Couldn't agree more with those that are advising against Roatan for the non-diving member of the couple. Seems like great place for OP to go on his own, if he's going to continue to go on solo dive vacations. Tyl's used to do tech instruction.
All Inclusive Resort with Diving - Where the Non-Diver Partner can have fun too???
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Depending on your timing, come join us at the Atlantis Resort, Puerto Galera in October. Your wife can have a very pleasant non-diving trip and you'll get as much, and as varied, of diving as you want.
Puerto Galera
And/or come join us in Mexico in December where you and your wife can spend the afternoons lazing on the beach or in the pool or looking at Mayan ruins after you've spent the morning diving. And if you want some technical training, that can be easily arranged.
Riviera Maya
Puerto Galera
And/or come join us in Mexico in December where you and your wife can spend the afternoons lazing on the beach or in the pool or looking at Mayan ruins after you've spent the morning diving. And if you want some technical training, that can be easily arranged.
Riviera Maya
drrich2
Contributor
Anthony's Key Resort in Roatan lists a number of optional excursions/activities of various sorts. I don't know if the timing would allow you to dive twice then join the excursion, but as far as things to do, you could see if their offerings are the sorts of things that would appeal to your girlfriend. I've not been to Roatan as yet so I'm going by what I see on the website.
Richard.
Richard.
Im in the same situation.
I can recommend this trip:
cozumel.
i usually stay the first 3 days in the SECRETS AURA (great food, great beach, great beach service) and its in the south side of the island, its only a few steps from the beach to the dive shop. So while the dive operator is getting everything ready for the dive or between dives , I can hangout with my wife at the beach watching when its time to go diving.
And the rest of the trip you could move to playa del Carmen ( maya ruins, alot of nigth life , etc) and dive cenotes, wrecks, bull sharks from nov to march , etc
I can recommend this trip:
cozumel.
i usually stay the first 3 days in the SECRETS AURA (great food, great beach, great beach service) and its in the south side of the island, its only a few steps from the beach to the dive shop. So while the dive operator is getting everything ready for the dive or between dives , I can hangout with my wife at the beach watching when its time to go diving.
And the rest of the trip you could move to playa del Carmen ( maya ruins, alot of nigth life , etc) and dive cenotes, wrecks, bull sharks from nov to march , etc
Dang looks like I stepped in a nest of Roatan haters....
I could have sworn that he said:
... sounded like she wanted a nice beach and a few choices of things to do once in a while.
A quick google search brought up plenty of excursions on Roatan
Roatan Shopping Tour
Roatan Powerboat, snorkel and private beach excursion
Roatan Highlights Island Tour
Tropical Spa Escape
Canopy Zipline & Snorkeling Tour
Catamaran Sailing and Snorkeling Tour
Private Catamaran Sailing and Snorkeling
Beach Break-West Bay Beach
Garifuna, Mangrove & Iguana Island Tour
Snorkeling, Fun Fishing and Beach
Canopy Zip Line Tour
Wild On Wildlife Tour
Horseback Ride and Island Tour
Canopy Zipline Adventure & Island Tour
Roatan Resort Adventure Package
Baja Dune Buggies Tour
Eco Walk and Beach Break
Eco Walk and Suspension Bridges
Snorkel and Kayak Tour
Private East end And Garifuna tour
Roatan Massage Special
Roatan Semi Sub glass bottom barrier reef excursion
Catamaran Sail Excursion
Mangroves and Iguana Farm Excursion
Roatan Parasailing
Seems like plenty to do on Roatan for his wife. I know that many people go to Roatan on a budget and stay at one of the three main diver-centric resorts and probably never leave the grounds, and don't realize what lies outside the gates? There is definitely a world outside of the gates of Anthony's Key, Cocoview and Fantasy Island, especially if you want to loosen up the purse strings. West Bay Beach is one of the nicest beaches around the Caribbean and if somebody wants a sandals swim up pool bar, "beachy" like experience there is certainly a bit of that there. He can easily do two morning dives and his wife can greet him on the white sandy beach with a margarita when he wades off the boat and they can have lunch together and decide what to do for the rest of the day, or he can dive in the afternoon and have the mornings together. And like steve-o said coconut divers certainly teaches tech and they are just up the beach.
Tough crowd here.
I could have sworn that he said:
... sounded like she wanted a nice beach and a few choices of things to do once in a while.
