Divi Flamingo Resort has two restaurants. Calabas serves a buffet breakfast every morning, and Chi Chi is open for lunch and dinner. Calabas also has themed dinners a few nights each week. This is a great option for a fun and relatively inexpensive dinner. If you find you've enjoyed one too many desserts, you can always go to Divi's Fitness Center. This facility offers many different exercise machines for a great work out…thus making room for more desserts!
The dive shop, Divi Dive Bonaire, was TOP NOTCH!!! I was very impressed with the shop manager, Serge De Groote. From the very entertaining and informative dive orientation, Serge was always around to make sure everyone was taken care of and having fun diving. Two dive masters that not only won my heart, but Hayley's as well, are Mark and Jenna. These two wonderful gentlemen made it possible for Hayley to be the diver she is today. They both have been with Divi Dive Bonaire for many years. You can tell they enjoy their job just by the way you are treated and the patience they show with new divers. While we were there, the dive shop had an anniversary party for one of the dive masters who celebrated his 25th year with Divi Dive Bonaire. That celebration alone tells me that Divi Dive Bonaire is not only a dive shop; it is a family of divers who enjoy each other and their job. Another wonderful dive master is Susan. I think this woman has super hero vision. What she was able to spot on our dives was simply not possible with our mere mortals' eyes.
To commemorate this first annual dive vacation of the entire Cairo family, we hired Capture Photo, the on site underwater photography facility to video us in HD. Again, it was another wonderful experience and memory for us to take home. Capture Photo is a full-service facility with 30 years of camera and video experience. They also are the only camera repair shop on the island.
You should also be glad to know that the Divi offers a full-service spa, with treatments from manicures to full-body massages. After a long day of diving, or just sitting on the beach reading a good book, you can treat yourself to a delightful spa experience.
As a dive travel professional, as well as a guest, I feel the Divi Flamingo has much to offer our clients. The location is great; it is only a short drive from the airport and a shorter walk into town. The staff is friendly and helpful. They have the facilities to accommodate even large, group bookings. The Divi Flamingo is the oldest property on the island and they are aware of that. They are doing their best to continually update the rooms. All the rooms should be fully upgraded by 2009. Beyond that, Divi is building a new property on Bonaire that is scheduled to open in 2010. Located next to Buddy Dive, this Divi will be an all-inclusive property.
Harbour Village Resort - To add to my knowledge, I also visited Harbour Village, a luxury property with its own private marina. This is an exclusive little resort with only 30 rooms. The property is operated as a gated hotel; each guest receives a private code to enter through the gate. Walking the grounds of this property your breath is taken away so many times. They offer a full-service spa with six treatment rooms, and a private pool spa guest may enjoy before or after a treatment. Along with the spa, they also offer a full service beauty salon and fitness center. All three of these facilities are open from 7 am to 7 pm. For quiet enjoyment, there is the Members' Lounge. This is a building offering a small library plus a game room complete pool table and foosball. Should you need access to the Internet, the front desk lobby area offers two computers for complimentary guest use from 7 am to 7 pm. For those traveling with their own laptop, all Harbour Village guest rooms have wireless internet access.
When guests arrive on the early morning flight, waiting in their rooms at Harbour Village is a fruit bowl and bottled water. The courtyard rooms offer two double or queen size beds, T.V. and safety deposit box. The bathrooms are large and have a full size tub, with shower. The bathrooms also offer a separate vanity for the ladies and their necessities. The beachfront suites are a sight to behold. These suites have one bedroom, plus a separate living room with a sleeper sofa. As you walk in the room, you notice the large wet bar area. Off of the living room is a balcony or walk out patio to the beach, depending on which floor the suite is located. The view from balcony is breath taking. I can see honeymooners out on their balcony with a glass of wine (from the wet bar), dreaming of their future. They say a kitchen and bathroom sell a home; well the bathroom in the one-bedroom suite sells this room. The spacious bathroom showcases a claw foot tub, for those long and enjoyable bubble baths. The shower is large and separate, and double sinks (his and hers) finish off the bathroom. I highly recommend these suites for honeymooners or any couple looking for a nice romantic getaway.
The Harbour Village has a very nice private sandy beach for their guests' use. The shore diving from this beach offers a ship wreck dive. The dive shop, Great Adventures, is a 5-star PADI shop. They have two dive boats and offer three daily dives at 9 am, 11 am and 2 pm.
