My S.O. and I just spent a very nice week of diving at Anthony's Key Resort, Roatan, Honduras November 27-December 4 (2004). December is the start of the rainy season. It was perfect weather - sunny and 85F. That is until 12/2. We received about 30 minutes of rain, then about an hour of rain the following day, then 2+ hours on 12/4 our day of departure. Not enough to worry about. Dives were not affected in the least.
Water temps were about 77F at 110 and 80-81F from 80 ft to the surface. Visibility was OK, a bit cloudy and getting slightly more so as the week went on. Reefs are in very good condition as AKR sits in the middle of a Marine Sanctuary. Lots of color, massive barrell sponges everywhere, lots of fish! I'd never seen so many large schools of juvenile parrottfish, blue tangs, others. Not many moray eels, but plenty of groupers, hogfish, large porcupine puffers, massive king crabs... Toadfish are all over, but very tricky to find. You can hear them croaking, but can't find the suckers to save your life! The reefs are perfectly built hiding for them. Our DM found a big fat one first day out, as well as a baby seahorse.
For extra fees you can schedule dolphin encounter, dolphin dive and/or shark dive. They also offer a 3-tank trip to Barbaretta for an additional $85. There is also a shore dive facility on the far north side of Anthony's Key.
The resort was VERY laid back and focused primarily on divers. The cabins were spacious and clean with daily maid service. Air conditioned units were worth the extra charge. Ours was at the far end of the key with plenty of privacy and a spectacular view of the sunsets. Cabins are scattered about the key and on the hill by the office/bar/restaurant. Some are by themselves where others are in sets of 2's and 3's with balcony, covered porch, &/or open porches. All with hammocks and chairs. Guests take a very short ride by water taxi between the main dock, Anthony's key, and Bailey's key. One of the drivers even took us on an impromptu cruise around the bay one evening to see the stars.
The food was pretty good and definitely plentiful. Meals were served three times a day during 2-hour serving sessions. Waiters and staff were very personable and friendly. Lunch served after the first two morning dives. Dinner was served well after the night dives so no conflicts between eating and diving. Each meal had a choice of a "surf" or "turf" entree with soup or salad. Or upon request you can have all of it if you can't decide. Bar has Happy Hour on Mon, Wed, and Fri with 2 for 1 drinks that were strong! If that's not enough, the nearby town of West End has all sorts of bars, nite clubs, and restaurants.
Not much of a "beach resort" but there were a couple of areas on each of the keys to catch some rays and relax. They also have several sea kayaks. You can paddle over to the dolphin pen, around the keys, or over to the Institute for Marine Sciences where they have twice daily dolphin shows with Q&A sessions. They offer free daily horseback riding and have a massage therapist for hire at $40/hr.
On Monday all of the dive boats take off with 2 tanks per diver then everyone goes to Tabiani Beach in West Bay for a nice leisurely lunch before the third dive. From there, guests can opt to go on a zip-line tour during the long surface interval.
There is a cabin for hanging up your wet gear overnight so you only needed to take your regulators and really expensive accessories back to your cabin each evening. That isn't mandatory but they had an incident where a console was damaged by a dropped weight belt by a guest. The room is locked and guarded overnight.
The boats were spacious - 14 divers max on their 8 Pro 42's. Each guest is assigned to a boat for the week. Typically you will have the same DM and boat captain for the week as well. Both were very friendly and very helpful with getting into and out of the water. If you don't like the people on your boat, they will let you change to another upon request.
They also have 4 Pro 48's for the full day trips and to accommodate the cruise ship crowds. Speaking of which, you hardly knew they were there! AKR staggers their dive trips so that the resort guests are in no way compromised by the day-trippers. They only time we even knew they were on the premises is when 20 or so at a time were taken by the bigger water taxi's to Bailey's Key for the Dolphin Encounters.
Boats have large dedicated fresh water tubs for cameras only, and a camera table that's not always camera only - photogs have to ask the other divers to not put their personal gear on it as the DM's didn't push the issue. They stopped processing E6 on site but still process print film daily and offered downloading and CD burning services for the digital crowd. Hopefully I'll have some decent photos to post soon. Gotta get 'em processed then reviewed then scanned (I still shoot slide film
This place is ideal for anything from singles, to couples, to large dive clubs or dive shop trips. They can accommodate close to 200 divers who are serious about diving.
