Bonaire - Buddy's Dive Resort Trip Report

[scubadada]

As stated above, I have never been to Bonaire(& will never go)...but I can 100% guarantee you that LC or Roatan will be better in every respect........Heck, even Cozumel will/did probably beat it--------

diver 85,

How can you possibly comment on a dive location you've never visited. Comments out of ignorance have no credibility. You can't "guarantee" a damn thing.

Good diving (to you), Craig

 

[scubadada]

Moderator-perhaps this thread would be best posted in Greater Caribbean and Bermuda-Lesser Antillies-ABC Islands?

 

[WaterWolf]

This review is very surprising to me. I stayed at BDR in January and had a great trip. That was my second trip to Bonaire in two years and I will definitely return again, hopefully next year. Sorry to hear you had such a lousy time.

 

[donooo]

Moderator-perhaps this thread would be best posted in Greater Caribbean and Bermuda-Lesser Antillies-ABC Islands?

Disagree, this is a pretty general information type thing for people planning or dreaming. In the perfect world it might be in both.

don O

 

[coldwaterlloyd]

I love Bonaire , was going to say like but its more than that . No , not perfect , yes , reefs are declining . The freedom of driving around in a pickup doing my dives still outweighs the negatives . I have been diving Coz off and on for twenty years , the reefs there are in decline as are all the coral reefs on our planet . I am going back in less than a week , I will post an accurate trip report when I get back , although I admit now , it will be somewhat biased.

 

[lmorin]

My big concern is that many magazines and publications rate Bonaire as a great place to dive... rating it #1 even in many categories... such as shore diving (which it isn't,) and as best for newbies (which it isn't.)

Shore entries were a nusiance climbing over rocks, boulders and rubble and the surge was horrible (perhaps just a bad week,) but the rocks, boulders and rubble isn't going anywhere. New divers will struggle with these entries and exits.

To answer someon'es earlier question - YES, we dove Angel City... I was curious how it got it's name? My thought going in was that maybe we'd see a lot of Angel Fish... but we saw only one juvenile French Angel on the hour long dive - and that one wasn't until we were doing our exit very close to shore.

Best Sites in order of greatness:
1. Playa Franz
2. Old Blue
3. Small Wall
4. Buddy's House Reef (during day)
5. Buddy's House Reef (at Night)
6. Jerry's Sponge Reef (Klein Bonaire)
7. Karpata
8 - 17. All blah and lame... not even worth a mention

Well, there's no accounting for taste, as they say. I gather Angel City is in your group of 8-17 and not worth mentioning. Well, in my experience, Angel City has repeatedly been the best dive on Bonaire and one of my favorites of all my dives anywhere.

Yes, there has been damage at some sites, but not to the extent you suggest, especially on Klein.

 

[driftwood]

We stayed at Buddy's Dive Resort. It was very unimpressive and quite frankly not such a great place. The rooms were adequate, but the AC didn't work in some and took days to fix. There was construction going on the entire week - so whenever around the resort we had to listen to jackhammers. The hamburgers at Buddy's outside bar made 5 of our group puke (food poison?) The stairs get extremely slippery both in the condos and outside... so much so that a group member fell and hurt their back very badly.

If that isn't bad enough - we had heard stories of vehicles being broken into around the island... but didn't expect this at a resort with security guards on duty. Three of our guests had dive equipment, jewelry, electronics and cash stolen from their locked rooms. We can only assume the perpetrators were staff or had keys from previous stays. We noticed as the week went on the security personnel was routinely asleep at the guard gate.

On the day we were suppose to have our boat dives (and be able to pick our dive spots,) the boat crew told us they didn't put gas in the boat... so we'd have to stay close by and could not do the sites we desired. This on top of the fact that upon arriving at the resort the first day... our welcome consisted of a 15 minute sales pitch from their Camera shop trying to rent us cameras and vido equipment.

There were a couple of exceptions to the rancid reefs. Playa Franz, Small Wall and Old Blue all provided reasonably good diving.... but 3 sites out of 17 make this a destination to avoid for the forseeable future.

I'd think twice about a stay at Buddy's altogether... but I think the reef will likely bounce back in six months to a year.

Happy Diving...

