I just got back from fantasy island, and while I have a hundred tips for travelers, Ill probably get sick of typing before I get them all listed here. I went from 5/16 - 5/26 and had room number 113 (main wing that is attached to the reception desk.). The room was spotless and the AC worked excellent. The room was bigger than I expected and had a king size bed, as well as a beautiful view of the ocean. It also had hardwood floors. I talked to others while I was there, and most had either new tile in the bedroom, or hardwood. A few still had carpet. I think they are getting rid of the carpet so you shouldnt get a room with it if you go. The downside of my room? THE DAMN PEST PROBLEM!! For some reason, when I first entered my room, I noticed the bathroom door closed. When I went into the bathroom, I noticed it was very warm in there. Im not sure if that was due to the door being closed and the ac not reaching it, or for some other reason, but these red ants kept running across the bathroom floor. I got some kleenex and kept squishing them and flushing them down the toilet but they kept on coming. My average was about 5-6 at a time, and I did this 3-4 times a day (whenever I went to my room). By the 6th or 7th night, they dissapeared for a day. Then, the following day, I had some sort of flying insect that looked EXACTLY like a termite. (again in the bathroom.) In fact, it may have been termites. I killed them every day for the next 3 days, and on my last night there, I was up reading late with the nightstand light on, and they seemed to be attracted to the light, and kept coming into the room somehow. (I had the bathroom door closed) I probably should have said something at the front desk, but I didnt.
Second, the taxi fares. I asked about the taxi fares to the westend (where all the clubs are, etc) and was told it was $20 each way. The DM at the dive shop said i should expect to pay that as a american, becuase the americans get screwed by the taxi drivers. Well, my story is sort of funny, and sort of not funny. Hopefully you can learn from it. I got a cab on friday night to the westend. When I got into the cab, 2 of the girls from the reception desk got it also. (must have been changing shifts) As we drove toward west end, one got out (didnt pay anthing) and then the other got out a few miles down the road. She asked me If id like to have the cab driver pick me up (he didnt speak much english at all) since finding a cab in the west end was hard to do. I said sure, and told her to tell him to pick me up at 1:30 in the morning. She told me his name and his cab number and said he would be at the same place to pick me up that he dropped me off at. (which was a club called the blue iguana or something) Anyway, I start drinking, and am sitting at the bar talking to the bartender and some of the Temptation Island people are lingering around. (let me digress a bit here...I noticed these same people were at fantasy island the night before, and I was curious as to the way they were dressed at FI compared to everyone else. To me, they didnt fit in, and earlier that day I found out why. I was getting a massage on the beach and the guy told me what was going on.) Anyway, The part that bothered me the most was that at the fantasy island bar, one of the guys was harrasing the bartender about how his drink wasnt a double and he was a bartender and knew how much a double should be. Now, I used to bartend at a nightclub for 6 years, and I felt bad about how the FI bartender was getting a hard time from this guy. I kept my mouth shut, but then the same moron had to say something to me while Im at the bar in westend. Like I posted earlier, I was sitting at the bar, talking to the bartender and one of the TI girls starts talking to me. Asks me why im there, etc , etc. When I ask her why shes here, she makes this lame excuse and I just sat and smiled to myself about what I knew, that she didnt. I guess its top secret about the show that nobody is supposed to tell anyone why they are on the island. Well, I ask her what she paid for a cab fare since I knew they had to get a cab from FI as well. Thats when mr. dumbass pipes in "were vip bro, we didnt pay anything". At that point I couldnt take it anymore, so I informed him that if hes VIP, he should be pissed about getting sent out to this island when they dont even dive. Why else would anyone come here? He blew me off and walked away, and at the same time the girl that was talking to me left as well. I got a good laugh out of that. A few minutes later, the real action started. I noticed that within this group of young people, there were 2 older women, 1 around 40 , the other around 50. The 50 year old women approched me and started talking to