Buddy Dive Resort

First time to the island and Buddy's, we will be back for many years to come! I have not felt so at ease getting into the water, especially right after arriving. We had the same dive master for 7 of our 9 boat dives. All 9 dives off boat were AMAZING!! The briefing when you arrive is super since you are able to get clear instruction about the resort, the reef, their procedures. The room was clean, ac worked exceptionally well. Housekeeping made sure we had everything. The house reef is incredible. If we didn't have the boat dives we would have been super happy just staying on the home reefs. We were on the same boat all week, the schedule was posted and super clear. The crew was awesome. They took us to super sites, and the last day... we were so incredibly happy when one of our divers found a big seahorse!! Our guide found the second one about 15ft away. Both were under the boat at Pitre's Pillars. Our group are slow divers, lots of cameras. Everyone except us in the group has hundreds of if not thousands of dives. We are the newest members at getting close to 100. We will both break that number when we visit next year!! Each time we went out, the guides gave us full briefings, they made sure the conditions were super, and we were shown so many cool small creatures. If you have patience, you can find yellow headed jaw fish in the sand close to shore. The house reef is full of life. We were completely blown away. Looking forward to next year.

We love Buddy Dive Resort and enjoyed our recent week there. We requested a ground floor room that was handicapped accessible and that's what we had. Great room and good housekeeping service. We purchased the full meal plan, since we didn't rent a vehicle this trip. The food was good and the menu varied. We enjoy the shore diving off Buddy's dock and the staff was very helpful. I put my gear on and off in the water and there was always someone available to lend a hand. The only thing on my wish list for the resort would be for them to have handrails at the pools. Our room opened up onto a poo;, but the lack of a handrail made it impossible for me to feel safe going in and out, so I passed on using the pool. It would also be great (as the quests age) to have lounge chairs that are a bit taller and easier to use. We've noticed that our fellow travelers are getting older (as are we) and making common areas safer is going to be a plus going forward.

This was our third time at Buddy's in as many years. The resort remains one of the best run and organized you could ask for. The resort is comfortable, efficient without any of the manic feel of a Carnival cruise or old faux-testosterone overloaded experience of too many dive shops and resorts of yesteryear. This place caters to divers - of all and any ages, but if you're looking to do shooters of a waitress' navel - look elsewhere - preferably far away. The staff are knowledgeable, helpful and friendly. While we are experienced divers we got to observe some of the instructors in action and were impressed with the quality of instruction and insistence on proper technique and etiquette. The tank farm remains a marvel - in no small part due to Marlon a smiling mountain of a man. Pressures and Nitrox percentages are aways a little generous for the former and spot on for the latter. We dive a combination of shore / boat dives. The boats are well-skippered, dive guides - for the most part - are exceptional. Recent infections have put the reef under strain - especially brain corals. The resort and the entire island are fighting hard to serve the biosphere and livelihood, but, as in some many places, it's going to ba a struggle. The diving was excellent and let's hope it remains that way. To return to one place so often and regularly is unusual for us - there is a lot of ocean we haven't seen, but Buddy is the exception to that rule. It's become a go to place and a destination to which we would always say "sure."

This was our second time at Buddy's, and we will not return to Buddys due to poor and inconsistent billing practices that are always in their favor and very frustrating. Several people had very similar billing problems including mysterious massive bar tabs for people who never went to the bar and don't even drink, they added a night stay, and when we were being helpful and pointed out a problem with a vehicle they just made it our fault and added the cost to our stay without discussing it. They will not remove the costs and they will only consider giving credit. I'm not interested. The food is ok, and dive operations are good, but the reef is also suffering the most particularly around Buddy's resort. South end reefs are much healthier. I'm canceling our trip here in 2025.

This is not a resort you want to come to. The development is not well-maintained. I have completed dives in multiple places in the Caribbean and Australia, and this was the least supportive staff that was focused on entertaining themselves. The dive Masters do not help with setting up equipment or concerned about issues you’re having, and did not keep track of our group during boat dives. The boat captains could care less about you and will not give you the time of day

How could you rate the paradise ? We visited the island with a dive group for a week diving. The resort is perfect in every aspect for divers. The dive system and operation, the dive site, the location, the resort in general is a blesing for divers wanting to dive a beautiful place. Besides all related to diving, the rooms, breakfast, pool, parking, location, everything is just perfect. Further more the personel and clerks are so friendly and kind, making everything possible for an unforgetable dive vacation. I strongly recommend this resort. If I ever visit Bonaire again, no doubt that I will select Buddy Dive Resort.

