5 Stars! Turneffe Island Lodge

[Diver Lori]

Sounds great. But is it twice as good as Roatan? I ask as it seems twice the price.

We were at Fantasy Island in Roatan last year and diving around Turneffe beats Roatan hands down. My buddy and I are u/w photographers and we were much more pleased with the life at Turneffe than we were at Roatan. BIG difference.

As I said in my first post, in my mind it's second to Cayman Brac.

I will post some pictures as soon as I get them developed. I'm a bit of a film purist....shoot professional slide film.

 

[Mo2vation]

Ken! Too funny. I took a quick look at your pictures and unless the cabana's were decorated the same....we even stayed in the same cabana as you! C6?

Lori

When we were there, nobody was in C8, C7 left on Wed, as did C5 and C4. So Jaye and I were BY OURSELVES at that end of the island Wed - Sat. It was the best... very, very private.

Every morning we'd walk to the pier to the right of the Cabana and go greet the lobsters and mini rays, say hi to the big Iguana under the planks, etc.

We will be returning, for sure.

---
Ken

 

[Diver Lori]

Most places charge between $40 to $60 USD for two tank boat dives so simple calaculation should be about $240 to $360 less for non diver. I see your point about liveabord but in this case, with land based, the non diver is not aboard the boat. Just seems odd and not totally fair?

Didn't understand your last paragraph.You can get a beachcomber status for less?

TIL is a private island and at the most can handle 40 guests. The week we were there it had 18. Basically there were more staff than guests that week!! TIL is very private, and it's priced that way and worth it if you like solitude. After having been on one too many cattleboats, (DiviTiara in Cayman Brac comes to mind) it was sheer pleasure being on a boat with only 6 divers and two crew, a carribbean 6-pack! Since many of the guests were there to fish and not divers, it made for small groups on the boats.

Yes, it cost us more than we've paid before, but it was well worth the money. Click on the smiley in Mo2vation's first post and you'll see what I mean. Great pictures, btw!!

Imagine, a good book, a daiquari, in a hammock under a palapa....swaying in the trade wind breezes......looking out over the ocean and the beach and seeing NO ONE else!! It was heaven!! Only occasionally did I see anyone else in the afternoons....and I had to really look for them. Most of the guests spread out after dives.... reading, kayaking, napping. Ahhh.....it was soooo tranquil. I look forward to going back.

No loud noise, no crowds, no crying children....(btw, not a kid place, nothing for them to do). Just the sounds of the birds and the surf....amongst other creatures. In the evenings, Sherman the bartender, would play soft jazz or smooth raggae....but it was never overpowering....simply a melody in the background. There's even a small saltwater crocodile that lives in the mangrove near the dive shop....he's a cutie too!!

Critters we saw....spotted eagle rays, nurse sharks, frogfish, lots of eels...big and small...green and speckled, schools and schools of game fish, silversides, permit, and others I haven't looked up yet. Also saw barracuda, nudibranchs, turtles galore....and of course the obligatory parrot fish, sgt majors, squirrelfish, even saw a blue triggerfish!! We also saw crabs fighting or mating?? :07: On one dive we saw two HUGE lobsters tugging on each other...I'm talking about 2 feet long at least!! Bet they would be tough to eat!

But now it's back to the grind of work.....alas.

 

[Mo2vation]

In the evenings, Sherman the bartender, would play soft jazz or smooth raggae....but it was never overpowering....simply a melody in the background.

Until I made him play JoeGrind (tune from a local artist... just rules!) about a thousand times. Cool guy. Been there 11 years, I think. Dude is a legend. Sweet guy, killer Domino player, above average artist.

Did you see the blue crab living at the front of the garden walk, right as you came down the dock? He was under the bushes in front of the first coconut tree. Cracked me up. On an island with a zillion little hermit crabs, there is this huge BLUE crab.

We only had one fisherman, but about 1/3 of the island was on the Wed - Wed plan, so we had about 12 of us on the island for the back half of the week.

Internet & phone is available (in the office... NOT IN THE CABANAS OR ROOMS!) for the compulsive communicators. I'm not one to lay back, so I was diving my face off or kayaking. Jaye did the hamokking.

Dangit, Lori. I'm totally having flashbacks. :07:

What a great trip.

