Buddy Dive Resort

The provided gear lockers and locks need a little love, but our gear was safe and secure every morning. There are two hangers provided at each room so I would suggest bringing a bit of cave line for a laundry line. I can’t say enough nice things about the excellent staff at the dive shop, front desk, and rinse tank area. Breakfast was included with our package and was very nice, well stocked, clean, and always enjoyable. With the exception of a single bad experience at Blennie’s, undercooked food and very slow service, it was an excellent stay and we look forward to spending another month with buddy dive. The inability to select a room when making a reservation feels like I’m living in 1980 again, but not a deal killer. As is mentioned in many reviews the WiFi is complete trash in the rooms, you have to sit at the front desk or the restaurants for a reliable connection. Were are here to dive but lack of decent WiFi is a bit lazy. Sadly for the diving and the atmosphere that we have always enjoyed on the island cruise boats appear to be the future of Bonaire. Almost every day we were here there was a boat in port and a fleet of golf carts on the island.

We come to this island for 3 months at a time and we go here frequently on a "day pass". It's inexpensive, and allows you access to the beach, the pool, the bar/restaurant, and the easy-access steps into the ocean (where you can snorkel). Although (regretfully) i can no longer dive, this place seems to run an awesome dive shop. We have seen them take out people who are in wheelchairs, people with missing limbs, very old folks, anyone with a C card who wants to dive. If you can be helped into the water, they will get you there. The staff for the beach and the bar/restaurant are great. (Shout out to Marco, the bartender who's been there for years). It is a very pleasant and welcoming experience.

This is a beautiful resort, with a lot of great services, so I'll break down my review point by point as some things worked wonderfully and some didn't. I know it can be hard to pick a dive resort from so far away, so I want to make sure people have good info. -Resort grounds - really beautiful and in really good shape! -Room - comfortable and well stocked. Everything worked. However, our room didn't have sufficient A/C (a/c unit only in bedroom so living room was very hot) but our friend's room was totally fine, so maybe don't get the west-facing rooms that get very hot. -airport shuttle - They showed up on time, but didn't have the right list of guests, so didn't have enough vans for everyone. They did sort this out and make several laps, so no one got left behind, it just took a little longer. -Front desk staff- great across the board, solved many problems, spoke many languages. -Reservation staff- two thumbs down. We made our reservation in April for a December trip, asked for a week dive's package plus two days....and they just only booked us for a week. The invoices were so confusingly written with lots of notes about "Additional days" at the bottom, that we couldn't really tell what we were booked for or not. So we showed up and had no room or truck reserved for the first 2 days! Be very careful and check your reservations multiple times! However, the front desk staff was able to find us a room so we did have a place to stay, thank goodness, and they gave us a discount for the inconvenience. -Truck rental - these trucks were in way better condition than I was expecting and we had no problems! Loved the drive through tank-pickup and gear washing station. Very handy. Be aware: you can't leave any valuables in truck while diving so prepare to navigate without your phone unless you have a diving proof case for it. -Restaurants - Ingridients was a bit underwhelming for the price. Good service but very slow, good food but tiny portions. Our friend has celiac disease/gluten free, and they were able to accommodate him without any contamination, which was a win! They really went out of their way to find stuff for him. Blennies was way better than expected--very good food there and wonderful staff, and a gorgeous location on the beach. Loved the swim up bar! -Dive shop - dive shop people were great! Knowledgable, lots of people to help, well organized for how busy the location was. Great English speakers. We did one day on the dive boat and the group was big (12 people, one dive guide, one divemaster) but the guide was safe and dive briefing was good. Overall, the resort was in beautiful shape (does match the pictures!), the service was well rounded and good, and despite a couple of glitches, I would stay there again!

Buddy Dive is the perfect, fairly spartan, resort for divers! For the price you get so much! Unlimited nitrox, that is plentiful and easy to get to. A nice dive shop, solid breakfast, a nice home reef, incredible dive staff, charming restaurant staff. We also got a truck and dives. The rooms are clean, and have very good AC and tile floors which is great. They lose a star only because these are not super classy accommodations, no WiFi in rooms, only one TV that got one channel (lol), and their two t restaurants on premise were just okay, with their fancy restaurant overcharging for water. So, five stars for diving, four stars for accommodations.

