Reef House Resort report August 7th-14th, 2010
My wife and I spent the week of August 7-14th 2010 at Reef House Resort. This was our first vacation 100% dedicated to diving therefore I cant compare our experience to other resorts. We did spend 3 days diving in Egypt last year, but they were day trips and we were staying at the Marriott. Although the visibility was better in Egypt, we preferred Roatans waters by far. You cant beat those corals!
In short, RHR is amazing. From the moment they picked us up at the airport until they dropped us back there a week later, everything was great. They even grabbed our 2nd luggage from the airport on Sunday (it hadnt made the trip on time Thanks Continental ) and brought it to back us at the resort.
Upon our arrival at the resort, Mike (owner living on site) greeted us with a very warm welcome. He was amazing. I like to think of him as everyones favorite uncle and hes invited you to stay over at his beach house. He lives there, but hes never in your way. If you need him or help in any way he will do everything in his power to help you, whether you need duct tape or a bottle of Kahlua for your Monkey Lala recipe or you dont eat red meat (more on that later).
Everyone eats at the same table and trust me, you do not want to miss a meal (I dont think you could miss one anyway so dont worry!). The food is, simply put, delicious. We were never hungry between meals. We had brought some granola-type bars in case we had the munchies between meals, and I think we ate a total of 4 bars out of the 3 boxes we had brought. Im actually happy it wasnt buffet style because I would have gained even more weight! I wont divulge the menu and spoil the surprise for those whove never stayed at RHR I think they more or less repeat the same meals every week but everything had a local flavor. We had requested no red meat and they served us chicken whenever beef or pork was on the others menu. Did I mention the food was delicious? There is a bar with plenty of alcohol for all your decompression needs. The drinks are so cheap too!
The rooms are a bit small but they do their job. The decoration could be updated and new mattresses would be welcome, but thats me being picky. They all have AC and a LCD TV with satellite. We never bothered to turn it on as we were too tired at night. In every room there is a portable Coleman cooler you can fill with fresh water from the dining room. Tap water is not drinkable so there is a refrigerated 5-gallon water dispenser in the dining area for you to fill your Coleman as much as you like. There is a laptop with internet connection if you must go online. And there is Wi-Fi everywhere on the resort.
Diving at RHR is a mesmerizing experience. Choco, the captain, and Davitt, the divemaster, will make sure you never forget your experience (in a very positive way!). They dont set up your gear for you but they do bring it from the locker room to the boat in the morning. So the boats are getting old. Trust me; you wont think about the boat as soon as you enter the water. We were 4 divers on our first 2 days, and then 6 more arrived on our 3rd day, so only the bigger boat was ever used. Davitt, aside from being super funny and always having stories to tell, is VERY passionate about his work as a DM, even after 8 years of doing it (he was the boat captain prior to that going on 12 years with RHR). On some dives where I was close to him, I could hear him laughing or say hmmm hmmmm! underwater when he saw something cool. He knows the dive sites inside and out, and he can spot seahorses or flamingo tongues from miles away. I think he has some sort of radar on him or something. No one could understand how he can see them from so far. On one specific dive my wife asked him to show her a seahorse, and he found 3 within minutes. Maybe he carries some around in his BCD and drops them along when no one is looking. He is also in love with Lady Gaga who, according to him (and only him) is an amazing diver. He also renamed almost every dive site the Lady Gaga Wall or, and I swear this is not from me, the Lady Gaga Crack. Upon returning to the surface, you remove your BCD in the water and Choco, el pirata de corazones, grabs it for you so you can get back on the boat more easily (there is no ladder but its very easy to get back on the boat as they lower a wooden deck at water level). Choco is very funny as well and I nicknamed him el pirata de corazones (the pirate of hearts) as he was flirting with my wife (in a funny and respectful manner - "Marita mi amor!") when she was getting in or out of the water. I would pretend to be angry at him and wed all laugh. Good times. I guess you had to be there. I wish there were more people like Choco and Davitt around.
