Divi / Belmar / Buddy / Den Laman - HELP

[Cher4Scuba]

I CANNOT decide - please help.

We've been to Bonaire 3 times and have always stayed at Divi Flamingo -- LOVE IT. Thought maybe we should try somewhere new. Here are our most important objectives - and then our concerns with each resort we're considering.

1) Great house reef. We don't get a vehicle. We get an oceanfront room at the Divi - bring some tanks over to our room and literally just fall into the water -- end of the dive - few stairs up to our room.

2) Good Dive Op - boats w/shade. When we do boat dive - we'd like nice boats that offer some shade / sufficient space, nice DM's, etc.

3) Decent, clean rooms w/cable TV. We like to lay in bed and watch TV when resting or going to sleep and definitely to watch the Red Wings Playoffs.

Why I can't decide:

1) Divi - because we dive the house reef SO many times - does one of the other places have a better house reef?

2) Belmar - is their house reef better than Divi's? Is it really EASY to get & drop off tanks, etc. (w/o car)? Dive lockers close? I think this is the place I'd like to try!

3) I've heard Buddy's rooms are degrading - How bad are they compared to deluxe Divi rooms? Is their house reef still one of the best?

4) Den Laman - the only boat I saw on their website was very small -- do you have to backroll off? Small ladder to get back in? Comfortable enough to go over to Klein Bon or distant sites? (Also been reading bad reports about dive op BDA.)

I think I'm leaning toward Belmar - but would like to know if their house reef is better or worse than Divi's first - and how close tanks, lockers, etc. are. How far to walk to do the boat dives? Or maybe Buddys . . . or stay at Divi?????

Can anyone comment on the above? If so, THANK YOU in advance. I've been reading and reading and reading -- at scubadiving.com and bonairetalk.com and of course here. I'm going cross-eyed.

Again - thanks to all in advance for posting!

Cher

 

[piikki]

I've only been to Den Laman from you choices but I was deciding between Belman and Den Laman myself. I'd say for you I'd decide between those two too if you are talking about hanging out in the room... those looked like the nicest in that sense (I didn't end up hanging around in the room but still). Den Laman's rooms and balconies are def nice to hang in, grounds not so much.

Den Laman's house reef rocks and is convenient. I would rate it over Belmar's. Their boats are pretty much back roll. Some of the seats are in shade, some not. Rides to Klein are extremely short because Klein is right in front of Bari Reef/Den Laman. Ladder on the one we were on (bigger one) was convenient. I do not know about Belmar's boats. To be honest listening to your needs, I would probably also place Belmar No 1 if their boats also suit you.

 

[lmorin]

I can respond to some of the questions. Yes, the BDA boats require a backroll. No, the ladder is not small. It's reasonably normal and easy to use. The house reef is, of course, Bari Reef, and is excellent. Diving right off the dock is simple and easy. Dock has steps into the water, and two giant stride entry locations.

The distance to the equipment storage is more complicated. The main storage room is back a ways from the dock. Lugging BCD, plus ancillary gear, plus weights from there gets old. However, tanks are down right at the dock (there is another tank area for those picking them up for truck-based shore diving). There are also a few "lockers" (wooden slatted) in a line extending toward the dock that are supposed to be used by divers doing after hours (9 PM??) dives, but that could be used by other folks.

Can't help on the housing issue.

 

[Blackrock]

I can't help you with all your questions, but I can help a little.

I haven't stayed at Belmar, Divi, or Buddy's. The rooms at Den Laman are really very nice. I was just there in January. However, there are no televisions in the bedrooms themselves. (Unless of course you get a studio, but then you lose out on the waterfront balcony. PM me for pics of the room I stayed in. I'm having trouble posting them here.

Imorin is right about the walk to get your gear...it becomes a bit tedious. Also, they lock up the room at around 9:30 or 10 if memory serves me and don't open it again until around 8:30. So if you're into late night or early morning dives it might be an issue for you. Buddy's gear lockers are right at the dock.

Bari reef is great and there's plenty to see on it so you shouldn't be bored. I have not been to Divi's or Belmar's reef but Buddy's has a nice reef too.

Since you won't have a vehicle, I should tell you that the restaurant at Den Laman is terrible. I am not a foodie by any means and I don't have caviar tastes, but we ate there once and swore to never eat there again.

Can't help you with the boats - didn't dive any.

Belmar is a pretty far walk from the downtown area whereas Buddy's and Den are at least clustered near each other. You could walk to other restaurants like Bongos at Eden Beach or get Ice cream near Sand Dollar condos.

I don't know about the condition of the rooms but the property at Buddy's has a nice feel to it.

