Traveling to Roatan Island

[cstephens13]

I have a great vacation planned for October. I will be going to Belize, and Roatan Island. I am looking for any great snorkeling spots in Roatan. Any help with ideas would be great. Thanks.

 

[ChevaYEA]

Hey there,

There are shops , charters and resorts all over there that can point you in the right direction. I have a buddy who just returned from The Reef House resort on the south east end of the island, so the dive sites that are visited are a little removed from the other resorts. I would check with the dive shops though, they'll give you some great pointers if you are looking for some shore access snorkeling sponts.

 

[Manuel Sam]

My info is quite old but when I went there is 1994 (same type of trip - Belize followed by Roatan, all land-based), I liked the village of West End very much. There was the Half-Moon beach as well as the West End beach (sometimes called Tabiyana beach) and both had very nice snorkeling right form shore all the way out to the wall. At that time, you could rent a kayak and paddle your way to Tabiyana. My guess is that by now, there's probably a road that gets you there.

Beware of the no see-ums - they called them the Flying Teeth down there.

 

[cstephens13]

Thanks

 

[Dave C]

Your post finally prompted me to post a super-long trip report about snorkeling in Roatan that I wrote a couple of years ago after I got back from Roatan. I spent a long time writing it, and then never posted it, although I have e-mailed it to a couple of people. I put the report on this board's Bay Islands subforum:
Part 1:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...eport-but-still-may-useful-long-part-1-a.html
Part 2:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...eport-but-still-may-useful-long-part-2-a.html

I put some links in Part 1 to photos of my trip that include both above and below water shots.

I encourage you to also post your questions on the Bay Islands subforum, as you will probably get more response there than on this freediving forum.

Also, I see that you are planning to go to both Belize and Roatan. Have you looked into the travel details of actually doing this? Unless things have changed, I don't think there is an easy way to travel from Belize to Roatan. They are relatively close together on the map, but there are no direct (or even semi-direct) transportation links.

 

[diversteve]

Go to Cocoview for the day, snorkel off their "Front Yard" The Cocoview and Newman Walls both get within 5' of the surface in places. There were about 10 people snorkeling from there and FIBR next door while we were diving the Prince Albert. CoCo View Resort - Snorkeling

 

[Manuel Sam]

Dave C: great reports. As I recall, there was a mini-wall also at around 40-50 ft. with a stretch of sandy bottom where you could observe garden eels. Continuing further out, you finally reached the bigger drop-off where the bottom lies in 100 ft. or more.

When I went in 1994, you could fly from Belize City to San Pedro Sula in Honduras and then connect with a flight from SPS to Roatan. I believe the airline was TACA.

 

[cstephens13]

Dave thanks for the reports. Your pictures were better than any of the research I did before booking this trip. What kind of camera do you use for your underwater shots? I have an Olympus point and shot, with a housing that is good to 100 ft.