me, and after I while we hit it off pretty good. I told her I knew what was up and she told me she wasnt allowed to discuss any of it. (which was fine by me, I just didnt want more bs as to why they were there). Anyway, i point out to her that the 30 yo woman is heavily trying to kiss one of the guys, and keeps dirty dancing with him and asking him if he was going to come back to her room to party. The 50 yo tells me that I didnt see any of that and that the 40 yo is really drunk. Anyway, enough of the TI crap, I just wanted to point out what morons they all are. I made a mental note to myself to fire my travel agent when I got home. (thank god they left the next day) So back to my cab story.. so, I meet a group of local girls and we start hanging out and drinking some more. I notice its close to 1:30 and that I have to leave because my cab is going to pick me up. They offer to give me a ride back to FI, so I dont have to take a cab. Im thinking thats a great idea, and I go outside to pay the cab driver $20 for the ride I got to the bar. (I never paid him when I arrived at the bar, he refused to take me money then. ) So, im standing outside and there are at least 10 cab drivers standing around. Im drunker than 10 indians at this point, so I look at the one I THOUGHT was my cab driver and ask him if his name is Edwardo, and if hes cab 172. He says "si" and I tell him not to bother on my ride home, and give him $20. Well, to make a long story short (i know, too late
I go back inside, drink some more, get a ride home from the girls (stopping alongside the road to have some excellent tacos at 3am) and get into my hotel room around 4. At 6 am , the phone is ringing and its the front desk, telling me my cab driver is there and he wants to be paid. Well, I tell him to call back in a few hours. A few hours later and the phone rings again, and now im pissed about getting woke up twice. I go to the front office, and my cab driver is there and the receptionist tells me I owe him money. I tell her that where I come from, we only pay for the ride we took, not the ride we were going to take. I get tired of arguing and give him $20. He says I owe him $40. Im like, what the hell, I gave you $20 last night, $20 now. Thats $40. He says something in spanish to the receptionist, and she explains that he never got $20 from me last night. (I was so damn drunk I gave $20 to some cab driver that obviously wasnt him) Okay, I figure, im a dumbass about that, but I still shouldnt have to pay for a ride I never took. she then tells me that Im in the wrong and should pay $40 to him. After more arguing, she tells me that he WAITED for me the whole time while I was inside drinking and that he stayed until 3:30 in the morning waiting for me to come back. I didnt know this, but in Roatan, I guess its standard procedure for a cab to wait when they take you somewhere until your ready to leave. Well, I felt bad about him waiting in his cab for 6 hours, so I paid him the other $20. The lesson here is (besides dont drink so much) is that you always pay after your cab ride and tell him NOT to wait for you. There is so many cabs in the west end, you will find one to take you for alot cheaper than it costs to get from FI to Westend.
In fact, when the bus never showed up to take us back to FI after a dive in the westend, 6 of us started walking through town and got a cab for all 6 of us back to FI for $15.
As far as the dining experience, this is one area I got a little mad about. The first night im there (im traveling solo) I notice that out of the 3 or 4 tables that seat 2, they are all taken, so I sit at a table that seats 4. The head waiter comes up and kicks me out of my table, makes me go outside to a 2 seat table. Now, if the restraunt was busy, I might buy this, but there was less than 20 people in the inside seating area. Thats a bunch of crap. Then, I could never get my water refilled. Sometimes I was lucky to get water at all while I was eating. For some reason, if your by yourself, you might as well be invisible. The food was good, and there was always something to eat (and im pretty picky). The desert menu was excellent, although on some nights they kept offering a caramel pie, which I didnt like. Lunch was good as well, but be CAREFULL about all the no-see ums on the beach (where lunch is served unless the weather is bad) I got bitten up so bad people were talking about it. I usually put some protection on in the morning, but after my 2 morning dives I didnt put any on before lunch and the no-see ums had me for lunch!
The weather was a bit windy for the first few days I was there, but they took us to west end to dive since the water is alot calmer over there when its blown out at FI and COCO view.
