One thing to consider on Bonaire is that being on the water costs a lot more. And all the on-water resorts - including Buddy's - have a substantial single supplement. If I price your two weeks in Jan. on the Buddy website based on
double occupancy - I come up with a price of around $2350 for their standard dive/drive package. They don't list a single rate that I saw. I couldn't go thru to book it so IDK if that also includes the substantial resort tax etc. Pricing the same two weeks thru Caradonna's website it was $3830
single occupancy - that included everything afaik. And Caradonna is resort-paid.
The upside is that if you can't find buddies at Buddy's you probably aren't trying at all. Most people there are divers, most people in most restaurants are divers - obviously at any dive site. There's a row of dive resorts north of town - Buddy's is in the middle of it. All the others have restaurants also but it's too far from downtown to walk so you'd need a car (truck- their standard provided dive vehicle) IDK if Buddy's still charges separately for their airport shuttle. And Bonaire has a hefty resort tax - IDK if that's included in either package I listed above since I didn't try to book one.
There's cheaper options in town and elsewhere for accommodations but at some your odds of finding a buddy go down. There's several small apt/villa. complexes - Blachi Koko in town is one, Coco Palm Gardens another south of town or Lagoen Hills a couple miles east of town. LH also uses Buddy Dive as their dive operator so you'd be boat diving there and could use the tank exchange also. Due to location they rent small villas for what you pay for a room at a dive resort waterfront - or less. Another cheaper option in town is the Dive Hut, it's not waterfront, but diving is thru Wannadive who has 3 locations on the island for tank exchange - their boats are at their main location at Eden Beach resort on the south end of "resort row". And restaurants in town are walking distance.
Also price airfare - I doubt this close to Christmas you'll see much under $1100 r/t without multiple connections or overnights.Besides the usual travel portals look to connect with Insel Air out of either Miami or Charlotte NC. Insel also flies about 6-7 times daily from Curacao if you can get there easier.
I'd do something soon though, you're traveling in High Season, over Christmas so the prices are going to be higher and availability lower pretty much everywhere.
Another option could be Roatan. There's a few AI resorts there like Cocoview. Although I'd think they're all booked by now - it's very popular. Nice thing if they had space - or you could change your dates - is they're a lot cheaper. It's around $1350/wk. and that includes everything - including the airport shuttle, 4 boat dives/day, unlimited shore diving and the Prince Albert wreck off their dock is a shallow, dive cleaned wreck. Also there's a lot of shallow dives off two walls there and people shore dive from the resort till late into the night. You'll be assigned a boat for the week so another chance to find buddies to dive with - you'll see the same people at meals etc. the whole week. It's not cheap - I think rates are $1100-1350 depending on accommodations but they only have a $200 single supplement.
A little more adventurous is stay in the West End. There's everything from hostels to nice resorts - many decent places in the $60-80/nt. range. The higher priced ones will be small apts. with kitchens and there's two markets nearby plus affordable food in all price ranges. The West End also has the majority of the bars on Roatan and probably 2 dozen other restaurants. Your fixed cost to get there is a $25 cab ride and a car is not needed - the whole area is about a mile long. Two miles west is West Bay - the other resort area - they have the nicest beach. We've always been able to fly to Roatan for around $900 r/t also - same day from the western U.S. - arrival just after noon with an early AM departure.
Everyone - at least a dozen dive operators - sell 10 dives for $350. Most do a single tank afternoon dive but several do two. Night dives are $40 more and some shop does one each night except Sat. There is no shore diving though in the area - the reef is too far out. There's one drift dive but it's above your skill set now because you can't get out for a long way. Here's a general West End Info page - we also dove with and liked Coconut Tree Divers. One thing that might work for you is they bring their DM trainees along in the afternoons so usually there's a free dive buddy available. Most of the morning dives we did had at least one instructor leading dives and 1-2 DM's following. If someone was low on air a DM took them back up while the dive continued.
Roatán, West End | Scuba Diving | Roatan, Bay Islands, Honduras | PADI
Check singledivers.com also - they run group trips regularly. You don't have to be single, just buddyless and they'll match you up with a same sex roommate who could also be your dive buddy.