A quick google search brought up plenty of excursions on Roatan
Roatan Shopping Tour
Roatan Powerboat, snorkel and private beach excursion
Roatan Highlights Island Tour
Tropical Spa Escape
Canopy Zipline & Snorkeling Tour
Catamaran Sailing and Snorkeling Tour
Private Catamaran Sailing and Snorkeling
Beach Break-West Bay Beach
Garifuna, Mangrove & Iguana Island Tour
Snorkeling, Fun Fishing and Beach
Canopy Zip Line Tour
Wild On Wildlife Tour
Horseback Ride and Island Tour
Canopy Zipline Adventure & Island Tour
Roatan Resort Adventure Package
Baja Dune Buggies Tour
Eco Walk and Beach Break
Eco Walk and Suspension Bridges
Snorkel and Kayak Tour
Private East end And Garifuna tour
Roatan Massage Special
Roatan Semi Sub glass bottom barrier reef excursion
Catamaran Sail Excursion
Mangroves and Iguana Farm Excursion
Roatan Parasailing
Seems like plenty to do on Roatan for his wife. I know that many people go to Roatan on a budget and stay at one of the three main diver-centric resorts and probably never leave the grounds, and don't realize what lies outside the gates? There is definitely a world outside of the gates of Anthony's Key, Cocoview and Fantasy Island, especially if you want to loosen up the purse strings. West Bay Beach is one of the nicest beaches around the Caribbean and if somebody wants a sandals swim up pool bar, "beachy" like experience there is certainly a bit of that there. He can easily do two morning dives and his wife can greet him on the white sandy beach with a margarita when he wades off the boat and they can have lunch together and decide what to do for the rest of the day, or he can dive in the afternoon and have the mornings together. And like steve-o said coconut divers certainly teaches tech and they are just up the beach.
Tough crowd here.
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I'm not a Roatan hater. I'm a Roatan lover! I've been many times and have shopped. Takes absolute max, two hours. I've been on the zipline, gone to the iguana place <-- stinky!!, etc. I've been able to enjoy West Bay when the pod people aren't in port. I still don't see it as a place for non-divers to get much out of except bug bites.
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From your list - only 3 of 5 actually do. Only 2 if you consider quality of the resort.
There's no beach at Cocoview. And the one at AKR is about 100' x 50'. You can see the whole thing in the first header image on their website behind the small boat. Maybe I was too subtle but comparing Fantasy Island to Sandals equates to comparing a Motel 6 to a Four Seasons. Both get the job done, one is just considerably nicer.
All the listings in blue are from a cruise excursion operator. So originate at one of the cruise ports. On the south side not near any of the resorts you listed.
About 80% of the same activities are listed as options on Infinity Bay's website under Activities also.
I could make guesses about some of the others - the Catamaran is probably one of several in the West End, Luxury Catamaran could be the Zeppelin out of French Harbor. The "Exquisite Spa" looks a whole lot like Anthony's Key. And the Chic beach club looks an awful lot like Fosters Bar overwater in the West End. Shabby chic would be more appropriate. I looked at the zipline/snorkel, that's probably done at Gumbalimba. For $65 instead of $88.
The West Bay beach excursion? Walk out the door of your suite at Infinity Bay and you're there. Walk a little farther to Gumbalimba. The sad thing about the Wild on Wild tour. They're not. Most images - including two on that webpage show some of the small cages where they're kept between visitors at Monkey Park.
Plus compare West Bay resorts to Sandals Negril since the OP's wife liked that trip Or any of their other Jamaica properties. Which won't have hundreds of cruise pax on them daily generally either. Some are even exclusive to the resort guests. I don't think there's a lot of white-gloved servers delivering foo-foo drinks on West Bay Beach either.
Negril – All Inclusive Jamaican Resort, Vacation Packages - SandalsI don't hate Roatan either. It's a very good, low cost, 3rd world diving destination with a certain rustic charm most places. And to enjoy the beach generally requires a liberal dose of Deet on a regular basis. Except at Barefoot Cay where they rake/spray it.
If you think West Bay is one of the better Caribbean Beaches, you've never seen Grand Cayman, Turks/Caicos, the BVI's, the Bahamas Out Islands, Anguilla, Belize, St. Barts, St Lucia, etc. I'v been to the first 4, West Bay doesn't even make my top 10 list. Unless the list is the nicest beach in the Bay Islands since it does then. Cayman has the advantage of a tech diving facility within a short distance away, none of the others do afaik. I'm not even sure ther's much diving on Anguilla or St. Barts at all - just a lot of exclusive resorts - many that probably put Sandals to shame.
This is one half of Grace Bay Beach on Providenciales. It goes as far in the other direction also. It regularly makes the Best Beaches in the World lists.
