Where to go for 3 nights?

[Minnesota Cricket]

We will be traveling with 2 other families to Roatan next spring break at the end of March 2022. The house we booked is up by Camp Bay. We will almost certainly be diving with Dive Pangea which will be a couple hundred meters down the beach from where we are staying.

Unfortunately, we are sandwiched between two other reservations and will need to check out on Friday, April 1st. Our son doesn't start classes again until April 5th. Hate to let three potential days on Roatan be wasted so looking at moving to another location.

At this time I'm not sure if the other families will also want to stay, so it's hard to say exactly how big our group will be. At a minimum it will be the three of us (we have a 17yo) and at the most it will be 11 people (6 adults, 5 teenagers).

While it will be hard to pin down the exact accommodations we might need, I would love to here any suggestions for general location. Really hoping to get at least an afternoon dive in somewhere so being close to a dive shop would be good. Or better yet somewhere that has shore diving opportunities.

In previous trips we have stayed at a house by Sandy Bay. We had Coconut Tree divers pick us up right on our dock and had a great experience, so we may look at that option if all three families are staying. I also enjoyed a dive shop trip to Turquoise Bay resort.

On a side note, has anyone here dove with Dive Pangea and care to share their experience? Nothing but glowing reviews online. Looking forward to having dive sites to ourselves for a few days, if that is indeed the case on the East end like I have read.

 

[Doc]

I’ve seen Dive Pangea and their boats. I liked what I saw. Just understand it is not Coconut Tree in terms of your past trips- in the breadth of its physical operation. Some interesting diving on the North coast, far to the East.

Reef structure is much more varied there, more entertaining in terms of visible shapes than sites serviced by West or West North operations. It can get deep fast on a quickly sloping reef.

Their local area still looks comparatively good. What very mild current that Roatan has, this zone is where it first contacts Roatan, so any run-off and human generated detritus will get pushed to the West.

I do not buy into the marketing BS in regards to the reason why the reef looks better in the Eastern locales (South or North), it is simply NOT because of less divers, ie: the inferred exclusivity. All this is just so much marketing. The reason it looks so good? There is no land being developed to create situation.

That said, the reefs they service do look very good. As Pangea succeeds, as the local area gets built up, the reef will degrade.

The only viable shore dive on Roatan is from Coco View or Fantasy Island. CCV does not accept walk-ins and FIBR is closed.

From your description of past experience and admittedly otherwise loosely defined criteria, looks like your good prior stay in Sandy Bay should be a fair choice, but if you want to defer to the larger demand of the non-diving hours, get thee to west end!

Lots to do on West End, no cab ride needed, an afternoon dive is a pretty common thing.

 

[Minnesota Cricket]

Thanks Doc! I think I agree with your take on the reefs. I have also read that the fish numbers may be higher on the west side because of the poaching being done in the more remote areas.

Since we will be eating almost exclusively at the house while we are there, I like the idea of being close to restaurants for our final 3 days. We know one family is not going to stay so we will be looking at either a 2 BR or a 4 BR.