Budget Accommodation, Dive Shops, & Food

[Scuba Scotty]

Hey Everyone,

My girlfriend and I are looking to do a dive trip over spring break. I can't imagine it gets much cheaper than Roatan (or other Bay Islands) but I still need to figure out a budget. Here's my questions:

Budget Accommodations: Price Range? Best General Location (eg West End)? Recommendations? //2 people, 1 bed//

Dive Shops: price range for 2-tanks? 3 tanks? Good shops?

Dive/Room Combos: Better deal this way? Budget (range) per person?

Food: prices- cheap meal? mid-range? high end? recommendations?

We'd be there March 23rd through March 31st (spring break) - probably busy right? Would we need to book ahead of time or just show up?

After Belize we'd like some nice beaches, don't know much about Utila, I know it's a good budget locale, how are the beaches? Is the diving as good etc?

Thanks for the help,

-Scotty

 

[scubapatton]

My wife and I just got back from Roatan.. Here is what we did.. basically.

housing: We stayed at Coconut Tree Divers in West End. They have a west bay place as well, but West Bay is the higher end of the cost spectrum. CTD rates I think we paid $350 for christmas week for 7 nights for the bungalow. We reserved in advance.

dive shop: CTD noted above. Dives were $25 per dive with our own gear, $35 otherwise. They did a Mary's Place/Prince Albert 2-tank dive for $100 that goes around to the other side of the island

dive room combo: possible with other places. Saw no real beni to this at CTD, although being directly across the street was REAL nice.

food: restaurants vary. The rotisserie chicken place was good and cheap, as was Charlie's Subs. A few places were quite good but price ranged from ~$8 per meal per person to ~30 per meal per person. Beer at happy hour is dirt cheap - around a buck a beer at happy hour for 1 of 3 local beers.

Tips: BRING DOLLARS. LOTS. Some places add extra charge for Credit card useage, others add it regardless of whether you pay in cash or CC. We paid CC if they added it, Cash otherwise. We brought several hundred cash, and several hundred in travellers cheques.

Other points: West Bay has good beaches - you can get there by water taxi or road taxi from West End. There are a lot of options for lodging - some are all-inclusive, some entail more walking, riding but may be cheaper. The West End beach is ok - sort of a lot of sand fleas so bring repellant. We had no issue there until the very end when we got more lax about the repellant. The people are nice, the Canopy Zip lining is fun - several options there... ask around.

The dolphin diving at Anthony's Key Resort was worth it - but was like $112 each person with your own gear for one dive so can be steep if on a budget.

We did not hit Utila or Guaranja (spelling?) but heard those places had great diving, but less night life. We are not partyers but do like at least a little night life. West Bay DIED at 5pm from what we saw...

Hope that helps...

 

[Doc]

Do some math.

To borrow from the above example, per person, you're looking at $25 for lodging, on the low side $15 for food, and then two dives per day will add $50. That comes to $90 per day.

At an AI Resort, for $675 for the week, that would be $95 a day (Fantasy Hotel Rates and Packages) you can get 3 boat dives, all food, unlimited shore diving to the wreck (that others want to charge you $100 because its on the other side of the island). This also includes food selected from a menu and served at a table. This is bad in that you have less variety- this is good because you don't have to schlepp around looking for breakfast, dash to lunch to make your next dive... it's all figured in the schedule. They also run you to and from the airport.

The math gets a little more interesting if you want more dives per day rather than just the two in the above example. At an AI, all of your diving is included. At the ala-carte places, it adds $25 every time you back roll in. When you want three a day, AI's make sense.

Go ala-carte for 2 dives a day and you may come out a few pennies ahead. It can't be much. If you want to see Mary's Place (everyone does and I just don't get it, I'd rather dive the Wreck they will take you to- the one you can shore dive from the AI example above), that adds another $100. Amortized over the week, it adds $14 per day, making it $104. You're well over the AI cost even before paying for the airport transfer.

Do all of the math.

