Travel Question

[jpetsche]

Hello Fellow Members.

I am new to this site, so I wanted to take a minute to get your opintion regarding diving in Roatan, Honduras.

Every year I participate in a BOYZ trip and we usually go to a diving destination. Our last trip was in June of 2010 and we went to Belize. Had a great time.

This year we are talking about going to Roatan, Honduras and wanted to know if you can make any recommendations regarding lodging and dive spots to consider.

We are not at all sold on Honduras. We were also thinking South America.

I would appreciate any suggestions. We live in California and want to keep the location within a five to six hour flight and we'll be staying for at least seven nights.

Thanks for your input.

Jeff

 

[dmoore19]

You would be better served to have this moved to the Bay Islands forum. I will attempt to get a mod to move it there.

There is a lot of information about various resorts and places on Roatan there.

I have been to the island once. I stayed at AKR (Anthony's Key Resort) and had a great time. If I were to go back AKR would be on the top of my list as from wht I could see the resort was very well managed. I would go back in a hearbeat. They will take you to the north side of the island for diving but they also will do sites on the south side. Lot's of great diving no matter where you decide to stay.

There is a lot of information about this and others such as Fantasy Island and CoCoView. AKR being on the north side of the Island and FI and CCV being on the south. I don't mean to leave the others out but there are several. It all depends on what you are looking for price and things like All inclusive, how many dives per day etc.

It is a great vacation and I would love to go again. Not a bad trip getting there and well worth the effort.

Have fun!

 

[diver 85]

AKR-----I would try to stay on the north side for summer diving, calmer conditions for the most part....

 

[diversteve]

What do the BOYZ do besides dive?

If it's just 4-5 dives/day plus sit around an AI resort, look at Cocoview or Fantasy Island. A little nicer is Anthony's Key on the north side of the island. Any sort of nightlife is going to be in the West End - bars, restaurants, shops etc. there are lote of inexpensive options there. AKR is a 5-10 min drive away, CCV/FIBR probably more like 45mins away.

We stayed/ dove all week with Coconut Tree Divers, good shop, good people, good dives. They have some inexpensive cabins on-site and there are other affordable options. A good source for (mostly) north side options is: Bay Islands Diver Home - it's maintained by Will, the CD at CTD.

If there is such a thing as larger stuff on Roatan - it's often found in that area - the north side. We saw turtles often, a few big grouper, some eels etc. The south side where CCV/FIBR are located is smaller stuff typically.

Sharks are only at the Waihuka Shark Dive - your dive operator will book it. Dolphins are at AKR.

There are also several zip-lines on Roatan for a non-dive day.

It's also going to be muggy, damp, buggy - the sand flies will eat you up w/o protection. There's also an issue with Mosquitos, Malaria and occasionally Dengue Fever. We did the CDC recommendations and took anti-malarials. In June you'll really want A/C also. Most people travel everywhere by cab - they're plentiful and reasonable.

I think you can get to Roatan in around 6 hrs. from LAX. CO has a flight from IAH that pus you there b4 3PM - assuming you can connect to it.

 

[Doc]

What do the BOYZ do besides dive?

A pretty well perfect answer.

Let me add 2 points....

1) If you want to have access to different bars every night, narrow your choices to AKR or West End, West Bay. All an easy cab ride, water taxi or stumbling distance from the "nightlife", such as it is. Don't expect Cozumel (thank heavens for that)!

2) Larger fish are indeed seen in the areas that are served by AKR (North West side) and West End dive ops, they are in the Marine Reserve. What does the South side offer, then? The attraction to the South side is the shallow, vertical Sunlit walls, the access to shore diving, and a pretty fair breeze all year long- helps keep the sand flies at bay. Two very shallow intact (placed) shipwrecks.

Consider the needs of the group, both above and below water. Really Noob divers will find the conditions and operations on the South side to their liking, especially the ease of the shore diving entries. Intermediates, not so much~ they're still spotting the common Caribbean critters, and the North/West has no shortage of that! Advanced divers who have learned to perfect their buoyancy and close-up observational skills will absolutely go nuts for South side diving.

There are many day-dive ops and a few AI's (AKR is the biggest) along the North and West End. There are only AI's that serve the South shore, four to consider: BFK, FI, CCV, RHR. In another category entirely is TB located on the North side but far East of almost everything else.

Each choice, even within the smaller geographical zones, each of them are unique. Depends on what your fellow travelers are looking for.