Trip Report – The Resort at Marble Hill - Roatan
July 21-30, 2023
(Click here to see pictures)
Background: My husband and I travelled with another husband and wife couple, who we are good friends with (all of us ranging in age from 52-70). I am the newbie diver of the group (having been open water certified in 2012 but then not diving again until our recent dive trip to Cayman Brac in December 2022). For this trip, I elected to get my Advanced Open Water certification (which was a great choice!). My husband has been been certified since the late 80’s. Our friends dive a LOT all over (recently having done some liveaboard diving and recently dove Raja Ampat).
I found the Resort at Marble Hill online and liked the looks of it, so I booked it for myself and my husband. Our friends decided to join us and I was hoping, given their extensive diving experience, that they would enjoy it. Luckily, this was the case and they really had a great time and loved the resort, as did we.
The price was great (about $1,400 for the Friday to Friday part of the trip – included room, meals, and 2 tank dives/day, as well as use of kayaks and paddleboards. We also added on 2 nights to the end of the trip just to relax and wind down before returning home.
Upon getting our bags at the Roatan airport, we were met by the concierge from the hotel, Andrea, waiting for us to drive us to the resort. Our bags were taken by another driver and we were told our luggage would be waiting for us in our room. It was an hour (give or take) drive to get there. Andrea was wonderful - very friendly and informative, telling us all about the island and answering all of our various questions about life in Roatan.
We were given a welcome cocktail upon arrival. We filled out a form letting them know about any food allergies, as well as any food we would like to have that week. I listed lobster as something I would like to have and it was served 3x that week. We were given the concierge’s WhatsApp number to contact for anything we may need, no matter the time of day/night. We used this method of contact throughout our stay and were always responded to promptly. The staff here really do go out of their way to take care of their guests.
After that, we were shown to our rooms. We had originally booked a seaview room, but were told we had been upgraded to a treehouse room. All rooms are great here (every room has an ocean view) – just different styles. The treehouse rooms were nice, but I had originally chosen the seaview room as I liked the look of it more. I messaged a little later asking if I could see the other 2 types of rooms just to get a look and see them in person. They immediately had Samantha (who works with the concierge for anything guests need) meet me to show me the other rooms. I still really liked the seaview rooms (they were a little brighter and had more of a living area with couch and chair, as well as a wider balcony overlooking the ocean). I asked if it would be a problem to switch back to the seaview and they were more than happy to do so. (The next day while we were out diving, they took care of transferring everything to the new room for us.)
Interestingly, since this was the “low” season, we lucked out and had the entire resort to ourselves the whole time. It was like being on a private yacht (albeit on land) with everyone there to serve just you, and I will say we became a little spoiled by this fact.
We headed to the dive shop at the end of the pier to find out all the details about the diving and to show them our certification cards. We met the divemaster, Edward, and captain, Esword, and I met my dive instructor, Sam, who would be doing my Advanced Open Water dives with me. All of them were very friendly and laid back. We were to meet at the shop every day by 8:15-8:30 and head out for our first dive each day. For our surface interval, we would come back to the dock for the surface interval (since the dive sites were just a few minutes away from the resort) and then head back out around 10:30-11:00 for our 2nd tank dive.
For the rest of the review, I will go by category:
Resort – This is a smaller, quiet and secluded resort on the East end of Roatan. It is very jungle-y all over the property – which is located on around 30 acres. The grounds are really beautiful and there are lots of paths to walk around. The main house (where the library, dining room, and bar are located) is at the top of the hill when you first enter the property. All of the rooms are located down various paths down the hill toward the water on either side of the pier leading to the dive shop.
There were 4 treehouse rooms, 4 seaview rooms, and several bungalows (more are being finished at this time). There is no swimming pool, for anyone who might find that to be important. A new owner apparently took over in the past year or so and is really working to improve everything. It currently does not have a gift shop of any kind for souvenirs, snacks, odds and ends, etc,), but that is currently in the works and should be in place by next year. I will say that if you need anything, they will arrange to get it for you. One of the people in our party needed some body lotion, so the concierge immediately called one of the staff that was in town and had them pick some up for her. There is no spa on site, but massages can be arranged. They can do single or a couple’s massages either in your room, or they can set up in one of the vacant bungalows. They were very reasonably priced and offered an hour massage (full 60 minutes, not 50 minutes like most massages) for $100. All four of us had a massage that week (my husband and I both had Jasmine for our massages – and she was wonderful!) and everyone was very happy with them!