It only rained one day, and that was the day before I left, and even then it was only for a few hours. Mostly it was sunny or partly cloudy, with temps in the 90's and water temp stayed pretty constant at 83. I wore a 3mm full suit and it was fine.
For the night dives from the boat, there are alot of jellyfish and alot of people got stung. One guy had a run in with a sea wasp and had some nasty marks on his arm. I got stung a few times in the face and chin but it wasnt bad. They reccomend purging your reg the last few feet up before you surface. I didnt, but its probably a good idea. The jelly's werent as bad during the night shore dives to the prince albert and newmans wall, but they were still present and I ended up getting stung once where my wetsuit didnt quite cover my ankle where it met my bootie.
There is a phone in the gazeebo so when your shore dive is over, you can call the dive shop (if its still open, they close at 8pm) and they will pick you up. I really like the dive crew. I had Darrin for my DM for the majority of the trip, although derry was the DM for a day or two when darren was off. The captians of the boat were very helpfull also, I tipped both Harvey and (cant remmeber his name) both $50 each, and the the DM (Darren) $100. That was quite generous but I came to know them all pretty good. (since i was alone there, I spent alot of time with them, as well as hanging out with them outside of work, attending a soccer game in town that they play in.)
One other issue I had, was that the phone lines go down there on the island for a day or more . (one time is was 3 days). That didnt bother me much at all, but a incident with the computer in the lobby did. They have a internet access computer that they charge $5 for a 1/2 hour. The connection is horribly unreliable most of the time, disconnecting after a minute or two at best. Sometimes you would get a connection for 30 minutes or so, but it was extremely rare. Well, one day I go to check my email and the computer is down. The phone lines are up, but the computer itself is down. She told me the tech would be over that day to fix it. Well, the next day, the computer is still down, and the receptionist tells me the tech couldnt fix it and she had no idea when It would work again. I asked her if she minded if I looked at it (im a computer network engineer by trade) and after about a 1/2 hour I fixed it. She couldnt believe it worked again and when I showed her she was impressed (although I dont remember her saying thanks). For me efforts, I wasnt even given a free 1/2 hour on the internet. When I got my bill, I noticed she had still charged me for that day. What a bunch of ungratefulls. Anyway, if anyone wants to know the password for the dial up connection to the internet, its FANTASY. (the login is FANTASY as well)
Other than that, the diving was great, visibility was about 50-60 or better, sometimes a bit less. On a side note, for some reason the sewer system is near the dive shop, and when you walked to the dive shop you usually encountered a horrible smell. Depending on the wind , it was mild to horrible. One thing I do reccomend is the cloud rainforest trip. Its not for the faint of heart though. It was about 3 miles of trekking throught the rain forest. Very informative, very very pretty. They stop frequently to show you the trees and plants and what they are used for by the locals. At one point you can swim below a waterfall that cascades down into a pool. The water is so clean its ridiculous. I highly reccomend it. You have a short 15 minute flight from roatan to the mainland, but its only 2000 feet altitude so you shouldnt have any problems with flying. (i was told the cabin was not pressurized, but I cant verify that.) The trip leaves every friday morning at 6:15 am, and my last dive was 4pm the day before, so the 15 hour break was just a good safety margin. The trip cost $120 i think, but its worth every penny. For some reason, a couple in our group thought there would be escalators that took you through the rainforest, and they complained loudly the whole day while walking. Anyone that is in halfway decent shape should make it no problem. One word of caution. We came across a large pit viper snake. (Our guide told us they are the 4th most deadly snake in the world, and they are very aggressive. Usually traveling in pairs, thier bite is fatal 86% of the time.) The snake stayed still as the main guide passed, then started traveling toward our group on the trail (there were 6 of us plus the english speaking guide) The main guide (who spoke NO english, asked the guide what he wanted to do, and unfortunately they had to dispose of the snake with the machete. (picture below..the snake is still alive but immobile) They didnt want to, but they told us its common for this snake to attack and they are very territorial. Anyway, be carefull of snakes. There is no hospital nearby and I got the distinct feeling while I was there that the value of human life is not held to high standards. I cant think of much more to write... umm. another couple rented a car and it broke down. Not sure what agency. And while all the local shops take american currency, some offer no change in american. If anyone has questions, feel free to email me or pm me. I would go to roatan again, but i would stay on the westend in a hotel and get my own food and dive packages. My rating is as follows:
5 stars possible..
