Capt Dons, Plaza, Buddy Dive ????????

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scubaaaronh

Contributor
Messages
949
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Location
Grand Rapids Michigan
# of dives
200 - 499
We are planning our trip to bonaire in either Jan or Feb. The travel agent gave us three options of Capt. Dons, Plaza Resort, or Buddy Dive. Which would be the place to stay for a honeymooning couple with drive and dive plans??
 
scubaaaronh:
We are planning our trip to bonaire in either Jan or Feb. The travel agent gave us three options of Capt. Dons, Plaza Resort, or Buddy Dive. Which would be the place to stay for a honeymooning couple with drive and dive plans??

I stayed at Captain Don's last April & really liked it. They have fresh tanks for you to take 24/7. I liked the accommodations, the food, the view, the dive set up.

I would suggest diving the opposite (windward) side of the island if you're driving. Wait for a calm day. You may want to go out on that side w/ the guy I used: Larry's Wild Side Diving. He's got a great boat & know excellent locations to dive. You can contact him at

lwb99@hotmail.com
www.larryswildsidediving.com
(011-599) 717-5246
(011-599) 790-9156

I would also not miss the night dive under the town pier -one of the best dives I've done.
 
personally- have to vote for Buddy's- nice house reef, really cool drive through tank station and laid back resort atmos. It's not like a luxury place- more of a casual divers atmos.
Plaza is nice- a bit more 'up market' IMHO, maybe if you want the room service type vacation for honeymoon this might be more in that vein.
Captain Dons is also nice- just down the road from Buddy's and a nice house reef too. Don's is similar in atmos to Buddy's, casual and dive aoreinted.
Both places have nice bars to sit and watch the sunset, and nice restuarants. Both are within a 5 min drive of the mian 'town'. Plaza is a little further- but still close.

all are great and diving is awesome. Just depends how casual you are and what you want from your honeymoon.
 
Hi. My wife and myself just left the first week of October. Although it's not one of the options you listed, I'd like to recommend the Bel-Mar apartments. They are very nice, spacious, etc. They are an extra 5 mins. south of town (I.E. nightime quiet). They have parking security at night too.

The primary down side I can point out about the Bel-Mar is 1} The price is higher than the other places (only slightly). 2} No food is included. 3} There is not an appreciable dive shop on site...more like a sattelite of Toucan Dive is there. But the Toucan Dive shop is very nice (only a 5min. drive away), and has 1 boat dive per day included.

I ate at the Buddy Dive restaraunt once, and the food was very good.

Congrats, and have a fantastic Honeymoon.
 
Everything munkispank said...

Plaza is the only one of the three with any sort of beach. But there's not really any shorediving there though - I think they teach classes off the beach, but it's not a listed dive site. The main Toucan diveshop is on-site for boat diving or you can pickup tanks 24/7 and go shoredive. Plaza is much more of a resort first and a dive resort second, the others are definitely dive resorts. I'd guess Plaza was slightly newer than the other two, it looked like the nicest of the three also.

The main difference on Bonaire is that most of the dive resorts are pretty much north of town one right after the other, perched on cliffs/rocky areas right off very diveable reefs, whereas Plaza is south in a low, sandy area with no immediate offshore diving. If you're looking into Buddy's I'd inquire about Lions Dive also, it's right next door to and I heard now owned by Buddy so you share their facilities but it's a little nicer - probably a little pricier too. To the best of my knowledge, none of the northern resorts have much of a beach - not that there's alot of beach anywhere on Bonaire. Plaza makes theirs.

Plaza is closest to the airport/flightpath if that kind of thing matters. The Port Bonaire condos on their property are under the flightpath, the resort itself is a little farther north so it's not such a problem. There's not a lot of flights though, especially since DCA shutdown.

Personally (never having stayed at any of them) I would pick Plaza, Buddy's then Capt. Don's. Especially for my honeymoon. The only advantage to staying at the dive resorts is to dive on-site there. Cliff at Capt. Don's is worth diving, it's a great site.

Regarding Belmar, since waterboy72 was there, the diveshop was taken over by Buddy's so if you were to do any boat diving with them, you'd have to drive 15min. to Buddy's. Food's pretty pricey on Bonaire, so factor that into your decision. Plus do you really want to cook on your honeymoon?

What we found was that pretty much wherever we dove, we were never more than 1/2 hr. away from our condo. It would be the same with any of the three places you're considering, they're all on/near the main road on Bonaire. The only limiting factor on Bonaire was how many tanks you could carry. All of the resorts have drive-up tank pickup. All of the really good divesites are 5-15 minutes further north or south from any of the resorts, so it doesn't appreciably matter where you stay when you have a truck.

Have a great honeymoon.
 
Your decision is not good or bad - just differences. Pretty much all the above is true.

Capt Don and Buddy more toward diving. Having only stayed at Buddy's I have nothing negative to say about their set up (There motto Eat - Sleep - Buddy Dive) is how they operate.
 
Thanks everyone i am still not sure which to stay at. All the hel;p is great and we are taking everything that all of you have said into consideration. If anyone else has comments please post soo we have to make a decision this week. Thanks
 
Aaron,
Consider Eden Beach Resort. I have stayed there twice and always enjoyed myself. Not ritzy if thats what you want but nice rooms, excellent dive operator, a beach bar, and yes a beach. It's smaller than those you listed, which is a plus IMO. Nice people!

Jet
 
aaron,
my family and i stayed at plaza and had a great time.
my dive buddy and i stayed a captain don's another time and had a ball.
i would suggest y'all stay at the plaza for your honeymoon and then stay at a different place for your return visit.
 

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