gone_swimming
Registered
I made my second trip to Roatan in April. My first trip I stayed at AKR with a group but AI's really aren't my thing so I wanted to return and stay in West End.
First thing I wanted to cover was the ATM situation. There are about 3 ATMs in West End, all the kiosk types you would see in a store as opposed to owned operated by a bank. I was told by numerous people that there have been problems with account information being stolen and money drained from accounts from all over the world. No one recommends using these ATMs. West End businesses are mostly cash only and I prefer to pull what I need every day or two. If you are staying in West End I highly recommend you bring enough cash with you, and lot's of 5 dollar bills because places will not want to break 20's. The ATM at the airport is generally considered safe.
I was there Semana Santa (week before Easter) which is their busiest week of the year. I remembered West End as a third world Key West but at night it was more like a third world Cancun this time. Bars were packed, lot's of loud thumping music. Personally, I had a great time!
The first 2 nights I stayed at Posado Arco Iris and had the room on the street above the bar/restaurant. Very nice view of half moon bay,nice simple room. The noise wasn't too bad because it is not near the rowdier bars that go all night.
I dove with coconut tree the first three days. Their morning dives are AOW or equivalent experience (I am OW with 100+ dives) so I did an afternoon checkout dive with them day 1 right after arriving. The next two mornings we did Hole in the Wall and Spooky Channel which I loved. They have about 10 divers on the boat and use mostly young xpat DM's and DMT's. I appreciated when I checked out they gave me a printout of the dive sites, depths, and bottom time I did.
Third day I moved down the road to Sueno del Mar. Nice simple room with a fantastic view of their beach. Made to order eggs, bacon, juice, coffee and cold cereal breakfast is included. The hotel only has about 6 or 8 rooms and everyone hangs out a Tita's bar on site. Very friendly group gave it a "Cheer's" feel. The dive op is much smaller than coconut. They have 2 instructor/guides Stuart and Roger who are older than coconuts. Both very friendly and you can usually have a beer with them at Tita's in the late afternoon. They tend to keep their dives around 60 feet max depth. We only had 5 divers on our boat. They return to the hotel for the shore interval so if you want to sleep in or only do 1 tank in the morning that is an option. The downside of being smaller is they canceled their Easter Sunday dives so I had to scramble to find a operation to dive with.
First thing I wanted to cover was the ATM situation. There are about 3 ATMs in West End, all the kiosk types you would see in a store as opposed to owned operated by a bank. I was told by numerous people that there have been problems with account information being stolen and money drained from accounts from all over the world. No one recommends using these ATMs. West End businesses are mostly cash only and I prefer to pull what I need every day or two. If you are staying in West End I highly recommend you bring enough cash with you, and lot's of 5 dollar bills because places will not want to break 20's. The ATM at the airport is generally considered safe.
I was there Semana Santa (week before Easter) which is their busiest week of the year. I remembered West End as a third world Key West but at night it was more like a third world Cancun this time. Bars were packed, lot's of loud thumping music. Personally, I had a great time!
The first 2 nights I stayed at Posado Arco Iris and had the room on the street above the bar/restaurant. Very nice view of half moon bay,nice simple room. The noise wasn't too bad because it is not near the rowdier bars that go all night.
I dove with coconut tree the first three days. Their morning dives are AOW or equivalent experience (I am OW with 100+ dives) so I did an afternoon checkout dive with them day 1 right after arriving. The next two mornings we did Hole in the Wall and Spooky Channel which I loved. They have about 10 divers on the boat and use mostly young xpat DM's and DMT's. I appreciated when I checked out they gave me a printout of the dive sites, depths, and bottom time I did.
Third day I moved down the road to Sueno del Mar. Nice simple room with a fantastic view of their beach. Made to order eggs, bacon, juice, coffee and cold cereal breakfast is included. The hotel only has about 6 or 8 rooms and everyone hangs out a Tita's bar on site. Very friendly group gave it a "Cheer's" feel. The dive op is much smaller than coconut. They have 2 instructor/guides Stuart and Roger who are older than coconuts. Both very friendly and you can usually have a beer with them at Tita's in the late afternoon. They tend to keep their dives around 60 feet max depth. We only had 5 divers on our boat. They return to the hotel for the shore interval so if you want to sleep in or only do 1 tank in the morning that is an option. The downside of being smaller is they canceled their Easter Sunday dives so I had to scramble to find a operation to dive with.