Welcome to Buddy's Dive Resort! We have stayed there twice on trips with our LDS. The first time the AC was out in one of the bedrooms and I finally told the front desk that we were moving to a new room. This was on the newer side of Buddy's. On our second trip, we stayed in the old Lion's Dive side of the resort. That room should have been remodeled sometime after it was originally furnished in the early 80's. In addition, there was a strong smell of sewer gas in one bathroom, all the window sills were rotten and the paint was peeling in most of the unit. There is a very good reason why there are no room photos on Buddy's website.

If I were to stay at Buddy's again, I would insist on the Buddy's side of the resort. I will not stay in the Loin Dive side again. You pay a lot of money to stay at Buddy's and for them to stick you in a substandard room is close to criminal.

I am sorry that you had trouble with the food at Buddy's. We never have anything like your experience. We should all be glad they are building a new kitchen.

The dive boats do love Klein Bonaire. A nice short ride for them. That was where they took us on our first boat dive. On a later boat dive, the passengers rebelled at returning to KB. Personally, I have never been impressed with the dive sites there. The camera rental at Buddy's was fairly new the last time we were there, 7/07, no sales pitch for us. I think that it is a bad move to rent cameras to people who are not used to UW photography in a place with so much to do about reef protection and imposes silly rules.

A lot of the dive sites are so similar that Susan Porter, author of Bonaire Shore Diving Made Easy (BSDM) was at a loss to give a different description of the site's slopes. Hard to judge a dive site based on one visit. We have had great dives at Karpata and ok dives at Karpata. That being said, Buddy's house reef was pretty good on all of our dives there.

I am sorry that you had a bad trip and the break ins at Buddy's are especially disturbing. If you have a police report, you can post it on Bonairetalk. If not they will censor you and pretend it didn't happen.

 

[shawrg]

offthewall1

Thanks for the report and advice. Sorry that your trip was such a bad experience. This summer I am returning after a three year absence (not buddies though). It has always been one of my favorite caribbean destinations and I was looking forward to the trip. I hope the diving improves by then or else I may have to stop recommending it to all my dive buddies! Thanks again.

 

[oly5050user]

granted many of the dives sites on Bonaire are very much the same,unless you start oberving the small differences.I find going slow and taking it in is the way to get the most out of diving Bonaire.If you expect to go and see big animals you will be disappointed.If are into uw photo then you will be very pleased for you will not run out of subjects to get images of.Its all about diving freedom, on your schedule,you choose what type of dive you want,shore or boat.Easy shore dive-of which there are many or some that are a little more difficult but may be rewarding as they may not be visited as often.Shore diving too difficult for you,take in a few boat dives and the DM on the boat may show you things that you never find on your own and will give advise on shore dives that you may like.Boat dives are highly recommended for 1st time visitors to get the "lay of the land'from a local.As to crime,there is crime everywhere in the world.I lived on St Thomas ages ago and it was ALOT more dangerous than Bonaire has ever been.You said there was theft from 1 of the rooms..My guess is that there is a good chance that it was one of the guests at the hotel. Same goes for theft from the trucks,just as often its tourists not always locals.
Some tourists think that because they are on vacation they can be lax about their security.. My 20th trip comes up this May 31st.Never had any issues.Staying at Buddy's to relax,see old friends and dive with my cameras undisturbed on my schedule..Perfect..

 

[oly5050user]

As stated above, I have never been to Bonaire(& will never go)...but I can 100% guarantee you that LC or Roatan will be better in every respect........Heck, even Cozumel will/did probably beat it--------

I have been to Little Cayman -Roatan-Bonaire-Cozumel- several times each..one is not better than the other.Its what you are looking to experience and what your expectations are..Want walls-go to LC..Want short boat rides to wall and some limited shore dives,go to Roatan.. want lousy shore dives but very good wall dives-the current can be a pain if you are into uw photo-go to Coz.Want short boat ride,alot of reefs,unlimited opportunities for shore dives,go to Bonaire.
The crime on Roatan is MUCH worse and violent than the crime on Bonaire.On Roatan you do not really go around the island unescourted,but stay at the resort for your visit .I noticed that on both Coco view and Anthony's on Roatan the guards at the resorts need to carry weapons to keep out the criminals.