Do you even know West End ROATAN ?

[Paditrick14]

Roatan, West End, spur of the moment trip, in one week. (OW certified in Utila 2014) First week BnB by Sundowners, second week undecided. Figured I'd get a feel, the first week.
(Is a 30min 'refresher course' gonna SAFELY remind me of my PADI OW training? 4 dives, 4 yrs ago)
Too old for a boys bunk bed, bathroom down the hall - but too broke for Bay resorts. ...YOUR fav stays?
Native Sons Dive next door, but keep reading raves about Coconut Tree Divers. ...YOUR fav shop?
I know Vit B helps, but I won't do the DEET! ...YOUR suggestions for blocking (fleas/squitors) bites?
A thousand thanks, for your two cents

 

[scrane]

I always stay at Chillies and dive with Native Sons. Cheap and comfortable. If you won't do DEET you can at least treat your clothing with this before you go:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ANQVYU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

 

[Streydog]

I did a dive and stay package with West End Divers and the Mariposa lodge a couple years ago. I was very pleased with both and the price was pretty reasonable.

 

[Paditrick14]

I always stay at Chillies and dive with Native Sons. Cheap and comfortable. If you won't do DEET you can at least treat your clothing with this before you go:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001ANQVYU/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Thank you for the scoop, but since I plan on living in boardshorts & flip-flops, I don't have much clothing to spray (...and a little scared of the WARNING on back; "Do not come in direct connect with skin" and "Extremely toxic to fish and other aquatic life". -DOUBLE YIKES)

 

[diversteve]

Coconut Tree has cabins both behind the main building and across the street. it's been a few years but wheb several of my friends stayed there they were $40-50/nt. Older but clean and 2/3 I was in had full size appliances - the 3rd just a mini-frig,
If you book there contact Gay (owner) and see what she can offer. P

retty much next door is Chillies/Native Sons and just past that is Argentinian Grille and Woody's Food store, There's also a small store at Coconut Tree,

Abother option might be Podsfs Arco Iris - a smaller resort fronted by A.Grille. Looked decent but all the balconies face in so you look at all your neighbors b4 seeing the water, Sundowners is across the street,

The food trucks park along there somewhere also, Nice produce and fresh fish kept on ice, One of the side streets off the nain road,

We dove mostly with Cocont Tree,their boats are roomy. No dive is very far away so for some hey ask you to start gearing up on the ride out. Good crew and they do a lot of DM training so they'll be on the boat most afternoons. Twice I got my own private DM trainee, (I film) at no charge. Fun people own it and post-dive beers on their deck are on the honor system. Family business, I recently saw Gay's daughter is running the bookings now. the last time I saw the kds they were trying to drown me off the beach - lol.

The loud bars are all further west near the water taxi station so I would not stay in that area,

 

[diversteve]

I used Deep Woods Off but it contains DEET afaik.
Little buggers are under the tablecloths so spray someting on your legs b4 dinner.

Most of my group also did the Malaria treatnents,

 

[chillyinCanada]

If you aren't going to use deet . . .I don't know what to say after that.

You might as well plan on staying down at the same end of town for your second week because you'll be set up with your dive op and Sundowners is a daily standard even for those of us that stay further away.

 

[Paditrick14]

Awesome! I appreciate any/all of this input. (I'm going into this Totally opposite of how I blindly stumbled into Utila, years ago -Doing homework, and 'reaching out') Seems like all the PADI recommendations are Hawaii-priced West BAY inclusive resorts. Sounds sterile. And I'm not trying to get stuck on an 'Aggressor' OR a tiny troller boat. Also afraid of locking in two weeks reservations, based on 'trip advisor' pics. I'm pretty easy going & low maintenance, so I'm not overly worried. Just tryna make the most of it.
Pro-active information gathering, I guess.
...and my conscious says Damn the DEET!

 

[KathyV]

Mosquito-borne diseases like Malaria and Dengue can make you very sick or kill you. I hate DEET but it is important to take precautions. There are child-safe mosquito repellents available that are much more pleasant than DEET, so take a look at those.

 

[Streydog]

The two times I have stayed in the West End I do not recall the skeeters to be too bad. I did use the can of Off on the bar at Sundowners a couple times. I don't like using bug spray but there are times when there is no alternative.

I don't think you really need to commit to a dive shop in the West End like you do at some other places. My limited experience with West End Diver is that they have a dry erase board that list a few days out where they are diving 3 dives a day. You just go in and sign up for what dives you want to go on. When I was there the boat had at most 6 divers on it and it could easily handle 3 times that many. You can see there dive boat loading and unloading each day live on their webcam.