Hope it helps you.

 

[DeltaWardog]

Is it possible to make a bad choice when it comes to Bonaire? I have yet to see anyone really bagging any one place.

 

[mrwa]

I hate to master the obvious here, but the choice can be taken out of your hands if you don't book early enough. This is something I experienced recently trying to book about a month in advance at Den Laman, and finding no availability (unless I wanted a 2 bedroom unit). So my only comment is to decide well in advance where you want to stay to make sure it is available for you. Have a nice trip!

 

[diversteve]

We don't get a vehicle

2) Belmar - is their house reef better than Divi's? Is it really EASY to get & drop off tanks, etc. (w/o car)? Dive lockers close? I think this is the place I'd like to try!

You don't want to stay at BelMar without a vehicle. They're in Belnem, south of the airport so the nearest food is at the Plaza Resort, a few minute drive around the lagoon. Or back to town. It's not close enough to walk - google earth puts it at 2.3 miles to Plaza's entrance, 3.25 miles to Town Pier/restaurants downtown.

Their diveop is the other Buddy's location. Tanks are staged on the divedock. There's a couple of rinsetanks there also. Two divedocks. About 10' below the resort level down some good steps. It's all ironshore cliffs there.

I've heard Buddy's sends the boat down to pickup at BelMar when they have enough divers. But I read somewhere that you have to drive to Buddy's if they don't.

If your condo is on the ground floor it's literally 50 or so feet to the divedock down a few steps. Just past the pool. Afaik those are all 2br units. The groundfloor units have individual dive lockers outside the back door, they're like closets with a clothes pole, and one of those racks. The upstairs units have lockers in an area by the diveshop rinsetank. It's not secured and I think you'll need your own lock.

Your key also gets you into the public area of the diveshop where they hang suits and have weights and the Nitrox analyzer - at least that's how it was setup when Toucan Dive ran it a couple years ago.

BelMar is a really compressed property. It's just one building with about 20 condos. The first floor units all have patios that open onto the pool/divedock area. But guests on the 2nd/3rd floor have to walk down circular staircases on the backside of the property and then walk to either end of the building for access to the water. And the property ends 20' on either side of the building. You also park right off the road, you actually have to put the nose of the truck into their bushes to get far enough off the road. Butchie the night watchman helps you park when it's dark.

The condos are nice inside, clean, full kitchens (maybe no oven?), microwave full size refrigerator etc. And I believe they had cable tv, I remember being surprised at all the channels. Our unit (#4?) had two bedrooms, the master was on the street side and the 2nd bedroom was in the middle. So you have a great view of the bay/sunsets from the livingroom or the patio.

The BelMar house reef, while a good dive, is not a named divesite. It was better than average but not great. Reminded me of some of the sites further south in the Angel City area. But nowhere as good.

In case you haven't read about it, Den Laman is on Bari Reef. It's the #1 site in all of the Caribbean for unique species of fish. You can do a REEF fishcount survey with the BD&A Naturalists there. Easy entry down some stairs also.

 

[DiveMaven]

Imorin is right about the walk to get your gear...it becomes a bit tedious. Also, they lock up the room at around 9:30 or 10 if memory serves me and don't open it again until around 8:30. So if you're into late night or early morning dives it might be an issue for you. Buddy's gear lockers are right at the dock.

I've never heard anyone say this about getting to the water from BDA...interesting. I have heard about their hours and think it's crazy they don't open the gear room earlier than 8:30am. I know we'll be keeping tanks in the lockers (taking our own locks) and likely our gear in our room since we're planning to do quite a few early morning/dawn dives on Bari. In the end, we'll be on Bonaire, on vacation, and not at work, so how bad can it really be?? :blinking:

I hope the new ownership of the Reef Restaurant has improved the food. We're hoping to have the choice of eating there when we don't feel like driving somewhere since we're staying at Den Laman. One way or another we're going to have a GREAT time on our first trip to Bonaire (hopefully not our last!).

 

[tvictory]

If you're not getting a vehicle, the best place IMO is the Divi. The house reefs are pretty much the same at most of the places and the boat diving is similar. From the Divi, though, you are in walking distance to a variety of restaurants and shops. The only drawback would be if they start bringing in the huge cruise ships, which I think they are.

 

[spectrum]

Buddy does lock the gear room after hours to limit casual traffic however in the briefing they show you where the key is hidden so you have 24 hour access.

Also to the OP... The suite we had at buddy had the TV in the living space so you you want to watch the tube in the sack I know the rooms out group had would not work out. Our rooms were well maintained and clean. With tile floors everywhere it was geared for dive traffic.