Anyone stayed at Buddy Dive in Bonaire?

Planning a spring trip to Bonaire and I'd love to hear others' experiences with this resort.

Thanks!

Akes

I stayed at Buddy Dive during building work in 2005: very friendly, nice accomodation, but the restaurant was very crowded. The dive centre was very good, and the house reef OK (especially swimming north towards La Machaca and Cliff): the boat dives were very good, too.

Rent a pick-up, and go out to the shore dives: they are great!

Tim

B)

I've stayed there too; that's my resort of choice. Agree with previous poster on everything, except I'd rate the house reef as better than ok. The rooms are decent, and their setup is great - they've got drive-through tank pickup, so you can get in tons of shore dives.

You've probably heard this, but don't leave anything valuable in your rental vehicle, and don't bother to lock it - they'll just break in. Whatever's not with you will grow legs on Bonaire.

We stayed at Buddy's last Christmas. It was full to capacity but they managed to handle the crowds pretty well for the most part. The dive boats were full and you had to sign up quickly or risk having to go out at a different time. The shore diving is what it is all about, not because it is better but because you are on your own schedule. You can dive as much and for as long as you want. I found the house reef to be enjoyable and productive.

We never experienced any problem getting in at breakfast but the onsite restaurant required reservations, as did every restaurant in town, for that time of the year. I highly recommend Capricio. It is one of our very favorite restaurants, anywhere. They have an incredible wine list if you are into that. There are a lot of very good restaurants in Bonaire.

Thanks for the info everyone. We're looking forward to a great trip.

Akes

Been back about three weeks after a two week stay. Stayed there twice before also. Rooms are always a bit basic with only AC in the bedrooms and generally a bit jaded. Doesn't bother me too much but this time we found a limited hot water supply and a good stock of cockroaches in each room of a 2-bed unit. (I can live with one or two - sort of half expect them in this sort of climate) We complained about the latter but it was ignored the first time. Got a bit cross at that point and they sent somebody in to put some bait down. Kept the little buggers away for a while but we saw some more on our last day.

Our truck we got from Buddy was total crap and falling apart at the seams. The tailgate was held up by a piece of wire and kept crashing down as we drove. Complaining produced another piece of wire for the other side! It was very busy and they said they had no other trucks.

When we go again, I think we will try somewhere else.

I always like the house reef but I do think it is starting to show a fair bit of wear. Not surprising given some of the diving practices I saw from obviously fairly new divers with terrible buoyancy control. Some good stuff on the reef however and very approachable although the groups of snappers that hang against the bushy corals were noticeably less than normal.

We just came back from Buddy's and I would say the accommodations were adequate but definately nothing fancy. Our tap leaked while we were there. It served the purpose for us with no frills.

Every place you decide to stay in, you will find the buddy´s house reef the place of choice for comfortable night dives (but the Town Pier have awesome night dives...).

Go south to big fauna, north to great walls. don´t miss the Hilma and remember to switch your clock for "island time" on every single service...

I did not particulary like Buddies. The boats were very crowded as was the restaurant I think you should view a Buddies trip as a good, cheap dive trip, not an awesome trip.

Tom

FYI: I go to Bonaire twice yearly and prefer shore dives

Where else on Bonaire would someone recommend staying? I see Golden Reef Inn mentioned a lot on Scubaboard. I'm sure there's all sorts of vacation villas / condos etc, not sure how that would work out with the diving (can probably get an unlimited tanks for the week deal with someone, but do you have to be more 'careful' of rental cars from the airport? I'm sure the all-inclusive trucks they KNOW are going to be full of salt and sand inside, and you don't have to worry about being 'clean'..?)