Random thoughts:
There was a couple with 2 young kids (5 and 2 years old) and Mike arranged a babysitter for them, so they could dive in the morning as they wanted to spend their afternoons with their kids playing in the pool. I thought this was very cool from RHR!
Night dives: make sure you wear full body exposure protection; jellyfishes are on the prowl. We shut our lights and blew bubbles with our octos on our way up, but we all got stung. 2 guys were diving in nothing but a bathing suit, and their bodies looked like they had been soaked in boiling water. Not pretty. They learned their lesson!
Shore diving: No one tried shore diving during our stay. I would have tried it on a couple of days but everyone had enough with their 3 dives so I didnt have a buddy. And the rest of the week the wind was blowing quite hard so I wouldnt have risked it anyway. But if shore diving is important to you, and 3 dives a day arent enough, make sure you bring a buddy who can follow your pace.
Bugs: there are some flies and they will bite you. Bring some Deet or whatever works for you. I believe there are a lot fewer than at other resorts though.
Wifes comments: OK rooms, but they would need a bit of TLC to be really enjoyable. Housekeeping could be improved a bit as well. Food is very very very good! Family atmosphere, intimate setting which I really enjoyed. Outstanding diving, lots of fish which surprised me after reading reviews of other Roatan resorts. You must be pretty independent in your diving skills as Davitt wont pamper you, but maybe he felt our group didnt need any pampering since we all were experienced divers. I more or less liked the fact that no one asked for our c-cards, or that we didnt have to sign any waivers. Choco is super friendly and always helping out. Small boat but even though we were 10 divers I never felt I needed more room. I would go back again!!!!
Some underwater pics can be seen here (it was my first trip with this set up so the pics arent world class : Reef House Resort, Roatan, Honduras - a set on Flickr
I will be more than happy to answer questions, either here or PM. Will I go back? You bet! Thanks for reading! Now get me another Monkey Lala, por favor.
My wife and I spent the week of August 7-14th 2010 at Reef House Resort. This was our first vacation 100% dedicated to diving therefore I cant compare our experience to other resorts. We did spend 3 days diving in Egypt last year, but they were day trips and we were staying at the Marriott. Although the visibility was better in Egypt, we preferred Roatans waters by far. You cant beat those corals!
In short, RHR is amazing. From the moment they picked us up at the airport until they dropped us back there a week later, everything was great. They even grabbed our 2nd luggage from the airport on Sunday (it hadnt made the trip on time Thanks Continental ) and brought it to back us at the resort.
Upon our arrival at the resort, Mike (owner living on site) greeted us with a very warm welcome. He was amazing. I like to think of him as everyones favorite uncle and hes invited you to stay over at his beach house. He lives there, but hes never in your way. If you need him or help in any way he will do everything in his power to help you, whether you need duct tape or a bottle of Kahlua for your Monkey Lala recipe or you dont eat red meat (more on that later).
Everyone eats at the same table and trust me, you do not want to miss a meal (I dont think you could miss one anyway so dont worry!). The food is, simply put, delicious. We were never hungry between meals. We had brought some granola-type bars in case we had the munchies between meals, and I think we ate a total of 4 bars out of the 3 boxes we had brought. Im actually happy it wasnt buffet style because I would have gained even more weight! I wont divulge the menu and spoil the surprise for those whove never stayed at RHR I think they more or less repeat the same meals every week but everything had a local flavor. We had requested no red meat and they served us chicken whenever beef or pork was on the others menu. Did I mention the food was delicious? There is a bar with plenty of alcohol for all your decompression needs. The drinks are so cheap too!
The rooms are a bit small but they do their job. The decoration could be updated and new mattresses would be welcome, but thats me being picky. They all have AC and a LCD TV with satellite. We never bothered to turn it on as we were too tired at night. In every room there is a portable Coleman cooler you can fill with fresh water from the dining room. Tap water is not drinkable so there is a refrigerated 5-gallon water dispenser in the dining area for you to fill your Coleman as much as you like. There is a laptop with internet connection if you must go online. And there is Wi-Fi everywhere on the resort.
