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A week and a half in Honduras with a visit to the Mayan ruins in Copan and scuba diving on the Bay Island of Roatan in September 2002.
We finally finished this trip report, so although it is a little old, we decided to post it.
Visit www.diveintotheworld.com for the full trip report including pictures, plus many other reports.
Included in this report are an overview of our trip, highlights of our travels and dives and details on planning the trip and getting there.
OVERVIEW
One of the best trips for $900 per person for a week anyone could take.
Cost
Flights $200 Miami to San Pedro Sula on Sol Air
Frequent flyer passes San Diego to Fort Lauderdale on Southwest
$130 San Pedro Sula to Roatan on Aerolineas SOSA
Hotels $325 each for one week at Fantasy Island, including three meals a day, three dives a day and unlimited shore diving
$35 for a double at the Sheraton, Fort Lauderdale Airport
$40 for a double at the Wyndam, Miami Airport
Tour $150 per person two-day tour with Maya Tropic Tours from and to San Pedro Sula and Copan, including guided tour of the ruins in Copan, one night at the Madrugada Bed & Breakfast and two meals
Ratings (out of 5)
Flights Sol Air **
Aerolineas SOSA ***
Hotels Fantasy Island ***
Madrugada Bed & Breakfast ****
Sheraton, Fort Lauderdale Airport **
Wyndam, Miami Airport ****
Tour Maya Tropic Tours ***
Tips
Time to Go: Just about anytime, but depends on where traveling. The rainy season on the Bay Islands is generally October through February, but does not usually affect visibility. The hottest months are March and August. During the coldest winter months, northers can blow down and disrupt diving.
Diving: Decent and easy but a little disappointing (our previous trip was to French Polynesia so this evaluation might be somewhat unfair). The dives are mostly the same with coral in healthy condition and in many spectacular formations, but with fish that are neither abundant nor large. After a giant stride, the group heads over and along a wall covered with coral for half the dive then back to the boat over the shallows, where most of the fish are. We saw barracudas, turtles and eels, as well as a lobster and octopus.
Favorite Dives: Mary's Place, West End
Cost: While we got special deals that made our trip especially inexpensive, Honduras in general is still a great deal to visit almost anytime and at any comfort level.
No-see-ems: Annoying insects found on the coast and in the Bay Islands. Bring insect repellant.
Must See: Copan
Shopping: Cheaper to buy souvenirs on the mainland rather than on the Bay Islands. Notable are wood carvings, textiles, baskets, leather goods and ceramics.
HIGHLIGHTS
After traveling from San Diego to Miami and spending one night near the airport, we boarded our early, uneventful Sol Air flight for the two-hour trip to San Pedro Sula. Maya Tropic Tours picked us up at the airport (late - about an hour after our flight arrived). Another woman had also booked the tour, so we had to wait for her flight to arrive before heading into the mountains (ah - the reason he was late, but we wished they had not told us to expect someone at the airport upon arrival).
About an hour into the three-hour car ride through lush, but deforested mountains and at times tortuous roads, we switched drivers to the tour guide coming back from Copan with a previous tour. Soon enough we arrived at our bed and breakfast in Copan Ruinas, the town next to Copan. A former residence for a tobacco farm, this bed and breakfast has rustic rooms opening directly on to a wrap-around porch with hammocks that overlooks a courtyard, an active stream and overgrown, dormant fields. One woman runs the place and does the cooking, providing traditional and delicious Honduran food. While definitely not an upscale, top quality hotel, it still has a scenic view and unique experience.
Shortly after our arrival, we headed over to the ruins. Our guide gave us a detailed, three-hour tour of the large, excavated structures and intricate carvings. We also had free time to explore on our own, including a tunnel leading to more ruins underground. Stelae dot the entire area. The site includes a ball court, stone formally used for sacrifices and a hieroglyphic staircase, among temples and residences. The onsite museum is definitely worth a view. It has many of the original stelae and a replica of the Roselia Temple (temple within a temple). After we had seen what we wanted, we headed back to Copan Ruinas to relax into the evening. The town is small and not crowded with tourists (although we were there during the rainy season), but it definitely exists for the visitors to Copan. The numerous souvenir shops have a mixture of native goods and cheesy knick-knacks. There are a couple high-end hotels and restaurants, but we enjoyed our Honduran homemade food at our bed and breakfast.
