Roatan / Honduras safety?

Hi all - my wife and I are going to CCV March 11th to 19th and then doing a 1 night tour of Copan (staying at the Madrugada) and flying back to the states on the 20th from San Pedro Sula. We've been to Caracas (over night before heading to Los Roques) so we've seen bad places and know how to watch ourselves. I am concerned though about safety during the bus ride to Copan. I could cancel the Copan trip if it isn't worth it or safe.

Anyone have any advice? Am I just being paranoid?

TIA!

Tony

A friend of mine just got back from Honduras, he is well and he had no incidents there. I've been to Costa Rica about two month ago and I was planning to go to Nicaragua for some one day trips and I was concerned about safety too.

I've been told by locals that all the fighting things were many years ago and now is nice and quiet... maybe... I would check with local consulate just to be on the safe side because there are still some warnings though... read this:

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/central_america/honduras/

Robert

comgenboy:

Hi all - my wife and I are going to CCV March 11th to 19th and then doing a 1 night tour of Copan (staying at the Madrugada) and flying back to the states on the 20th from San Pedro Sula. We've been to Caracas (over night before heading to Los Roques) so we've seen bad places and know how to watch ourselves. I am concerned though about safety during the bus ride to Copan. I could cancel the Copan trip if it isn't worth it or safe.

Anyone have any advice? Am I just being paranoid?

TIA!

Tony

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comgenboy:

Hi all - my wife and I are going to CCV March 11th to 19th and then doing a 1 night tour of Copan (staying at the Madrugada) and flying back to the states on the 20th from San Pedro Sula. We've been to Caracas (over night before heading to Los Roques) so we've seen bad places and know how to watch ourselves. I am concerned though about safety during the bus ride to Copan. I could cancel the Copan trip if it isn't worth it or safe.

Anyone have any advice? Am I just being paranoid?

TIA!

Tony

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Compared to Caracas, this is a walk in the park.

Lest anyone think the post is about Roatan, much less CoCoView... CCV is on it's own private ten acre key... off of the main part of Roatan. Nobody there but you and the long term staff. No security issues.

Largely, too, the island of Roatan is equally safe. Stay away from alcohol and somebody else's girlfriend and you should be left alone.

Copan should not be an issue. Stick with "the tour" and you'll be fine.

I, too, dove Los Roques (Aboard the abysmal Antares Dancer) and although one is said to overnight in Caracas, that really isn't quite the case. The zone that you had to travel thru was bad enough... then there was the scam at the airports with there being two of them

Thanks guys!

I read some posts on the Lonely Planet board and I feel better. I guess I was just concerned about the bus hijack thing on the way to Copan. I was pretty sure Roatan would be fine.

Speaking of Antares - yes, pretty abysmal! I only went because I won the week as a prize from Rodales. The only reason we had to overnight was because my finance (now wife) had left her passport at our appt along with all the money in her backpack. We noticed it once we were arrived at the terminal on the bus from long term parking... Doh! Needless to say we missed all of our connections and had to stay a night in Caracas.

Luckily for us, the Peter Hughes people were super helpful and kept the boat nearby for us. They also made sure we got a decent hotel and ride from the airport. Lets just say getting out of the airport in Caracas at 11:00 PM is not pleasent. Also, one of the stewards from the AA flight was super nice as well and gave us a few bottles of water and extra snacks!

The next day, we had to walk the 1/2 mile to the "other" airport and pay for a flight in cash to Los Roques... Highly sketchy. But, the weather was awesome and the diving pretty good, so it all worked out in the end!

comgenboy:

Speaking of Antares - yes, pretty abysmal! !

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Oh, so you were on the same trip?

The endless nights of after night dive entertainment watching tapes of Yanni concerts whilst the French crew swooned.

The peculiar sewer odor that prevailed- I am told a product of faulty marine engineering, basicaly unsolvable.

But the diving was quite good. Many. many wrecks. Too bad, there is no way to dive there any longer.

roatanman,
please let me know when divers from the usa will be able to return to los roques for holiday.
regards

A bus was machine gunned in Honduras a few weeks ago. Where was that?

I was asked to remove this post as it might alarm people. I will say that it happened on the mainland in a distinctly non-tourist area, and from all accounts the Bay Islands are as safe as they come. Wouldn't stop me going if I wasn't 100% committed here in Belize.

I am interested in possibly going to Utila Honduras in March / April to hopefully see some Whale Sharks. Has anyone been to this Island? My husband has safety concerns because he read reviews on Honduras and Roatan. I can't seem to find any good reviews on it so any input would be helpful.

Hi DB
I was in Utila at the end of last year, and I can assure you that Utila as well as roatan is about as safe as it can get. Utila has lots of backpackers from all over the world. Most of them very young adults. The streets are quite small and quaint. Most people walk or ride bikes to get around. The locals are friendly, but they didn't seem to speak as much english as they do over in Roatan. I love both places, and wouldn't give any thought about my safety in either place. PS I got to swim with three whale sharks while we were doing our SI's That was an extra we didn't expect from the dive operator. If you want you can e-mail/ pm me and I can fill you in more.
Rick

We just got in from a quick trip to Roatan last night. Weather was pretty good- a small front blew in one evening, but just caused lots of wind and blew out the next morning. It was in the 70's and the water was fairly clear for this time of year. We have always felt safe on Roatan, and if you are at CCV you are actually pretty cut off from the rest of the island anyway.
We spent a few days in Copan at the end of our November trip. It is worth
spending a day at least and if you have the time try to get to the bird park- it used to be on Roatan, but now they have acres developed into an award winning park. The Hedman Alas bus is very safe and comfortable-definetly the way to go. I believe the bus incident reported in the news was between Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula on one of the inexpensive "chicken" buses.
Use common sense in both places and you will be at least as safe as anywhere in America (probably safer). There are some good places to eat in town- Twisted Tanyas is very good (yes- Tanya of Twisted Toucan fame sold the bar on Roatan and opened up a place in Copan- very good food), and there is a little place called Nia Lolas- it has wonderful grilled kebobs and a waitress who carries everything on her head. Souveniers are much cheaper in Copan- there is a much larger assortment of Lenca pottery at about 1/4-1/2 the price as Roatan (I love this pottery- had to bring back some of the cute fish) and hamocks are about $12-15.
The ruins are a lot of walking and climbing so wear good walking shoes and bring water. The private tour guide (I think the guide costs an extra $30) is well worth it. When we were there the museum was closed due to roof problems, and it sounded like it might be a while before it would be open again.
Make sure you take the little taxis out to the ruins- they only cost about 50 cents and will save you a long walk on a busy road- also they are kind of fun.
I'm sure you will have a good time!