Need to change accomodations on Bonaire ASAP - please help

[diversteve]

Sand Dollar's pool is behind the condos on the street side. So no view of the water from there. CD's Habitat has a pool - it's past Rumrunners. But that might be the higher area that overlooks the water.

Buddy's bought out Lion's Dive's condos a couple years ago right after they were refurbished (I met the project mgr.) so they're probably newer inside - not sure if you can request one. fwiw, Bonaire Hospitality Group owns both Buddy's and BelMar.

Plaza has a nice pool but it's probably going to be more crowded if things are busy. I believe Port Bonaire does also but you probably don't want to stay there unless being in the flight path isn't an issue for you.

There's another place in Belnem, Bellefonte Chateau la Mer. Never stayed there but I think they have a pool oceanside. It looked like people were swimming. It might actually be cantilevered out over the water.

 

[SandyUT]

Looks like we are down to Buddys or Plaza. Deep Blue View looks cool - but low on services and ease (like kitchen and breakfast buffet).

Any final words on which is better?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Who cares man it's still Bonaire! I'd go for buddy's. went by there when we were there in feb. We were at DIVI. Buddy's has some steps to the dock but hey. There are also plenty of places to eat. Of course for me I wouldn't care where it was as long as I could step in off the dock, get a sandwich or burger, and sleep with no bugs. A leaky roof I can deal with. Just move the bed. PS what's wrong with relaxing on the dock after the dive?

 

[SussexMedic]

I was at Buddy in September for a week (Apt 110). The reviews on Trip Advisor actually looked pretty accurate. Buddy is definitely not a 5 star resort but for a place the sleep between dives it was clean and perfectly acceptable if your not looking for the Ritz. I do have to say that we were diving a lot (5 a day) so we spent very little time in the room other than to sleep so the accommodations were secondary to the diving.

Our apartment was a three bedroom with AC in all bedrooms but none in the living spaces. By turning the AC on in the bedroom and leaving the door open it cooled the first floor well and I'm always hot. The bathrooms were definitely old and in need of updating but clean and functional with great water pressure. The diving was spectacular and the freedom to shore dive and just drive up and change tanks at will was great. I can't think of an easier way to dive.

The pools on the Buddy's side were small, one was a nice in-ground with small swim up bar and the other was an above-ground with deck around it. We never tried the pool over on the Lion's Den side but it looks nice. Of course there is always the huge pool out by the dock that was always open.

In short, I don't have any experience at other resorts in Bonaire and I'm sure that they're great as well but I would return to Buddy in a heart and in fact I am in September.

Allen

 

[RJP]

Any advice would be very appreciated.

REPOSTED FROM A THREAD YESTERDAY. INFO ON PLAZA AT BOTTOM...

Just back from a week in Bonaire and had a great time! I'm not much on "trip reports" in terms of reporting what we saw on every site, but here are the sites my buddy and I visited while in Bonaire last week:

• Playa Benge
• Bisé Morto
• Karpata (x2)
• Ol’ Blue
• 1000 Steps
• Witch's Hut
• Jeff Davis Memorial
• Kalli's Reef
• Oil Slick Leap
• Barcadera
• Andrea I
• Cliff
• La Machaca
• Bari Reef
• Front Porch
• Town Pier
• Kalabas Reef
• Eighteen Palms
• Windsock
• Bachelor's Beach
• Lighthouse Point
• Hilma Hooker (x2)
• Angel City
• Alice in Wonderland
• Jeannie's Glory
• Red Beryl
• Atlantis
• Red Slave
• Cai (x2)

The diving was all great, as one would expect. My favorite site was Red Slave. Oil Slick was probably my second favorite, followed Cliff and then all the rest. (My buddy’s favorite was Red Beryl - I think.) We did the Hilma Hooker at 7am, which was a great site to have all to ourselves before everyone and their brother stirred it up all day. Town Pier night dive was good. We covered all the various areas, and given how close all the many sites are to each other (we did Small Wall from Cliff, Country Garden from Ol’ Blue, etc) I think it’s fair to say we saw everything there is to see diving-wise in Bonaire. If I had it to do over again I would have brought more tanks to the Washington-Slagbaai park and done two more while we were up there (On Day 1 we naively observed the “no more than two nitrox tanks at a time” sign at our dive op.)

