Buddy Dive Resort

Guests praise the varied and high-quality buffet breakfast, cleanliness, friendly staff, comfortable beds, convenient location near downtown and waterfront, and excellent service at the resort and dive center.

The provided gear lockers and locks need a little love, but our gear was safe and secure every morning. There are two hangers provided at each room so I would suggest bringing a bit of cave line for a laundry line. I can’t say enough nice things about the excellent staff at the dive shop, front desk, and rinse tank area. Breakfast was included with our package and was very nice, well stocked, clean, and always enjoyable. With the exception of a single bad experience at Blennie’s, undercooked food and very slow service, it was an excellent stay and we look forward to spending another month with buddy dive. The inability to select a room when making a reservation feels like I’m living in 1980 again, but not a deal killer. As is mentioned in many reviews the WiFi is complete trash in the rooms, you have to sit at the front desk or the restaurants for a reliable connection. Were are here to dive but lack of decent WiFi is a bit lazy. Sadly for the diving and the atmosphere that we have always enjoyed on the island cruise boats appear to be the future of Bonaire. Almost every day we were here there was a boat in port and a fleet of golf carts on the island.

This is a beautiful resort, with a lot of great services, so I'll break down my review point by point as some things worked wonderfully and some didn't. I know it can be hard to pick a dive resort from so far away, so I want to make sure people have good info. -Resort grounds - really beautiful and in really good shape! -Room - comfortable and well stocked. Everything worked. However, our room didn't have sufficient A/C (a/c unit only in bedroom so living room was very hot) but our friend's room was totally fine, so maybe don't get the west-facing rooms that get very hot. -airport shuttle - They showed up on time, but didn't have the right list of guests, so didn't have enough vans for everyone. They did sort this out and make several laps, so no one got left behind, it just took a little longer. -Front desk staff- great across the board, solved many problems, spoke many languages. -Reservation staff- two thumbs down. We made our reservation in April for a December trip, asked for a week dive's package plus two days....and they just only booked us for a week. The invoices were so confusingly written with lots of notes about "Additional days" at the bottom, that we couldn't really tell what we were booked for or not. So we showed up and had no room or truck reserved for the first 2 days! Be very careful and check your reservations multiple times! However, the front desk staff was able to find us a room so we did have a place to stay, thank goodness, and they gave us a discount for the inconvenience. -Truck rental - these trucks were in way better condition than I was expecting and we had no problems! Loved the drive through tank-pickup and gear washing station. Very handy. Be aware: you can't leave any valuables in truck while diving so prepare to navigate without your phone unless you have a diving proof case for it. -Restaurants - Ingridients was a bit underwhelming for the price. Good service but very slow, good food but tiny portions. Our friend has celiac disease/gluten free, and they were able to accommodate him without any contamination, which was a win! They really went out of their way to find stuff for him. Blennies was way better than expected--very good food there and wonderful staff, and a gorgeous location on the beach. Loved the swim up bar! -Dive shop - dive shop people were great! Knowledgable, lots of people to help, well organized for how busy the location was. Great English speakers. We did one day on the dive boat and the group was big (12 people, one dive guide, one divemaster) but the guide was safe and dive briefing was good. Overall, the resort was in beautiful shape (does match the pictures!), the service was well rounded and good, and despite a couple of glitches, I would stay there again!