Buddy Dive Resort – Drive & Dive Bonaire
With more than 80 dive sites, Bonaire is the diving island of the Caribbean. You’ll make the most beautiful shore dives on Bonaire, all on your own.
Travel period
Features
Starting at
Diving on Bonaire
Discover the ultimate dive resort on Bonaire: Buddy Dive Resort. Here you’ll find everything under one roof, including its own house reef. Bonaire is a diver’s paradise and attracts many Dutch, Belgian and American visitors. As a special municipality of the Netherlands, there are many Dutch influences, including the main language and well-known supermarkets. But what makes Bonaire truly unique are the dives. Enjoy an average water temperature of 28°C, visibility that sometimes reaches 30 meters, swim with turtles and admire the colorful tropical fish.
Most of Bonaire’s dive sites are easily accessible from shore. This makes the Drive & Dive concept the most popular way to dive on Bonaire. On a Drive & Dive dive vacation, you rent a car (almost always a pickup) and pick up daily dive tanks with air (or nitrox) from the dive center. By the way, the diving school also provides you with lead. Of course, it is possible to rent diving equipment and/or book boat dives.
There are as many as 80 dive sites on Bonaire. Some popular dive sites include:
- Salt Pier, a dive site in the south where you dive under the salt pier. Here you can often find large schools of fish, hidden angler fish and tarpon. In the shallows there are often young green sea turtles
- Hilma Hooker, Bonaire’s famous wreck.
- Karpata, in the north. With its valeits and diverse coral, this is a very favorite dive site
- Red Slave, Rianne’s favorite. Here you can often find eagle rays in the shallows at 5m and if you look carefully you can find a few seahorses!
Best travel time: Bonaire offers fantastic diving year-round, with favorite diving months during the summer. The rainy season runs from mid-October to mid-January, with more mosquitoes. A constant easterly wind provides pleasant temperatures, but also causes rough water conditions on the east coast and calmer seas on the west coast. There are peak crowds during the Christmas season, mainly because of the many American tourists visiting the island.
🍴 Bonaire is a foodie’s paradise, with high-end culinary experiences such as Chefs and Brass Boer. Chefs, located in Hato, is unique because you sit down with chefs Han and Mark along with 11 other guests. You look into the kitchen as you enjoy a glass of wine and the gentlemen prepare the most amazing dishes. It is an intimate and personal way to enjoy great food. On the other side of the island at Point Square you will find Bras Boer luxury, located on the waterfront with beautiful views. Known for its refined dishes prepared with fresh, locally sourced ingredients, this sister restaurant of de Librije (in Zwolle) offers an unforgettable culinary experience on this beautiful island.
Average Temperatures
Wetsuit advice for Bonaire
A 3 mm wetsuit is recommended between July & November. The other months the water temperature fluctuates between 27/28 C. For most divers then a 3mm is still sufficient, but if you dive a lot or get cold quickly then you might consider a 5mm.
What will you experience on this trip?
View itinerary here
Day 1 - Arrival on Bonaire
Today you will fly to Bonaire. The flights are what you would call “direct,” but sometimes there is a short stopover on another island. Your luggage just stays on the plane, and usually you go off the plane yourself for a while, to a special “transit” area.
In the afternoon or evening you will arrive on Bonaire. At the airport you will be met by a staff member from the Buddy Dive Resort. Once you arrive at the resort, you can check in and get into your room.
After you’re settled in, it’s time to grab a drink at Buddy Dive’s restaurant, Blennies. You can also have a good dinner here; there is an international menu. They also have several theme nights such as steak night on Tuesday, all you can eat ribs on Thursday, all you can eat BBQ on Friday and Sunday is Sunday Pizza Funday.
Day 2 to 6 - Lace diving on Bonaire through Buddy Dive
The next 6 days are devoted to diving. Buddy Dive is a true dive resort, where everything is arranged on site. This morning you will check into the dive shop and also get your rental car. You have an unlimited air package. That means you may pick up unlimited filled dive tanks to dive with for the next 6 days. Usually the limit is per person per pickup time 2 tanks. You bring these back empty and then you get new filled tanks.
Your first dive on Bonaire is a dive on Bonaire’s house reef. A so-called check dive, to check that you have your buoyancy under control and that all your equipment is functioning properly.
A day of diving in Bonaire can look like this:
07:00 Wake up, have breakfast at Blennies the on-site restaurant
08:30 Get air at the dive center & go to 1st dive site in the North
09:00 Dive on dive site Tolo and continue to Karpata after the dive
10:30 Diving on Karpata and back to the apartment
12:00 Lunch at the resort, get new air and continue
14:00 Diving south, dive site Invisibles and then even further south
15:30 Diving on dive site Red Slave
17:00 Back at the resort.
19:00 Dinner at one of Bonaire’s many delicious restaurants. Maybe a few more drinks afterwards…. Or going to bed nice and early.
Is the above program too busy for you? Or just too empty? Never mind, the beauty of a drive & dive program is that you arrange it all by yourself. You decide how much, when and where you dive. Ideal!
Day 7 - Morning dive and explore Bonaire overwater
Your unlimited dive package is a total of 6 days. That means you can also use your package today. We recommend that you don’t do too much diving on the last day (before departure). Despite the fact that the flights are often in the afternoon there so you soon have 18 hours between your last dive and the flight. This is because you probably dived quite a lot this week. So give your body a chance to get rid of all the nitrogen before you fly home tomorrow.