Accomadations: 3 (would have been 4 without the pest problem)
Food : 4
Dining staff: -1
Diving : 4
Dive staff: 5
Receptionist: 3
Second, the taxi fares. I asked about the taxi fares to the westend (where all the clubs are, etc) and was told it was $20 each way. The DM at the dive shop said i should expect to pay that as a american, becuase the americans get screwed by the taxi drivers. Well, my story is sort of funny, and sort of not funny. Hopefully you can learn from it. I got a cab on friday night to the westend. When I got into the cab, 2 of the girls from the reception desk got it also. (must have been changing shifts) As we drove toward west end, one got out (didnt pay anthing) and then the other got out a few miles down the road. She asked me If id like to have the cab driver pick me up (he didnt speak much english at all) since finding a cab in the west end was hard to do. I said sure, and told her to tell him to pick me up at 1:30 in the morning. She told me his name and his cab number and said he would be at the same place to pick me up that he dropped me off at. (which was a club called the blue iguana or something) Anyway, I start drinking, and am sitting at the bar talking to the bartender and some of the Temptation Island people are lingering around. (let me digress a bit here...I noticed these same people were at fantasy island the night before, and I was curious as to the way they were dressed at FI compared to everyone else. To me, they didnt fit in, and earlier that day I found out why. I was getting a massage on the beach and the guy told me what was going on.) Anyway, The part that bothered me the most was that at the fantasy island bar, one of the guys was harrasing the bartender about how his drink wasnt a double and he was a bartender and knew how much a double should be. Now, I used to bartend at a nightclub for 6 years, and I felt bad about how the FI bartender was getting a hard time from this guy. I kept my mouth shut, but then the same moron had to say something to me while Im at the bar in westend. Like I posted earlier, I was sitting at the bar, talking to the bartender and one of the TI girls starts talking to me. Asks me why im there, etc , etc. When I ask her why shes here, she makes this lame excuse and I just sat and smiled to myself about what I knew, that she didnt. I guess its top secret about the show that nobody is supposed to tell anyone why they are on the island. Well, I ask her what she paid for a cab fare since I knew they had to get a cab from FI as well. Thats when mr. dumbass pipes in "were vip bro, we didnt pay anything". At that point I couldnt take it anymore, so I informed him that if hes VIP, he should be pissed about getting sent out to this island when they dont even dive. Why else would anyone come here? He blew me off and walked away, and at the same time the girl that was talking to me left as well. I got a good laugh out of that. A few minutes later, the real action started. I noticed that within this group of young people, there were 2 older women, 1 around 40 , the other around 50. The 50 year old women approched me and started talking to me, and after I while we hit it off pretty good. I told her I knew what was up and she told me she wasnt allowed to discuss any of it. (which was fine by me, I just didnt want more bs as to why they were there). Anyway, i point out to her that the 30 yo woman is heavily trying to kiss one of the guys, and keeps dirty dancing with him and asking him if he was going to come back to her room to party. The 50 yo tells me that I didnt see any of that and that the 40 yo is really drunk. Anyway, enough of the TI crap, I just wanted to point out what morons they all are. I made a mental note to myself to fire my travel agent when I got home. (thank god they left the next day) So back to my cab story.. so, I meet a group of local girls and we start hanging out and drinking some more. I notice its close to 1:30 and that I have to leave because my cab is going to pick me up. They offer to give me a ride back to FI, so I dont have to take a cab. Im thinking thats a great idea, and I go outside to pay the cab driver $20 for the ride I got to the bar. (I never paid him when I arrived at the bar, he refused to take me money then. ) So, im standing outside and there are at least 10 cab drivers standing around. Im drunker than 10 indians at this point, so I look at the one I THOUGHT was my cab driver and ask him if his name is Edwardo, and if hes cab 172. He says "si" and I tell him not to bother on my ride home, and give him $20. Well, to make a long story short (i know, too late
