Sand Dollar

[Arsalan Ahmed]

Hey guys

So I had 6 people going with me to Bonaire but as it turns as normally happens at the time of reserving, some people did their calculations and turned out it was too expensive. I was planning on staying at buddyDive but with only 3 people now, the budget went up by about 180 a person. So I was wondering:

How is Sand Dollar. It appears to be in our price range for 3 people (for the 2 bedroom condo) and from my understanding it is right next to buddy dive. I realize it doesn't have breakfast included but it does have a house reef, a beach area, and free wifi. I was also told that Bari Reef is a good place?

Thanks

Arsi

---------- Post added March 24th, 2015 at 11:37 PM ----------

I did want to state that while we plan on driving everywhere, having a house reef was important to us. And I've heard the house reef for Sand Dollar is Bari. Just validating if I have heard correct or not.

 

[diversteve]

The house reef is Bari Reef. It's known to have the highest counted species of fish in the Caribbean. Partly that's because Bonaire Dive/Adventure promotes doing REEF fishcounts with their guests. My buddy did one with their naturalist and found 185 species in one dive.

Sand Dollar Condominiums offers studios and apartments on Bonaire with views of the Caribbean Sea and Bari Reef. The complex offers 2 tennis courts, an outdoor pool and free parking nearby.

The property in the foreground (square yellow buildings) is Buddy Dive.

Then Sand Dollar - the long red roofed buildings in the shape of a W. There's a Dive Friends location adjacent to the reception building. Eddy's does breakfast just not included in the package price. Eddy There's also another small place in the plaza near Sand Dollar.

There's a deli for breakfast and lunch close by, Between Two Buns. In the same 'strip mall', there's another coffee shop that also serves food.

The smaller blue/coral multi-story building to the left adjacent to the dock is Den Laman condos. BD&A is based there and it's their dock - the owner is very adamant about it being for his divers only - it used to be shared but there was some fairly recent controversy over it.

So Sand Dollar/Dive Friends built a small storage shack immediately to the north and improved access with stairs to the "beach". You can see all of that here: Bonaire scuba diving, Bonaire dive sites and shore diving It's about the the best beach in that area actually since the whole waterfront in front of Sand Dollar/Buddy's/Habitat is ironshore cliffs.

Bari Reef is straight out in front of the divers here - but that's an old picture - the BD&A dock is different now:


For boat dives you'll have to drive over to the Dive Friends Yellow Submarine location - 3-5 mins? since there's no where to launch a boat in front of Sand Dollar due to the short cliffs/lack of dock.

I can't speak to the condos inside, I was in one a decade ago. IIRC they're privately owned so furnishings vary.

 

[lpdiver]

I love staying at Sand Dollar - very spacious, quiet and safe (on site security). We usually make our own breakfast but there is a small restaurant right out front called Between 2 Buns that has awesome breakfast and lunches. BARI Reef is an amazing house reef. For diving, yes you can enter at the small beach near the "A" Buildings but SD has recently put in new stairs at at the C/D and E/F buildings so you can now dive at these locations too - it's so convenient and you can dive different parts of BARI reef every day. Not all the units are rented out (maybe 1/2) and they are individually owned so decorated differently. Some have more recent upgrades (ie new kitchens). The condos just got their own modems in each unit about a month ago so wifi is great throughout the complex. There's also a pool, restaurant (Eddy's), tennis courts, an ice cream shop and bank as part of the complex.

 

[oly5050user]

A stay at buddy dive includes rental truck..check and be sure sand dollar does as well.try Caribbean club, a buddy dive resort. Less expensive than buddy dive resort and includes breakfast and truck

 

[diversteve]

They do - just no breakfast:

Packages Include:
7 nights accommodation in an ocean view condominium including air-conditioned bedrooms and tourist tax.
7 days rental of an air conditioned 4-door manual transmission pick up truck from preferred operator Avis Bonaire or other reputable agency.
6 days of unlimited tanks for shore diving or add on boat dives.
Free Nitrox upgrades for Nitrox Certified Divers.
Ride the Reef Packages are with on-property PADI 5 Star Dive Friends Bonaire
All prices are per person in $ US and subject to change without notice.

but it does have a house reef, a beach area, and free wifi.

[-]LaDania's [/-] Oil Slick Leap as Caribbean Club's "house reef" is quite a stretch since you have to drive down the hill.

 

[cjibber]

A stay at buddy dive includes rental truck..check and be sure sand dollar does as well.try Caribbean club, a buddy dive resort. Less expensive than buddy dive resort and includes breakfast and truck

Sand Dollar will include rental truck and dive package if you want them to. However, if you want to book separately, you can just book the condo and then book the rest yourself. There is very little difference in the cost. (We booked the truck ourselves as Sand Dollar use Avis who advise you to close your truck windows at dive sites.)

We stayed at Sand Dollar for the first time on our sixth visit to Bonaire and really liked it. We have booked there again for our next trip. We dived with Dive Friends so had the convenience of 24hr tank access and it is very easy to walk down the beach to Bari Reef. We dived Bari on each of the nine evenings we were there!

 

[Arsalan Ahmed]

Thank you

I appreciate all the quick responses. I did get a response back from sanddollar but in allthe reading they've been cryptic about one thing. i can rinse off gear here right not just tanks? the reason is they keep going out of their way to just mention the tanks and not the gear.

Thanks

Arsi

 

[cjibber]

Thank you

I appreciate all the quick responses. I did get a response back from sanddollar but in allthe reading they've been cryptic about one thing. i can rinse off gear here right not just tanks? the reason is they keep going out of their way to just mention the tanks and not the gear.

Thanks

Arsi

There are tanks for rinsing gear next to the Dive Friends office. There are also lockers there for storing gear overnight.

 

[lpdiver]

There are also showers of the stairs at A/B, C/D and E/F buildings so very easy to rinse off at all entry locations. The stairs are lighted so great entry/exit for night dives.

 

[Arsalan Ahmed]

THanks so much. This seems like a good option unless someone else decides to back out now. If they do, I may switch back to Coral Paradise for 2 people.