Trip Report Turquoise Bay Dive and Beach Resort - Roatan

[1tree2hug]

What a fantastic week (Dec 27-Jan 4) at Turquoise Bay! This was our second trip down, we were there in July of 2019. There were many familiar faces still at the resort, Pablo in the dining room, Eddie and Osmond at the dive shop, Bob Herb taking photos. We enjoyed excellent food and friendly service. Differences from our trip 2019 trip compared to the 2023 trip: newer boats, more amenities at the beach (bungalows, pagoda, and cabanas). Dives on the South Side!!
TB is on the north side of Roatan, and this trip the swell and winds were strong from the north for most of our stay. The resort bused us over to the south side and we used the piers behind the owner's house!! We passed a sloth and monkey farm and there was a caged lion along the way. I am not kidding, an actual lion!! The diving on the South Side was great! all the usual Caribbean critters, including sea horses. My favorite though is the Caribbean Squid! The resort catered a wonderful lunch each day we were there. Unfortunately the coral in Roatan seems to have taken some heat stress since our last visit. Lots of bleaching, especially of the lettuce corals, but elk horn and other species as well. There was also some slimy algae growing on a lot of the bleached corals. That said, the reefs close to walls and deep water faired better. And there were many fewer lionfish at recreational depths.
We also ran into a large group from Kids Sea Camp, what a blast! They really seem to run a great program and all the parent's and kids seemed to be haveing a great time!
Overall a another great trip to Roatan, and we fully recommend the folks at Turquoise Bay Dive and Beach Resort!!

 

[Doc]

DM Osman is just phenomenal.

Point of information: AVOID the Little French Key “caged cat” show. What they do to animals is bad enough, they have decimated their near shore reef structure by construction.

 

[Kcollins]

1tree2hug... I'll be getting my OW cert soon (May - June) and am researching places to go for a diver with a non-diver kind of set up... Actually my dive buddy's wife doesn't dive either so two divers and two non-divers. Anyway.... I'm trying to get my head around how Turquoise Bay is set up. How does all this work? They have dive packages but what do you dive? Do you get to pick? I'm most interested in Wrecks but as a new diver would be open to reefs as well... Hell any diving far as that goes. We would need rental gear too. We have mask and fins. I gather it's all inclusive so that is cool. The website just isn't overly obvious with their dive packages. Looks like it's $1300 per diver and $1000 per non diver. If you could please elaborate on the process of booking with TB and their dive packages and how that all works I would be truly grateful. Thanks. Kevin

 

[1tree2hug]

1tree2hug... I'll be getting my OW cert soon (May - June) and am researching places to go for a diver with a non-diver kind of set up... Actually my dive buddy's wife doesn't dive either so two divers and two non-divers. Anyway.... I'm trying to get my head around how Turquoise Bay is set up. How does all this work? They have dive packages but what do you dive? Do you get to pick? I'm most interested in Wrecks but as a new diver would be open to reefs as well... Hell any diving far as that goes. We would need rental gear too. We have mask and fins. I gather it's all inclusive so that is cool. The website just isn't overly obvious with their dive packages. Looks like it's $1300 per diver and $1000 per non diver. If you could please elaborate on the process of booking with TB and their dive packages and how that all works I would be truly grateful. Thanks. Kevin

The Diving is typical Caribbean reef Diving, 3 boat divers per day, with a chance for a night dive once a week. You may see a nurse shark, but mostly it's fishes, sponges, and corals. Right after my wife and daughter got their OW certifications, we went to TB and they really liked it. The DM's were super relaxed and professional, especially Eddie and Osmond Sr, they made some nervous divers feel super comfortable. There are a couple of wrecks you may dive on the north or south side of the island. They have excellent Scubapro gear you can rent. There are plenty of activities that the cruise boat passengers are doing, I guess the non-divers can do those too. My family and I only dive while there. As far as how to book, I just email them and let them know what I'm interested in and then they invoice for %50 and then pay the rest on site. I think they also have all this through a webportal. We like this place so much we've been twice, and would go again!

 

[RobPNW]

Those sand fleas kicked my butt. Other than that I liked the place. Pretty casual bang for your buck.

 

[1tree2hug]

yep, deet is a must in the sand

 

[Kcollins]

Thank you very much 1tree2hug... I'm going to email them right now.

 

[dmaziuk]

How does all this work? They have dive packages but what do you dive? Do you get to pick? I'm most interested in Wrecks but as a new diver would be open to reefs as well...

In an ideal world they'd get a boat together w/ new arrivals and keep it together for the duration, i.e. you'll be on the same boat with same DMs for 6 days. First day is the reef just out front: easy dive where DM can see what they're dealing with, get people's weights tuned in, etc. During the week they will normally take you to at least one wreck and at least one swim-through, but a lot depends on site availability, -- if you get to the site and another boat's already parked there, they may go to the next site, -- weather, and so on. If the the weather comes in they may have to cart you over to the other side and limit to 2 dives/day (just because of extra travel time), reshuffle the boats as driving a boat around the island takes time and gas... so basically you dive where the boat takes you.

 

[wildbill9]

Cactus juice, available on line, works wonders for sand critters. It smells good and isn’t greasy. Was much more effective than deep.mJMHO

 

[tridacna]

Cactus juice, available on line, works wonders for sand critters. It smells good and isn’t greasy. Was much more effective than deep.mJMHO

Did absolutely nothing for me and my group. It’s pretty much snake oil. We went back to DEET after 3 days of acting as blood donors to many hundreds of biters. (Yeah I know it worked for you).