For your dinning pleasure, Harbour Village has two restaurants on site, plus two additional restaurants just outside of the property. Every evening from 5:30pm - 6:30pm they serve cocktails at the Las Balandra restaurant. I would recommend this property to clients who are looking for a honeymoon, second honeymoon or just a very special vacation with the one they love. But beware! Harbour Village will spoil you for any other property on Bonaire.
Plaza Resort Bonaire - After representing Plaza Resort Bonaire for many years, I could not wait to see all this resort had to offer. I have to say, the Plaza was all my clients reported it to be and more. Bous Scholts the Director of Sales and Marketing was the host for my tour. If all the staff at the Plaza Resort are as friendly and quick-witted as Bous, I understand why this property has so many repeat guests.
The open lobby of the Plaza Resort offers many sitting areas to enjoy the island breeze. You will also find eight wireless access points in the lobby. With three meeting rooms, a banquet hall with the capacity of 120, along with their information center to book island tours or car rentals, The Plaza Resort is perfect to host any large group.
The standard suite rooms offer a marina or pool view. These rooms are the smallest that Plaza Resort offers. With that said, they are still a very spacious room with two queen beds, a table and chair in a sitting area and a balcony. The bathroom is plenty large with a tub and separate shower. The grand suites are just a bit larger that the standard suite, the amenities are the same, but with the added advantage of an ocean view.
There are 24 one-bedroom suites, which are all located on the second floor. These rooms have a separate bedroom with a king-size bed, full kitchen, living room and a spacious bathroom. There also are 24 two-bedroom suites, offering the same amenities as the one-bedroom. In the second bedroom, however, you will find two single beds. These two-bedroom suites are all located on the ground floor.
With the Plaza Resort not being walking distance to town, there are three restaurants on site. Located just off the lobby, the Caribbean Point serves breakfast from 6:30 am - 11:30 am. The Banana Tree is a great outdoor restaurant that serves lunch and dinner from 12 noon - 10:00 pm. The Tipsy Seagull is open for dinner from 6 pm - 10 pm, but note that it does require a reservation.
After a day of diving, and you still have energy left to spare, for your enjoyment, there is a fitness center. If you are like me, after a day of diving, you want to be spoiled, and in that case the day spa is the place for you.
There are two beach areas at the Plaza Resort, for larger groups, they will designate one of the beaches for your private use. The 18 Palm house reef, located off the beach area, is great for shore diving.
Toucan Diving is Plaza Resort's full-service dive and retail shop. They have five dive boats and can accommodate up to 200 divers a day. We had a wonderful afternoon dive with Toucan. The dive masters were knowledgeable, friendly and showed us our first seahorse. I am sure not if this was planned, but our dive boat was greeted by a sea turtle. He swam around the boat as we entered the water. I wondered if he was taking a head count for the LARGER fish in the ocean.
Buddy Dive Resort -- Though it has only 77 rooms, Buddy Dive Resort seems much larger than it is. Buddy's Dive is upgrading their resort; by the end of 2010 all renovations should be complete. Also by the end of 2008, they will have all brand new trucks. The pool in the front of the resort is being replaced with a Jacuzzi. The resort will still offer two other swimming pools, one having a nice swim up bar. An added feature is their drive through service, not to be confused with Mickey D's drive through. With Buddy's drive through, you drive your truck up to a service type station, and they fill your air tanks and load the truck for your shore dives. How's that for diving service!
Buddy Dive Resort has two different restaurants on site, the Bella Vista and the Pool Bar. You can enjoy a buffet breakfast daily from 6:30 am to 10:00 am. Over the course of the week they have various theme nights where dinner is only $10.00 a person.
The one-bedroom apartments include a full kitchen, living area with a sleeper sofa, queen bed, and full bath. The two and three bedrooms offer the same amenities with the other bedrooms having two twin beds, and each bedroom has it own private bathroom. All the three-bedroom apartments are on the top floor.
Buddy Dive has five dive boats with a new boat slated to be added in November. The house reef at Buddy's Dive was a joy to explore. Our one-hour dive with dive master Martin went by much too fast. It is true what they say, time flies when you are on great dive. They offer a wreck with their house reef, but sadly we did not get to explore it this time out. All was not lost; we saw our second and third sea horses along with two fine eels and a large scorpion fish.
I see now why my clients like Buddy's Dive, it has a charm all its own. This property would be a great choice for a small group or a large family on a dive vacation.
The Bottom Line - I have to say this was one of my favorite dive trips. My daughter became a diver, while I got to add to my dive travel knowledge and experience. I have taken many memories home as priceless souvenirs, and will continue to present Bonaire as a special dive destination to my clients, as it is to me.
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