We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of food in Bonaire, having sampled excellent fare at the following spots:

• Papaya Moon – Food was quite good and our waiter Andrew was quite a character, adding to the overall entertainment value of the experience.
• Patagonia – Very nice steak au poivre with shrimp, fine service. Very nice location right on the water at the marina.
• Mona Lisa – Great meal and attentive service from Rudy. Mango cheesecake with fresh berries and sorbet was a perfect end to the meal.
• Richard’s Waterfront Dining – Fine shrimp scampi and fish dishes, very good salads. Great location right on the water looking across to Klein Bonaire.
• Wil’s Caribbean Grille – Genuinely phenomenal food and great service. I had the shrimp wrapped in prosciutto with Creole spice and tomato-basil marmalade that was one of the best shrimp dishes I’ve had anywhere in the world. Deserts were great too: chocolate lava cake and platter called “Four-in-One” which was four different deserts in one.

In order to put one recurring food issue to rest, we ate at Pasa Bon Pizza. Long story short: if you want good pizza, you should not look for it in Bonaire. Is this a surprise to anyone? I’m from the NYC area. We have the best pizza in the world here. I had very low expectations of the quality of the pizza, and those expectations were adequately met. (Think “mall pizza” or “Chuck E. Cheese” and you’ll get the idea.) There is no doubt that Pasa Bon Pizza has the best pizza in Bonaire, and if you’re from south of the Mason-Dixon line or west of the Delaware River you’ll enjoy it.

Lunch? We bought a jar of peanut butter, a jar of jelly, and a loaf of bread at the local grocery store on Sunday. Total cost for lunch for the week for the two of us: $7.50. (Actually, a few bucks more than that if you count the powdered Gatorade packs we brought and mixed with ice water from the cooler at the dive op!)

We stayed at the Plaza Resort which was very nice, and good value for the money. The Junior Suite room we had (J131) was huge in and of itself. The second-floor location was great as we had a cathedral ceiling with a fan. 2nd floor also afforded us a balcony (versus patio) that we were comfortable leaving gear on to dry over night. This room had a newly renovated bathroom which was huge, with separate toilet room. (Looks like they were renovating other bathrooms in the same wing while we were there.) The breakfast buffet that was included in our room rate was perfectly fine, featuring eggs, omelets, etc made to order as well as crepes, potatoes, bacon, sausage, fruits, pastries, and juices. We ate at the Banana Tree restaurant the first night and were happy with the food and service.

Toucan Diving at Plaza Resort’s unlimited shore diving was the perfect set-up for us. “All you can eat” nitrox 9am-6pm with air tanks available 24hrs day. We didn’t bother with the boat dives included in our package, opting instead to stock up on nitrox tanks for the morning dives the night before and returning at noon for tanks for the afternoon and night. Gear lockers were handy, and our room wasn’t far from dive shop and parking lot.

PS - as reported elsewhere on ScubaBoard (http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/exposure-suits/230148-you-don-t-need-cold-dry.html) for sure you will get strange looks and comments if you wear a dry suit in Bonaire!

 

[DeputyDan]

Couple of Buddy points.

#1. The Lion's Side is not as nice as the Buddy's side. If you have a choice stay on the Buddy's side.

#2. Three pools at buddy's - all OK - nothing fancy

#3. The Lion's Den restaurant at Buddy's is not a part of Buddy's. The facility is leased to a third party who operates it for dinner.

#4. Nothing is fancy - everything is adequate - diving is awesome.

#5. Would stay there again without hesitation.

 

[tvictory]

Buddy's is often fully booked or has no 2-person accomodations available since it is a very popular destination for dive groups and dive clubs. If the groups are doing a lot of boat diving it can create problems for others, as the groups often designate one of their members to wait around the sign-up board and then sign up for all the other members as soon as the dive is posted, taking all the available slots. If you're planning to do mostly shore diving from your vehicle, Buddy's is great because they have a very convenient drive-thru tank exchange system. The house reef at Buddy is also good and easily accessible.

 

[SandyUT]

One reviewer had a bad room (the roof leaked).

The rest seemed to be about normal.

I liked Buddy's a lot, however the rooms are variable. Some on the ground floor on the same side as the office smell from mold or mildew, which set my allergies off big-time, however the rooms on the other side (by the dive shop and restaturant) were really nice, and they moved us at no charge, which was really wonderful.

Terry, Would the rooms you recommend be the 100-400 numbered rooms on this map? Or better, is the orginal Buddys on the left or the right?

Buddy Dive Resort Map

Many thanks - I should have this booked in a couple days! Woo Hoo!!!

 

[SussexMedic]

The original Buddy's is on the right in that picture (100 - 400s)

 

[Web Monkey]

Terry, Would the rooms you recommend be the 100-400 numbered rooms on this map? Or better, is the orginal Buddys on the left or the right?

Buddy Dive Resort Map

Many thanks - I should have this booked in a couple days! Woo Hoo!!!

We were in the building that says "101-?" on it. The rooms were excellent.

Terry