Buddy Dive Resort

We were supposed to get a one bedroom, but instead we got a studio. So small and hard to move around in the kitchen. It is not a full kitchen, no oven in the unit. We had our dive gear, and would leave it outside to dry, but would have to bring it in at night. Absolutely no room to let it dry in the studio, and no proper place to put it outside to dry. Only 2 hooks and no hangers outside.

The hotel is nice and the staff are very friendly. Guillermo who is head of the dive shop is very friendly and knowledgeable. I lost my expensive dive light and upon my surprise Beaudine was able to retrieve it for me! If you want to know what any fish or aquatic creature is, I recommend that you ask Danny in the dive shop. She is an encyclopedia of knowledge and as personable as they get. The only complaint that I have, is the service at the restaurant. I dont recommend splitting up checks as it causes a mess of confusion and be prepared to wait. I think that is overall the sane at every place on the island that I went to. Patience is not my friend so I didn’t dock points on this. I will definitely be back to Buddy Dive Resort. Thank you for a pleasurable stay! Crash

With one exception, everything at the resort was better than we expected for a dive resort. The room was nicer. The food was better. Everything was clean and conveniently located. The one issue is that there are young Dutch people working all over the resort… at reception, the restaurant and the dive shop… who seem to have absolutely no idea what they’re doing. We had trouble checking in with the dive shop, with reservations for dinner, and with getting our rental truck at the reception desk. Each time there was nothing unusual that we were doing. It was run of the mill resort stuff, and they just couldn’t manage. We were subject to scrunched up faces and long periods of confused silence. Eventually an older, more experienced person would show up, we’d tell them why we were there, and 30 seconds later we were done. This wasn’t enough to ruin our vacation, but it was certainly annoying. Aside from that we had a great week at Buddy Dive and can recommend it, so long as you have a bit of patience.

We had a great time at Buddy Dive Resort! The dive operation and team there are outstanding and having the beautiful house reef available 24/7 was so nice. The property and rooms are not fancy but everything worked well and we had a wonderful experience.

At 4 pm my room wasn’t ready, at 5 pm my room wasn’t ready. After dinner I was able to check in but was given a studio room instead of the 1 bedroom I booked. Exhausted I took the incorrect room and was told to come back at 8am the next morning for help. When I came back at 8 am, I was told to come back at 10am that management was running late. When I came back at 10am there were more excuses and insistence that I had been given the correct room. After much polite determination on my part a manager finally showed up and gave me keys to a one bedroom as reserved. There is some kind of belief at this resort that their studio is a one bedroom, even though there is no sitting area in the studio?

We had an outstanding experience, with a number of staff going above and beyond. There was a problem with one younger staff person, and that keeps us from giving 5 stars for service. I came prepared to certify at Buddy's, but was initially paired with Julia, who interpreted my anxiety as defiance and literally said, "Don't ever look at me like that again!" We talked to Guillermo, who was in charge of the scuba center and projects an air of someone who could handle any crisis, land or sea. He paired us with Jose, a onetime general surgeon, who is a master instructor and also a humane individual. He spent the time necessary to get me more comfortable with my first diving in the ocean. He did this despite Julia's attempt to poison the situation which we learned of behind the scene. I also want to give a shoutout for Donny, who told us where we might be lucky enough to see an octopus. He is a character (a retired policeman) and my boyfriend said he was a joy to be around. He did tease them about the visibility dropping as they photographed the octopus, but my boyfriend maintains that the octopus was at least partially responsible as he situated his or her eight legs on the sandy bottom. Thanks to all for an amazing experience!

We got our open water certificate at the yellow submarine location and we were a little nervous but we had such a funny and great guide Camilla who made sure to explain everything and make sure we were ready! She was great and so excited to dive!