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drrich2
Contributor
Sandals can be had on St. Lucia (3 locations; look at this page on the Halcyon Beach location); and you can dive with a different operations, like Scuba Steve's, given that Sandals has been discussed in other threads & at some location IIRC it was like 45 minute dives & the group all goes up together if somebody runs low on air. I'd want an op. that's specifically geared toward competing on reputation for scuba diving itself, and that likely means an independent.
Quick St. Lucia Trip Report from my stop there cruise ship diving. Another cruise stop there I did a rainforest walking tour & enjoyed it. Dan's Alert Diver Magazine has an article on it - Estale.
Up to you. A few opinions/impressions from me, which you can take or leave, based on your profile & 'About Me' section.
1.) You're under 50 dives & intend to pursue tech. in the near term future. You don't have Rescue Diver yet; a highly regarded course.
2.) You can probably train in tech. locally, such as at a quarry, find an instructor you mix well with who's locally reputable, take however long the course takes, and take future training from him or her.
3.) When you're in a beautiful exotic oceanic environment for a very limited time, it's nice to swim around & explore the beautiful coralscape, fish & such, rather than do meticulous skills drills. I've not done technical training; from what others posted I get the impression it's rather demanding. Is that sort of training going to pressure you to neglect the girlfriend, especially with the pressure on to finish & get a certification within a set time frame?
4.) What are you intending for the technical training to advance you to do? Is there something you need it for, or are we talking advancement for the sake of advancement?
5.) How long will this vacation be? There's a big difference between one week & 3...
I'm not pushing this option as the best; just laying it out there as a very beautiful island with some good recreational diving and 3 Sandals locations to choose from, plus an independent operator who's reputable.
Richard.
Quick St. Lucia Trip Report from my stop there cruise ship diving. Another cruise stop there I did a rainforest walking tour & enjoyed it. Dan's Alert Diver Magazine has an article on it - Estale.
Up to you. A few opinions/impressions from me, which you can take or leave, based on your profile & 'About Me' section.
1.) You're under 50 dives & intend to pursue tech. in the near term future. You don't have Rescue Diver yet; a highly regarded course.
2.) You can probably train in tech. locally, such as at a quarry, find an instructor you mix well with who's locally reputable, take however long the course takes, and take future training from him or her.
3.) When you're in a beautiful exotic oceanic environment for a very limited time, it's nice to swim around & explore the beautiful coralscape, fish & such, rather than do meticulous skills drills. I've not done technical training; from what others posted I get the impression it's rather demanding. Is that sort of training going to pressure you to neglect the girlfriend, especially with the pressure on to finish & get a certification within a set time frame?
4.) What are you intending for the technical training to advance you to do? Is there something you need it for, or are we talking advancement for the sake of advancement?
5.) How long will this vacation be? There's a big difference between one week & 3...
I'm not pushing this option as the best; just laying it out there as a very beautiful island with some good recreational diving and 3 Sandals locations to choose from, plus an independent operator who's reputable.
Richard.
From your list - only 3 of 5 actually do. Only 2 if you consider quality of the resort.
There's no beach at Cocoview. And the one at AKR is about 100' x 50'. You can see the whole thing in the first header image on their website behind the small boat. Maybe I was too subtle but comparing Fantasy Island to Sandals equates to comparing a Motel 6 to a Four Seasons. Both get the job done, one is just considerably nicer.
All the listings in blue are from a cruise excursion operator. So originate at one of the cruise ports. On the south side not near any of the resorts you listed.
About 80% of the same activities are listed as options on Infinity Bay's website under Activities also.
I could make guesses about some of the others - the Catamaran is probably one of several in the West End, Luxury Catamaran could be the Zeppelin out of French Harbor. The "Exquisite Spa" looks a whole lot like Anthony's Key. And the Chic beach club looks an awful lot like Fosters Bar overwater in the West End. Shabby chic would be more appropriate. I looked at the zipline/snorkel, that's probably done at Gumbalimba. For $65 instead of $88.
The West Bay beach excursion? Walk out the door of your suite at Infinity Bay and you're there. Walk a little farther to Gumbalimba. The sad thing about the Wild on Wild tour. They're not. Most images - including two on that webpage show some of the small cages where they're kept between visitors at Monkey Park.
Plus compare West Bay resorts to Sandals Negril since the OP's wife liked that trip Or any of their other Jamaica properties. Which won't have hundreds of cruise pax on them daily generally either. Some are even exclusive to the resort guests. I don't think there's a lot of white-gloved servers delivering foo-foo drinks on West Bay Beach either.