After a breakfast and a quick shopping trip, we headed back to San Pedro Sula and our flight to Roatan. The one-hour flight on the small SOSA plane went smoothly, although the ride to the Fantasy Island resort once we arrived on Roatan did not. While someone with a sign from our hotel met us, helped with our luggage and assured us the van would be there shortly, several taxi drivers approached us and offered us a ride, saying our hotel takes forever to pick guests. We were nervous but declined the offers, and after about 1/2 hour, the bus from Fantasy Island finally arrived. The bus then broke down about half way to the hotel. Another bus came to retrieve us within 15 minutes and we were soon at Fantasy Island.
The comically named Fantasy Island is on its own man-made island on the south, more quiet (for tourists) part of Roatan, next door to CocoView Resort. There is a town closer to Fantasy Island than the West End, but the nightlife on Roatan is on the West End, a $20 taxi ride each way. Fantasy Island's brightly, and mostly blue, painted buildings stand out against the bright sand and lush vegetation. They have their own beach and a small pool for children. The resort had many families staying with them and provided entertainment a couple nights. There is a full bar. Food is presented as an extensive buffet, either in an air-conditioned dining room or outdoor pagoda. The service during meals for drinks and extras was attentive. The food was decent with a wide variety of choices, although we did have an incident of food poisoning (seems CocoView had the same problem at the same time and the cause was determined to be the cheese distributor - the problem is now supposedly corrected). Vegetarians will have no problem with food.
The diving in general was decent and easy but a little disappointing (our previous trip was to French Polynesia so this evaluation might be somewhat unfair). The dives are mostly the same with coral in healthy condition and in many spectacular formations, but with fish that are neither abundant nor large. After a giant stride, the group heads over and along a wall covered with coral for half the dive then back to the boat over the shallows, where most of the fish are. We saw barracudas, turtles and eels, as well as a lobster and octopus.
Our favorite dives were Mary's Place in the south and Carlos Place on the West End. They had the most fish and best coral formations. Mary's Place started with a v-shaped corridor of walls covered with sponges and soft coral and turned into a narrow, covered passageway with swarming silversides fish blocking out the light. It emerged on a reef with dozens of sea horses. The West End had bigger fish, several turtles, an octopus, an active cleaning station for groupers and a Spotted Eagle Ray. The night dive was very disappointing for we saw little except for worms swarming around our dive lights and jelly fish. Other divers on our dive had a better experience, though.
The diving operations at Fantasy Island are efficient and safe. Divers are assigned the same boat, Captain and Divemaster for the week. Our Divemaster Steve and Captain Elvis were great at spotting sea life and very helpful. They did not herd divers but would guide the inexperienced ones. The other divers at the resort were from Florida, Michigan and California. With three dives a day (and one day with two dives and a night dive), we mostly dived, ate and slept. There is also unlimited shore diving, but the options are limited to a small area near the resort. The sites are the wall at CocoView, a decent sized sunken freighter, named the Prince Albert, and plane scraps. The visibility for the shore diving was not very good and jelly fish are common in the area.
PLANNING AND GETTING THERE
We used our frequent flyer passes on Southwest Airlines to get from San Diego to Miami - a long trip, but necessary since many of the best deals are out of the Miami airport.
We used Priceline for affordable hotels in Miami and Fort Lauderdale since, due to flight times, we had to spend the night in the area each way. Since Southwest Airlines only flies into Fort Lauderdale and our Sol Air flight left out of Miami, on the way there, we used the Tri-rail train ($3 per person - a bus goes from the airport to the train station) to get from the Fort Lauderdale airport to our Miami hotel, the Wyndam Miami Airport. We highly recommend this hotel. On the way back, we rented a car ($20 per day) to get from the Miami airport to our Fort Lauderdale hotel, the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale hotel. This hotel was acceptable.
Sol Air, which had just started business, was offering an introductory 2-for-1 offer. The service was adequate and timely.
