The Reef House Resort vs Media Luna Resort

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Roscoe B

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Location
Dana Point, CA
# of dives
200 - 499
I’m considering a solo 4 days/3 nights stay and dive on Roatans south east shore before I meet up with friends for a stay and dive in West Bay. I have narrowed my options to The Reef House Resort or Media Luna Resort. There has been lots of information available regarding the diving at RHR but not as much about MLR. I plan to dive as much as possible an am unsure who could potentially provide the best experience. In your opinions who has the better dive operation (rental gear, shore dives, boats, dive sites, DM’s, surface intervals, etc.). The additional luxuries at MLR is a plus but my main concern is diving.

Any information will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Russell
 
.... I plan to dive as much as possible an am unsure who could potentially provide the best experience. In your opinions who has the better dive operation

MLR is positioned (marketed) as a day-spa resort for Cruise Ship passengers. An established outside day-dive op is on station to provide dive services. Some days, no one dives, but the service is still available. Quite often, the place which was built in the last 10 years, is all but empty.

RHR is one of the first dive resorts ever on Roatan. Their boats are very small at the in-house dive services operation. Guests arrive to dive. Very few guests, even when it is "full" which it is, often.

The websites:

RHR: Roatan Diving, Honduras Roatan Diving, Honduras Scuba Diving, PADI Scuba Courses, Shark Dive, Scuba Diving, Night Dive, Night Diving, Reef House, Reef House Resort, Reefhouseresort, Reef Dive Sites, Scuba Vacations, Dive Vacations, Roatan Dive Resort My pix of the place are at Reef House Resort Roatan Photos by Doc_Adelman | Photobucket

MLR unfortunately shares it's name with another similarly named Roatan property. I did find this Media Luna Resort and Spa - Roatan Hotels - Sunwing Vacations I have never stayed there although I have hunted rabbits on the land years ago and been diving their zone extensively. The little lagoon out front was okay for a night shore dive, not a big draw, though.



RHR is down about Oak Ridge/Calabash Bight area, MLR is just to the right of Second Bight or so. I'm bad at place names, but close enough for this discussion. RHR has an excellent shore dive opportunity but it must be tempered with the understanding of it's physical shoreline vs. the compass point- the wind and wave can shut down any attempt at a shore dive. The concrete protected "swimming area" is great for shallow night dives and Octopus, etc. The area outside that breakwall is great for this, but again, wind and wave are the bugaboo locally. On certain nights (if the waves cooperate) they will do a boat night dive. Kind of a conundrum for me- if the seas are that calm, I'd rather do the shore dive, but guests like the idea of using a boat for simple the adventure or ?

"Dive sites"? It is highly subjective in a couple of ways. Very few posters here have ever extensively dived both of the locations that pertain to each specific resort. MLR will have better boats and is in a physical location (1/2 way down island) to give you more of the known sites. More u/w architectural variety of shapes.

If the (faster & more stable) MLR boats have sufficient qualified divers to take you, they have access to some of the more interesting architectural variety including the over-rated Mary's Place and the more interesting 2 shallow placed wrecks. The wall structure near MLR is something I prefer simply because of it's unique nature in the Caribbean.

The diving near RHR is also a big known draw (for those who know), and they do have immediate access to Calvin's Crack which I find way more enchanting than Mary's Place. They will also take better divers to a small horizontal overhead environment which unfortunately shares the same name with a North side site: Hole in the Wall.

RHR is located considerably further East. They claim that this remoteness means less divers thus better reefs. Not exactly the case. The reefs are indeed less siltated (thus "better") because: 1) there is less local development of land, and 2) the water exchange caused by increased wind and wave is much greater in this zone.

DMs? RHR has a long term staff that always gets good reviews. They are accustomed to getting real-deal divers, 99% of the guests dive. MLR has an outside service that uses a standard cadre of rotating, yet experienced DMs. The MLR DMs are used-to a more casual diver and very few of the 100+ (max) guests really dive.

I really do not know for certain the actual current dive-op schedule of either. (MLR might be very fluid- that's why they encourage you to reserve dive ops in advance) As you do bring up "Surface Intervals", this is an issue. MLR was offering two 1-tank daily trips.

