We went to Bonaire in September - stayed at Buddy Dive. It was absolutely an amazing place to dive! I was wondering though - for those of you that have been many times - where was your favorite place to stay?!
We're going to go back - for sure! Just looking for input about the various resorts and/or rental places.
Here's some info I posted recently in response to a similar question:
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I really liked the Plaza Resort. Rooms were very large, comfortable, and clean. Decent sized mini-fridge. Our room was just refurbished (2008) with a giant bathroom, new tile flooring, and had pretty new furniture. We took a second floor room in the building nearest dive shop (same location that MBS mentions - possibly same room even) for "easy in, easy out" access to pick-up truck and dive shop. Also away from restaurants/bars from a noise standpoint. Sort of a hike to their beach/reef, but they have hand carts and tanks on the docks over there, so not an issue. (Unless you just want to dive their house reef all week!)
Second floor is key so you have a balcony to dry stuff on without tempting someone walking by. 2nd floor also has a cathedral ceiling, which makes room seem a little more "luxurious." (As much as you can get LUXURY in Bonaire.)
Breakfast buffet was good and plentiful in terms of both quantity and selection. We had two good dinners at their main restaurant and their two bars are sufficiently "lively" and "laid back" at the same time. Only downside I can see (and wasn't an issue for me) is that Plaza is not as close to downtown as Buddy, Divi, etc (not really walkable) but everyone rents a car anyway, so who cares!
Nitrox is not "technically" available 24/7 (air is) as the nitrox station is only open 8am-6pm or something like that. However, they have large dive lockers right next to the dive shop and my buddy and I would simply put a couple of Nitrox tanks in our lockers for our planned evening/early AM dives. They officially ask that you not take more than 2 nitrox tanks at a time, but one of the DMs told us not to worry about it as long as we we didn't stockpile the "empties" so we were regularly loading our truck with 3-4 tanks each to cover us for the better part of the day without needing to return to the resort. Definitely a boon if you're diving up north, especially in the park.
Can't think of anything else to tell you. Let me know if you have any/more specific questions...I'm happy to answer if I can.
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Note that they have a phenomenal deal they are running for 2010 right now. Will see if I can find the info.
