On August 19, 2020 Buddy Dive Resort Bonaire will celebrate that it’s been 40 years since they opened their doors for the first time. This will be celebrated with various festivities and specials throughout the year.
The resort opened on August 19, 1980 and it’s a sure thing that a lot has happened and changed since then. Martien & Ingrid van der Valk purchased Buddy Dive Resort & Watersports back in 2002, when the resort only had 46 apartments, a small dive operation with 3 boats and 20 rental cars.
In October 2004 Buddy Dive Resort acquired Lions Dive Hotel Bonaire and therewith increased the rooms inventory with 32 units. Today the resort offers73 apartments, more than 100 rental cars and 2 restaurants.
The dive operation has grown and is now a PADI 5-star Career Development Center with 6 dive boats, a large range of diving options, courses, kids’ programs and the largest technical diving facility of the Caribbean.
In 2012 we founded a foundation to protect and restore the coral reefs in Bonaire. Reef Renewal Foundation Bonaire has become a well-established foundation with multiple participating dive shops on the island and has currently planted over 22.000 corals back to our reefs. Martien van der Valk, head of the Buddy Dive Family, comments: “My wife and I look back on many memorable years. Now is the time that we proudly hand over the management to the next generation, who will follow in our footsteps and will pursue our mission of Buddy Dive Resort being the go-to resort and dive operation for your dive vacation and dive education. We are also very proud of the number of guests that joined our Buddy Dive Family over the years and became a fantastic group of repeat guests, some of whom have been returning annually for 25 years already! The group is still growing each year.”