Diving at RHR is a mesmerizing experience. Choco, the captain, and Davitt, the divemaster, will make sure you never forget your experience (in a very positive way!). They dont set up your gear for you but they do bring it from the locker room to the boat in the morning. So the boats are getting old. Trust me; you wont think about the boat as soon as you enter the water. We were 4 divers on our first 2 days, and then 6 more arrived on our 3rd day, so only the bigger boat was ever used. Davitt, aside from being super funny and always having stories to tell, is VERY passionate about his work as a DM, even after 8 years of doing it (he was the boat captain prior to that going on 12 years with RHR). On some dives where I was close to him, I could hear him laughing or say hmmm hmmmm! underwater when he saw something cool. He knows the dive sites inside and out, and he can spot seahorses or flamingo tongues from miles away. I think he has some sort of radar on him or something. No one could understand how he can see them from so far. On one specific dive my wife asked him to show her a seahorse, and he found 3 within minutes. Maybe he carries some around in his BCD and drops them along when no one is looking. He is also in love with Lady Gaga who, according to him (and only him) is an amazing diver. He also renamed almost every dive site the Lady Gaga Wall or, and I swear this is not from me, the Lady Gaga Crack. Upon returning to the surface, you remove your BCD in the water and Choco, el pirata de corazones, grabs it for you so you can get back on the boat more easily (there is no ladder but its very easy to get back on the boat as they lower a wooden deck at water level). Choco is very funny as well and I nicknamed him el pirata de corazones (the pirate of hearts) as he was flirting with my wife (in a funny and respectful manner - "Marita mi amor!") when she was getting in or out of the water. I would pretend to be angry at him and wed all laugh. Good times. I guess you had to be there. I wish there were more people like Choco and Davitt around.
Random thoughts:
There was a couple with 2 young kids (5 and 2 years old) and Mike arranged a babysitter for them, so they could dive in the morning as they wanted to spend their afternoons with their kids playing in the pool. I thought this was very cool from RHR!
Night dives: make sure you wear full body exposure protection; jellyfishes are on the prowl. We shut our lights and blew bubbles with our octos on our way up, but we all got stung. 2 guys were diving in nothing but a bathing suit, and their bodies looked like they had been soaked in boiling water. Not pretty. They learned their lesson!
Shore diving: No one tried shore diving during our stay. I would have tried it on a couple of days but everyone had enough with their 3 dives so I didnt have a buddy. And the rest of the week the wind was blowing quite hard so I wouldnt have risked it anyway. But if shore diving is important to you, and 3 dives a day arent enough, make sure you bring a buddy who can follow your pace.
Bugs: there are some flies and they will bite you. Bring some Deet or whatever works for you. I believe there are a lot fewer than at other resorts though.
Wifes comments: OK rooms, but they would need a bit of TLC to be really enjoyable. Housekeeping could be improved a bit as well. Food is very very very good! Family atmosphere, intimate setting which I really enjoyed. Outstanding diving, lots of fish which surprised me after reading reviews of other Roatan resorts. You must be pretty independent in your diving skills as Davitt wont pamper you, but maybe he felt our group didnt need any pampering since we all were experienced divers. I more or less liked the fact that no one asked for our c-cards, or that we didnt have to sign any waivers. Choco is super friendly and always helping out. Small boat but even though we were 10 divers I never felt I needed more room. I would go back again!!!!
Some underwater pics can be seen here (it was my first trip with this set up so the pics arent world class : Reef House Resort, Roatan, Honduras - a set on Flickr
I will be more than happy to answer questions, either here or PM. Will I go back? You bet! Thanks for reading! Now get me another Monkey Lala, por favor.
