Reef House or Coco View in Roatan???

Going in Jan-Feb 2016. Trying to decide between the two. Know that both have great reps. Reef House sounds a little rougher on meals with not much choice, but a wider variety of dive sites. CCV: I'm concerned about the number of dives that we'd do on the house reef. Appears that they dump you off for the second dive every AM and possibly in the PM. Would end up doing up to 50% of dives on the house reef. Is it THAT good? I prefer macro/super but will carry WA/dome stuff.

Any other comments are welcome. I'll be traveling solo.

Background. D7000/Aquatica with YS-D1 strobes. Have dove all over the world, many trips to Indo, Phily, Fiji, etc. plus most places in the Caribbean. Due to back problem, no longer doing long haul flights. Staying in the western hemisphere for now.

TIA.

Harry

I did my Instructor course with Subway Watersports and they are located in the center of Roatan and this gives you access to the unspoiled dive sites.

The backdraw is that there is nothing to do around, but just on the side is a beautiful resort, Turquise Bay Resort to stay and relax, but not good for any nightlife.

Chris

Hi Harry,

I can only give you the CCview perspective but had a quick look at Reef House and it looks interesting as well. I traveled solo to CCview on a 10-day trip and found it extremely easy to meet and mingle with the other divers as nearly everyone comes with the same mindset. They also team you up with the same boat/captain/DM/fellow-divers so they quickly become "family". If you are an experienced diver, as you clearly are, then you also have great freedom to dive solo on the house reef and roam around the dive group on guided dives. I find that important to get my images, especially macro.

I am a "house reef" guy. Making two house reef dives a day is nirvana for me and I've made up to 5 house reef dives a day on occasion. So my opinion may not reflect the general diver but if you want to do a lot of house reef diving in the Caribbean I suggest you do it at CCview. Even compared to my diving on Bari reef in Bonaire, supposedly the most species-rich reef in the Caribbean, I would still go for CCview. From the beach you have access to two fringe reef wall dives, a nice shallow fringe reef plateau on each with mixed coral ridges and sandy valleys, a sandy chute between the two reefs, a small wreck and, if you are so inclined, a backside where the open ocean meets a mangrove lagoon. Getting in/out is as easy as it can get and buoys&chain help you to find the exit and the second reef although it isn't hard to start with. When I was there we were dropped of on the far end of Newman's wall after the morning boat dive and on the far end of CCview wall after the after-lunch boat dive. Because you start at the far end you can cover a lot of reef and don't have to swim out and back along the same stretch.

If this is for you depends on your preferences. I hope this helps to make up your mind.

Cheers, Bart

I've never been to Reef House, but keep going back to Coco View because of the diving. Bart did a good job already of explaining the set up at CCV. The amenities aren't "fancy", but are more than adequate, if you're there to dive. The last time that I was there, my wife and I got in 26 dives during the week. Yes, about half of them were on one or the other of the two walls (Coco View Wall or Newman's Wall), but if you're into small stuff, there's lots to see. The other half of the dives are on really nice sites within about 10 minute boat rides from the resort. I ended up with about 33 hours of bottom time in that week, because there was that much to see. In fact, I'm still working though all the video clips that I took that week. I've already scheduled my next trip back to CCV in February.

So here is my take since I have been to both.

Rooms - I'd give the nod to CCV. I stayed in one of their over the water rooms and I also stayed in one of the nicer rooms at RHR. Both were more than adequate with plenty of hot water but the CCV room was just a bit nicer. Don't know about the other rooms at CCV.

Food - Hands down the food was better at RHR. My wife is a little picky and she would always ask in the morning what was for dinner. If she didn't think she would like what they were serving, they would grill her a chicken breast or a piece of fish. The food was just OK at CCV. Not bad but not nearly as tasty as the food at RHR.

