Roatan

Hi all

Well it’s nearly travel time again and so I am off to Roatan in July. I have booked to stay at the Anthonys Key Resort and wondered if anyone had any tips / cautions to share. Good dive sites, specific things to look out for, stuff to avoid etc. I have already read the threads about travel with TACA, but fortunately I am going Delta.

Cheers

Hal

Hi all

I have booked to stay at the Anthonys Key Resort and wondered if anyone had any tips / cautions to share.

It's been awhile but I guessing the layout hasn't changed much. There are two sets of rooms, One on the little island in the harbor and the other on the hill with the rest of the resort. If you get a room out on the island you have more peace and quiet and it's a beautiful setting. The downside is you need to call a ponga to come and get you. They have a cutoff tank (bell) to ring for the ponga. It really isn't a problem we never had to wait. The bar is very nice (at the top of the hill) Watch out for the Frangapani rum drink. If you want quiet try for the island, if you want to spend a lot of time at the bar, get a room on the hill. The dive operation was well run when we were there. Once they saw we knew what we were doing they let us do our own thing in the water. Lockers right next to the boats, Photo shop on site, right there were you load up.

If you have never had a chance to dive with dolphins it's a fun way to spend an afternoon. They take you off shore in one of the dive boats and everbody get geared up and goes down in about 40 ft on the sand. The dolphins show up following their trainers ponga and they come down and circle you for a while. The best part was getting introduced to the dolphins in their habitat before hand. If you try to take some pictures on the dive be warned. The dolphins can sense when your going to take the picture and have learned to shut their eyes before the flash goes off. I kid you not. I will leave for another time my personal feelings about keeping beautiful intelligent creatures like the dolphin pinned up.

I love the way the tropical resorts try to intice you with the vision of riding horseback through the surf. Well in this case you can skip the reality, the poor horse they gave me to ride was not the throughbred they used in the picture. Let's just say it was a toss up who should carry who. The fantasy is more fun anyway.

I'm sure you'll have a great time, if you're taking your young ones be forewarned that Honduras doesn't have a legal drinking age. On our trip my son was 18 and was very excited to learn the bartender was happy to serve him. Before the week was out he had worked his way through the very lengthy list of tropical drinks posted above the bar. (See note on the Frangipani Rum drink above). Have a great trip!

Steve

Thanks a lot

We have a room on the island, I believe there is now a pool in the center of the island. Anyway all the better to keep the youngsters away from the bar (although at 5 and 6 I think that even the Honduras bartender might draw a line).

Never was much one for horses anyway - so will not be sad to skip that.

What is the photoshop like?

Do they doing courses / instruction or what have you?

Cheers

Hal

I am happy to hear that you have already dodged T.A.C.A. (Take A Chance Air). This is a good start to your trip. BUT, what ever you do, please please bring your DEET+. The no-see-ums = flying jaws! They leave "stealth welts" that don't seem so bad at first but begin to really itch about a week later. The welts don't go away for about two months.

Spent a week at AKR last year to see how it had changed over the 15 years since I was last there.

The resort is great - and if you have one of the rooms on the west side of the island, the sunsets and view of the little island by the dolphin thingy are really quite pleasant.

Diving has gone down hill, lots of run off from all the construction work, and other issues with overfishing have dealt a really serious body blow to the island's reefs.

The artificial reefs / wrecks are quite photogenic and the day trip to the south of the island to do Mary's Place is worth the trip.

Food is great, and the service top notch.

We only left the resort once to go and do some stuff in the trees (zip wiring or something) - that was OK.

Would be interesting to go back in another 15 years?

First trip was with Bermuda BSAC - how is the old club house these days? Many fond memories of club nights and dive trips from there. My best regards to anyone who might remember me.

I have spent quite a bit of time on Roatan between AKR and Coco View- The amenities are nicer at AKR but if you can I would recommend the island. I have stayed on the mainland part there only once and had my room broken into (I dont think it is the norm and not much was taken as I assume they were looking for cash). I felt the diving on the Coco view side of the island was nicer but AKR has the ability with a bit longer trip to get over to that side of the island (Marys Place is the most famous of the sites over there). Take macro gear, the big fish are pretty much limited to rays and groupers.

for the non-dive stuff, zip-lining is a blast if you go for that type of thing and there is plenty availble on the island. West End has some nice restaurants and local merchants and is a $2 cab ride away. the coffee is STRONG (and I typically like espresso) If you dont like it that strength, you might want to consider bringing your own supplies. for the bar, the beer is really cheap but the mixed drinks are not. You will see people that spent their time with umbrella drinks having a heart attack at the end of the week when they see their bar bills. The no-see-ums are lethal- DEET is needed immediately after getting back off the dive boat or your ankles will be raw.

Last of what I can recall, the rental gear isnt great there and gets gobbled up by the people who flew TACA and had their luggage delayed.

Have a blast, the diving is great there (it must be Ive been there 5 times)

I was there several years ago, before AKR put in a pool..

Have photos of both AKR and Fantasy Island, AKR being the better of the two.

I stayed on the island at the end, non AC bungalow and was perfect.

Biggest irritant was the No-seems (see above) and DEET or the Johnson stuff worked better than non.. Some have gone there and asked "What bugs?" so could be a timing thing..

Anyway, more pics than you wanted above and below water are here

Both Fantasy Island and AKR.

Hope that helps.. AKR had better diving sites in my opinion, but was surprised that the whole area was as colorful as I thought it might be. I liken it to diving the Mojave desert (california) sage brush and all browish in colors...

You'll have a good time, and stay away from the "Monkey Drinks"... LOL... makes diving the next day a little harder...

Hope that helps..

You've just reminded me....

The Monkey La La!

What a great way to round off the evening, depending on which bar chappy makes it this drink can have a fair old kick!

Thanks to everyone who has commented so far - keep them coming, advice like this is invaluable.

The universal things seem to be:

No-see-umms and DEET

Monkey La La

Go to Marys Place

Rays, Groupers and Macro

No TACA flights

Got it

Cheers

Hal

If you have never had a chance to dive with dolphins it's a fun way to spend an afternoon. They take you off shore in one of the dive boats and everbody get geared up and goes down in about 40 ft on the sand. The dolphins show up following their trainers ponga and they come down and circle you for a while. The best part was getting introduced to the dolphins in their habitat before hand. If you try to take some pictures on the dive be warned. The dolphins can sense when your going to take the picture and have learned to shut their eyes before the flash goes off. I kid you not. Steve

I also, enjoyed the dive with dolphines. As best as I can recalled, I used a Nikonos IVa with ISO 200 slide film and no flash. I would scratch in the sand to attract the dolphines and shoot with the other hand. This was 1995 or so. Things may have changed.

I also, enjoyed the dive with dolphines. As best as I can recalled, I used a Nikonos IVa with ISO 200 slide film and no flash. I would scratch in the sand to attract the dolphines and shoot with the other hand. This was 1995 or so. Things may have changed.

Another interesting option is to walk around the Botanical Gardens which are located on the main road just across from the entrance to AKR. Bring Deet and Mosquito repellent, and water. There are several trails and maps are available at the entrance. As I recall, the fee was $5.