NorthO
Contributor
We came back a couple of days ago from Roatan. It was a first trip there for both of us, my girlfriend and me. Before booking, I spent a lot of time reading here and on trip advisor on the resorts and accomodations, but I did not find a lot of reports from Barefoot Cay on a diving point of view... We wanted a calm place, good diving and a bit of luxury. Here's my thoughts after 1 week.
First, the airport. We flew in from Montreal on a direct flight with Sunwing. The inbound flight was good overall, customs just a little bit slow but ok. Once we had our bags, the resort had a minivan waiting for us and it was a short ride, about 10-15 minutes to the resort. When we left it was a different story... We arrived 3 hours before our departure time, once again with the resort shuttle which was ok. But the check-in process is really on island time... Maybe it's better if you have a smaller plane, but check-in took 2 hours, customs and security another half-hour.
The resort: Barefoot Cay is about 15 minutes from the airport on the south shore, just before French Harbour. It's a small private cay, you have to take a small pontoon to cross the 75 feet canal. I'd say there were about 15 guests while we were there and I don't think they can house many more than that... On the island there is a building which houses the dive shop, spa, office and a few condos. We didn't visit the condos so I can't say what they look like. On the Cay, you have the pool, a smaller office, dining area, 2 bungalows,the villas and the marina. The owners live on the cay with Corta, their friendly doberman. You can book the lodging separately or with the food included, which we did. They welcome you with a very good tropical smoothie and give you a tour of the surroundings. We booked a bungalow. There's a small kitchen which we almost did not used, it looked like it was well equipped. The bedroom is really comfortable with a king bed, AC, HDTV and DVD player (you can borrow a ton of DVDs at the front office). The shower is semi-opened, it's between 4 walls but there's an opening at the top. They call it balinese showers... There is free wifi on the resort and I think you can also have a ethernet cable in the room but I'm not sure. Every bungalow and villa has it's own hammock and longe chairs, but there wasn't really a beach on the cay. You have an access to the ocean, but it's not white tropical sand. They also have a collection a board games and a book swap if needed. The pool is really clean, though a bit chilly at this time of the year! Security is really good, there's a guard 24/7 on the cay, and at night he also do the pontoon crossings if needed.
Food: We took the all-included package because we didn't want to bother making our lunch between dives. They serve 3 meals a day, all à la carte. The food was really awesome on every meal, we can't complain on quality. We found portions to be too big almost on every meal, but we don't eat much... There's about 8-9 different choices of breakfast and lunch, and only 1 choice for dinner, which they tell you in advance. But if you don't like what they offer you can ask whatever you want. Basically, if you wanted to eat steak or lobster every night, you can. (The surf and turf was delicious, so were the BBQ ribs!) For drinks, lemonade and iced tea are included, but not alcohol or soft drinks. All the water on the cay is rain water which was charcoal filtered and UV sterilized. We drank tap water all week long and were ok. There was one down side on the food. Since everything is à la carte, the service can be quite long in the morning and around noon, especially if you want to go diving afterwards. We did not miss any dives because of this, but I know some poeple did, and some had to skip lunch to go diving.
Diving: They offer what they call valet diving. They basically do everything for you except finning! On the first day, check-in is only at 3pm so we missed the afternoon dives. We registered at the dive shop, brought our gear, filled the paperwork, etc... Every diver receives a locker in the dive shop where you can leave your gear. Thay have 4 rinse tanks: 1 for wetsuits, 1 for BCDs, 1 for regs and 1 for cameras. Every morning they set up all your gear for you, all you have to do is analyze your tank if you dive nitrox, put on your wetsuit and grab your fins. They do the rest. After each day, you rinse your wetsuit, mask and fins and they rinse the rest. At the end of the week, they give a good rinse of everything and hang it to dry in locked place overnight. The schedule is 2 morning 1 tanks boat dives, 8:30 and 10:30, and 1 afternoon dive at 2. There are also night dives if needed but they need 2 divers to go, which never happened while we were there, so no night dive for me...
The dive sites around are really nice, though I've never seen the west end or north shore ones... Mary's place is about 2 minutes away from the dive shop. We went 3 times in the week... They have 2 dive boats at least, they take about 8 divers maximum per boat with an instructor. They have a camera rinse tank on each, fresh fruits and cold water for after the dive. There are 4 different instructors at he dive shop, all really friendly (and my girlfriend wants to add cute also!) We saw a lot of stuff, sea horse, turtles, stingrays, lots of macro stuff the instructors found, moray eels, burrfish, pufferfish, filefish, arrow crabs, lobsters, spanish lobster and many more... And the dreaded lionfish were everywhere. Viz was variable, between 20 and 80 feet, water temp 81F at the surface and 79F at depth. On the cay, there is a palapa which you can shore dive from. There is a ton of macro life around there, 2 small wrecks and a small reef. You can also do a night dive there if you want and if you have a buddy.
Overall, it's a great place if you want to relax and do some diving. If you're the type of person who wants to do 4-5 dives per day, this is not your place. You'll be able to sqeeze 3 dives a day maximum, plus a night dive depending on buddies and conditions. Food is awesome but service can be a bit long. Everybody on the resort is really friendly and they will do everything they can so you enjoy your stay.