I go back inside, drink some more, get a ride home from the girls (stopping alongside the road to have some excellent tacos at 3am) and get into my hotel room around 4. At 6 am , the phone is ringing and its the front desk, telling me my cab driver is there and he wants to be paid. Well, I tell him to call back in a few hours. A few hours later and the phone rings again, and now im pissed about getting woke up twice. I go to the front office, and my cab driver is there and the receptionist tells me I owe him money. I tell her that where I come from, we only pay for the ride we took, not the ride we were going to take. I get tired of arguing and give him $20. He says I owe him $40. Im like, what the hell, I gave you $20 last night, $20 now. Thats $40. He says something in spanish to the receptionist, and she explains that he never got $20 from me last night. (I was so damn drunk I gave $20 to some cab driver that obviously wasnt him) Okay, I figure, im a dumbass about that, but I still shouldnt have to pay for a ride I never took. she then tells me that Im in the wrong and should pay $40 to him. After more arguing, she tells me that he WAITED for me the whole time while I was inside drinking and that he stayed until 3:30 in the morning waiting for me to come back. I didnt know this, but in Roatan, I guess its standard procedure for a cab to wait when they take you somewhere until your ready to leave. Well, I felt bad about him waiting in his cab for 6 hours, so I paid him the other $20. The lesson here is (besides dont drink so much) is that you always pay after your cab ride and tell him NOT to wait for you. There is so many cabs in the west end, you will find one to take you for alot cheaper than it costs to get from FI to Westend.In fact, when the bus never showed up to take us back to FI after a dive in the westend, 6 of us started walking through town and got a cab for all 6 of us back to FI for $15.
As far as the dining experience, this is one area I got a little mad about. The first night im there (im traveling solo) I notice that out of the 3 or 4 tables that seat 2, they are all taken, so I sit at a table that seats 4. The head waiter comes up and kicks me out of my table, makes me go outside to a 2 seat table. Now, if the restraunt was busy, I might buy this, but there was less than 20 people in the inside seating area. Thats a bunch of crap. Then, I could never get my water refilled. Sometimes I was lucky to get water at all while I was eating. For some reason, if your by yourself, you might as well be invisible. The food was good, and there was always something to eat (and im pretty picky). The desert menu was excellent, although on some nights they kept offering a caramel pie, which I didnt like. Lunch was good as well, but be CAREFULL about all the no-see ums on the beach (where lunch is served unless the weather is bad) I got bitten up so bad people were talking about it. I usually put some protection on in the morning, but after my 2 morning dives I didnt put any on before lunch and the no-see ums had me for lunch!
The weather was a bit windy for the first few days I was there, but they took us to west end to dive since the water is alot calmer over there when its blown out at FI and COCO view.
It only rained one day, and that was the day before I left, and even then it was only for a few hours. Mostly it was sunny or partly cloudy, with temps in the 90's and water temp stayed pretty constant at 83. I wore a 3mm full suit and it was fine.
For the night dives from the boat, there are alot of jellyfish and alot of people got stung. One guy had a run in with a sea wasp and had some nasty marks on his arm. I got stung a few times in the face and chin but it wasnt bad. They reccomend purging your reg the last few feet up before you surface. I didnt, but its probably a good idea. The jelly's werent as bad during the night shore dives to the prince albert and newmans wall, but they were still present and I ended up getting stung once where my wetsuit didnt quite cover my ankle where it met my bootie.