This was our first vacation to Bonaire and Buddy Dive resort. There are four areas that need to be highlighted: Room/Apt: We stayed in a one bedroom suite with a garden view. It was very clean and well maintained. It was a tad dated, but we didn’t spend much time there. The air conditioning worked great in the bedroom. That is the only air conditioning unit in the suite but they provided a large van to pull the cold from the bedroom into the living area. We had a large capacity fridge which was great for drinks and snacks. We really loved our patio and it was nicely secluded by the neighbors. Food: We ate breakfast each morning. They do a nice job of catering to the European guests and American guests. They had equal parts of hot items (eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, etc) and cold items (cheeses, meats, fruit). They also made omelets or fried them on the spot. We ate at Blennie’s the night of our arrival and had the Steak Night. We enjoyed our steaks and our sides were a sweet potato, corn on the cob and mixed veggies. The corn was inedible - I think it was overcooked but the rest was good. We also had lunch there later in the week. My husband thought the pulled pork was phenomenal. I had a chicken caesar salad and their idea of caesar dressing missed the mark. It tasted more like mayonnaise. We are intermediate divers with almost 100 dives. I am not very comfortable walking a long distance with my 50 lbs of gear. We tried Bachelor’s Beach which is one of the easier entries and I kinda panicked and we stopped the dive. However, we were very happy diving Buddy Dive’s house reef. It is very healthy and the juvenile fish are plentiful to say the least. One plus of staying at the house reef was it was super quiet. Many who stay there grab their tanks and go elsewhere. There is a super easy ladder to enter and exit. They have a tank room and a locker room for your gear. We did not take part in any boat diving either. Last but not least the staff. This is where Buddy Dive completely misses the mark. You certainly can tell that Buddy Dive employees don’t rely on any form of tips because they really don’t care that I was a guest. We got a little routine for our dives where I grab the tank, test it and take it down the pier to the stairs area. My husband would get the rest of the gear from the locker and bring it out. Every single day I would grab a 31 lb tank, step down two steps, test the psi and start walking toward the steps. Two to three Buddy Dive male employees would just watch me. I was NEVER asked if I needed help. When we would exit from our dive, staying on the walkway, so many employees would just walk past us and say nothing. I guess I am a people person and a person who likes to make connections. I just wish someone would have asked how our dive was or what did we get to see. Even the two men in the drive-thru tank pick-up didn’t help us. We honestly were invisible to the dive staff. We did encounter a couple nice staff members in the re

Great location for a dive resort. Organized process for getting tanks and equipment was great. Nice staff at dive center and restaurants but service very slow at dinner time. Need to change the way groups are packed in which makes it hard to share rooms and vehicles.

My dive and travel experience: 2355 dives since certification in 1999 Scuba Instructor 96 weeks of out of the country scuba experience (Not USA) You may call me a gluten for punishment, but although I had a bad experience at Buddy's Resort in the past I felt I had to give them a second chance. The original review was from April 2022 where I had brought a group to the resort right after Covid. The title of the first review was "Does not live up to it's reputation." Well this trip was just as bad, but this time I traveled with my brother in stead of a group. I have also noticed that Buddy's ratings on Tripadvisor have dropped to a 4 out of 5, which is still way high for this place. I am not going to be as long winded as the first review and will only go over the good and bad since the previous trip. Good: 1. This room (711) was much nicer than the previous one and had an air conditioner in each room. It appears to have been recently renovated. 2. The service at the restaurant was much quicker with none of the previous issues. That is the end of the good. The bad: 1. The towels in the hotel room are equal to 80 grit sand paper and the cleaning lady who we only allowed in our room once failed to clean the floors and there was sand all over. 2. The restaurant food was the worst I have ever had while traveling. My brother and I only found a couple of menu items we could stomach. Their cuts of meat were either too fatty or poorly cooked. This is new because the last time we were here I said the food was decent. 3. The front desk is as poor as it gets for explaining anything. They never told us anything about beach towels, the wifi, or our meal plan. We had to walk back and forth numerous times to get answers and based upon where our room was that is over a quarter mile each way. We had the full meal plan which was the biggest mistake and it took three days for the front desk and the restaurant to figure out how to proceed. In other words the restaurant had to call the front desk several times as no one was notifying each other of how the meal plan works. 4. The pick up truck we were issued was so dirty that I could not see out of the windows. Apparently they don't rinse the trucks and rely on rain, which they had not had in a while. 5. Finally, the dive shop and dive crew. They just do not understand customer service. They do not help with any scuba gear preparation before or between dives and they don't even guide you to your seat on the boat when you return from a dive. The crew is very standoffish and aside from one or two of them they did not mingle with the customers. When guiding a dive most, not all, of the crew did not show or even try to show us any interesting stuff underwater. They were basically below water to get us to/from the boat. Having spent eight total weeks in Bonaire in the past I know that it is well known for Frogfish and seahorses, but none were found or shown to us. One last thing about scuba at Buddy's. We were diving Ni