Where to stay in Bonaire

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KTBauer

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Messages
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Location
Lansing, MI
# of dives
100 - 199
We are in the very early planning stages of a 2 week trip to Bonaire. I am an experienced diver (100+) and am comfortable with boat or shore, my wife is fairly new (~7 dives) and is not comfortable with boat diving yet. I hope to get her there by the 2nd week. I have been to Bonaire and stayed at Buddy Dive before, but because I stayed there without her, that location is out this time. I am looking for something similar to Buddy, ie easy entry, dive shop on property, and house reef. It would also be nice if they have rental cars without too much hassle. Any suggestions?
 
Sandollar. Quite a while since I was there but great house reef, car hire on site, short swim out to the dropoff.
Apartments were clean with everything we needed and staff were friendly.
 
Check out bonairetalk.com there is a whole section on accommodations.
 
I guess I don't really get why you can't just go back to Buddies...... But if that's an issue, you might just go with Cap Dons, right next door and has everything you are asking for. Wife and I stayed at Buddies last May and we walked over to Dons to check out their newer Delux Ocean Front Jr Suites.... if it's just the two of you and you can live without a full kitchen, these are REALLY nice.

Deluxe Ocean Front Jr. Suite | Habitat Bonaire
 
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+1 for Habitat. Great on site dive shop, restaurant, dive lockers, giant stride (with a drop!) or stairs onto the house reef with some of the best macro life on the island. We usually use AB car rental when there and Habitat can set you up there as well. Jr Suites are great or the bungalows are good too if you want a kitchen and a bit less costly stay. Can do any combo of shore / boat diving plus extras from FLOW (fluro night dive for example, very cool), cave tours, hiking, East Side Dives (with Bonaire East Coast Diving). Just got back from two weeks there on my 4th trip in two years. Home of diving freedom! What more can you ask for?
 
Have stayed at Buddy Dive and Bel-Mar, good experiences with both
 
Well, I will vote against Captain Don's. As someone else posted on tripadvisor; the place is coasting on it's reputation from the 80's.

I was there in October. Older furniture, same crappy safes (mine had the batteries held in with duct tape, and the bathroom remodeling was to tile over the old tile. Like flushing the toilet with a stick? They didn't measure their new counters, and since they extend over the toilet, they drilled a hole in the counter, and put a stick in to push down on the flush button. Classy. And no box springs. I can sleep on anything, including a slab of depleted uranium, but when I'm on vacation, I do like a bed that isn't a thin mattress on a piece of plywood.

These were the new junior ocean front suites. I sudder to think of what the rooms were like before this "remodeling".

I am sorry that I cannot offer another option since you said that Buddy Dive was out. I know there are some to the south of the town, but have never researched them.
 
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I think you're fencing yourselves in by asking for a resort that's similar to Buddy Dive but isn't Buddy Dive. We've been there and done that, including twice at Buddy, once at Lion's Dive (now part of Buddy Dive), and once at Buddy's southern Belmar property. Belmar is the only one that comes close, but the house reef isn't as good as at Buddy, there's no restaurant or bar on-site, and parking can be miserable if the property is anywhere near full. Captain Don's Habitat is popular with some folks but it never made our short list for the same reasons mentioned in previous posts here.

Our preferred solution in recent years has been to pick and choose from available accommodations, dive operation, and rental truck companies to get the package that's most appealing to us. For example our current preference is to stay at Beachcomber Villas (just north of Habitat), rent our truck from Telerin, and dive with Dive Friends Bonaire. Sure we have to make reservations and payments separately, but the day to day vacation experience is seamless. We pick the rental truck up in the short-term lot at the airport and return it to the same place. Dive Friends Hamlet Oasis shop is closer to our villa than Buddy's shop is to some of their apartments. And we enjoy oceanfront accommodations in one of only two available apartments. Oh yeah... and we get private immediate access to The Cliff dive site as our house reef.

That's just our example and others here have similar experiences with other properties and service combinations. But if you're looking for one-stop shopping (i.e. "book it and forget it") for a Bonaire dive trip for American divers, I think you'll be hard-pressed to find better than Buddy Dive. Just my two cents.
 
I've stayed at Sand Dollar and am planning on staying there again in May. Love having the kitchen "option". Actually the freezer was the best part! We love the house reef (Bari) in from of Sand Dollar and either do an early morning dive there or a twilight dive every day. It's so awesome! The house reef is the biggest factor for us. I looked at Den Laman, seen varying reviews. The down side? No pool, just in case we wanted to use it. (Only did once on last trip, but it's an option!)
 
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