That is it. Contact us if you have any questions: questions@diveintotheworld.com
We finally finished this trip report, so although it is a little old, we decided to post it.
Visit www.diveintotheworld.com for the full trip report including pictures, plus many other reports.
Included in this report are an overview of our trip, highlights of our travels and dives and details on planning the trip and getting there.
OVERVIEW
One of the best trips for $900 per person for a week anyone could take.
Cost
Flights $200 Miami to San Pedro Sula on Sol Air
Frequent flyer passes San Diego to Fort Lauderdale on Southwest
$130 San Pedro Sula to Roatan on Aerolineas SOSA
Hotels $325 each for one week at Fantasy Island, including three meals a day, three dives a day and unlimited shore diving
$35 for a double at the Sheraton, Fort Lauderdale Airport
$40 for a double at the Wyndam, Miami Airport
Tour $150 per person two-day tour with Maya Tropic Tours from and to San Pedro Sula and Copan, including guided tour of the ruins in Copan, one night at the Madrugada Bed & Breakfast and two meals
Ratings (out of 5)
Flights Sol Air **
Aerolineas SOSA ***
Hotels Fantasy Island ***
Madrugada Bed & Breakfast ****
Sheraton, Fort Lauderdale Airport **
Wyndam, Miami Airport ****
Tour Maya Tropic Tours ***
Tips
Time to Go: Just about anytime, but depends on where traveling. The rainy season on the Bay Islands is generally October through February, but does not usually affect visibility. The hottest months are March and August. During the coldest winter months, northers can blow down and disrupt diving.
Diving: Decent and easy but a little disappointing (our previous trip was to French Polynesia so this evaluation might be somewhat unfair). The dives are mostly the same with coral in healthy condition and in many spectacular formations, but with fish that are neither abundant nor large. After a giant stride, the group heads over and along a wall covered with coral for half the dive then back to the boat over the shallows, where most of the fish are. We saw barracudas, turtles and eels, as well as a lobster and octopus.
Favorite Dives: Mary's Place, West End
Cost: While we got special deals that made our trip especially inexpensive, Honduras in general is still a great deal to visit almost anytime and at any comfort level.
No-see-ems: Annoying insects found on the coast and in the Bay Islands. Bring insect repellant.
Must See: Copan
Shopping: Cheaper to buy souvenirs on the mainland rather than on the Bay Islands. Notable are wood carvings, textiles, baskets, leather goods and ceramics.
HIGHLIGHTS
After traveling from San Diego to Miami and spending one night near the airport, we boarded our early, uneventful Sol Air flight for the two-hour trip to San Pedro Sula. Maya Tropic Tours picked us up at the airport (late - about an hour after our flight arrived). Another woman had also booked the tour, so we had to wait for her flight to arrive before heading into the mountains (ah - the reason he was late, but we wished they had not told us to expect someone at the airport upon arrival).
About an hour into the three-hour car ride through lush, but deforested mountains and at times tortuous roads, we switched drivers to the tour guide coming back from Copan with a previous tour. Soon enough we arrived at our bed and breakfast in Copan Ruinas, the town next to Copan. A former residence for a tobacco farm, this bed and breakfast has rustic rooms opening directly on to a wrap-around porch with hammocks that overlooks a courtyard, an active stream and overgrown, dormant fields. One woman runs the place and does the cooking, providing traditional and delicious Honduran food. While definitely not an upscale, top quality hotel, it still has a scenic view and unique experience.
Shortly after our arrival, we headed over to the ruins. Our guide gave us a detailed, three-hour tour of the large, excavated structures and intricate carvings. We also had free time to explore on our own, including a tunnel leading to more ruins underground. Stelae dot the entire area. The site includes a ball court, stone formally used for sacrifices and a hieroglyphic staircase, among temples and residences. The onsite museum is definitely worth a view. It has many of the original stelae and a replica of the Roselia Temple (temple within a temple). After we had seen what we wanted, we headed back to Copan Ruinas to relax into the evening. The town is small and not crowded with tourists (although we were there during the rainy season), but it definitely exists for the visitors to Copan. The numerous souvenir shops have a mixture of native goods and cheesy knick-knacks. There are a couple high-end hotels and restaurants, but we enjoyed our Honduran homemade food at our bed and breakfast.
