Sirto
Contributor
We just got back from two weeks at Fantasy Island Beach Resort in Roatan (10/2/2004 to 10/16/2004). Here's a brief review.
Rooms
The resort at Fantasy Island consists of several buildings each with about 20 rooms. They had 87 rooms but were adding another building. There is a main building that houses the front desk, main restaurant and bar.
Rooms were quite comfortable, clean and roomy. Each room had a small porch facing the beach. Our room was only 50 feet from the water.
Beaches
There are two beaches, one for snorkeling and one for swimming. The swimming beach was in a cove and had lots of shade available from palm trees and palapas. The sand was white and was raked daily. It was mostly unused as almost everyone was always out diving. There was a sandy bottom so the entry was nice. There was some grass in the water but not until it got too deep to stand. This was a great beach for sunning as well as swimming.
The snorkeling beach was best accessed via the gazebo. You had a choice of staying close to shore and snorkeling in 4 5 feet of water or swimming out about 100 feet to a section of coral that was between FI and CocoView resort. Both areas offered nice snorkeling. We snorkeled the area close to shore on two nights with our dive lights and found lots of interesting creatures including crabs, lobsters, conch, three large tarpon, brittle stars, juvenile spotted drum fish and a sucker fish.
The gazebo next to the snorkeling beach is the starting point for shore dives. From here you can explore the wreck of the Prince Albert, CocoView and Neumans wall. You can also request to be dropped on top of these sites and save yourself the swim. To do a shore dive you just go to the dive shop and ask them for tanks and take a small boat to the gazebo. When your dive is complete you swim back to the gazebo and call the dive shop for a boat to pick you up. We found it easy to do these shore dives.
Bugs
We saw very few bugs but they sure were around. By the end of the trip I had at least 100 bites all over me. They were very itchy at times. We went through 2 1/2 cans of OFF with 30% deet but the little buggers still ate us up.
Dive Facilities
There are five dive boats each of which can handle up to 20 people. Im not sure what they do when the resort is full. The boats handle up to 15 pretty comfortably but any more would get cramped. You are assigned a boat and stay with it for the whole week.
There is a locker room with about 90 wooden lockers each of which is about 2 feet by 7 feet with one shelf which is fine for one person though probably a little tight for two. You can leave your equipment here all week. The room is locked up at night.
There are jet skis available for rental though thankfully none were in use during our stay.
The ride to the dive sites was between 5 minutes and 35 minutes except for the one day we went to the north side of the island. Except when we doe Calvin's Crack which was the furthest from FI we returned to the resort after each dive. At Calvin's Crack we spent the SI on the boat in a protected cove near Jonesville a small fishing town.
Food
Breakfast and dinner were served in the main dining room and lunch was served in the outdoor restaurant except when there were too few people (as was the case the first week) in which case it was also served in the main restaurant.
We thought that the food was good to very good though it did start to get old by the middle of the second week. For breakfast there were omelets made to order as well as the other typical breakfast stuff. They have some excellent orange juice! We found that most of the breads looked better than they tasted though there were a few that were good.
Lunch and dinner usually included a chicken dish, a pork dish, fish, and beef dishes. Usually there was one dish that was prepared to order on the grill or carved. The marinated beef steaks that were offered frequently were really good. We had broiled lobster tails at least once each week and stewed lobster as well. Desserts were pretty good as well.
Side trips
We took the trip into West End for shopping and the canopy tour in which you get strapped to a cable strung between trees and zip through the jungle. Most people really enjoyed that one.
Based on what I had seen on the internet about condos going up in Roatan I had expected West End to be more built up. Instead we found that the main drag through town was a dirt road. West end was made up of small shops, bars, dive shops and small hotels. The beach that ran alongside the main road was narrow but nice looking. The area just to the east of West End is called Half Moon Bay and the beach there is wider and very appealing. There are some cabins there that might make a nice place to stay. Lots of restaurants and dive shops within easy walking distance from Half Moon Bay.