Bonaire has several fun above-water activities such as:
- Mangrove kayak tour at the Mangrove Center
- Visit to the Donkey sanctuary; Donkey Sanctuary
- By boat across to Klein Bonaire
- Surfing at Jibe City
- Hiking in Washington Slagbaai National Park
- Flamingo visits at Lake Goto
Day 8 - Home
The diving vacation is almost over! Most TUI and KLM flights depart late afternoon/evening. That means you have quite a bit of time on the island today. Start the day relaxed with a long breakfast followed by a final dip in the pool. Check-out must be before 11 a.m., but you can temporarily store your luggage at the front desk. After checking out, you can have a nice lunch somewhere or, for example, take the car into Washington Slagbaai National Park if you haven’t been there yet. The short route takes about 1.5 hours and the long route takes an average of 2.5 hours. Keep in mind that you have to pick up your luggage on time as well as be at the airport. So ample planning is wise. Then, when the time really comes to go, you can simply return the car at the airport and then board the plane to the Netherlands.
The accommodation
The stay and surroundings
Buddy Dive Resort Apartments
Diving, diving and more diving. The Buddy Dive Resort is one of the first and one of the best-known dive resorts on Bonaire.
There are several room categories ranging from hotel rooms, studios to 1-, 2- and 3-room apartments. All accommodation types have ocean or garden views. All have air conditioning, safe, small refrigerator, coffee maker, TV, telephone, bathroom with shower and WC and balcony.
Whether you are staying in a hotel room, studio or apartment, the two pools can be reached with a few steps from your accommodation. Next to the pool is the Blennies restaurant. An ideal place to enjoy a Caribbean cocktail or a nice lunch after diving. Blennies, by the way, is also the place to dine in the evening OR book a table at Ingredients, the more upscale restaurant at the resort. To sunbathe, you can also go to the beach with fantastic views of the Caribbean ocean.
Buddy Dive Resort’s dive center is the beating heart of the resort. You can go there for equipment, boat dives (3 times a day), training (from basic to instructor). You can also get bottle refills there in the now very famous “drive thru. With 60 dive sites spread across the island and another 20 dive sites on Little Bonaire, you can have your fun. Dives range from beginner to advanced current dives. Buddy Dive Diving School is a DAN member, has a 5* PADI membership and is an approved training center for SSI, NAUI and PADI.
Travel costs
What is included
This travel package is NZD 2.006 per person and can be expanded as desired. A number of things are included by default in this travel package.
Prices are subject to price changes, increases or changing exchange rates. Flights are always based on the cheapest possible booking class.
Want to know more about the possibilities? Get in touch with us!
Included in this trip, from NZD 2.006 p.p.
- Stay at Buddy Dive based on 2 persons in a studio apartment
- Care: bed (American) breakfast
- Unlimited air/nitrox, lead and bottle
- Airport transfers
- Car rental - pick up truck CDW insurance
- VZR, Calamity Fund Administration fee
- Are you vacationing with 4 or 6 people? Often with 4 or 6 people in a 2- or 3-bedroom apartment is more economical.
Excluding
- Flight Amsterdam - Bonaire from NZD 1.075 p.p. but usually around NZD 1.434 p.p.
- Bonaire Tourism Tax $75.- p.p.
- Stinapa Nature Fee for divers $40.00 p.p.
✈︎ The quoted (international) flight prices are indicative prices and based on departure from Europe.
However, we can arrange flights from any location worldwide, for example from the US.
Booking your own flights is of course also possible.
Optional
- 1-Tank Boat Dive, surcharge $50.
- 2-Tank Boat Dive, surcharge $80.
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Frequently asked questions about this diving vacation
Diving general
On Bonaire you will make mostly shore dives, however, it is also definitely possible to make boat dives. Buddy Dive sails several boats daily, especially to dive sites that are a bit more difficult to reach from shore. Want to join us? Reserve through us in advance, as the boats are quite often full.
Buddy Dive has its own house reef, where you can make the most amazing dives right away. In addition, Buddy Dive is fairly centrally located so you can also quickly reach the Northern and Southern dive sites in your pickup.
As much as you want, we offer an unlimited shore diving package. Of course the advice to keep a close eye on your limits!
You can do fantastic night diving here. A unique spectacle not to be missed is the Ostracods night dive that takes place about 2/4 days after the full moon. Ostracods are super tiny clams that you can’t see with the naked eye, but 2/4 days after the full moon they sparkle in the dark water! A magical experience where you are surrounded by brilliant points of light illuminating the darkness.
Yes, and it a wonderfully easy house reef. Down the stairs, descend and enjoy.
Absolutely, Buddy Dive offers several diving courses. Includes the first dive certificate you need to dive independently.
Yes definitely, the Buddy Dive dive school is located on the property, right on the water and house reef.
Diving equipment
There are only INT tanks. You can rent an INT to DIN converter or bring your own if you dive with DIN.
Yes, this is free. However, you do need to be Nitrox certified.
Yes, this is possible, prices are on request.
Other activities excursions
Absolutely, some great snorkeling spots are; 1000 Steps, Karpata, Salt Pier, Bachelor’s Beach, Klein Bonaire and Wayaka (in the park).
You can go canoeing through Bonaire’s mangroves, visit the donkey sanctuary, learn to kite or windsurf and spend a day visiting Little Bonaire where you can sunbathe, swim and snorkel.
You can go canoeing through Bonaire’s mangroves, visit the donkey sanctuary, learn to kite or windsurf and spend a day visiting Little Bonaire where you can sunbathe, swim and snorkel.
Accommodation
Yes definitely.
Yes
Yes, two even. The cozy restaurant Blennies where you can order a wide range of western dishes for lunch, snack and dinner as well as the more luxurious Ingredient where you can dine out at night.
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