After a breakfast and a quick shopping trip, we headed back to San Pedro Sula and our flight to Roatan. The one-hour flight on the small SOSA plane went smoothly, although the ride to the Fantasy Island resort once we arrived on Roatan did not. While someone with a sign from our hotel met us, helped with our luggage and assured us the van would be there shortly, several taxi drivers approached us and offered us a ride, saying our hotel takes forever to pick guests. We were nervous but declined the offers, and after about 1/2 hour, the bus from Fantasy Island finally arrived. The bus then broke down about half way to the hotel. Another bus came to retrieve us within 15 minutes and we were soon at Fantasy Island.
The comically named Fantasy Island is on its own man-made island on the south, more quiet (for tourists) part of Roatan, next door to CocoView Resort. There is a town closer to Fantasy Island than the West End, but the nightlife on Roatan is on the West End, a $20 taxi ride each way. Fantasy Island's brightly, and mostly blue, painted buildings stand out against the bright sand and lush vegetation. They have their own beach and a small pool for children. The resort had many families staying with them and provided entertainment a couple nights. There is a full bar. Food is presented as an extensive buffet, either in an air-conditioned dining room or outdoor pagoda. The service during meals for drinks and extras was attentive. The food was decent with a wide variety of choices, although we did have an incident of food poisoning (seems CocoView had the same problem at the same time and the cause was determined to be the cheese distributor - the problem is now supposedly corrected). Vegetarians will have no problem with food.
The diving in general was decent and easy but a little disappointing (our previous trip was to French Polynesia so this evaluation might be somewhat unfair). The dives are mostly the same with coral in healthy condition and in many spectacular formations, but with fish that are neither abundant nor large. After a giant stride, the group heads over and along a wall covered with coral for half the dive then back to the boat over the shallows, where most of the fish are. We saw barracudas, turtles and eels, as well as a lobster and octopus.
Our favorite dives were Mary's Place in the south and Carlos Place on the West End. They had the most fish and best coral formations. Mary's Place started with a v-shaped corridor of walls covered with sponges and soft coral and turned into a narrow, covered passageway with swarming silversides fish blocking out the light. It emerged on a reef with dozens of sea horses. The West End had bigger fish, several turtles, an octopus, an active cleaning station for groupers and a Spotted Eagle Ray. The night dive was very disappointing for we saw little except for worms swarming around our dive lights and jelly fish. Other divers on our dive had a better experience, though.
The diving operations at Fantasy Island are efficient and safe. Divers are assigned the same boat, Captain and Divemaster for the week. Our Divemaster Steve and Captain Elvis were great at spotting sea life and very helpful. They did not herd divers but would guide the inexperienced ones. The other divers at the resort were from Florida, Michigan and California. With three dives a day (and one day with two dives and a night dive), we mostly dived, ate and slept. There is also unlimited shore diving, but the options are limited to a small area near the resort. The sites are the wall at CocoView, a decent sized sunken freighter, named the Prince Albert, and plane scraps. The visibility for the shore diving was not very good and jelly fish are common in the area.
PLANNING AND GETTING THERE
We used our frequent flyer passes on Southwest Airlines to get from San Diego to Miami - a long trip, but necessary since many of the best deals are out of the Miami airport.
We used Priceline for affordable hotels in Miami and Fort Lauderdale since, due to flight times, we had to spend the night in the area each way. Since Southwest Airlines only flies into Fort Lauderdale and our Sol Air flight left out of Miami, on the way there, we used the Tri-rail train ($3 per person - a bus goes from the airport to the train station) to get from the Fort Lauderdale airport to our Miami hotel, the Wyndam Miami Airport. We highly recommend this hotel. On the way back, we rented a car ($20 per day) to get from the Miami airport to our Fort Lauderdale hotel, the Sheraton Fort Lauderdale hotel. This hotel was acceptable.
Sol Air, which had just started business, was offering an introductory 2-for-1 offer. The service was adequate and timely.
That is it. Contact us if you have any questions: questions@diveintotheworld.com