RHR, being presented as a "dive resort", does it differently, usually three different departures, 1 tank each. The boats are too small to do 2-tank trips. You can do the three a day with no problem.

When you go to the West, you will also see a standard of three trips offered daily. Contrary to the protestations of the large fan-base, most do not participate in a regular schedule of 3/day- after doing dive #1, making the #2 is quite a hustle. Most hard-core divers on West End/Bay knock out a maximum of 2/day, doing #1 and #3. Your plan is a good one, go diving as much as you can take- before heading West to connect with your fellow travelers later.

Your end of week visit to West Bay will be miles apart from either South side option in many, many ways.
 
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When we were at CoCo View a couple of weeks ago...we did our SI near the ML resort our DM Jessie told me that Media Luna was not open he told me it was poor management....it did look run down thatch gone from the palapas etc and I didn't see any people anywhere...so before you lay your money down you may want to make sure they are open. RHR is probably a better choice anyway. Half Moon Bay used to be such a beautiful area to do our SI until Media Luna built their resort there now it is just sad looking :shakehead:...btw I didn't see any recent reviews on trip advisor about this resort either..good luck
 
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For those newer readers here, this is a great example of the distinction between SCUBABoard and TripAdvisor- just in case the name itself wasn't sufficiently indicative of content.

TA posters seem to know if there are enough towels in a room or if the soap reminds them of back home. They know absolutely nothing about SCUBA diving, but will be happy to post their comments as snorkelers thinking that applies somehow to SCUBA. Trip Advisor, as is evidenced by the correct and historical mathematical breakdown of actual Roatan visitors, is heavily biased towards your second portion of your trip- the West End zone. Most all Roatan visitors go to West End/Bay (by far), and thus produces the most internet experts on all-things-Roatan.

For those who wish to compare, here is the advice from TA: The Reef House Resort vs Media Luna Resort - Roatan Forum - TripAdvisor

As I mentioned in the first post: "Very few posters here have ever extensively dived both of the locations that pertain to each specific resort". This applies in every way to Trip Advisor and to those who are not SCUBA divers, but those who might put their face underwater for a few minutes while they revel in their Central American Adventure Holiday "Trip".

In the second portion of your trip, you're going to find a lot of West End/Bay Jimmy Buffet costume/lifestyle contestants. A lot of drinking, not much dive focus, at least comparatively to the real-deal AI diver resorts of the South Side. I mentioned above that the maximum you can easily do out of West is two a day, but in fact the average for any SCUBA certified visitor (excluding non-divers from the equation) is likely closer to 4 dives a week. Otherwise, they will be busy posting the definitive Roatan report on Trip Advisor.

The SB and TA message boards- as well as the distinct Roatan geographical environments- so close, yet worlds apart.

But, as you said:
....before I meet up with friends for a stay and dive in West Bay...I plan to dive as much as possible...

Thus, I can relate to your needs and my answer comes easily.
 
For those newer readers here, this is a great example of the distinction between SCUBABoard and TripAdvisor- just in case the name itself wasn't sufficiently indicative of content.

TA posters seem to know if there are enough towels in a room or if the soap reminds them of back home. They know absolutely nothing about SCUBA diving

Not sure where you get this idea from (the part I bolded). If you read the reviews on TripAdvisor for RHR or a place like CoCoView, the vast majority of the reviews are from scuba divers. I suspect close to 90% although I didn't actually do the math. Why would you think these folks know nothing about scuba diving? It's not like either of these places attracts big crowds of non-divers.
 
When I read TA, I usually find that the reviews related to scuba are by folks who just finished their OW or AOW certs. While I appreciate that they have joined the scuba world, I really prefer to hear from folks with a few more logged dives. SB is a better resource IMHO.
 
Not sure where you get this idea from (the part I bolded). If you read the reviews on TripAdvisor for RHR or a place like CoCoView, the vast majority of the reviews are from scuba divers. I suspect close to 90% although I didn't actually do the math. Why would you think these folks know nothing about scuba diving? It's not like either of these places attracts big crowds of non-divers.

Mea Culpa, I did over-speak and I should have been more specific.

There is a decided difference between TA REVIEWS versus their FORUMS.