There is a phone in the gazeebo so when your shore dive is over, you can call the dive shop (if its still open, they close at 8pm) and they will pick you up. I really like the dive crew. I had Darrin for my DM for the majority of the trip, although derry was the DM for a day or two when darren was off. The captians of the boat were very helpfull also, I tipped both Harvey and (cant remmeber his name) both $50 each, and the the DM (Darren) $100. That was quite generous but I came to know them all pretty good. (since i was alone there, I spent alot of time with them, as well as hanging out with them outside of work, attending a soccer game in town that they play in.)
One other issue I had, was that the phone lines go down there on the island for a day or more . (one time is was 3 days). That didnt bother me much at all, but a incident with the computer in the lobby did. They have a internet access computer that they charge $5 for a 1/2 hour. The connection is horribly unreliable most of the time, disconnecting after a minute or two at best. Sometimes you would get a connection for 30 minutes or so, but it was extremely rare. Well, one day I go to check my email and the computer is down. The phone lines are up, but the computer itself is down. She told me the tech would be over that day to fix it. Well, the next day, the computer is still down, and the receptionist tells me the tech couldnt fix it and she had no idea when It would work again. I asked her if she minded if I looked at it (im a computer network engineer by trade) and after about a 1/2 hour I fixed it. She couldnt believe it worked again and when I showed her she was impressed (although I dont remember her saying thanks). For me efforts, I wasnt even given a free 1/2 hour on the internet. When I got my bill, I noticed she had still charged me for that day. What a bunch of ungratefulls. Anyway, if anyone wants to know the password for the dial up connection to the internet, its FANTASY. (the login is FANTASY as well)
Other than that, the diving was great, visibility was about 50-60 or better, sometimes a bit less. On a side note, for some reason the sewer system is near the dive shop, and when you walked to the dive shop you usually encountered a horrible smell. Depending on the wind , it was mild to horrible. One thing I do reccomend is the cloud rainforest trip. Its not for the faint of heart though. It was about 3 miles of trekking throught the rain forest. Very informative, very very pretty. They stop frequently to show you the trees and plants and what they are used for by the locals. At one point you can swim below a waterfall that cascades down into a pool. The water is so clean its ridiculous. I highly reccomend it. You have a short 15 minute flight from roatan to the mainland, but its only 2000 feet altitude so you shouldnt have any problems with flying. (i was told the cabin was not pressurized, but I cant verify that.) The trip leaves every friday morning at 6:15 am, and my last dive was 4pm the day before, so the 15 hour break was just a good safety margin. The trip cost $120 i think, but its worth every penny. For some reason, a couple in our group thought there would be escalators that took you through the rainforest, and they complained loudly the whole day while walking. Anyone that is in halfway decent shape should make it no problem. One word of caution. We came across a large pit viper snake. (Our guide told us they are the 4th most deadly snake in the world, and they are very aggressive. Usually traveling in pairs, thier bite is fatal 86% of the time.) The snake stayed still as the main guide passed, then started traveling toward our group on the trail (there were 6 of us plus the english speaking guide) The main guide (who spoke NO english, asked the guide what he wanted to do, and unfortunately they had to dispose of the snake with the machete. (picture below..the snake is still alive but immobile) They didnt want to, but they told us its common for this snake to attack and they are very territorial. Anyway, be carefull of snakes. There is no hospital nearby and I got the distinct feeling while I was there that the value of human life is not held to high standards. I cant think of much more to write... umm. another couple rented a car and it broke down. Not sure what agency. And while all the local shops take american currency, some offer no change in american. If anyone has questions, feel free to email me or pm me. I would go to roatan again, but i would stay on the westend in a hotel and get my own food and dive packages. My rating is as follows:
5 stars possible..
Accomadations: 3 (would have been 4 without the pest problem)
Food : 4
Dining staff: -1
Diving : 4
Dive staff: 5
Receptionist: 3
