Buddy Dive Resort is one of Bonaire's best-known and most popular vacation destinations for divers. The resort earns top marks on review sites and enjoys a significant number of repeat guests. Here are just some of the reasons why this landmark property has remained a top choice on Bonaire for more than 45 years.
DIVERS GET MORE ASHORE
Buddy Dive was created by divers, for divers, but it's much more than a diving outpost. The property offers two swimming pools, one with a popular swim-up bar, a beach lounge area and two of the island's favorite restaurants. Blennies offers causal dining, Caribbean and international flavors and themed menu nights in a relaxed oceanfront setting. Ingridiënts serves elevated Mediterranean cuisines in an atmosphere of casual elegance.
The resort's mid-island location is ideal for exploring all that Bonaire has to offer. The restaurants and shops of the downtown Kraledjik waterfront are just minutes away. Day trips to Washington-Slagbaai National Park offer hikes, off-road biking, bird watching, and beach picnics in hidden coves. Lac Bay adds mangrove kayaking, windsurfing. Sailing charters, fishing trips and sunset cruises are available, and eco tours visit hidden caves, historic sites and flamingo sanctuaries.
HOME AWAY FROM HOME
Buddy Dive's home-like accommodations are a major selling point for many divers. Flexible lodging options accommodate singles, couples, dive buddies, families and groups in units ranging from studios to one, two and three-bedroom units. Much more than just a hotel room, these apartments feature kitchen facilities, dining and living room areas and separate bedrooms with en suite baths. Private patios and balconies with ocean or pool views and include outdoor spaces for drying towels and wet clothing.
FULL SERVICE DIVE CENTER
The resort's waterfront dive center accommodates everyone from snorkelers, young and new divers, to avid photographers and technical divers. Buddy’s is a DAN Member and a PADI IDC center, offering a full range of specialties and advanced certifications. The Buddy Dive Academy is a career development facility offering training from divemaster through Instructor Development Courses. Youth programs are offered for children as young as age eight, including SASSY, bubblemaker, PADI Seal Team and junior certifications.
Explore the Shore
The dive center provides individual storage lockers, expansive gear rinse, assembly areas, and showers. There is a well-stocked rental and repair station, classrooms and a retail shop stocked with dive and snorkel gear, apparel and souvenirs. The dive center staff handles tank transfers to dive boats, and a cache of filled tanks is maintained for shore diving on a house reef that begins right at the dock.
ADVANCED ACTIVITIES
Buddy Dive TeK is the largest technical diving facility in the Caribbean, offering technical training programs through GUE and PADI Tec up to instructor level. The facility stocks a complement of wings, backplates, double tanks, oxygen and stage cylinders and other specialty rental equipment. And experienced staff provides full support for extended range, side-mount and rebreather diving, with custom EAN and tri-mix blending capabilities. Buddy Dive TeK also offers DPV training and rentals of state-of-the-art SubGravity DPVs. https://www.caradonna.com/blog/buddy-dives-tech-connection
The Best of Bonaire
MORE BOATS, MORE OPTIONS
Buddy Dive operates Bonaire's largest dive boat fleet. Six vessels ranging from 30 to 44 feet in length make daily morning and afternoon and evening one and two-tank trips to more than 60 moored sights along the island's calm western shore and on nearby Klein Bonaire. This fleet also makes scheduled half-day trips to dives sites on the shores of Washington-Slagbaai National Park. All boats are equipped with first aid kits and oxygen, and staffed by two dive masters or instructors with Medic First Aid training, plus a captain who remains on board for added security.
More boats mean more choices of daily itineraries, better pairing of passengers based on their interests, and the ability to keep larger groups diving together on a single boat. Groups can also make arrangements to charter one of the resort's boats to create their own dive schedules.
THERE'S MORE FROM SHORE
Bonaire is the shore diving capital of the Caribbean, with more than 50 sites that can be reached with a short swim from parking areas on shore roads. Divers need to go no farther than the resort's docks to find one of the island's favorite shore dives, the Buddy House Reef.
https://www.caradonna.com/blog/buddys-house-reefs
Buddy Dive maintains the island's largest fleet of rental trucks, allowing guest to enjoy 24/7 shore diving access. The resort is also home to a two-lane drive-thru fill station that maintains a large collection of air and nitrox tanks. Divers can make a quick swap and be on their way. Tank swaps can also be made at Buddy Dive Watersports' sister property, Belmar Oceanfront Apartments, which is located south of downtown Kralendjik, close to favorite southern sites.
A CALENDAR OF SPECIAL EVENTS
Buddy Dive organizes a number of special events and themed weeks throughout the year.
- Current and aspiring rebreather divers gather for Operation CCR, a week of immersion in the world of closed-circuit rebreather diving, featuring presentations, demonstrations and gear tryouts.
- Each year Buddy Dive hosts Kids Sea Camp with host Margo Peyton. This special family-themed week combines educational events and fun activities on land and underwater.
- Buddy Dive Thru the Lens is a week spent honing the skills of underwater imaging, with presentations, clinics, equipment demonstrations and dedicated photo-centric boat dives.
- September's BonaireTeK is the most significant technical diving event in the Caribbean, offering presentations from leading figures in the technical diving community, gear demonstrations and try dives with the latest equipment.
- Fish ID expert Eric Riesch hosts Marine Life Education Week with presentations on marine life identification and reef fish behavior, with a special emphasis on species found right off the resort dock.
- Award-winning photographer Lorenzo Mittiga shares his years of experience and skills in underwater imaging during small-group Photo Clinic Weeks.
- Hilma Hooker Week is dedicated to the legacy of Bonaire's famous shipwreck. Participants immerse themselves in the ship's history and explore its depths.
THRIVING REEFS AND HELPING HANDS
Bonaire's coral reefs are among the healthiest in the Caribbean, and Buddy Dive is engaged in programs that both protect and enhance those reefs. Working with Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire, the Buddy Dive staff maintains a coral nursery on a shallow area of the house reef. Coral seedlings grown on these tree-like structures are outplanted ton reefs to further increase live coral cover. Buddy Dive and the Foundation have planted more than 25,000 corals on Bonaire reefs and counting.
Caradonna and Buddy Dive Resort have worked together for more than three decades to give divers the best experiences and the best values for Bonaire diving. Get in touch with our agents to learn about current specials and dive packages.