This was our first stay at Buddy Dive. There are a lot of reviews already so I’ll just hit the highlights and the things that could use some improvement. Highlights 1. The location is fantastic. Easy to get to shore dives to the north or south and great proximity to town. 2. The house reef is great for what it is, an easy hassle free dive. We saw a lot of life in the reef day and night. 3. Our room was basic but great for what we needed it for, to sleep. Beds were comfortable and air conditioning excellent. We also had an excellent view of the water. 4. The rental truck was great for what we needed it for (although our friends truck broke down on them effectively making them miss dives and they didn’t even offer an apology). 5. The process for picking up tanks was easy and hassle free. We also appreciated the plentiful gear wash stations. 6. The free breakfast was great for fueling up before dives and the view from the outside patio was awesome. Room For improvement 1.) we had a few boat dives in our package so we wanted to use them for Klein and other hard to reach places. They were so booked that we had to wait a few days after we arrived to use our boat dives. They then wanted us to book out the other dives for the week. We much prefer writing your name on a dive board without having to plan days in advance. This pushed us to abandon purchased boat dives and just shore dive. Shore diving is great but we paid for the boat dives so that was frustrating. 2. A lot of staff were grumpy. We had a very grumpy male bartender at the pool. We tipped him a lot to see if that might change his mood but it remained grumpy. Service at the pool bar was slow and inattentive. We had a couple female dive masters that were short and abrupt as well. Tommy and Paulo were super nice and chill. 3. I had a bizarre interaction with an attendant at the breakfast buffet. I don’t eat much for breakfast so I just had a cup of coffee and croissant. I picked up a tiny single serve Nutella packet on my way out to have on toast back in my room after my mourning dive. The attendant literally told me I couldnt take it. I was shocked at how chintzy that was. I would understand if I had a to go box filled with stuff but a tiny Nutella packet? Very off putting. 4. The check out process was irritating. They told us checkout and luggage pickup was at 11am but they came early for the luggage and then were short with us when we weren’t quite ready. We were then crammed on a hot stuffy bus to be taken to airport. 5. Blennies food was not great (fish and chips were terrible. The fish was mushy and slimy) but Ingridients was really good. Odd that the food comes from the same kitchen. 6. The main pool was closed our entire stay, with no notice.

Buddy Dive Resort is a basic, no-frills resort, catering primarily to scuba divers. I purchased the 12 – boat dive package, which I believed would be a better value compared to their Drive and Dive package. With the 12 – boat dive package, you still get the benefit of unlimited tank refills for shore dives. I have great rates with Avis, so it was cheaper for me to rent a car from Avis than to do the Drive and Dive Buddy Dive. I would recommend comparing both options before committing to the Drive and Dive package. The breakfast at Buddy Dive was decent. They have an omelet station, and breakfast opens at 6:30 AM, which is perfect for those of us who are preparing for the 8:10 AM morning boat dives. Aside from breakfast, we only ate at the resort’s on - site restaurants once, during the all-you-can-eat BBQ night. It was enjoyable and reasonably priced (relative to any place else on the island). We were told by other guest that the casual restaurant had slow service, and many guests told us that the food was just okay. We found some great local spots nearby that we enjoyed much more (the Pita Madre truck at the nearby roundabout, Pizza Mare and Between Two Buns, which were all very close to Buddy Dive). We were also happy to pick up a few groceries and make a few of our own meals in the small kitchen within our accommodations. The dive shop and rental equipment were convenient. I recommend doing the dive orientation as early as possible. We attended the 9 AM orientation, but I wish I had received an itinerary or more detailed information about my dives ahead of time. We checked in, and no one informed us about the orientation or dive schedule. I had to visit the dive shop when it opened on our first day to find out about the orientation and our dive schedule. The boat dives were often crowded, with 16 - 18 divers on each boat. It would have been better if they split the divers into smaller groups. The dive guides were hit or miss - some were great, but two of them were less enjoyable. One guide was snappy, and another seemed a bit grumpy, and we believe the guide may have started the day off on the wrong foot (the dive guide was less grumpy as the morning progressed). The check - in process could also use some improvement. When we arrived, we were given keys and a map of the resort, but no information about breakfast, dive schedules, or other amenities. Things to know before you go: 1. Poor Wi-Fi – The Wi-Fi is terrible in the rooms. It only really works in common areas and not in your room, which can be frustrating if you need reliable internet access. 2. Bring your own blow dryer – Despite being listed on their website, Buddy Dive’s blow dryers were always unavailable. I inquired every day and was told they had all been lent out already. 3. Compare car rental rates – It might be cheaper to rent a car from Avis than through Buddy Dive, especially if you already have a good rate with Avis. 4. No real beach – There is no traditional beach; in