My wife and I just got back from 9 days in Roatan. Here goes with the low down on the island, the diving, the resort, and the flight (not in that order).
On June 12th, Continental will begin direct flights into Roatan from Houston. And not a day too soon. If we had to fly TACA everywhere we went, we wouldn't go anywhere. The airline has not an inkling of the idea of customer service and rudeness seems to be the only thing they have in abundence. If you are forced to fly TACA, I would recommend trying to get the direct out of Miami (or anywhere else, if you have the option). The direct flight doesn't happen every day so you will need to plan accordingly. Otherwise, you will end up doing the grand tour taking a couple of non-airconditioned puddle jumping goat haulers in addition to the bigger jets. The pilots on the puddle jumpers, probably realizing the frailty of their aircraft, did a much better job of landing their craft than the bounce down the runway jet boys. Please understand that any aircraft hauling passengers into or out of the USA has to meet FAA regulations. Local, in-country planes do not.
Now that we got the crappy part out of the way, here be the good stuff:
Inn of Last Resort should change their name to Inn of First Resort. These people know their stuff and are always at least one step ahead of you in fulfilling your needs and wants. Eddie meet us at the airport, took care of gathering our bags as well as getting us pushed through passport control. There were 6 of us in our group and he handled everything smoothly and without us having to lift a finger. We saw many other people going to different resorts that were having to fight the crowds and lines to get their bags and get through passport control by themselves while the resort rep stood there like a statue holding a sign.
The ride into the resort was fun, as long as you remembered to take a drink first. The road condition is fine till you get on the side roads (who needs pavement anyway). Lots of some sort of crab walking across the road. For you Bonaire regulars, think of the lizards and replace them with crabs. Crunch crunch crunch.
The resort staff meet us at the van and directed us to the main lodge where they had dinner ready for us, even though it was well after normal dinner hours. Took a moment to make them aware of dietary restrictions and then digging in to some surprisingly good food. While we ate and were introduced to various members of the staff, our bags were taken to our rooms for us.
The rooms were large, air conditioned (not cold but comfortable) and well thought out. This is a dive resort so don't look for plush carpeting. Everything is made out of wood (immaculate carpentry by Andy, btw) and doesn't mind getting wet. Plenty of 110 VAC outlets in the room for rechargers and such. Plenty of storage space for clothes (who need's 'em anyway) and dive bags. Left valuables out all the time and never once had a thing go missing on us. The rooms even have safes. No problem at all with bugs in the rooms. They even have automated wake-up calls available. Plenty of hot water 24-7. The shower stalls are the absolute smallest I have seen on planet earth. Not a bad idea, maybe, as after doing three dives, things get a bit wobbly anyway.
The food was fine, most of the time. Every now and again, they'd have something that was a little weird but no big deal. Multiple courses every meal. Several different choices for breakfast. Even had a hot dog and cheeseburger cookout at the lagoon one night. Bacon wrapped filets on our last night was a nice touch. Freshly baked bread everyday. The only real thing they could probably make some significant improvement on would have to be the wait staff. The guys running the bar were great (Hey Vic!!) but the servers for the meals seemed to be on some different plane of existence. Didn't really matter what was ordered or by whom, they'd bring you something, eventually.
Most resorts get you in the door with a low price and then nickel and dime you to death on all the little extras. IOLR never did anything like that. The items they did have for sale were very reasonably priced and of as good quality as you would get here or better. Alcoholic drinks at the bar very reasonably priced (2 for 1 during happy hour) and a well stocked bar it was.
The management at this place is top shelf. Melissa is a doll. Anything and everything you'd need, she'd have it and quick. Vern was great as well. Andy, the owner, made every guest feel like they were the only guest there. Devotion to making a great time for the guests is what these people excel at. They even take care of confirming your return tickets and getting your boarding passes beforehand. Make sure you walk by Thespin, the maccaw parrot, and tell him Jola!!
And now for the diving:
This is a resort and you'll be diving from boats for the vast majority of the time. The only time you will be doing any shore diving is if you choose to and it will be in the lagoon owned by the resort. Let the DM know and they will have your gear and tanks delivered to the lagoon for you. Even the lagoon had some very intersting stuff: soft shell crab, searobbin, large puffer fish, sea anenomes, etc.
The two dive boats they have are incredibly roomy (over 40 feet long and 8-10 feet wide). I take up a lot of space and never once felt cramped. Each boat can carry 20 or so divers but we never had more than 10 people (DM and Boat Capt inc). Easiest boat diving I have ever done. Everything is giant stride off the rear and getting back on the boat is just as easy. Both boats have sun decks that provide a place to lay out and shade for everyone else. We saw many other small dive operations that had the 6 pack boats and I felt sorry for those people roasting in the sun. The boat staff take care of everything if you want them to. From hauling the tanks to setting up your gear for the next dive. The only thing they insist you do for yourself is test your O2 levels for Nitrox tanks. Easy set up for that but their charts (PADI) are extremely conservative as to max depths. We usually ended up diving the first dive of each day on air as it would be difficult sometimes finding a tank with under 32%. The 2 subsequent dives we did on Nitrox.
