My husband and I stayed at Den Laman just over a month ago. We were very happy with the accommodations and with BDA. The staff at DL was very friendly! The one-bedroom condos were fully air-conditioned with a separately controlled air conditioning unit in the bedroom and one in the main living area. The kitchen was fully stocked with plates, pans, utensils you name it. I would agree that the furniture could be a little softer but we certainly spent more time outside on the waterfront patio with table and chairs than inside. It was comfortable enough to sit on for 20-40 minutes if you are lounging for 1-3 hours
it would be uncomfortable
.. I hope that if you are in a place like this that you wouldnt be spending that much time inside.
BDA treated us very well while we were there. We borrowed BDA equipment for 36 hours as my husbands gear was delayed. (even though we took a direct flight and 2 of the 3 bags somehow arrived with us.. but thats another story.) We took our advanced open water classes with them. After getting our gear, my husband and I both removed 3 and 2 pounds of lead respectively in the Peak buoyancy course!!
The Bari Reef in front of DL was fabulous. Dont forget your camera. Our last dive of the week was the absolute best only 5 minutes into the dive another diver called us over to point out two frog fish on a patch of coral!! (some people use the symbol of one open hand and then bouncing the tips of your opposite hand up and down to suggest the frog) we saw at least 7 eels, a sea snake, a turtle, Charlie the local tarpon (it may have been one of his 12 cousins cant say for sure), a stonefish
.. all without our camera. When we return to DL, we will definitely repeat more early evening dives on the house reef as it was amazing. The PVC pipe making the turn back to the dock
is a great reference point and gives you piece of mind as you slowly finish your dive heading along the bottom in 15-12 feet of water toward the ladder
.. why bother with a surface swim.
Within convenient walking distance of Den Laman there is a food convenience store, an ice-cream shop, a beauty salon, an internet café that was packed floor to ceiling with a variety of items and the bank. You could easily walk to Patagonias for dinner
but we were not impressed and found it to be over-priced for the quality of food we got. There are more stores being built across the traffic circle but we dont know what they are planning to house. I was also very pleased with the selection of diving and snorkeling supplies available in the dive shop.
The boat trips from the dock from DBA to Klein or other dive sites were 10-15 minutes.
Water entry was a backroll. The ladder to re-board was a normal - large size ladder. Front Half of the boat had shade. Just a pointer --- you might not want to sit to the aft of the ladder when you claim your boat seat
. This spot tends to get quite wet, with water splashing up constantly. Also dont forget to put sunscreen on your ears!! i forgot ...ouch.
I have read a number of poor reviews about the Reef restaurant and so I thought that I would share my two cents again because we ate there several times out of convenience. Its not 4 star dining
but there were still several dishes that we enjoyed. So my suggestion is if you are staying there then try it once or twice. For dinner I would recommend getting out(so you should reconsider getting a car- we do not recommend Total car rental-- AB vehicles appear to be in better condition)
for dinner--> Richards was outstanding, also try Wills tropical grill.
Oil slick leap
.. Geronimo! That was so cool. ahhh PBD taking over. Must book flights now. Good luck.