I don't hate Roatan either. It's a very good, low cost, 3rd world diving destination with a certain rustic charm most places. And to enjoy the beach generally requires a liberal dose of Deet on a regular basis. Except at Barefoot Cay where they rake/spray it.
If you think West Bay is one of the better Caribbean Beaches, you've never seen Grand Cayman, Turks/Caicos, the BVI's, the Bahamas Out Islands, Anguilla, Belize, St. Barts, St Lucia, etc. I'v been to the first 4, West Bay doesn't even make my top 10 list. Unless the list is the nicest beach in the Bay Islands since it does then. Cayman has the advantage of a tech diving facility within a short distance away, none of the others do afaik. I'm not even sure ther's much diving on Anguilla or St. Barts at all - just a lot of exclusive resorts - many that probably put Sandals to shame.
This is one half of Grace Bay Beach on Providenciales. It goes as far in the other direction also. It regularly makes the Best Beaches in the World lists.
Wow, you've really got an axe to grind, huh? Well, since you're grinding away.....
Not sure why you keep saying Fantasy Island and Sandals have to be identical just because it was mentioned as being one of the 3 diver-centric resorts, for some reason, I don't recall saying it was identical to Sandals did I? Not sure why you spent 200 words crapping on every excursion on Roatan, first there weren't any, now they all suck, not sure why you think an excursion has to be located 3 feet away from where somebody is staying, you know there is transportation on Roatan? Not sure why you keep bringing up how bad the beach is at the diver-centric resorts, probably missed that I listed West Bay Beach for the "beach" and never said a word about AKC, CocoView or Fantasy Island as being the place for them to go for a great beach. If you read carefully you should have seen that I listed AKC, CocoView and Fantasy Island with the preface of "the diving at them will be better than what you experienced at Sandals". Now West Bay Beach may not be Baia do Sancho, but it's still a very nice beach and makes the "best beaches" list lots and lots, so it's not some garbage dump that you seem to want to make it out to be. The comment "from my list only 2 do"... well isn't that the point, how many do you need, they can only stay at one, I don't think they need 8 places where they are going and plan on staying one night at each of them. You seem to think they have to have a location identical to Sandals in able to enjoy themselves, if that's the case I'm sure the OP is capable of simply going to Sandal's website and booking another Sandals destination don't you think? I kind of chuckle how you've morphed his simple request of a beach for her and a couple of excursions once in a while to equate to requiring white glove butler service???????:shocked2: What's next saying Roatan won't do because it doesn't have any over the water bungalows like Bora Bora???? Pretty soon you'll be requiring unicorns.
I've actually been to all of these you listed :Grand Cayman, Turks/Caicos, the BVI's, the Bahamas Out Islands, Anguilla, Belize, St. Barts, St Lucia, as well as many, many more, none is/was best or worst, simply different. That's the joy of traveling you take what you want from each location, each place has things that make it special, every destination has wow factors and things that are just ho-hum, and I don't demand every location is identical to the last one, you should realize if every location was identical there wouldn't be any reason to go to different places now would there? Like I said, tough crowd, lighten up Francis, Roatan is just a suggestion, just like Mexico, Grand Cayman or Curacao, plenty of choices. Relax, I'll make sure you get a commission from where they end up, Mkay?
SPOILER>>>>>
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Obviously we're on different wavelengths because I'm mostly in agreement with you yet you choose to insult me.
My intent with the cruise excursions was to point out that many are in fact cheaper if booked direct. Who doesn't like to save money?
I'll have to respectfully disagree that West Bay Beach is in the same league as the beaches on Grand Cayman, Providenciales or Virgin Gorda.
And since you've chosen to be insulting. WTF does this mean?
It's interesting how you only pick and choose parts of my reply to respond to. In this thread I've posted that I don't hate Roatan at all - why do you keep insisting that I do? Who's got the axe to grind? I'm sorry if I shot down one of your sacred cows while correcting the inaccuracy of your original post.
lighten up Francis, !!
One of us won't be responding here any more...
My intent with the cruise excursions was to point out that many are in fact cheaper if booked direct. Who doesn't like to save money?
I'll have to respectfully disagree that West Bay Beach is in the same league as the beaches on Grand Cayman, Providenciales or Virgin Gorda.
And since you've chosen to be insulting. WTF does this mean?
I'm not a travel agent. So you're apparently confused also...
It's interesting how you only pick and choose parts of my reply to respond to. In this thread I've posted that I don't hate Roatan at all - why do you keep insisting that I do? Who's got the axe to grind? I'm sorry if I shot down one of your sacred cows while correcting the inaccuracy of your original post.
lighten up Francis, !!
One of us won't be responding here any more...
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