Diving in Bonaire

[herman]

Welcome to the board. There are a lot of reasonable places to stay on Bonaire. Buddy, Bel Mar and Den Laman are all on the water and all have good dive shops. Bel Mar is a little smaller than the other 2. No sure there is anyplace on Bonaire that is "happening" at night, closest place is Karls Bar down town, in any case Buddy has a quite bar that closes fairly early.
If you want to cut cost some and don't mind staying a little ways off the water, then Golden Reef Inn would be my suggestion.

b1Gcountry [you did a lot of acronyms that I am not familar with, like what is "DIR diving" and "DIR fundamentals classes" also "DMs have taken fundies" I am lost as to what it all means can you help. Thanks a bunch ~*~

DIR (Doing It right) is a style of diving many subscribe to.
DIR fundamentals is the first class offered by one of the major DIR organizations.
"Fundies" is short hand for the fundamentals class
DM's= dive masters.

 

[gbf]

I've stayed at the Plaza in one of their two bedroom villas (with kids).

Carib Inn (with kids).

Buddy's (with kids).

Black Durgon (wife only).

My choice, hands down - Black Durgon. It's kind of funky in a 60'ish motel sort of way, but we loved it. On the water, private, cheap, Doris cooks breakfast. Al is somewhat curmudgeonly, but a great guy. This is one of those places you either love or hate.

I understand it is undergoing some renovation this summer.

That's not to say any of the others were bad choices, and we enjoyed every one. Both Buddy's and Plaza had that "big" feel to me though neither is particularly large. Carib and Black Durgon had a lot fewer people around and we liked that.

 

[DiveMaven]

We stay at Den Laman since we want to be ocean front. Great house reef, easy to load tanks into the truck, good location close to town, restaurant on premises, and very new and clean place. If I were to choose off-ocean, I'd definitely go to Golden Reef Inn....very clean and comfortable looking place. Plus Liz is a wonderful resource here.

 

[b1gcountry]

Nevermind.

 

[flatwood]

The Caribe Inn is on the water and on the south end of town, easy walking to shopping and resturants. The rooms start at $109.00 plus tax.

The golden Reef Inn is on the north side of town but not on the water. I think that they're having discount rates this summer.

Buddys Dive Resort is on the water and has two pools and three resturants. I have no idea what people are talking about when they say that it has too much night life around the bars. After about 7:00 pm it'd pretty much dead.

Hope this helps a little.

 

[Ms diver 57]

You have been very helpful with the informaion about Bonaire. We probably won't get there until the end of the year. Thanks for explaining the acronyms makes a lot of sense as I am new to diving. Thanks for the welcome. I hope to write here often and find about some local dives that arent to costly. ~*~

 

[Ms diver 57]

You have been very helpful with the information about Bonaire. We probably won't get there until the end of the year. I hope to write here often and find about some local dives that arent to costly. ~*~

 

[Ms diver 57]

You have been very helpful with the informaion about Bonaire. We probably won't get there until the end of the year. I hope to write here often and find about some local dives that arent to costly. What does "I am a Zena girl mean?" ~*~

 

[Ms diver 57]

You have been very helpful with the informaion about Bonaire. We probably won't get there until the end of the year. I hope to write here often and find about some local dives that arent to costly. ~*~

 

[b1gcountry]

You're welcome. We aim to serve