Helpful votes.
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	We stayed at Buddy Dive as part of a REEF group of 20+ divers. We had a package that included our condo, a rental car (pickup truck with tank racks), 6 boat dives, breakfast every day (unlimited buffet, including omelette station), free Nitrox, and unlimited tank fills for shore diving. Buddy Dive has two restaurants: Blennies is more casual bar food and Ingridients is more upscale. Both restaurants have good food, but the service is a little hit or miss. The rooms are modest, studios or 1-3 bedroom units with limited air conditioning. Each unit included a small kitchen with basic pots, dishes and utensils. The rooms were cleaned daily with new towels as needed. We did find a grocery store and cooked a few meals, but it was a little comical given the limited utensils and pots and pans provided (no can opener, only 1 knife, etc.). Bonaire is known for shore diving and Buddy's has a drive through station where you can pick up tanks. Although you are limited to two tanks per person, it is no problem to pick up tanks the night before so you can go dive first thing in the morning. You just pick the dive sites you want to go to, hop in the truck, and go. If you get to a site where a bunch of people already are, you can just head down the road to another site. Most of the shore dives have fairly easy entries, although some do involve climbing down stairs or in over rocks. (Wear dive boots with good soles--this is not a place for full foot fins!) The vast majority of the dive sites are on the west, or lee, side of the island and are thus protected from most of the open ocean waves and surges. The dive sites generally start with a sandy patch before you get to the sloping reef which starts at about 20 feet so you can dive as shallow or as deep as you want. The reefs were pretty and generally had a good number of fish. Bonaire is also known for its large number of species present on its reefs although people who had been there years before said the diversity of species had gone down. You don't need a flag and float to shore dive. (Also gloves are not allowed. Neither are pointer sticks.) Before you can dive, however, you have to do an orientation session and "check out" dive on the house reef. They say the check out dive is to check your weights and gear, but no one actually monitors you doing it. The house reef is very nice. I wasn't thrilled about getting in the water with a zillion other people on the house reef, but it wasn't much of an issue. Although Buddy's normally maxes out their boats with 16 divers, they decided that our entire group would be on the same boat at the same time for our boat dives. They also only initially had one divemaster in the water with all of us--and that divemaster wanted all 20-24 of us to stay in one group and follow her. Some of our divers were newer divers and/or had some physical limitations and needed some extra help. But we also had a number of very experienced divers who were used to diving on their own and diving their own profiles. I have never been on a day boat or a liveaboard where divers were not divided into smaller groups and/or given the option to dive their own profile. Many people went off to dive their own profile anyway, even after being told not to. (It seemed really weird that they were willing to hand us tanks and tell us to do whatever in terms of shore diving, but wanted to treat us differently when we were on the boat.) After the first boat dives, they added another divemaster who was supposed to help "herd" us. People started skipping boat dives even though they were prepaid. Also, the boat crew seemed only minimally interested in helping us in and out of the water--other divers were assisting with cameras, fins, etc. Yes, there were a few sites they took us to on the boat that we could not get to by car, but if I were to go back to Bonaire and stay at Buddy's, I would skip the boat dives altogether and just shore dive. I ranked the dive operation 3 stars--Loved the drive through and ability to pick up tanks whenever. Also the rinse tanks available at the drive through and on the docks. However, was less than impressed with how the boat operation was run. 3 stars is kind of averaging out both parts.
Websites	Buddy Dive Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Fiji, Cozumel, Akumal, Sea of Cortez, Belize, Honduras, GBR, Palau, Maldives, Indonesia, Turks & Caicos, Bahamas, Caymans, British Columbia, Hawaii, Monterey, Key Largo
Closest Airport	BON	Getting There	Delta through ATL United through Houston or Newark
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	calm
Water Temp	76-78°F / 24-26°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	75-100 Ft/ 23-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	For shore diving, you could dive your own profile. Boat diving: max depth 100 ft and they wanted you to end your dive after 60 minutes.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	None	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	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	I am not a UWP, but my husband is. The drive through station and rinse tanks on the dock have dedicated camera only buckets. On the boats however there was only a small bucket that was usually only about 1/3 full.

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Buddy Dive Resort in Bonaire

Buddy Dive Resort: "Great shore diving in Bonaire", Aug, 2015,

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 in
Bonaire