Dining/Service – The food and service were absolutely fantastic! The resort is farm to table. They have their own brewery, distillery, and creamery on site. All food was made fresh. There was a chef’s special every day (jerk chicken the first day, but seafood every other day), or you could order from the menu, which had an excellent selection with some variations between lunch and dinner. Breakfast had lots of options – the banana pancakes were super yummy. Most dive days, I like a very light breakfast and had a delicious chia yogurt parfait dish (yogurt mixed with chia layered with fruit and granola). Every single meal we ate there was delicious and perfectly prepared. Often at dinner, other people would visit from other places nearby just to have dinner at the resort. Be aware that since everything is made fresh, meals are not fast. It typically took 30-45 minutes to get lunch and dinner after ordering, which we didn’t mind at all given the quality of the food we ate all week. The chef, Christian, is super talented. He even made homemade cookies for us on a few nights (which we paired with the homemade ice cream for the day). We talked with Christian one night and learned he has trained in both Mexico and Italy. The servers were top-notch the entire time as well – Cynthia, Esther, and Damara could not have been more friendly and made sure we were always well taken care of. The drink selection is on the smaller side, but the drinks we had were very good. It they didn't have something I wanted, they would try to make it for you (like a strawberry jalapeno margarita I had one day that was delicious and very spicy!) The servers work hard constantly and always have a smile on their face.
Rooms – As mentioned earlier, we were in a seaview room and our friends stayed in their treehouse room. The rooms were spacious and the air conditioning was nice and cold! All rooms have balconies with a table, chairs, and a hammock. The housekeeping staff did a fantastic job and always had our room cleaned by the time we returned from our dives. Shampoo, conditioner, and body wash were provided in the room. The showers are huge (treehouses have both an indoor shower, as well as one outdoors on the balcony) and have wonderful water pressure. Wi-Fi is available all over the resort.
Diving – The whole dive operation – Tropical Island Divers - was phenomenal. They offer both 80 and 100cf tanks (3 of us prefer the 100cf due to our air consumption). Edward is a great divemaster – super chill and laid back. He knows where to find everything! He even spotted a giant 10-12 foot nurse shark sleeping under a low rock overhang on one of our dives that none of us ever would’ve found on our own. Esword expertly captained the boat with the same laid-back energy.
Sam, my dive instructor for my AOW certification, was a perfect match. We did my peak performance buoyancy the first day and everything he taught me made such a huge difference in my diving proficiency. We did my drift dive for the second dive that day. The next day we started with my deep dive and again, Sam was amazing. I was very anxious about going deep and he eased my nerves and got me to love the deep dive. He did get a pretty bad reverse block on that dive and so, had to take the next day off to recover. So, I had some fun dives during that time. When he returned, we did my navigation dive and night dive to finish up my certification. I was really worried and scared about the night dive, but Sam took good care of me and now I LOVE night diving! We even found a pretty big octopus that played forever in our lights. After watching him for a minute or two on our own, we called over Edward and the others to come enjoy watching him as well. We spent quite some time watching him move and play around. It was super cool.
PART 2 BELOW
July 21-30, 2023
(Click here to see pictures)
Background: My husband and I travelled with another husband and wife couple, who we are good friends with (all of us ranging in age from 52-70). I am the newbie diver of the group (having been open water certified in 2012 but then not diving again until our recent dive trip to Cayman Brac in December 2022). For this trip, I elected to get my Advanced Open Water certification (which was a great choice!). My husband has been been certified since the late 80’s. Our friends dive a LOT all over (recently having done some liveaboard diving and recently dove Raja Ampat).
I found the Resort at Marble Hill online and liked the looks of it, so I booked it for myself and my husband. Our friends decided to join us and I was hoping, given their extensive diving experience, that they would enjoy it. Luckily, this was the case and they really had a great time and loved the resort, as did we.
The price was great (about $1,400 for the Friday to Friday part of the trip – included room, meals, and 2 tank dives/day, as well as use of kayaks and paddleboards. We also added on 2 nights to the end of the trip just to relax and wind down before returning home.
Upon getting our bags at the Roatan airport, we were met by the concierge from the hotel, Andrea, waiting for us to drive us to the resort. Our bags were taken by another driver and we were told our luggage would be waiting for us in our room. It was an hour (give or take) drive to get there. Andrea was wonderful - very friendly and informative, telling us all about the island and answering all of our various questions about life in Roatan.
We were given a welcome cocktail upon arrival. We filled out a form letting them know about any food allergies, as well as any food we would like to have that week. I listed lobster as something I would like to have and it was served 3x that week. We were given the concierge’s WhatsApp number to contact for anything we may need, no matter the time of day/night. We used this method of contact throughout our stay and were always responded to promptly. The staff here really do go out of their way to take care of their guests.
After that, we were shown to our rooms. We had originally booked a seaview room, but were told we had been upgraded to a treehouse room. All rooms are great here (every room has an ocean view) – just different styles. The treehouse rooms were nice, but I had originally chosen the seaview room as I liked the look of it more. I messaged a little later asking if I could see the other 2 types of rooms just to get a look and see them in person. They immediately had Samantha (who works with the concierge for anything guests need) meet me to show me the other rooms. I still really liked the seaview rooms (they were a little brighter and had more of a living area with couch and chair, as well as a wider balcony overlooking the ocean). I asked if it would be a problem to switch back to the seaview and they were more than happy to do so. (The next day while we were out diving, they took care of transferring everything to the new room for us.)
