springsboy
Registered
Hello,
My 13-yr old son and I enjoyed a week long dive trip to Roatan March 25-April 1, 2023. We stayed at Anthony's Key. We have enjoyed one previous week long trip to Cozumel. We are new divers, just getting certified in Spring/2022.
We flew direct from Denver to Roatan. The flight had about 30 empty seats, even during spring break, so we are afraid they will drop this direct flight. The flight was about 45min delayed which didn't seem like a biggie until we landed and went through immigration. Another flight snuck in just before us and the line was long! Took about 45minutes. Needless to say, we didn't have to wait for bags!
Pickup by Anthony's Key was seamless, Greg did an awesome job with our bags. Unlike other international airports where you need to steel your nerve when leaving security there was no surge of touts accosting us. It was all low key. The Roatan airport is well guarded, no-one in/out (pedestrian or cars) unless you have a need to be there.
Relatively quick (20min) ride to the resort over lots of road construction. Took us by the dump to show the tourists that trash is a problem on any island. Check-in was easy. No checkout dives available. Took the quick (1min) water taxi to Anythony's Key where the bungalows are. Accommodations are fine. AC is cold, beds are firm, and shower is hot. Great views from the deck. We got a Key Deluxe room. Our bags were waiting at our bungalow, unpacked our gear, took the water taxi back, and loaded the gear in the large lockers. Each of us had our own 6-ft tall locker. Nice!
We did 15 dives during the week. Two wreck dives, lots of wall dives, and 2 night dives. Didn't see as many large creatures as in Cozumel. No rays and no sharks. But amazing schools of colorful fish. We used Nitrox on the two wreck dives, Nitrox was not needed on any other dive to avoid the decompression alarms on our dive computer. Nitrox tanks were $10/tank or ~$150/week so only using Nitrox when needed saved us a lot of $. Loved the short (less than 10min) boat rides to the dive sites and that we could come back to shore between the two morning dives. This is in contrast to Cozumel where the boat rides were typically 30min and we drove around in a circle for an hour between morning dives. Boats were less crowded than in Cozumel, where we dove with the dive shop attached to Casa Del Mar by a foot bridge.
Food was good at Anthony's Key but by the end of the week got a bit monotonous. Breakfast and lunch menu is always the same, dinner menu changes but repeats every few days. I was sick all wed night but only missed the first morning dive Thursday. My son had it coming out of both ends friday night but was fine by Sat to travel home. No-one else in our group got sick and no-one else I talked to did either so perhaps we were just unlucky or we drank too much water and not enough beer!
Would we go back...yes, but only after we've done some more exploring, like Bonaire, Belize, and the Cayman's.
My 13-yr old son and I enjoyed a week long dive trip to Roatan March 25-April 1, 2023. We stayed at Anthony's Key. We have enjoyed one previous week long trip to Cozumel. We are new divers, just getting certified in Spring/2022.
We flew direct from Denver to Roatan. The flight had about 30 empty seats, even during spring break, so we are afraid they will drop this direct flight. The flight was about 45min delayed which didn't seem like a biggie until we landed and went through immigration. Another flight snuck in just before us and the line was long! Took about 45minutes. Needless to say, we didn't have to wait for bags!
Pickup by Anthony's Key was seamless, Greg did an awesome job with our bags. Unlike other international airports where you need to steel your nerve when leaving security there was no surge of touts accosting us. It was all low key. The Roatan airport is well guarded, no-one in/out (pedestrian or cars) unless you have a need to be there.
Relatively quick (20min) ride to the resort over lots of road construction. Took us by the dump to show the tourists that trash is a problem on any island. Check-in was easy. No checkout dives available. Took the quick (1min) water taxi to Anythony's Key where the bungalows are. Accommodations are fine. AC is cold, beds are firm, and shower is hot. Great views from the deck. We got a Key Deluxe room. Our bags were waiting at our bungalow, unpacked our gear, took the water taxi back, and loaded the gear in the large lockers. Each of us had our own 6-ft tall locker. Nice!
We did 15 dives during the week. Two wreck dives, lots of wall dives, and 2 night dives. Didn't see as many large creatures as in Cozumel. No rays and no sharks. But amazing schools of colorful fish. We used Nitrox on the two wreck dives, Nitrox was not needed on any other dive to avoid the decompression alarms on our dive computer. Nitrox tanks were $10/tank or ~$150/week so only using Nitrox when needed saved us a lot of $. Loved the short (less than 10min) boat rides to the dive sites and that we could come back to shore between the two morning dives. This is in contrast to Cozumel where the boat rides were typically 30min and we drove around in a circle for an hour between morning dives. Boats were less crowded than in Cozumel, where we dove with the dive shop attached to Casa Del Mar by a foot bridge.
Food was good at Anthony's Key but by the end of the week got a bit monotonous. Breakfast and lunch menu is always the same, dinner menu changes but repeats every few days. I was sick all wed night but only missed the first morning dive Thursday. My son had it coming out of both ends friday night but was fine by Sat to travel home. No-one else in our group got sick and no-one else I talked to did either so perhaps we were just unlucky or we drank too much water and not enough beer!
Would we go back...yes, but only after we've done some more exploring, like Bonaire, Belize, and the Cayman's.