---
Ken

 

[pilot fish]

TIL is a private island and at the most can handle 40 guests. The week we were there it had 18. Basically there were more staff than guests that week!! TIL is very private, and it's priced that way and worth it if you like solitude. After having been on one too many cattleboats, (DiviTiara in Cayman Brac comes to mind) it was sheer pleasure being on a boat with only 6 divers and two crew, a carribbean 6-pack! Since many of the guests were there to fish and not divers, it made for small groups on the boats.

Yes, it cost us more than we've paid before, but it was well worth the money. Click on the smiley in Mo2vation's first post and you'll see what I mean. Great pictures, btw!!

Imagine, a good book, a daiquari, in a hammock under a palapa....swaying in the trade wind breezes......looking out over the ocean and the beach and seeing NO ONE else!! It was heaven!! Only occasionally did I see anyone else in the afternoons....and I had to really look for them. Most of the guests spread out after dives.... reading, kayaking, napping. Ahhh.....it was soooo tranquil. I look forward to going back.

No loud noise, no crowds, no crying children....(btw, not a kid place, nothing for them to do). Just the sounds of the birds and the surf....amongst other creatures. In the evenings, Sherman the bartender, would play soft jazz or smooth raggae....but it was never overpowering....simply a melody in the background. There's even a small saltwater crocodile that lives in the mangrove near the dive shop....he's a cutie too!!

Critters we saw....spotted eagle rays, nurse sharks, frogfish, lots of eels...big and small...green and speckled, schools and schools of game fish, silversides, permit, and others I haven't looked up yet. Also saw barracuda, nudibranchs, turtles galore....and of course the obligatory parrot fish, sgt majors, squirrelfish, even saw a blue triggerfish!! We also saw crabs fighting or mating?? :07: On one dive we saw two HUGE lobsters tugging on each other...I'm talking about 2 feet long at least!! Bet they would be tough to eat!

But now it's back to the grind of work.....alas.

Oh, man, that sounds like a great dive vacation. Reading your description I was struck with how different Ramon's Village "Resort" was. We had many kids at the hotel, being normal kids, and tons of local kids dive bombing off the gazebo at the end of the pier, which made snorkeling a bit risky. The beach in front of the "resort" was a public thorofare and had hundreds of town's people and guests from other hotels going north-south throughout the day, many stopping to use the beach, some with street clothes on, and sit in the chairs. On weekends the locals would bring their kids to Ramon's beach and all would noisely frolic in the water. Hardly relaxing for the guests. You ask yourself, what am I paying for? A lot of this traffic created security issues. Ramon's Village was far from the tranquil atmosphere you describe at Turneffe Inn Lodge. Keep in mind that they are charging $175 to $225 US per night at Ramon's to be jostled by local towns people and annoyed by music from resturant bars right outside the "resort." Add to all of this an inattentive staff that was not concerned about correcting these situations and you can see, you do not get what you pay for.

Turneffe Inn Lodge sounds impressive. Thank you for your recommendation. TIL is at the top of my next trip list. It was relaxing just reading about your stay

 

[TCDiver1]

Great description Lori. It brings back tons of good memories. And Sherm .... what a nice guy.

Don't know if its the same but when we were there they served really yummy afternoon hors d'oevres. We took to skipping that and just kicking back in a hammock or lounge chair near our hooch. Sherm always came by with a tray of the afternoon treats to make sure we got one if we wanted. We never asked for him to do that, he just did it.

Sherm got a very good tip at the end of the week.

 

[DeputyDan]

For all folks who have visited here - how is the bug problem.

My wife and kids won't do Roatan due to insect issues. How does this locale compare to Roatan as far as no seeums/black flys/ etc?

 

[Mo2vation]

For all folks who have visited here - how is the bug problem.

My wife and kids won't do Roatan due to insect issues. How does this locale compare to Roatan as far as no seeums/black flys/ etc?

When we first landed, the air was dead calm. That means bugs. Humidity and a general yuck in the air.

For the next 7 days, a breeze was blowing. It changed EVERYTHING! No humidity, no bugs. The DEET only came out of the bag when we were walking on half-moon Caye. While on Turneffe, we never used it.

Plus all the sleeping rooms have double entries - so no buggies get in.

---
Ken

 

[Diver Lori]

We only had two days when the mosquitos & horse flies were bad. I asked our DM about it and he told me to come back in March or April....no bugs.

 

[rpodos]

I agree, TIL is one of the best dive resorts I've ever been, And THE ELBOW is prolly my favorite dive in the Caribbean!!