Diving - This is what separates the two for me. The places we went diving at RHR were far superior than the sites at CCV. Not even close. I think the entire time diving at RHR we saw one other dive boat for the week. The sites they go to are not dived nearly as much as the sites CCV will take you to. I think when we went to CCV we saw maybe 3 seahorses for the week. At RHR we would find 3 and 4 on just one dive. Maybe saw 15 for the week. The DM, Davit, at RHR is amazing. One of the best I have ever been with. Also, the shore diving at RHR was better. Now you need to do a surface swim for the first part of the house reef to weave you way out to the main reef but once out there is was really good diving.

I would gladly go back to either but if I were to win a free trip I'd take RHR every time. Now sure what the pricing is but RHR use to be a few hundred cheaper for the week. Hope this helps.

Guys,

Thanks for all of the input. Right now I'll be going to whichever one I can get into. Both are pretty busy with none to few vacancies.

Thanks again.

Harry

Going in Jan-Feb 2016. Trying to decide between the two. Know that both have great reps. Reef House sounds a little rougher on meals with not much choice, but a wider variety of dive sites. CCV: I'm concerned about the number of dives that we'd do on the house reef. Appears that they dump you off for the second dive every AM and possibly in the PM. Would end up doing up to 50% of dives on the house reef. Is it THAT good? I prefer macro/super but will carry WA/dome stuff.

 

Any other comments are welcome. I'll be traveling solo.

 

Background. D7000/Aquatica with YS-D1 strobes. Have dove all over the world, many trips to Indo, Phily, Fiji, etc. plus most places in the Caribbean. Due to back problem, no longer doing long haul flights. Staying in the western hemisphere for now.

 

TIA.

 

Harry

I'm a 3-time Reef House visitor, planning on going back next fall.

I've not stayed at Coco View, but my guess is that the accomodations are nicer. The Reef House is ... minimal. That said, it's a friendly, fun place to be. But there's not much to do besides diving.

I went in 2008 (January), 2014 (Sep/Oct) and 2015 (Sep/Oct).

Here's the bottom line: With the Reef House, you get some of the best diving I've seen (outside of Fiji) and THE best divemaster I've followed (David, prononounced Dah-VEED). David has been leading divers there for about 20 years, and he must have every creature in every location memorized. He's seriously good at finding stuff, and knowing just when to return to the boat. The dive sites are pristine, and because the Reef House is somewhat remote you end up at dive sites rarely visited by others. In 2014 i went on 18 dives, all to different locations. In 2015, 15 dives, and we repeated one (Calvin's Crack) so I could redo a dive video I messed up. (Plus I was the only diver in our group that made the first Crack dive).

You want to see seahorses? David will find them for you. (More than one). Small critters for macro? He's your man. Wall dives? Plenty. Spear a lionfish and feed it to a moray or a toadfish? That too. Want to do a shark dive? That can be arranged, though it's not thru Reef House. (Did it in 2008, saw pics from others in our group in 2015, and it's pretty awesome, at least the first time).

I also have to mention Choco, who drives the dive boat. He's someone else that really knows what he is doing, and makes it look easy.

The rooms are clean and air conditioned, the food is good, and the staff is very friendly. I also heard that they are paying off the note on the loan the owner took out to buy the place a few years ago, and that means they will finally have money to make some much-needed improvements.

I'll be going back in September, and the main reason is to follow David to pristine dive sites and work on my photography.

By the way, the last week in September is beautiful there, with few divers booked.

Guys,

 

Thanks for all of the input. Right now I'll be going to whichever one I can get into. Both are pretty busy with none to few vacancies.

 

Thanks again.

 

Harry

Forgot to mention, I have pics up of the resort and diving, pulled mostly from my camera, but also others. There were 9 of us from Phoenix there, we had a great time, and the whole group went ziplining on Friday as well. See pics from 2015 here: http://www.cjcphoto.net/roatan2015/index.htmland 2014 here: http://www.cjcphoto.net/roatan2014/diving/index.html

Craig,

Thanks for the info and esp. for the photo links. Gave me a good appreciation of the lay of the land (and the bottom). Lots of nice coral with minimal damage. I as able to get booked into RHR. Headed there in Jan. after spending next week in Coz.

Thanks again.

Harry