Catt99
Registered
My wife and I left the kids with grandparents and spent the week before Easter in Roatan, staying at Parrot Tree Planation. I thought Id post a trip report since there is not much on Parrot Tree here. This was our first trip to Roatan.
We found Parrot Tree a very nice property. The rooms are quite comfortable, and feature nearly full kitchens with a full size refrigerator, stove top burners (no oven), coffee machine, microwave, and even clothes washer / dryer. Comfy beds, nice little porch (we were on first floor) two-sink bathroom with shower but no tub, all in stone / marble / slate. The room also had a small couch / seating area, and a flat panel TV (not HD) with a variety of channels. In room wifi available for $5 per day (but only one device at a time) with free wifi in a number of common areas.
The resort has a large pool with a short water-slide for kids (or adults!) with numerous loungers and beds. It also has a large, shallow saltwater lagoon off the nearby coastline (not truly much of beach right off the resort more of a coastline) beachside for most if not all is at the lagoon, with the actual ocean and waves just over the short seawall beyond.
The available restaurant / bar was comfortable, pretty reasonably priced, and offered almost universally good food we didn't have a bad meal or experience. The one drawback is that the menu is somewhat limited, and if you were eating all your meals there, youd quickly run out of things to try. Like most restaurants we visited in Roatan, I was surprised at how much menu space is taken up with beef / chicken / pork (i.e., not seafood) Id like to see more seafood options myself, but thats obviously a personal preference. While we were there, WC qualifying matches (soccer) were being played on two different nights, and we enjoyed the opportunity to cheer Honduras at the bar (for the Costa Rica-Honduras match, the bar set up a projector and drop cloth for the match).
Breakfast was available at a nearby coffee shop / restaurant that serves both the resort and the residences within the resort maybe 5 min walk from the hotel portion of the resort. We had breakfast included in our package and it was basically eggs, toast, beans, fresh fruit and juice and coffee. They did apparently have other menu options but we never looked around, content with the simple buffet included in our package (we did not have a meal plan or all-inclusive package they definitely offer a meal plan because some menu items at the hotel restaurant were excluded; no idea if they offer an all-inclusive option).
FWIW, the resort just hired a new chef, and changes to the menu are coming. We heard that the coffee shop was to be turned into an Italian restaurant, with breakfast presumably moving back to the hotel grounds proper.
One thing to be keenly aware of is that Parrot Tree is actually quite isolated. Youre not anywhere close to a West End-like experience of trying out a dozen different places within a few minutes walk youre either eating at the resort, youve rented a car, or youve made arrangements with a local cabbie for getting around the island.
A second thing to be keenly aware of: Parrot Tree is not a dive resort. They do not have any sort of a dive operation, and when we arrived we discovered that they werent really expert at helping active divers get a series of dives organized they were prepared to call nearby CoCo View or Fantasy Island on our behalf, but they dont seem to have a dedicated commercial relationship with anyone nor a sort of routine approach to helping get organized.
We werent really terribly organized and hadnt done a ton of research on Roatan or Parrot Tree, and sort of went into it thinking it likely we could just show up, and wander to one or more close dive ops by foot to arrange dives, or easily facilitate getting picked up at a jetty or dock close by (similar to our past experiences in Belize at Ambergris and then Caye Caulker). We quickly understood that this was not the case. We ended up catching a ride back to the airport the morning after we arrived to pick up a rental car an unexpected expense, but one we went with as we did want to explore the island a bit and figured it gave us more freedom and certainty around diving by not having to rely on cabbies which may or may not choose to work on island time when we needed to get to a boat on time.
We had trouble hooking up with CCVs dive op for one reason or another, and used the rental car to visit Fantasy Island. FIs dive operation was happy to see us the resort was booked full for the week but they only had seven confirmed divers and were pleased to have us wanting to do morning 2 tank boat dives (or more). We had several other ops we would look at near us on the south side, but went with FI for the first day and it turned out we were quite happy with FI nice boats, friendly and knowledgeable crew and DM, seemingly secure facilities to store our gear (and no issues), and very reasonable pricing. We ended up diving exclusively with FI for five days and had a great time. I think we ended up paying $20 a dive based on the number of boat dives we did over the week. We paid extra for Nitrox (which probably really wasnt necessary given the profiles and amount of diving we were doing, but might have been more desirable if we were also going out in the afternoon or doing some shore diving). The dives were enjoyable (plenty of other reports so I wont be repetitive here) and they were perfectly fine with us staying down after others had concluded so long as we stayed pretty close to the boat we didnt want to inconvenience or delay others, but we did generally get out of the water last and enjoyed a few dives of ~65 minutes before reluctantly coming back on board. Surface intervals tended to be in nearby inlets to get out of the (very mild) swells, and on a few occasions went back to the resort for an SI. Our dive sites never exceeded more than 15 20 minutes from FI.