Diving
Before leaving for Roatan I had read several reviews that bemoaned the lack of larger marine life. I have to echo that sentiment. The reefs were nice but its mostly small fish. I took RoatanMans advice and brought a magnifying glass and it was useful for viewing some of the really small fish. We didnt see any large animals during the first week except for some moderately large grouper a few green moray eels and a barracuda. During the second week we did see two spotted eagle rays and a turtle (stationary on a wall with head hidden in the coral). On one dive we surfaced and heard that there were some dolphins nearby. We headed west for 15 minutes and found a pod of 15 dolphins who proceeded to swim next to the boat whenever we sped up. We played around with them for 20 minutes or so.
The night dives were very nice. Several really large crabs, a couple of small octopii etc. We watched as a spotted moray captured and ate a blue tang and a large fish (not sure what it was) captured a smaller one. He kept having to drop it and regrab it to get it to go down head first. Pretty interesting.
The visibility was not as good as we had hoped for perhaps 60 feet. The water was rather rough the first week with 4 6 foot seas which made getting on the boat a little hairy at times. During the second week the wind died down and the water was much calmer.
Some of the critters we saw include:
Seahorses about 6
Frogfish
Grouper
Green moray eel
Spotted moray eel
Barracuda
Turtle
Octopus two
Tarpon
Lobsters
Crabs some quite large
Puffer fish
Scorpion fish
Juvenile spotted drum fish
Conch
Weather
We like to go to the Caribbean in the fall because the temperatures as well as the prices are lower and it is uncrowded. After we booked the trip for early October I read that this was the rainy season in Roatan. However, it rained hard on two days and then only during the night. We also had a couple of sprinkles on two days. The temperatures were very pleasant in the low to mid 80s and the water temperature was 82 84 degrees.
Summary
We did enjoy the trip as well as the Fantasy Island resort and the special fall price of $539/pp (plus 16% tax) for room, meals and diving had a strong appeal. However, due to the bugs and the relative lack of larger fish we probably will not return. Too many other islands to try out.
All in all I thought the diving in Cozumel where we went last year was vastly superior.
Hope this report is helpful.
Ed
Rooms
The resort at Fantasy Island consists of several buildings each with about 20 rooms. They had 87 rooms but were adding another building. There is a main building that houses the front desk, main restaurant and bar.
Rooms were quite comfortable, clean and roomy. Each room had a small porch facing the beach. Our room was only 50 feet from the water.
Beaches
There are two beaches, one for snorkeling and one for swimming. The swimming beach was in a cove and had lots of shade available from palm trees and palapas. The sand was white and was raked daily. It was mostly unused as almost everyone was always out diving. There was a sandy bottom so the entry was nice. There was some grass in the water but not until it got too deep to stand. This was a great beach for sunning as well as swimming.
The snorkeling beach was best accessed via the gazebo. You had a choice of staying close to shore and snorkeling in 4 5 feet of water or swimming out about 100 feet to a section of coral that was between FI and CocoView resort. Both areas offered nice snorkeling. We snorkeled the area close to shore on two nights with our dive lights and found lots of interesting creatures including crabs, lobsters, conch, three large tarpon, brittle stars, juvenile spotted drum fish and a sucker fish.
The gazebo next to the snorkeling beach is the starting point for shore dives. From here you can explore the wreck of the Prince Albert, CocoView and Neumans wall. You can also request to be dropped on top of these sites and save yourself the swim. To do a shore dive you just go to the dive shop and ask them for tanks and take a small boat to the gazebo. When your dive is complete you swim back to the gazebo and call the dive shop for a boat to pick you up. We found it easy to do these shore dives.
Bugs
We saw very few bugs but they sure were around. By the end of the trip I had at least 100 bites all over me. They were very itchy at times. We went through 2 1/2 cans of OFF with 30% deet but the little buggers still ate us up.
Dive Facilities
There are five dive boats each of which can handle up to 20 people. Im not sure what they do when the resort is full. The boats handle up to 15 pretty comfortably but any more would get cramped. You are assigned a boat and stay with it for the whole week.