Interestingly, since this was the “low” season, we lucked out and had the entire resort to ourselves the whole time. It was like being on a private yacht (albeit on land) with everyone there to serve just you, and I will say we became a little spoiled by this fact.
We headed to the dive shop at the end of the pier to find out all the details about the diving and to show them our certification cards. We met the divemaster, Edward, and captain, Esword, and I met my dive instructor, Sam, who would be doing my Advanced Open Water dives with me. All of them were very friendly and laid back. We were to meet at the shop every day by 8:15-8:30 and head out for our first dive each day. For our surface interval, we would come back to the dock for the surface interval (since the dive sites were just a few minutes away from the resort) and then head back out around 10:30-11:00 for our 2nd tank dive.
For the rest of the review, I will go by category:
Resort – This is a smaller, quiet and secluded resort on the East end of Roatan. It is very jungle-y all over the property – which is located on around 30 acres. The grounds are really beautiful and there are lots of paths to walk around. The main house (where the library, dining room, and bar are located) is at the top of the hill when you first enter the property. All of the rooms are located down various paths down the hill toward the water on either side of the pier leading to the dive shop.
There were 4 treehouse rooms, 4 seaview rooms, and several bungalows (more are being finished at this time). There is no swimming pool, for anyone who might find that to be important. A new owner apparently took over in the past year or so and is really working to improve everything. It currently does not have a gift shop of any kind for souvenirs, snacks, odds and ends, etc,), but that is currently in the works and should be in place by next year. I will say that if you need anything, they will arrange to get it for you. One of the people in our party needed some body lotion, so the concierge immediately called one of the staff that was in town and had them pick some up for her. There is no spa on site, but massages can be arranged. They can do single or a couple’s massages either in your room, or they can set up in one of the vacant bungalows. They were very reasonably priced and offered an hour massage (full 60 minutes, not 50 minutes like most massages) for $100. All four of us had a massage that week (my husband and I both had Jasmine for our massages – and she was wonderful!) and everyone was very happy with them!
Dining/Service – The food and service were absolutely fantastic! The resort is farm to table. They have their own brewery, distillery, and creamery on site. All food was made fresh. There was a chef’s special every day (jerk chicken the first day, but seafood every other day), or you could order from the menu, which had an excellent selection with some variations between lunch and dinner. Breakfast had lots of options – the banana pancakes were super yummy. Most dive days, I like a very light breakfast and had a delicious chia yogurt parfait dish (yogurt mixed with chia layered with fruit and granola). Every single meal we ate there was delicious and perfectly prepared. Often at dinner, other people would visit from other places nearby just to have dinner at the resort. Be aware that since everything is made fresh, meals are not fast. It typically took 30-45 minutes to get lunch and dinner after ordering, which we didn’t mind at all given the quality of the food we ate all week. The chef, Christian, is super talented. He even made homemade cookies for us on a few nights (which we paired with the homemade ice cream for the day). We talked with Christian one night and learned he has trained in both Mexico and Italy. The servers were top-notch the entire time as well – Cynthia, Esther, and Damara could not have been more friendly and made sure we were always well taken care of. The drink selection is on the smaller side, but the drinks we had were very good. It they didn't have something I wanted, they would try to make it for you (like a strawberry jalapeno margarita I had one day that was delicious and very spicy!) The servers work hard constantly and always have a smile on their face.
Rooms – As mentioned earlier, we were in a seaview room and our friends stayed in their treehouse room. The rooms were spacious and the air conditioning was nice and cold! All rooms have balconies with a table, chairs, and a hammock. The housekeeping staff did a fantastic job and always had our room cleaned by the time we returned from our dives. Shampoo, conditioner, and body wash were provided in the room. The showers are huge (treehouses have both an indoor shower, as well as one outdoors on the balcony) and have wonderful water pressure. Wi-Fi is available all over the resort.
Diving – The whole dive operation – Tropical Island Divers - was phenomenal. They offer both 80 and 100cf tanks (3 of us prefer the 100cf due to our air consumption). Edward is a great divemaster – super chill and laid back. He knows where to find everything! He even spotted a giant 10-12 foot nurse shark sleeping under a low rock overhang on one of our dives that none of us ever would’ve found on our own. Esword expertly captained the boat with the same laid-back energy.
Sam, my dive instructor for my AOW certification, was a perfect match. We did my peak performance buoyancy the first day and everything he taught me made such a huge difference in my diving proficiency. We did my drift dive for the second dive that day. The next day we started with my deep dive and again, Sam was amazing. I was very anxious about going deep and he eased my nerves and got me to love the deep dive. He did get a pretty bad reverse block on that dive and so, had to take the next day off to recover. So, I had some fun dives during that time. When he returned, we did my navigation dive and night dive to finish up my certification. I was really worried and scared about the night dive, but Sam took good care of me and now I LOVE night diving! We even found a pretty big octopus that played forever in our lights. After watching him for a minute or two on our own, we called over Edward and the others to come enjoy watching him as well. We spent quite some time watching him move and play around. It was super cool.
PART 2 BELOW