Having the rental car allowed us to visit West End, and a few restaurants out near Parrot Tree, and would have allowed us to do more, but frankly we were pretty fat and happy with a daily schedule of morning boat dives, lazy late lunch and beer, and lounging in the afternoon. Having the rental car and a full kitchen / frig also allowed us to buy beer in bulk from a local distributor (on the road from the airport) at less than half the cost of any restaurant / bar, and to stock up on snacks and other sundries from local markets. Interestingly, given the resorts relative isolation and the presence of full kitchens in the rooms, there was no on-site market. I would have thought that having an on-site market to stock up ones full kitchen would have made sense (even at inflated prices) seemed strange to provide a full kitchen to guests potentially compromising on restaurant spending but then not to try and make a little more margin on available goods for those guests who would do some shopping for themselves regardless but might pay a bit more to avoid a 10 15 minute drive each way for a shopping trip.
To bring a long report to a merciful end, we very much enjoyed Parrot Tree as a resort and Fantasy Island as a dive op. We just peeked at FI rooms and checked out the buffet after one dive, and Id say Parrot Tree was a decent step up in terms of accommodations and food, but that may be unfair to FI. We befriended a couple on our dives that regularly visited FI and their view was the management hasnt been putting much money back into the resort and it is starting to feel a bit run down. From what little we saw, Id probably agree, but the beach access and shore swimming / snorkeling / diving opportunities were clearly more attractive than Parrot Trees more artificial setting. Wed strongly recommend a rental car if staying at Parrot Tree though one might make due with taxis as needed. We like a little variety and might not do it all the same if / when we visit Roatan again, but that would primarily be out of a desire to try something new I would happily do the same trip again if nothing new caught our eye.
We found Parrot Tree a very nice property. The rooms are quite comfortable, and feature nearly full kitchens with a full size refrigerator, stove top burners (no oven), coffee machine, microwave, and even clothes washer / dryer. Comfy beds, nice little porch (we were on first floor) two-sink bathroom with shower but no tub, all in stone / marble / slate. The room also had a small couch / seating area, and a flat panel TV (not HD) with a variety of channels. In room wifi available for $5 per day (but only one device at a time) with free wifi in a number of common areas.
The resort has a large pool with a short water-slide for kids (or adults!) with numerous loungers and beds. It also has a large, shallow saltwater lagoon off the nearby coastline (not truly much of beach right off the resort more of a coastline) beachside for most if not all is at the lagoon, with the actual ocean and waves just over the short seawall beyond.
The available restaurant / bar was comfortable, pretty reasonably priced, and offered almost universally good food we didn't have a bad meal or experience. The one drawback is that the menu is somewhat limited, and if you were eating all your meals there, youd quickly run out of things to try. Like most restaurants we visited in Roatan, I was surprised at how much menu space is taken up with beef / chicken / pork (i.e., not seafood) Id like to see more seafood options myself, but thats obviously a personal preference. While we were there, WC qualifying matches (soccer) were being played on two different nights, and we enjoyed the opportunity to cheer Honduras at the bar (for the Costa Rica-Honduras match, the bar set up a projector and drop cloth for the match).
Breakfast was available at a nearby coffee shop / restaurant that serves both the resort and the residences within the resort maybe 5 min walk from the hotel portion of the resort. We had breakfast included in our package and it was basically eggs, toast, beans, fresh fruit and juice and coffee. They did apparently have other menu options but we never looked around, content with the simple buffet included in our package (we did not have a meal plan or all-inclusive package they definitely offer a meal plan because some menu items at the hotel restaurant were excluded; no idea if they offer an all-inclusive option).
FWIW, the resort just hired a new chef, and changes to the menu are coming. We heard that the coffee shop was to be turned into an Italian restaurant, with breakfast presumably moving back to the hotel grounds proper.