There is a locker room with about 90 wooden lockers each of which is about 2 feet by 7 feet with one shelf which is fine for one person though probably a little tight for two. You can leave your equipment here all week. The room is locked up at night.
There are jet skis available for rental though thankfully none were in use during our stay.
The ride to the dive sites was between 5 minutes and 35 minutes except for the one day we went to the north side of the island. Except when we doe Calvin's Crack which was the furthest from FI we returned to the resort after each dive. At Calvin's Crack we spent the SI on the boat in a protected cove near Jonesville a small fishing town.
Food
Breakfast and dinner were served in the main dining room and lunch was served in the outdoor restaurant except when there were too few people (as was the case the first week) in which case it was also served in the main restaurant.
We thought that the food was good to very good though it did start to get old by the middle of the second week. For breakfast there were omelets made to order as well as the other typical breakfast stuff. They have some excellent orange juice! We found that most of the breads looked better than they tasted though there were a few that were good.
Lunch and dinner usually included a chicken dish, a pork dish, fish, and beef dishes. Usually there was one dish that was prepared to order on the grill or carved. The marinated beef steaks that were offered frequently were really good. We had broiled lobster tails at least once each week and stewed lobster as well. Desserts were pretty good as well.
Side trips
We took the trip into West End for shopping and the canopy tour in which you get strapped to a cable strung between trees and zip through the jungle. Most people really enjoyed that one.
Based on what I had seen on the internet about condos going up in Roatan I had expected West End to be more built up. Instead we found that the main drag through town was a dirt road. West end was made up of small shops, bars, dive shops and small hotels. The beach that ran alongside the main road was narrow but nice looking. The area just to the east of West End is called Half Moon Bay and the beach there is wider and very appealing. There are some cabins there that might make a nice place to stay. Lots of restaurants and dive shops within easy walking distance from Half Moon Bay.
Diving
Before leaving for Roatan I had read several reviews that bemoaned the lack of larger marine life. I have to echo that sentiment. The reefs were nice but its mostly small fish. I took RoatanMans advice and brought a magnifying glass and it was useful for viewing some of the really small fish. We didnt see any large animals during the first week except for some moderately large grouper a few green moray eels and a barracuda. During the second week we did see two spotted eagle rays and a turtle (stationary on a wall with head hidden in the coral). On one dive we surfaced and heard that there were some dolphins nearby. We headed west for 15 minutes and found a pod of 15 dolphins who proceeded to swim next to the boat whenever we sped up. We played around with them for 20 minutes or so.
The night dives were very nice. Several really large crabs, a couple of small octopii etc. We watched as a spotted moray captured and ate a blue tang and a large fish (not sure what it was) captured a smaller one. He kept having to drop it and regrab it to get it to go down head first. Pretty interesting.
The visibility was not as good as we had hoped for perhaps 60 feet. The water was rather rough the first week with 4 6 foot seas which made getting on the boat a little hairy at times. During the second week the wind died down and the water was much calmer.
Some of the critters we saw include:
Seahorses about 6
Frogfish
Grouper
Green moray eel
Spotted moray eel
Barracuda
Turtle
Octopus two
Tarpon
Lobsters
Crabs some quite large
Puffer fish
Scorpion fish
Juvenile spotted drum fish
Conch
Weather
We like to go to the Caribbean in the fall because the temperatures as well as the prices are lower and it is uncrowded. After we booked the trip for early October I read that this was the rainy season in Roatan. However, it rained hard on two days and then only during the night. We also had a couple of sprinkles on two days. The temperatures were very pleasant in the low to mid 80s and the water temperature was 82 84 degrees.
Summary
We did enjoy the trip as well as the Fantasy Island resort and the special fall price of $539/pp (plus 16% tax) for room, meals and diving had a strong appeal. However, due to the bugs and the relative lack of larger fish we probably will not return. Too many other islands to try out.
All in all I thought the diving in Cozumel where we went last year was vastly superior.
Hope this report is helpful.
Ed
