Look at a West End map. See the area around the water taxi stop - that's where the loud bars are - stay somewhere else.Anything east of the main road into town will be quieter.
I have heard recently that a shore dive to a known dive site is possible off Sueno del Mar's beach - also that they're one of few places that will rent tanks for off-site use.Have not verified either but it seems possible as there's sort of a small point that the property (and another next door) are on.
Nice thing about the West End is you don't need a car - there's about a dozen dive operations within 1/2 mile - most keep their boats across the street.
The taxi stand is across from Coconut Tree Divers building and they work cheap. About the only fixed cost is I believe it's still $25 from the airport Most rides around the nearby area were under $10.
And more than a dozen decent restaurants from small cheap places to arguably the best on Roatan - Ooloonthoo. We also liked Tong's Thai and Argentinean Grille. Cheap, filliing chicken is at Rotisserie Chicken - they have a few outside tables or take it back to your apt. Woody's Market is just past Argentinean Grille
If you do the bogo at AKR - it's about 10mins east of town. So it gives you something to do since AKR is pretty isolated. Doc is right on with his comments including shore diving. We found two possibilities but never found anyone who would rent us tanks for use off-site.
A quieter but stilll accessible area is east of Half Moon Bay on the point. Half Moon Resort is there - it's where the Stanley Sub is kept. then around the point is Cocolobo, Seagrape Plantation and Posada Los Orchideas. Cocolobo is very nice, probably one of the more upscale properties in the area. No dive shop on site and dinner is a walk to the West End. I rented a house next door. Seagrape is older but has an on-site dive shop. Posada is around the point and looks into the next bay over. From any of them it's a 5-10min. walk back to the West End - we did it every day and most nights. There's a path and a road you don't see on most maps - it lets out by HMR.
Seemed safe to me. We dove with Coconut Tree and left our gear there all week except for the shark and dolphin dives.
The West End Wall area has a lot of good dives just a few minutes out by boat.So close that most shops return to the dock between dives. From there they're not afraid to go east past AKR or all the way west - there's several good dives off the west point of the island. Native Sons even goes around the point to dive Mary's Place once a week we did it by taking a van over to Barefoot Cay - it's 5mins. off their dock. Our 2nd dive was the Prince Albert off Cocoview,
As mentioned most of the prices being quoted are weekly - IMO the prices are surpressed on most things to attract business since the airfare is often among the highest. Everything we did, including 3 specialty dives, our 20ish total dive package, all meals etc. was around $1500/wk pp. and our house rental was $1500 split by 3. You could do it for a lot less - there's plenty of decent rooms/small apts. - some with kitchens for well under $100/nt. Watch for the food trucks most mornings - they sell nice looking produce on ice - we bought from them. Don't drink the water..lol - most offer R/O water in plastic bottles from a local source.
