deepsea21
Contributor
After diving Coz for 20+ years and meeting many divers who were migrating up from Roatan through Coz on their extended regional dive trips Roatan had been on my radar for a long time. One thing that kinda put me off aside from the airfare and prior difficulty getting there the same day from my smaller airport was lots of these divers coming up from Rotan had legs that looked like raw hamburger from the sand flea bites. Late last year when we were looking flights changed, May turned out to be very reasonable to fly and since it is the peak of the dry season I figured the bugs may not be so bad. Based on recommendations from friends, we booked 2 weeks in May at Splash Inn diving with their on-site dive op. Here we go.
Correspondence with Splash Inn via email was great and as we were booking in November for a following May trip and still had to pay for our annual December trip to Cozumel they let us put down just a 50% deposit instead of the typical 100% at booking which was appreciated. I loaded 3 cans of 40% DEET bug spray, 1 squirt bottle of 100% deet and 3 long lasting 12 hour DEET creams in preparation. Pleased to report that 1 can of 40% DEET was all that was needed and I never got a single bite. My wife failed to apply enough 1 night to her arms and got maybe 15 bites that night while dining out so the rule is if you apply spray to all exposed skin there is nothing to worry about. Skip that just 1 night and you can get eaten up. We saw several others who obviously failed to apply bug spray and their legs were all kinds of chewed up.
Getting there... Flight from Miami to Roatan on April 30th was "delayed" a day due to smoke over Roatan which = weather delay and no hotel or meal vouchers provided by the airline. What they don't tell you about until you've experienced it is the slash and burn of all crops at the end of the dry season (end of April) throughout the region that can get out of control (which it did) and while Roatan is 30 miles from the mainland the smoke was so thick flights were "delayed" for us 1 day, for others in Miami... some were waiting 3 days paying for hotel rooms Miami waiting for the smoke to clear. Winds changed and our flight left the next day and upon decent into Roatan the smoke was prevalent as we decended through a haze of it to landing. Throughout the 2 weeks, it depended on the winds... I'd say 6 days we left the room in the morning and the smell of smoke hits you immediately but then you get used to it and don't notice it. Anyone with asthma should NOT travel there during this time and we ran into a couple who were going to leave if the winds didn't change... They did change and the smoke dissapated and they could stay but there were no pristine sunsets with the sun setting over the water the whole time we were there... just setting into a haze of smoke.
I was a bit bummed that Splash Inn still charged me for the room night we missed and wouldn't deduct it as we didn't cancel and were stuck in Miami due to smoke but so be it.
Splash Inn... Pretty much what we expected. Nice place for the price, nice staff & centrally located in West End. Bed was VERY firm like most but after a few days of sleeping on it you realize this is probably what we all should be sleeping on instead of the cocoons us gringos are used to. Our room key had the card to turn on the AC permanently attached to it so no running the AC when you aren't in the room which I can understand given the price of electricity there. AC was fine and cooled the room as much as we needed for sleeping. Water pressure and flow for the shower sucked in the room so I just brought a bar of soap with me and bathed at the showers at the dive shop after our last dive of the day while my wife preferred to shower in the room under the little spray (her call). Breakfast buffet was included with our dive and stay package and was very good and while they say it starts at 7AM it 7:30-7:40AM which was not a problem as the first dive doesn't leave until 9AM at the dive shop right next door so that was stress free. You don't flush TP down the toilets here but you put it in the trash can by the toilet like many places. I guess you can flush it but if you do that you are just going to screw up their septic system and the more times they have to fix it the higher the prices they will have to charge so just put it in the trash can, don't be a stuck up gringo, and understand why. Room service was great and every day our room was cleaned and immaculate upon returning from our dives.
Splash Inn Dive Op... Great dive op in my opinion and so RELAXED. No need to rush here and there, no need to stress about this and that, pick your dives and your name goes on the board and done. Need to change or cancel a dive? No problem. Want to add some more? No problem. Very fluid. Dive gear is very secure in their shop and you get assigned a locker (although there are no locks). That spooked me a bit but there is always someone at the dive shop when it is open and no one is going to walk away with your $1000's of dive gear. Amazingly, most all of it you hang there is almost totally dry by the next day for your dives thanks to the fans running constantly and the heat inside there.
All DM's were great but I have to give a shout out to Tanya who now resides among the top 5 DM's we've ever been diving with. She is just awesome and has been a DM on Roatan for 6 years now. Very comprehensive pre-dive briefings explaining what we are going to do, what we could see, back-up plans, etc. And of course she has her own set of special hard-to-find critters and knows exactly where they are... Seahorse? Done. Frogfish? Done. Nudies? Done. Big stuff is easy but knowing where the small and hard-to-find rare stuff is what sets DM's apart. Tanya is just one awesome DM who is thriving in a pretty male dominated industry in this region. She had to be better to get where she is and she is!
