We just returned from a week at FI and were disappointed in the small number of fish.
It's all about
the number of small fish when you are diving the South side.
A great DM knows where the juveniles and many macro creatures lurk in the lush walls of the South side.
jjach:
In the middle of the action at Henry Morgans (HMR) or way off at Turquoise Bay (TB).
HM is at the "edge" of "the action", being a short trek away from the restaurants and bars of west Bay. HM is an interesting property that was doing the largest portion of its business servicing Europeans. Their dive access and schedule is reflective of that. Do not expect the easy volume of diving that you might find at a dedicated dive resort.
If you finally wend your way through their website to find the dive operation at
THE DIVING CENTER - TGI Diving int you will note that they are charging $30 a pop for dives. They offer a curiously un-discounted package of 6 for $180. No pictures of the interiors of boats, none of the operation. Makes you understand, yes? The internet links
http://www.tgidiving.com/english/roatan_henrymorgan_book.php to their own dive center have been abandoned.
If you are truly wanting a dive vacation (versus a vacation with some diving), if you liked FI, I would say to return there.
The dive crew at TB has a man I consider to be the sharpest DM on the island. He's the kind of guy that FI guests might enjoy...
he'd have them coming home and babbling about
all the cool stuff they saw. No doubt, he is leading the way at Turquoise Bay.
Most of the divers who venture from CoCoView (CCV) on "all day trips" to the West/NorthWest, most of them come back fairly unimpressed, preferring the South side, however....
Very few divers ever see what lies around Turquoise Bay which is quite a bit further East along the North coast, just North across the island from CCV... quite a hump by boat.
In the immediate area of TB is Labyrinth and Dolphin's Den, often many people's favorite dives on the North side... among the few who have actually dived them all. The dive op, run by Subway, puts it all together just fine, just remember that this resort has positioned itself to be an upscale vacation experience... it does not offer the access to a heavy dive schedule availability such as FI.
Take a look at TB and you'll see that the resort is managed by HM Resorts International, which also owns Henry Morgan resort itself. The difference here however is that the TB dive-op is currently leased out to Subway.
Roatan Dive Shop | Scuba Diving at Turquoise Bay Resort and here are the dive rates:
Roatan Diving Rates & Packages | Turquoise Bay Dive & Beach Resort It gets quite noisy around Semana Santa (Easter time) and attracts many younger people with large amounts of money from Central America. Similar to what happens at FI, only TB has a younger crowd. It is ill advised to "mingle".
No matter how you look at it, if you are going to do a lot of diving and want to do this above anything else, you really can not beat an AI resort such as you had with FI. During the April months, you can book TB for $950 (per person, double occupancy), so you'll have to do some serious soul-searching in regards to how much diving you really want to do. Understand also, that there is no shore diving- that's why they have "1 night dive" each week, it's necessarily from a boat, unlike FI where you just fall into the water.