Mel's knowledge of the reefs and formations was encyclopaedic. If he ever decides to write a dive guide to Roatan, he'll make a fortune. Very helpful underwater and really takes care of the group the way the group wants to be taken care of. Vaughn was a new DM to IOLR. Wonderful, young English gentleman with an absolute gem for a wife. Our group may have driven him over the edge as our first day was his first day and our last day was his as well. Just kidding there; he got a great offer from a shop closer to his wife's job. Maybe she can help him with that safety sausage problem.
Even though IOLR could have put everyone on one boat, they elected to use both boats and split up the divers. It seems they went along the experience line as the other boat seemed to have a lot of newbies. We rechristened our boat "The Geriatric Express" plus two handlers. Ben (another DM) knows most every fish on the reef and really knows how to get along with people.
Very abundant coral and sponge life. Fish life was very diverse and, at pablo's place, very abundant. At most of the dive sites we went to the abundance of fish life was about half of what we have seen in Bonaire. We saw large grouper,giant hermit crabs, lobster, shrimp, arrow head crabs, juvenile spotted drum, gray, french and queen angelfish, black durgeon, green moray, 3 hawksbill turtles, spotted eagle ray, squirrel fish, searobbin (1), and many other kinds of fish. We were fortunate enough to have seen an octopus on this trip as well.
The coral formations here are the best we have seen and yes, we've done Belize and Cayman. Spooky Channel and Bears Den are defintely two dives worth repeating many many times. The Odyssey and Aguila are two nice, open wrecks. Great penetrators for people new to wreck diving. Most of the dive sites were within 10-20 minutes of the resort so no long boat rides. Water temps consistently 78-82 and vis 80 to 100ft. Currents....what currents??? 21 dives in 7 days and never felt rushed or pushed.
All in all, a great trip. Better than I expected a resort to be. We are a bit spoiled by Bonaire but as long as you don't mind a bit of a schedule, IOLR would be hard to beat. I like Bonaire's get up when you want, dive and eat when you want, where you want, and as many times as you want way of vacationing. But for those of you that wouldn't want the work that goes with that freedom we highly recommend Inn of Last Resort be your first and only choice.
On June 12th, Continental will begin direct flights into Roatan from Houston. And not a day too soon. If we had to fly TACA everywhere we went, we wouldn't go anywhere. The airline has not an inkling of the idea of customer service and rudeness seems to be the only thing they have in abundence. If you are forced to fly TACA, I would recommend trying to get the direct out of Miami (or anywhere else, if you have the option). The direct flight doesn't happen every day so you will need to plan accordingly. Otherwise, you will end up doing the grand tour taking a couple of non-airconditioned puddle jumping goat haulers in addition to the bigger jets. The pilots on the puddle jumpers, probably realizing the frailty of their aircraft, did a much better job of landing their craft than the bounce down the runway jet boys. Please understand that any aircraft hauling passengers into or out of the USA has to meet FAA regulations. Local, in-country planes do not.
Now that we got the crappy part out of the way, here be the good stuff:
Inn of Last Resort should change their name to Inn of First Resort. These people know their stuff and are always at least one step ahead of you in fulfilling your needs and wants. Eddie meet us at the airport, took care of gathering our bags as well as getting us pushed through passport control. There were 6 of us in our group and he handled everything smoothly and without us having to lift a finger. We saw many other people going to different resorts that were having to fight the crowds and lines to get their bags and get through passport control by themselves while the resort rep stood there like a statue holding a sign.
The ride into the resort was fun, as long as you remembered to take a drink first. The road condition is fine till you get on the side roads (who needs pavement anyway). Lots of some sort of crab walking across the road. For you Bonaire regulars, think of the lizards and replace them with crabs. Crunch crunch crunch.
The resort staff meet us at the van and directed us to the main lodge where they had dinner ready for us, even though it was well after normal dinner hours. Took a moment to make them aware of dietary restrictions and then digging in to some surprisingly good food. While we ate and were introduced to various members of the staff, our bags were taken to our rooms for us.
The rooms were large, air conditioned (not cold but comfortable) and well thought out. This is a dive resort so don't look for plush carpeting. Everything is made out of wood (immaculate carpentry by Andy, btw) and doesn't mind getting wet. Plenty of 110 VAC outlets in the room for rechargers and such. Plenty of storage space for clothes (who need's 'em anyway) and dive bags. Left valuables out all the time and never once had a thing go missing on us. The rooms even have safes. No problem at all with bugs in the rooms. They even have automated wake-up calls available. Plenty of hot water 24-7. The shower stalls are the absolute smallest I have seen on planet earth. Not a bad idea, maybe, as after doing three dives, things get a bit wobbly anyway.
