Roatan is a long thin island and the desirable dive sites are widely separated by land mass.
It really depends upon where you are diving from, what resort, which AI, or dive-op... They all serve fairly segmented areas. You pick the dive op, usually for the week, and they select the dive sites. They will take you to the dive sites that their boats and you are suited for. It may take a day or so for them to get to know you to make that decision, c-cards aside.
The "devastation" by the
earthquake? Not sure which board you are reading or who has been writing reports... but the Earthquake's damage, what little there was, has proven to be quite a draw for many divers. If you really want to see a good display of how the reef is regenerating, the dive off of the South side called Anka's Place is the one to see.
At Anka's Place, there have been an interesting chronology of opportunistic critters that have begun to repopulate this small area that was completely changed. Large coral sheaves along this 100' width have slid away exposing stark white underlayers of old dead coral.
As is typical with such things, new wrecks included, the first visible critters are the Banded Coral Shrimp. They are all over the place and quite a stark contrast with their red/white candy stripe bodies! It's not a big draw for some, but
advanced critter-gitters want it when they arrive.
You can
this quite easily, but
the island basically divides itself into two distinct environments, North/West and Southern Shore. This is caused by the 17x3 mile shape of the island. It lies SW to NE. Storms come from the North, so the North/West features deep, stark sloping structures that begin a ways out from shore. The South, fairly well sunlit, has close-in shallow lush vertical walls that run from 5' down to 90'.
Here is Doc Radawski explaining that....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-ZjNzKaoA4
Due to the success of the
Marine Reserve on the North/West, you will likely see the larger critters that the Caribbean used to be well known for. It is more common to see Turtles and apex fish such as Barracuda and Parrotfish in larger sizes. That's what happens when the fishermen are shooed away!
Along the
South side, again due to the geography, the walls are well exposed to sunlight so this causes a large array of soft and hard Corals. This in turn creates niche environments for babies and smaller critters. this is where you see Pipefish, Seahorses, tiny Crabs, etc.
The two "placed"
wrecks on the South side are quite shallow, in the 30 and 55 foot depths, as the storms do not hit that side. The North side wrecks are much deeper, in the 90 to 120 foot range.
There is a prevailing ESE breeze that causes a regular 2' chop on the South side. See
http://www.docksidedivecenter.com/WeeklyLog.html for a weekly
weather log and
http://www.cocoviewresort.com/webcams.html for live webcams. The North/West is usually flat & well sheltered from these prevailing breezes, so the sea there is likely smooth. The breeze of the South side seems to help with the
bugs. Remember also that when it
storms-up (Aug>Mar) the North/west side gets pretty icky. Only the better dive-ops will have their boats repositioned on the South, the best of them will bus you over-
you don't want to take that boat ride.
There are many dive-ops on the West End, some are quite good, a few post here, CoCoNut Tree is a regular. There are also a few AI's, they include IoLR, BIBR, AKR. On the Southern Shore, your options are more limited, with Barefoot Key, FIBR, CCV, and RHR.
Shore dives? Getting that fifth dive in? How about a
nightly shore night-dive? AKR has quit featuring their shore dive that really doesn't exist.
Spooky Channel is an interesting dive, but it is a bit of a hump offshore.
RHR has a nice front yard shore dive, but it does face directly ESE. The best shore dive in Roatan is well-shelterd area of the
Prince Albert wreck. She sits in 35-65fsw and is an intact, upright 140' freighter, altho the earthquake did crack her amidships by 6" ! It is a very short snorkel of 300" and the area is quite alive with critters along the way. The wreck is very busy with critters as it is quite shallow, and right next to it are the remnants of a
DC3 airplane. Whenever I am in Roatan, I dive this
every night, quite often twice.
Most dive groups that are focussed on diving go to AI resorts by default. This is the best way to get maximum bottom time for the dollar- anything more than twice a day, AI's make sense in terms of time and money. Others may not be so dive-centric, and that's where the day dive-ops come in. If you want two a day and want to enjoy some of the cool atmosphere of the West End... that's the place to be.
Many folks come to Roatan seeking a list of must-do dives, as many folks arrive at destinations all over the dive world. Understand the obvious fact that a dive op will not keep a qualified diver from experiencing all of the cool sites that they will hear about. That wouldn't be very smart for them to do! But trust the judgement of the DMs as far as ability and boat equipment.
Mary's Place (on the South Side) is one great example. Maybe I'm jaded, because I've seen it many times. I think there is better diving to be had along the South side. It is so popular, that many North/West operations will get you over there to do it- after they have watched your buoyancy skills for at least one day. Again, this could well mean a long boat ride.
The same thing goes for the
Cara-a-Cara Shark Dive. It is near Mary's Place, and I prefer to send people by car to the Waihuka landing and have the boat take them the 3/4 mile straight out to the South shore dive site. For a "canned, name-brand" Shark dive, it's about the best I have seen in the Caribbean.
Many folks also like the
Dolphin availability at AKR, which is available to anyone. I recommend you do the "
snorkel encounter" on your off-gassing day. You get a lot more interaction and a better price. Besides- you don't have to take a 1/2 day of diving to do the 'Dolphin Dive", which I see as pretty ho-hum. Wild Dolphins are seen all the time along First Bight (South Side) and divers snorkel with them regularly.
One of the most unique sites, in some ways a miniature Mary's Place, is
Calvin's Crack. This is way down East on the Southern Shore, serviced weekly only by CCV and RHR. RHR will also take you to the
original Hole-in-the Wall, which is quite cool.