 

[Hagan34]

I was just there over New Years

my lodgeing was 340 a week, but was out of west end, so add in Cabs/ Bus fare.
I would suggest staying some place in West end and you knock out the cab fares.

as for dive shops it seemed that most were 20-35 per dive.

I did my diving at Pura Vida the staff there was great. it was 25 a dive if you needed gear or not, they did 3 dives a day 900, 1130, 1430. tues and thursday they do night dives if 4 or more ppl sign up, they have lamps if you dont have one. unlike most they do not charge more for use of Credit Cards. they have rooms there also but i didnt stay there, due to the last minute planing on my part. I highly recomend them.

your best bet is to make room arangements then vist the different shops in west end and figure out which one fits you the best. just off the top of my head there was Native Sons, Coconut tree Divers, Reef Gliders, Ocean Connection, Pura Vida, West End Divers, Casa de Soi (i think thats what it was called) and Luna Beach.

Never heard a bad thing about any of them, meet a few people that worked or had been diving with most of the shops i mentioned. like i suggested, I'd just vist with each one when you get there and see which shop best fits you and your plans.

 

[CODMAN]

If budget really is the determining factor (and believe me, I understand that!!!), Roatan man is right that you need to do the math...

I went to Fantassy island in the low season in 2006 (october). It cost 600$ for the week: double occupancy (not a problem diving with my Girld friend), 3 buffet meals a day (didn,t care for the food much, but I'm picky...), there is a beach, 3 dives dayly, 1 night dive during the week, unlimited shore diving on the reef and wreck nearby. When booking, we asked for the unlimited Nitrox package which was an extra 100$ for the week. Oh, and there were taxes on that... I don,t think you can beat that. If you do a few shore dives in there, it's absolutely unbeatable.... The other down side is you are relatively secluded in the resort and far from the partying in West end. If that is important for you (it wasn't for us), then you need to calculate that into the equation...

Have fun shopping!

 

[halocline]

If you really want budget, you can stay in the Coconut tree dorm for $5/night if you're diving with them. Might not be the most romantic, though!

Since the AIs and west end are fairly close in price, but very different in vibe, decide which is better for you and if you want more west end info, I'll give you my take on it.

 

[danktex]

I thought the Coconut Tree dorm was only for those who are taking classes with them.

 

[Scuba Scotty]

Thanks for the replies.

Going off of RoatanMan's math: I think we can get it down to $20per night pp, Food at least $20pp, 2 tanks/day $50, $10 misc ppd = $100 on dive days.

We don't like to dive every day, so in a week we'd be looking at 4, maybe 5 days. That means AI's are out, besides the fact that we'd wouldn't like the lack of variety - we like the seedy local spots.

Maybe we could stay with CTD in the dorms for 3 days. 3 days @ ~$30US rooms. 1 romance night at a nice place. 4 days of diving. I'll have to e-mail CTD to see how much you have to dive with them to stay there, and what the options are.

We each have a $450 flight voucher on American. We're coming from Portland Oregon so it looks like ~$200 - 300 out of pocket on the ticket - probably flying into San Pedro Sula. It would need to be ~$800 each total for us to go. That leaves ~$500 - 600US for land expenses for 7 days. hmmm.... sound feasible?

-Scotty

 

[Hagan34]

Delta has 2 flights every saturday direct from ATL to RTB (roatan)
and
Continental has flight from Huston Direct to Roatan, belive these are on Saturdays also.

My flight from ATL was cheaper then having to go to SPS then hitting the Shorts 360 to Roatan.

Just letting you know it might end beign cheaper depending on the rest of the flight.

 

[Bay Island Diver]

The coconut Tree dorm is for anyone diving with Coconut Tree.

There will be no trouble with your plans for the dorm.

Although you may want to check out Milkas place when you arrive, you can get a double room for ten dollars a night. It is EXTREMELY rustic, although the shower is hot occasionally. You can cancel the dorm if you like Milkas but you do want to book ahead for it.