Roatan vs Cozumel

[Drewpy]

I went to Coz, then to Roatan..then to Bonaire..then back to Bonaire 3 more times.
I stayed at Coco View which was great but missed no being able to get out and about on the Island. Bon is great and with a rental truck you can really get in lots and lots of great dives and no boats to catch. Did not mean to change the subject, but it is worth consideration?

 

[LoveOceanicGears]

yes the absence of senor frogs and margarittavilles can be intimidating but still, one should venture out . you never know you might happen upon friendly locals and non-franchise restaurants. oh, the horrors of international travel.

Ha ha! I love Cozumel a lot, but Senor Frogs and Margrittavilles never make a penny from me when I am in Cozumel and will never make a penny from me. Diving and drinking don't mix, and I am not in my 20 so loud music is also not for me.

When I am in a foreign country, in between divings, I do enjoy a leisure scroll into town, checking out local shops, seeing the different lifestyle of people, experience different culture. I feel that is the second best part of a diving trip.

I was going to do the same in Roatan. But other divers in the group advised me not to do so. And seeing security guards of the resort carrying loaded revolver doesn't really help, too.

However, I did walked to the entrance of resort, take a look at lush green mountain across the road.

 

[Mike]

At Cozumel, I feel comfortable to walk outside of hotel and go to San Miguel to explore around. At Roatan, I am basically confined to my resort at night. However, I can see more stars in the night sky at Roatan.

I can understand that statement.

I would have no problem walking the beach at West Bay at nigh, West End can get a little dicey late at night. If you're at one of the big, dive dive dive Roatan resorts like Coco, Fantasy Island etc... then there isn't much to walk around unless you want to walk down the highway. I would have no problem walking the main drag, square and such at San Miguel, but I wouldn't venture too far back into the back streets either.

 

[vcblklion]

I stayed at Anthony's Key in Roatan in May and never felt confined to the resort. I merely called a cab and they took me to West End. I even got the number of one particular cabbie and he became my personal chaffeur. There was lots to do in West End late night til about 2:00 if I remember......and I don't drink.

 

[Mike]

Just curious what you'd do in West End til 2 in the morning that wouldn't involve a bar? What exactly is lots to do?

 

[CajunDiva]

Chase girls (Already established from a previous post )

 

[herbdb]

I went to Coz, then to Roatan..then to Bonaire..then back to Bonaire 3 more times.
I stayed at Coco View which was great but missed no being able to get out and about on the Island. Bon is great and with a rental truck you can really get in lots and lots of great dives and no boats to catch. Did not mean to change the subject, but it is worth consideration?

We have made the same trips in the same order. You can't beat Cozumel for water clarity, but for best diving for your dollar, you can't beat Bonaire.

 

[halocline]

I bet if you posted this same question on the Cozumel forum you'd get different answers.....

I'll limit my comparison to the diving only; accommodations vary widely on both islands, so any comparison would really have to be location-specific to be of any real use. One thing that has not been mentioned much is that the diving is overall easier at Roatan; shallower, no current, most profiles allow you to spend a big chunk of the dive at 15-20 feet. Cozumel dives are usually deeper and in current. Roatan is an excellent place for novice divers and divers who would like to get more experience and more confidence. Hence the booming dive training industry there. This might not apply to the OP, but Cozumel has the access to the cenotes; that's a big part of the reason I keep going back.

There's no question that the visibility and dramatic reef structures are overall better in Cozumel. IMO it's very tough to beat a good route through Palancar reef on the right day. But, there are some very nice sites in Roatan as well, and you do have the opportunity to linger and find things that you might not in Cozumel due to the currents.

Roatan really is different from the north side to the south side. There are a few very vocal proponents of the south side on this forum, but the O.P. should know that most of the dive ops are on the north side, in the west end or west bay. Either way, the island is absolutely worth going to and trying; even if you end up preferring a different place (I.E. cozumel or bonaire) you won't feel like you wasted a trip.