That's about it! If I remember anything else I'll add it up later!
Cheers!
First, the airport. We flew in from Montreal on a direct flight with Sunwing. The inbound flight was good overall, customs just a little bit slow but ok. Once we had our bags, the resort had a minivan waiting for us and it was a short ride, about 10-15 minutes to the resort. When we left it was a different story... We arrived 3 hours before our departure time, once again with the resort shuttle which was ok. But the check-in process is really on island time... Maybe it's better if you have a smaller plane, but check-in took 2 hours, customs and security another half-hour.
The resort: Barefoot Cay is about 15 minutes from the airport on the south shore, just before French Harbour. It's a small private cay, you have to take a small pontoon to cross the 75 feet canal. I'd say there were about 15 guests while we were there and I don't think they can house many more than that... On the island there is a building which houses the dive shop, spa, office and a few condos. We didn't visit the condos so I can't say what they look like. On the Cay, you have the pool, a smaller office, dining area, 2 bungalows,the villas and the marina. The owners live on the cay with Corta, their friendly doberman. You can book the lodging separately or with the food included, which we did. They welcome you with a very good tropical smoothie and give you a tour of the surroundings. We booked a bungalow. There's a small kitchen which we almost did not used, it looked like it was well equipped. The bedroom is really comfortable with a king bed, AC, HDTV and DVD player (you can borrow a ton of DVDs at the front office). The shower is semi-opened, it's between 4 walls but there's an opening at the top. They call it balinese showers... There is free wifi on the resort and I think you can also have a ethernet cable in the room but I'm not sure. Every bungalow and villa has it's own hammock and longe chairs, but there wasn't really a beach on the cay. You have an access to the ocean, but it's not white tropical sand. They also have a collection a board games and a book swap if needed. The pool is really clean, though a bit chilly at this time of the year! Security is really good, there's a guard 24/7 on the cay, and at night he also do the pontoon crossings if needed.
Food: We took the all-included package because we didn't want to bother making our lunch between dives. They serve 3 meals a day, all à la carte. The food was really awesome on every meal, we can't complain on quality. We found portions to be too big almost on every meal, but we don't eat much... There's about 8-9 different choices of breakfast and lunch, and only 1 choice for dinner, which they tell you in advance. But if you don't like what they offer you can ask whatever you want. Basically, if you wanted to eat steak or lobster every night, you can. (The surf and turf was delicious, so were the BBQ ribs!) For drinks, lemonade and iced tea are included, but not alcohol or soft drinks. All the water on the cay is rain water which was charcoal filtered and UV sterilized. We drank tap water all week long and were ok. There was one down side on the food. Since everything is à la carte, the service can be quite long in the morning and around noon, especially if you want to go diving afterwards. We did not miss any dives because of this, but I know some poeple did, and some had to skip lunch to go diving.
Diving: They offer what they call valet diving. They basically do everything for you except finning! On the first day, check-in is only at 3pm so we missed the afternoon dives. We registered at the dive shop, brought our gear, filled the paperwork, etc... Every diver receives a locker in the dive shop where you can leave your gear. Thay have 4 rinse tanks: 1 for wetsuits, 1 for BCDs, 1 for regs and 1 for cameras. Every morning they set up all your gear for you, all you have to do is analyze your tank if you dive nitrox, put on your wetsuit and grab your fins. They do the rest. After each day, you rinse your wetsuit, mask and fins and they rinse the rest. At the end of the week, they give a good rinse of everything and hang it to dry in locked place overnight. The schedule is 2 morning 1 tanks boat dives, 8:30 and 10:30, and 1 afternoon dive at 2. There are also night dives if needed but they need 2 divers to go, which never happened while we were there, so no night dive for me...
The dive sites around are really nice, though I've never seen the west end or north shore ones... Mary's place is about 2 minutes away from the dive shop. We went 3 times in the week... They have 2 dive boats at least, they take about 8 divers maximum per boat with an instructor. They have a camera rinse tank on each, fresh fruits and cold water for after the dive. There are 4 different instructors at he dive shop, all really friendly (and my girlfriend wants to add cute also!) We saw a lot of stuff, sea horse, turtles, stingrays, lots of macro stuff the instructors found, moray eels, burrfish, pufferfish, filefish, arrow crabs, lobsters, spanish lobster and many more... And the dreaded lionfish were everywhere. Viz was variable, between 20 and 80 feet, water temp 81F at the surface and 79F at depth. On the cay, there is a palapa which you can shore dive from. There is a ton of macro life around there, 2 small wrecks and a small reef. You can also do a night dive there if you want and if you have a buddy.Overall, it's a great place if you want to relax and do some diving. If you're the type of person who wants to do 4-5 dives per day, this is not your place. You'll be able to sqeeze 3 dives a day maximum, plus a night dive depending on buddies and conditions. Food is awesome but service can be a bit long. Everybody on the resort is really friendly and they will do everything they can so you enjoy your stay.
That's about it! If I remember anything else I'll add it up later!
Cheers!