But look at what you yourself referenced.... two distinctly AI SCUBA Diving Resorts. Certainly the posters on TA that speak of actual, real-deal SCUBA diving resorts have greater credence, simply because they specifically selected it and went.

Greater credence, but you do see (admittedly rare) TA gibberish like this, for a Roatan AI Dive Resort:

Upset TA 1* Review:
If you don't dive don't come!that should be a given.there is absolutely nothing else to do ....while we were there the clarity was bad for the carribean staying in the 50ft range as the best we saw..... i would not return to roatan on a whole i'd maybe only consider going to utila to see the whale sharks and then leave.

This rare report gibberish REVIEW is much more seen as the dominating pervasive slant in their MESSAGE FORUMS.

Practically every TA Bay Islands Forum Post (SCUBA related) is pointed to West End/Bay. There are rare posts in reference tertiary (way down on the list) Roatan secluded guest houses and otherwise unoccupied resorts. These specific hot-topic TA destinations do not cater to the dive-dive-dive positioning of any AI Dive Resort. Not that doing something else with your vacay time is a bad thing, but such posters are easily deluded into thinking they see u/w the same way the Nitrogen junkies do. Liquor is a big part of that.

Not all West End divers are once-a-day Charlies. The West End posters here on SB generally have to compute their saturation levels on a regular basis. THAT is the DIFFERENCE.

A whole lot of snorkeling going on over at TA. Hard to even spot one of them Devil Tube Suckers on the South Side of Roatan. (Although, for the advanced snorkeler and u/w naturalist, I think South side wins hands down- but the TA crowd doesn't fit into that descriptor in the least)

TA is the domain and safe harbor for Cruise Shippers, which here at SB are unapologetically referenced as Pod People. The standard sig line for them at TA is "where can I find great diving, great visibility, beautiful reefs and lots of colorful fish?". (during my upcoming one-half day stop & exploration of Jamaica?). And of course the ever popular, "will I be murdered?"; "best shopping in Coxen Hole?"; "who will take me to the best reefs?"; "will the Dolphins molest me (if I pay extra)?" threads.

:sblogo: even gave the Pod People their own side forum here so they would not be offended by the standard milieu (as is this now a representative part) of this Bay Island Forum. Upset them, it did.
 
"In the second portion of your trip, you're going to find a lot of West End/Bay Jimmy Buffet costume/lifestyle contestants. A lot of drinking, not much dive focus, at least comparatively to the real-deal AI diver resorts of the South Side". Geezz, what arrogance!
 
Any time you try to speak succinctly to the 'culture' of a given group, whether a gender, nationality, locality, political group, hobbyist group or what-have-you, there's going to be some over-generalization. Especially when you compare two different groups, trying to sharpen contrasts to highlight differences to aid a choice between them. Doc did say:

Not all West End divers are once-a-day Charlies. The West End posters here on SB generally have to compute their saturation levels on a regular basis. THAT is the DIFFERENCE.

It's like calling cruise shippers 'pod people.' I consider myself a fairly avid recreational diver. I prefer dedicated dive trips, but I've been on & dove from cruises, and I like to 'get my pod on' with Royal Caribbean now and again. It's all good.

Richard.
 
I’m considering a solo 4 days/3 nights stay and dive on Roatans south east shore before I meet up with friends for a stay and dive in West Bay. I have narrowed my options to The Reef House Resort or Media Luna Resort. There has been lots of information available regarding the diving at RHR but not as much about MLR. I plan to dive as much as possible an am unsure who could potentially provide the best experience. In your opinions who has the better dive operation (rental gear, shore dives, boats, dive sites, DM’s, surface intervals, etc.). The additional luxuries at MLR is a plus but my main concern is diving.

Any information will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Russell

The wife and I have made several week long dive trips at Media Luna . Their diving operation is serviced by Aqua Adventures and they offer a quality product and experience. Not to infer that they are any better than RHR as they get good reviews from a group of satisfied customers, but Aqua Adventures also does an excellent job of providing you with a quality dive experience. Besides the luxuries at MLR, since you are in addition spending time in West Bay, Aqua Adventures has another dive operation headquartered out of Los Rocas in West Bay and you may be able to put a package deal together.:)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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