Question Best Roatan Dive Package for Us?

[passedoutwookie]

I am heading down with my fiance to West End at the end of the month for a week of diving. We are super stoked enjoy some easy tropical diving! We are budget conscious travelers who will be bringing all of our own gear. We are experienced divers and are hoping to do some of the more advanced, but still single tank, dives. We are staying very close to Roatan Divers, and have begun engaging with them, but after talking with them found that they do not offer any discount on their packages if you bring your own equipment, whereas Coconut Tree and Reef Gliders appears to be $100 cheaper per ten dives if you bring your own gear.

We did like the idea of 4 boats at Roatan Divers to be flexible and hopefully paired up with a group that his similar experience and SAC rates. I see Coconut Tree operates bigger boats that do two dives per trip vs Roatan Diver's smaller boats doing a single dive per trip.

I am leaning towards booking with Coconut Tree for the better value and proximity to more technical diving (based on their website they seem to cater more to tech diving that the other shops). Does anyone have any strong feelings one way or the other? Any other tips we should be considering?

 

[chillyinCanada]

Coconut Tree have a good reputation, as well as being noted for a social atmosphere too.

Where are you staying? I'm quite familiar with West End.

 

[therookie]

I have no personal experience with either shop, but just want to point out that sometimes comparing dive op prices on Roatan online can be tricky. Some shops include the taxes (4% tourism tax plus 15% sales tax) in their online pricing, some don't. And some shops also have different pricing for cash vs. credit card transactions, but that information is often not displayed on public websites and you need to know to check with them on that in advance.

Roatan Divers price appears to be all-inclusive on the tax side, so their (currently) $500 price for a 10-dive package is actually $42 per dive plus taxes. However, they may have different pricing for a cash transaction.

On the other hand, from Coconut Tree's website I cannot tell if their prices include the taxes - possibly I just missed it though. Also, if paying by credit card Coconut Tree adds a 6% surcharge. If you are planning on paying by credit card and if Coconut Tree's advertised price doesn't include sales tax, their displayed price of $400 is actually the same $500 ($400 + 6% credit card surchage of $24 + 19% taxes of $76). You should check with them for a detailed price breakdown before making a decision based primarily on cost.

Edited to add that it looks like Roatan Divers also does tech training, based on a TripAdvisor review that I just read where the reviewer states that they did three "tech courses": sidemount diver, deep diver and Tec40. Be specific with both shops about what your needs / interests are and you'll likely find them both able to accomodate you nicely.

 

[TNEngineer]

You already have accommodations. Why pick just one LDS? Try a different one each of the first few days and then you can stick with the one you like best. This may also give you variety you'd otherwise miss.