Second time was even better than the first. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go back to Buddy Dive. I didn’t have the best experience the first time, HOWEVER! I now realise it was my room mate who created a stressful situation losing things all the time, making me responsible for keeping track of her stuff and her snoring. I ultimately made the decision to go back because I think their dive operation is top notch. My son was getting his PADI certification and it’s a great place to learn. He did his e-course and then the pool work and the four open water dives right off their dock and in the house reef. Visibility is great and the waters are very calm. We got a two bedroom apartment. My lads had twin beds in their room. Their apartment had a large dining and living room and a separate bathroom, and a patio. The entry was at the back towards the car park. My one bedroom en-suite apartment connected to theirs so I never used the kitchen but I did use the little table in the kitchen for teams meetings online. WiFi is decent enough for that but not always consistent in the bedroom itself. I didn’t have a covered porch but just used the adjoining one. We used the entry from my bedroom to exit towards the restaurants and pool. The kitchen is set up nicely. We brought easy to make meals like Mac and cheese and ramen and snacks mainly because I have the luggage allowance for it and it saved me from making a trip to the supermarket. You will need to bring your own spices or oil or you get it from the supermarket. There is one walking distance from the resort but the bigger one is towards town and you’ll need a car or a taxi. We really didn’t cook that often. Just for lunch and when we came back from an Ostracod night dive. (If you come back from a night dive around 9pm, even tough the restaurant is still open, they might be slower with the meal) My son had a great diving course experience. His dive instructor was excellent. Highly recommend doing the certification here. We did over a dozen boat dives and didn’t repeat any sites. Because the sites have one mooring, you won’t see five dive boats in the same area. There was a big group of 40 divers from a dive club but we never saw them once we left the dock. Our boat had a max of 10 people and that was only one dive. Most of the time it was 5 to 7 and it’s probably because it’s low season. I prefer boat dives to shore dives. I did some the first trip and just found it a lot more work than I wanted. The morning boat dives are two tanks and the afternoon is one tank. All dive masters are very competent and experienced. Safety is paramount, and they did a great job with their instructions and often with humour. Here are the sites we did : Sharon’s serenity, Rappel, Barcadera, Munk’s Haven, Knives, Ebo’s Special, mi Dushi just to name some. We didn’t repeat any sites and saw moray eels, spotted eagle ray, octopus, and turtles as well as small marine life and amazing corals. The corals have been impacted by warmer t

Second time was even better than the first. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go back to Buddy Dive. I didn’t have the best experience the first time, HOWEVER! I know realise it was my room mate who created a stressful situation losing things all the time, making me responsible for keeping track of her stuff and her snoring. I ultimately made the decision to go back because I think their dive operation is top notch. My son was getting his PADI certification and it’s a great place to learn. He did his e-course and then the pool work and the four open water dives right off their dock and into the house reef. Visibility is great and the waters are very calm. We got a two bedroom apartment. My son and friend had twin beds in their room. Their apartment had a large dining and living room and a separate bathroom, and a patio. The entry was at the back towards the car park. My one bedroom en-suite apartment connected to theirs so I never used the kitchen but I did use the little table in the kitchen for teams meetings online. WiFi is decent enough for that but not always consistent in the bedroom itself. I didn’t have a covered porch but just used the adjoining one. We used the entry from my bedroom to exit towards the restaurants and pool. The kitchen is set up nicely. We brought easy to make meals like Mac and cheese and ramen and snacks mainly because I have the luggage allowance for it and it saved me from making a trip to the supermarket. You will need to bring your own spices or oil h mess you get it from the supermarket. There is one walking distance from the resort but the bigger one is towards town and you’ll need a car or a taxi. We really didn’t cook that much. Just for lunch and when we came back from an Ostracod night dive. My son had a great diving course experience. His dive instructor was excellent. Highly recommend doing the certification here. We did over a dozen dives and didn’t repeat any sites. Because the sites have one mooring, you won’t see five dive boats in the same area. There was a big group of 40 divers from a dive club but we never saw them once we left the dock. Our boat had a max of 10 people and that was only one dive. Most of the time it was 5 to 7 and it’s probably because it’s low season. I prefer boat dives to shore dives. I did some the first trip and just found it a lot more work than I wanted. The morning boat dives are two tanks and the afternoon is one tank. All dive masters are very competent and experienced. Safety is paramount, and they did a great job with their instructions and often with humour. Here are the sites we did : Sharon’s serenity, Rappel, Barcadera, Munk’s Haven, Knives, Ebo’s Special, mi Dushi just to name some. We didn’t repeat any sites and saw moray eels, spotted eagle ray, octopus, and turtles as well as small marine life and amazing corals. The corals have been impacted by warmer temperatures and there is an active reef restoration project in progress. I planned this trip for the ostrac