Randallr
Contributor
I have discovered wonderful places, notably Scuba Club Cozumel and Sunset House in Grand Cayman, thanks to the advice of Scubaboarders, so I'm turning to you all for guidance once again.
I'm planning a trip for the week of March 18. I'll be leaving from Miami, and I'm looking for a relatively easy flight to my final destination. I'm a year into underwater photography - still a relative novice, but loving it, and eager to do a lot of shooting, so a house reef or nearby shore diving is important to me. I'll be traveling alone, so looking for a place that's got a nice community feeling - where you can make some dive friends along the way. I'm wondering whether Buddy Dive is like that.
I absolutely loved the community feeling of Sunset House (as well as the Cathy Church photo op there, where I bought my Olympus rig and took lessons). I fell into a boat of fantastic people, and we ended up diving and dining together all week. Scuba Club Cozumel was a little less social, but I've never had a better dive experience - six of us on a boat, diving together all week, terrific sites, one of the best divemasters I've ever dived with.
On my first and only trip to Bonaire, I stayed at Bruce Bowker's Carib Inn. It's a remarkable place, with a great staff. But its virtue is its small size; it's like a boutique B&B with scuba attached. I was the only one there on my own, so it got a bit lonely. More to the point, there was no way to connect with people to take advantage of Bonaire's greatest attraction - its shore diving.
Buddy Dive gets great accolades on SB. I'm wondering from those who've been there and have experience with other AI dive resorts like SCC and Sunset House how Buddy compares. All details welcome - and all alternative suggestions, either on Bonaire or elsewhere, would be appreciated.
I'm planning a trip for the week of March 18. I'll be leaving from Miami, and I'm looking for a relatively easy flight to my final destination. I'm a year into underwater photography - still a relative novice, but loving it, and eager to do a lot of shooting, so a house reef or nearby shore diving is important to me. I'll be traveling alone, so looking for a place that's got a nice community feeling - where you can make some dive friends along the way. I'm wondering whether Buddy Dive is like that.
I absolutely loved the community feeling of Sunset House (as well as the Cathy Church photo op there, where I bought my Olympus rig and took lessons). I fell into a boat of fantastic people, and we ended up diving and dining together all week. Scuba Club Cozumel was a little less social, but I've never had a better dive experience - six of us on a boat, diving together all week, terrific sites, one of the best divemasters I've ever dived with.
On my first and only trip to Bonaire, I stayed at Bruce Bowker's Carib Inn. It's a remarkable place, with a great staff. But its virtue is its small size; it's like a boutique B&B with scuba attached. I was the only one there on my own, so it got a bit lonely. More to the point, there was no way to connect with people to take advantage of Bonaire's greatest attraction - its shore diving.
Buddy Dive gets great accolades on SB. I'm wondering from those who've been there and have experience with other AI dive resorts like SCC and Sunset House how Buddy compares. All details welcome - and all alternative suggestions, either on Bonaire or elsewhere, would be appreciated.