One thing to be keenly aware of is that Parrot Tree is actually quite isolated. Youre not anywhere close to a West End-like experience of trying out a dozen different places within a few minutes walk youre either eating at the resort, youve rented a car, or youve made arrangements with a local cabbie for getting around the island.
A second thing to be keenly aware of: Parrot Tree is not a dive resort. They do not have any sort of a dive operation, and when we arrived we discovered that they werent really expert at helping active divers get a series of dives organized they were prepared to call nearby CoCo View or Fantasy Island on our behalf, but they dont seem to have a dedicated commercial relationship with anyone nor a sort of routine approach to helping get organized.
We werent really terribly organized and hadnt done a ton of research on Roatan or Parrot Tree, and sort of went into it thinking it likely we could just show up, and wander to one or more close dive ops by foot to arrange dives, or easily facilitate getting picked up at a jetty or dock close by (similar to our past experiences in Belize at Ambergris and then Caye Caulker). We quickly understood that this was not the case. We ended up catching a ride back to the airport the morning after we arrived to pick up a rental car an unexpected expense, but one we went with as we did want to explore the island a bit and figured it gave us more freedom and certainty around diving by not having to rely on cabbies which may or may not choose to work on island time when we needed to get to a boat on time.
We had trouble hooking up with CCVs dive op for one reason or another, and used the rental car to visit Fantasy Island. FIs dive operation was happy to see us the resort was booked full for the week but they only had seven confirmed divers and were pleased to have us wanting to do morning 2 tank boat dives (or more). We had several other ops we would look at near us on the south side, but went with FI for the first day and it turned out we were quite happy with FI nice boats, friendly and knowledgeable crew and DM, seemingly secure facilities to store our gear (and no issues), and very reasonable pricing. We ended up diving exclusively with FI for five days and had a great time. I think we ended up paying $20 a dive based on the number of boat dives we did over the week. We paid extra for Nitrox (which probably really wasnt necessary given the profiles and amount of diving we were doing, but might have been more desirable if we were also going out in the afternoon or doing some shore diving). The dives were enjoyable (plenty of other reports so I wont be repetitive here) and they were perfectly fine with us staying down after others had concluded so long as we stayed pretty close to the boat we didnt want to inconvenience or delay others, but we did generally get out of the water last and enjoyed a few dives of ~65 minutes before reluctantly coming back on board. Surface intervals tended to be in nearby inlets to get out of the (very mild) swells, and on a few occasions went back to the resort for an SI. Our dive sites never exceeded more than 15 20 minutes from FI.
Having the rental car allowed us to visit West End, and a few restaurants out near Parrot Tree, and would have allowed us to do more, but frankly we were pretty fat and happy with a daily schedule of morning boat dives, lazy late lunch and beer, and lounging in the afternoon. Having the rental car and a full kitchen / frig also allowed us to buy beer in bulk from a local distributor (on the road from the airport) at less than half the cost of any restaurant / bar, and to stock up on snacks and other sundries from local markets. Interestingly, given the resorts relative isolation and the presence of full kitchens in the rooms, there was no on-site market. I would have thought that having an on-site market to stock up ones full kitchen would have made sense (even at inflated prices) seemed strange to provide a full kitchen to guests potentially compromising on restaurant spending but then not to try and make a little more margin on available goods for those guests who would do some shopping for themselves regardless but might pay a bit more to avoid a 10 15 minute drive each way for a shopping trip.
To bring a long report to a merciful end, we very much enjoyed Parrot Tree as a resort and Fantasy Island as a dive op. We just peeked at FI rooms and checked out the buffet after one dive, and Id say Parrot Tree was a decent step up in terms of accommodations and food, but that may be unfair to FI. We befriended a couple on our dives that regularly visited FI and their view was the management hasnt been putting much money back into the resort and it is starting to feel a bit run down. From what little we saw, Id probably agree, but the beach access and shore swimming / snorkeling / diving opportunities were clearly more attractive than Parrot Trees more artificial setting. Wed strongly recommend a rental car if staying at Parrot Tree though one might make due with taxis as needed. We like a little variety and might not do it all the same if / when we visit Roatan again, but that would primarily be out of a desire to try something new I would happily do the same trip again if nothing new caught our eye.