 

[dmoore19]

I have been to both. To compare the 2 is difficult at best. To me each place has it's own style of charm. If you are a late night person then Cozumel would be better. I like the boat schedules on Roatan better. The place I stayed (Anthony's KeyResort) has 3 dives/day and twice a week they do night dives for a total of 4 for the day. I haven't done much diving on the south side of Roatan, mostly the north side in my experience there. AKR has 1 day you are taken to the south side for the signature "Mary's Place" dive. The shark dive is also on the south side though it is far west too. West End is a fun place to spend the afternoon, a short cab ride, if you get a chance to go there. AKR has bungalows and you can have privacy. There are not TV's or phones in the room. There is a TV in the bar but nobody pays much attention to it. I suppose some might find it isolated but I did not, actually I rather enjoy the quiet. Most of the boat rides are short, you go back to the resort between dives except for the day they take you to the South Side. If the weather blows out on the north side, which can and does happen, AKR can take you to the Southside by bus, if the norther blows in they will move the boats over the night before.

Cozumel is great that you can go to town. I stayed at Hotel Cozumel and have enjoyed being able to go to town, it is a short walk and cabs are cheap if you don't want to walk. The people are friendly there is more places to shop, if you are into that sort of thing. Lots of different places to eat. More of a party atmosphere. Roatan has only a few drift dives and even then, in my experience, not much for current. Both places have lots of life to see and both have beautiful walls and reefs.

If someone said where do you want to go and the choices were Roatan or Cozumel it would be really difficult if not almost impossible to decide. I have yet to experience Bonaire. If you have only been to Cozumel, Roatan should be on the list to try at least once.

I have heard a lot about CoCoView but have never stayed there. Sounds like a great place, I may have to try it some day. So many places so little time. Wherever you go, have fun.

 

[flofish94]

Thanks everyone for their comments and inputs. I've think I've learned this for sure, that diving is probably overall easier at Roatan; shallower, no current, Cozumel dives are usually deeper and in current. I was in Coz. this mid-July. First dive of the week, Palancar area, wall dive, currents was so strong, my mistake of not drift dive in almost a year and I didn't know how to drift dive...suddenly I was about 15ft - 20ft away from the wall ahead of the group, realized that I'd tried to fight the current to get back to the DM and my group. I was fighting the current so hard to get back to the wall then suddenly one of my fin came loose and fell off my boot. I was still kicking with one fin, and then I'd noticed that I'm descending and drifted further away from the wall so fast. I still don't know was it because of kicking with only one fin that couldn't create any force to keep me at current depth or was it a down current that pull me down. The current that day was so strong. I was so scared, it was just deep dark blue on one side and a manificient beautiful wall on the other so I freaked out inflate my BCD all the way....and shoot straight up. I went up so fast, it was like 8 or 10 secs and I'm on the surface I didn't want to die down there in the deep blue. DM found out that I was in deep sh**t he tried to grab my leg and pull me down but it's was too late. When I was up on the boat I'd still had 1700 psi left, so I guess I didn't dive or stayed down there long enough to have DCS when I shot up.
Later he told me I was down at about 80 ft or so when I shot up to the surface. And I asked him is it possible that I can get a hit since I ascended to fast, he said that he thought that I didn't have enough Nitogen in me that can cause DCS. Then he asked if I want to continue the dive since you've still have 1700 left, are you kidding me!!!....No way, I'm sitting on the boat, I was so shakened up. While sitting on the boat I kept imagined thing like is my hand numbs, are my feet numb....Any way we did our usual 1st tank SI then I dove with the group on the 2nd tank that day and 7 days after that with no problem.

What about my lungs did it expand too fast and can cause damage when I ascend so quickly from about 80 ft deep like that. I thought I was going die, but I'd really want to see my son and wife and die but not in the deep blue water. Sorry I'm a novice diver with only about 40 dives, think about it again I should have gone to Roatan first to learn how to dive and get really good at it. Cozumel currents sometimes is just strong and wild...and sometimes there is none....