Overall a really great time was had and we'll probably book 2 weeks in May next year as well. It's different from the deeper Cozumel drift diving we are so used to and is a nice change of pace. This is shallower, relaxed, pick-your-dive diving. Is it better than Coz? No in my opinion. Is it different? Yes with far more soft corals and such. Did we have fun? Yes and that's all that counts.
Correspondence with Splash Inn via email was great and as we were booking in November for a following May trip and still had to pay for our annual December trip to Cozumel they let us put down just a 50% deposit instead of the typical 100% at booking which was appreciated. I loaded 3 cans of 40% DEET bug spray, 1 squirt bottle of 100% deet and 3 long lasting 12 hour DEET creams in preparation. Pleased to report that 1 can of 40% DEET was all that was needed and I never got a single bite. My wife failed to apply enough 1 night to her arms and got maybe 15 bites that night while dining out so the rule is if you apply spray to all exposed skin there is nothing to worry about. Skip that just 1 night and you can get eaten up. We saw several others who obviously failed to apply bug spray and their legs were all kinds of chewed up.
Getting there... Flight from Miami to Roatan on April 30th was "delayed" a day due to smoke over Roatan which = weather delay and no hotel or meal vouchers provided by the airline. What they don't tell you about until you've experienced it is the slash and burn of all crops at the end of the dry season (end of April) throughout the region that can get out of control (which it did) and while Roatan is 30 miles from the mainland the smoke was so thick flights were "delayed" for us 1 day, for others in Miami... some were waiting 3 days paying for hotel rooms Miami waiting for the smoke to clear. Winds changed and our flight left the next day and upon decent into Roatan the smoke was prevalent as we decended through a haze of it to landing. Throughout the 2 weeks, it depended on the winds... I'd say 6 days we left the room in the morning and the smell of smoke hits you immediately but then you get used to it and don't notice it. Anyone with asthma should NOT travel there during this time and we ran into a couple who were going to leave if the winds didn't change... They did change and the smoke dissapated and they could stay but there were no pristine sunsets with the sun setting over the water the whole time we were there... just setting into a haze of smoke.
I was a bit bummed that Splash Inn still charged me for the room night we missed and wouldn't deduct it as we didn't cancel and were stuck in Miami due to smoke but so be it.
Splash Inn... Pretty much what we expected. Nice place for the price, nice staff & centrally located in West End. Bed was VERY firm like most but after a few days of sleeping on it you realize this is probably what we all should be sleeping on instead of the cocoons us gringos are used to. Our room key had the card to turn on the AC permanently attached to it so no running the AC when you aren't in the room which I can understand given the price of electricity there. AC was fine and cooled the room as much as we needed for sleeping. Water pressure and flow for the shower sucked in the room so I just brought a bar of soap with me and bathed at the showers at the dive shop after our last dive of the day while my wife preferred to shower in the room under the little spray (her call). Breakfast buffet was included with our dive and stay package and was very good and while they say it starts at 7AM it 7:30-7:40AM which was not a problem as the first dive doesn't leave until 9AM at the dive shop right next door so that was stress free. You don't flush TP down the toilets here but you put it in the trash can by the toilet like many places. I guess you can flush it but if you do that you are just going to screw up their septic system and the more times they have to fix it the higher the prices they will have to charge so just put it in the trash can, don't be a stuck up gringo, and understand why. Room service was great and every day our room was cleaned and immaculate upon returning from our dives.
Splash Inn Dive Op... Great dive op in my opinion and so RELAXED. No need to rush here and there, no need to stress about this and that, pick your dives and your name goes on the board and done. Need to change or cancel a dive? No problem. Want to add some more? No problem. Very fluid. Dive gear is very secure in their shop and you get assigned a locker (although there are no locks). That spooked me a bit but there is always someone at the dive shop when it is open and no one is going to walk away with your $1000's of dive gear. Amazingly, most all of it you hang there is almost totally dry by the next day for your dives thanks to the fans running constantly and the heat inside there.
All DM's were great but I have to give a shout out to Tanya who now resides among the top 5 DM's we've ever been diving with. She is just awesome and has been a DM on Roatan for 6 years now. Very comprehensive pre-dive briefings explaining what we are going to do, what we could see, back-up plans, etc. And of course she has her own set of special hard-to-find critters and knows exactly where they are... Seahorse? Done. Frogfish? Done. Nudies? Done. Big stuff is easy but knowing where the small and hard-to-find rare stuff is what sets DM's apart. Tanya is just one awesome DM who is thriving in a pretty male dominated industry in this region. She had to be better to get where she is and she is!
Overall a really great time was had and we'll probably book 2 weeks in May next year as well. It's different from the deeper Cozumel drift diving we are so used to and is a nice change of pace. This is shallower, relaxed, pick-your-dive diving. Is it better than Coz? No in my opinion. Is it different? Yes with far more soft corals and such. Did we have fun? Yes and that's all that counts.