The food was fine, most of the time. Every now and again, they'd have something that was a little weird but no big deal. Multiple courses every meal. Several different choices for breakfast. Even had a hot dog and cheeseburger cookout at the lagoon one night. Bacon wrapped filets on our last night was a nice touch. Freshly baked bread everyday. The only real thing they could probably make some significant improvement on would have to be the wait staff. The guys running the bar were great (Hey Vic!!) but the servers for the meals seemed to be on some different plane of existence. Didn't really matter what was ordered or by whom, they'd bring you something, eventually.
Most resorts get you in the door with a low price and then nickel and dime you to death on all the little extras. IOLR never did anything like that. The items they did have for sale were very reasonably priced and of as good quality as you would get here or better. Alcoholic drinks at the bar very reasonably priced (2 for 1 during happy hour) and a well stocked bar it was.
The management at this place is top shelf. Melissa is a doll. Anything and everything you'd need, she'd have it and quick. Vern was great as well. Andy, the owner, made every guest feel like they were the only guest there. Devotion to making a great time for the guests is what these people excel at. They even take care of confirming your return tickets and getting your boarding passes beforehand. Make sure you walk by Thespin, the maccaw parrot, and tell him Jola!!
And now for the diving:
This is a resort and you'll be diving from boats for the vast majority of the time. The only time you will be doing any shore diving is if you choose to and it will be in the lagoon owned by the resort. Let the DM know and they will have your gear and tanks delivered to the lagoon for you. Even the lagoon had some very intersting stuff: soft shell crab, searobbin, large puffer fish, sea anenomes, etc.
The two dive boats they have are incredibly roomy (over 40 feet long and 8-10 feet wide). I take up a lot of space and never once felt cramped. Each boat can carry 20 or so divers but we never had more than 10 people (DM and Boat Capt inc). Easiest boat diving I have ever done. Everything is giant stride off the rear and getting back on the boat is just as easy. Both boats have sun decks that provide a place to lay out and shade for everyone else. We saw many other small dive operations that had the 6 pack boats and I felt sorry for those people roasting in the sun. The boat staff take care of everything if you want them to. From hauling the tanks to setting up your gear for the next dive. The only thing they insist you do for yourself is test your O2 levels for Nitrox tanks. Easy set up for that but their charts (PADI) are extremely conservative as to max depths. We usually ended up diving the first dive of each day on air as it would be difficult sometimes finding a tank with under 32%. The 2 subsequent dives we did on Nitrox.
Mel's knowledge of the reefs and formations was encyclopaedic. If he ever decides to write a dive guide to Roatan, he'll make a fortune. Very helpful underwater and really takes care of the group the way the group wants to be taken care of. Vaughn was a new DM to IOLR. Wonderful, young English gentleman with an absolute gem for a wife. Our group may have driven him over the edge as our first day was his first day and our last day was his as well. Just kidding there; he got a great offer from a shop closer to his wife's job. Maybe she can help him with that safety sausage problem.
Even though IOLR could have put everyone on one boat, they elected to use both boats and split up the divers. It seems they went along the experience line as the other boat seemed to have a lot of newbies. We rechristened our boat "The Geriatric Express" plus two handlers. Ben (another DM) knows most every fish on the reef and really knows how to get along with people.
Very abundant coral and sponge life. Fish life was very diverse and, at pablo's place, very abundant. At most of the dive sites we went to the abundance of fish life was about half of what we have seen in Bonaire. We saw large grouper,giant hermit crabs, lobster, shrimp, arrow head crabs, juvenile spotted drum, gray, french and queen angelfish, black durgeon, green moray, 3 hawksbill turtles, spotted eagle ray, squirrel fish, searobbin (1), and many other kinds of fish. We were fortunate enough to have seen an octopus on this trip as well.
The coral formations here are the best we have seen and yes, we've done Belize and Cayman. Spooky Channel and Bears Den are defintely two dives worth repeating many many times. The Odyssey and Aguila are two nice, open wrecks. Great penetrators for people new to wreck diving. Most of the dive sites were within 10-20 minutes of the resort so no long boat rides. Water temps consistently 78-82 and vis 80 to 100ft. Currents....what currents??? 21 dives in 7 days and never felt rushed or pushed.
All in all, a great trip. Better than I expected a resort to be. We are a bit spoiled by Bonaire but as long as you don't mind a bit of a schedule, IOLR would be hard to beat. I like Bonaire's get up when you want, dive and eat when you want, where you want, and as many times as you want way of vacationing. But for those of you that wouldn't want the work that goes with that freedom we highly recommend Inn of Last Resort be your first and only choice.
It is just a job to earn diving money 
