need help with first time roatan issues.

Hello. I was wanting to get help from some of the roatan experts that post here alot. I am a diver, however my wife is not. She loves to snorkel however. We were looking for a resort that has good shore snorkeling but a decent dive op for myself. Heres the tricky part... She recently tore her ACL and is recovering, but cant handle alot of walking (far distances to the water are a negative. This trip will be alot of her laying on the beach, or poolside for her. She was wanting to find decent walk in snorkeling, maybe off a sandy shore (which is often equates to poor snorkeling). Any type of rough shoreline, or steps would be something she would have a problem getting past.

thoughts?

ps, well be going in april .

Cocoview sounds like the spot.

there is little to no beach at coco view, correct?

May want to check Mayan Princess Beach and Dive resort website. It is located by Henry Morgan Resort. Going there for two weeks in a week time.

Look into Infinity Bay Resort in West Bay. Beautiful beach and is located right at the best snorkeling site. Dive op Bananarama (also located at West Bay) also gets good reviews but I haven't personally been out with them.

Check out Anthony's Key Resort. Great resort for non divers. The diving is spectacular all over the island. You would have to walk 2 flights of stairs for every meal. Upside the Roatan Institute of Marine Science is located right there. Dolphins are studied so there are dolphin snorkels and dives. There are afternoon trips' we did a zip line through the jungle. Interesting. Ocean kayaks are on the beach. A dingy takes you back and forth from the key to the resort for dinner and the dive shop and over to Bailey Key. The dolphins are there and a great beach for snorkeling. April's a great time to go. Been there in April 2011 and Dec 2009. Dec is rainy. Good Luck!

---------- Post added February 2nd, 2013 at 07:22 PM ----------

Infinity Bay. Fits all your needs, and your wife will have pool, beautiful beach, good snorkeling.

I would not go to CoCoView... There is no access to anything for non divers, I don't really remember there being much of a beach, and we were not impressed with the food. Having said all that, the dive operation was phenomenal. We have been looking at Anthony's Key for our next trip.

loveIIdive:

Check out Anthony's Key Resort. Great resort for non divers. You would have to walk 2 flights of stairs for every meal.
---------- Post added February 2nd, 2013 at 07:22 PM ----------

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Seriously there's no way someone with a torn ACL can manage there. Here's the deck adjacent to the restaurant. The cabanas across the water are on the key. Your wife would be walking up and down for every meal.



Restaurant - Anthony's Key Resort - Roatan - Honduras I didn't like the climb and I don't have ACL problems.

Our dining room perched on the hillside offers a spectacular view of the the lagoon, Anthony’s Key and Bailey’s Key. The adjacent Sunset Deck is the perfect location for taking photos and mingling with friends before dinner or during happy hour.

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It's also a fairly expanded property, the beach is off the Key - there's also snorkeling in the lagoon but it's murky. The rooms shore side are on the hill also.

Breezy wooden bungalows are nestled between lush tropical foliage on the hillside of the main island, about 80 steps up from the dock.

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Infinity Bay is a good suggestion. The units are three stories tall but there's an elevator afaik. The reef is right offshore and the beach is nice. So is the pool. http://www.infinitybay.com/index.html

Another option might be Barefoot Cay on the south side. There's about 5-6 low, wide steps up to the villas but they're beachfront. Nice pool area, decent snorkeling in the lagoon, the reef offshore makes it calm. They also have a water taxi for back and forth but it's dock height. The resort is a little remote from everything except French Harbor nearby but the food is excellent. The lofts (cheaper) on the mainland side are upstairs so not good for you. There's 3 flat steps into the dining room - also a 2nd floor patio with a great view above it but it has stairs. It's a pretty compressed property. http://www.barefootcay.com/

Diving is with Barefoot Divers on-site - they also do snorkeling trips. Easy entry off their boat, they have wide swim steps. One of their boats would be harder to get onto though, it's smaller with a ladder.


Does Cocoview even have a Pool? I don't think so...

Maybe Fantasy Island next door also. They have a pool, beach and snorkel the other side of the reef off Cocoview. From what I understand the dive from there isn't as good till you get farther out but we saw a lot of snorkelers get in/out off their waterfront gazebo. They've gone thru several management changes recently, it's an older property, some friends were there a couple of years ago and said it needed a lot of basic maintenance - poor A/C, no hot water etc. My friends were offered a really good deal so they were willing to put up with the inconvenience. They mentioned the food was just average. http://www.fantasyislandresort.com/

Luna Beach Resort would have the same issues, the rooms are beachfront but about 15 steps up. Some of it is upstairs over the pool also. The reef there is about 600' offshore.

A lot depends on what you're looking for in a resort. Infinity Bay is great, but it is high end and you can get reasonable accomodation for less money, if that's the sort of thing you look for. We stayed at Los Rocas last year which is just at the eastern end of West Bay. It was $750 a week for three people, which included breakfast. The dive shop at the resort was as good as any in West Bay/West End...you could also snorkel from the dive boat for $15 per person. I'm sure other dive shops will do the same sort of thing, which might be an idea for your wife. This year we're renting part of a house in West End with 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms for $1700 for 2 1/2 weeks. There will be 4 of us going this time. We all got tired of restaurant food last year so wanted the option to cook some meals. There are plenty of land taxis on the island if you want to see some different scenery....there are also water taxis that run between West Bay and West End as well as "buses" that go from West End to Coxen Hole. It's not hard to get around without doing a lot of walking, you can even rent scooters. Enjoy yourself, it's a great island with some wonderful people.