Comments on Roatan's Chillies & Native Sons?

[Matt S.]

I've been trying to find info on Chillies hotel and the affiliated Native Sons dive op, but there isn't much posted. Chillies was mentioned as having good food. Native Sons is often mentioned as a very good dive op, but with few details other than a troubling rumor about a 2 dives/day maximum.

If you've experience with either place I would love to know about it. I am going to Roatan in May... I want a dive-heavy trip, so Coco View is at the top of my list right now but I am open to alternatives that get me away from the all-inclusive model. CCV's easy shore diving is sure attractive, though.

Many thanks in advance.

[kszark]

I dove with Native Sons last September (labor day week) for 2 days. They were by far my favorite dive operator, best service etc. I've done 6 different weeks of Caribbean diving with 6 different dive operators on 4 different islands. When in Roatan I dove the first part of the week with Coconuttree divers. They were good and professional people, but I felt made some wrong compromises to accommodate some (poor) divers. For example, they made the whole group wait a half hour to accommodate a foreign diver that hadn't seen the padi night diving video. We ALL had to wait for the one person that didn't do her part. They also made us all wait at the bottom while they did navigation training for one diver on another night dive. Enough about Coconuttree. Native Sons gave the best service and attention I've ever had. They carried our equipment to and from the boat, geared up our equipment, and went to the dive site of our choosing, they had very fast boats. They were very friendly. My one complaint with them was that they took us (~50 dive divers) with a young Brit that had only 5 dives on a wreck dive at about 115 feet. The Brit ran out of air (of course) at about 20 minutes so we all had to go up. This was another case of accommodating the new diver at the expense of the rest of us. Anyway, I'm going back to Roatan in April and plan to dive with Native Sons again. My experience in the 2 days was they had 2 morning dives and 1 afternoon dive every day, but they may have cancelled if they didn't have enough divers. I don't know what that would be, because they took 3 of us out alone, me and my two daughters, so I'd guess it'd have to be less than 3 before they would cancel a dive. I don't know anything about the hotel. I stayed at the Posada Arco Iris, which is almost next door to Native Sons. I will stay with them again next time, obviously I feel they were ok.

[cordon bleu]

They have nice fast boats a greta location, and their divemaster Nick was awesome, although I think he was leaving?

I brought my own equipment and am very glad I did. The rental equipment they had was beyond old. So if you are going down there be sure check it thoroughly before you dive.

I didn't stay at Chillies, but can highly recommend the nearby Cocolobo which was very nice with great sunset views from our room.

Chef

[sololady]

Chillies? what food? The little cottages are nice enough and clean. I don't think they take reservations. You just have to show up and see if they have one.

[sololady]

Oops, I should have check their site first...seems they do take some reservations. See: Chillies: Best Budget Hotel on Roatan Island (http://www.nativesonsroatan.com/chillies.htm)

[leadweight]

At Chillies there are 4 cabins with a private bath. Only three have hot water. All of the rest of the rooms and cabins do not have hot water. In the middle of the summer it does not matter. In January it does.