Whats the best area in Roatan to rent a large house for a group? (Mid March)

[SBP Studios]

We plan to do SOME diving but for the most part will be topside on our first visit to Roatan.

We are looking to rent a really nice house on the beach somewhere. Those of you that have been, im curious what area you would recommend?

Looking for a nice relaxing beach area with maybe a local bar or two nearby.

Thanks guys!

 

[GoodKarmaKid]

We plan to do SOME diving but for the most part will be topside on our first visit to Roatan.

We are looking to rent a really nice house on the beach somewhere. Those of you that have been, im curious what area you would recommend?

Looking for a nice relaxing beach area with maybe a local bar or two nearby.

Thanks guys!

How many people in your group? and whats your total budget?

Any of the Coral Vista homes are in an ideal location in West End, nice homes, big enough to hold a reasonable group, close to restaurants, bars, and scuba shops yet relatively quiet as your on a little peninsula.

If budget isn't a problem, you can't go wrong here: http://www.roatanlifevacationrental...54&PHPSESSID=a9cebff6a75d7cbe1682956c5f4734b1

Also, lots of other options, depending on budget

 

[diversteve]

I found this once. Too far east for us though since we wanted to be near the West End for diving/bars/restaurants.

Milton Bight Vacation Rental - VRBO 205970 - 5 BR Roatan Villa in Honduras, Casa Vista Verde - Roatan's Finest Beachfront Villa!

The nicest beach is in West Bay, it's rated one of the top beaches in the Caribbean. IDK if there are beachfront house rentals there.
There are bars nearby and a water taxi to the West End where you'll find most of the nightlife - especially later in the week.

There's also some beachfront houses in Sandy Bay but I think they're smaller properties.

One that Roatanman just mentioned is Lawson Rock, an upscale beachfront community. There are also private house rentals there - I rented a house thru Roatan Property Mgmt. and they had houses available there also. It's just east of Anthony's Key if the Dolphin encounters are of interest.

 

[Doc]

West End/West Bay is really the only place that you could make even those simple requirements come (kind-of) together. Depends on what "on the beach" means. Very few rentals anywhere in the Caribbean that would fit that exactly.

 

[SBP Studios]

Thanks guys. You actually both posted the 2 we had already been eyeballing. But they are just a bit out of our price point. We are trying to stay around $500-600 night. and need 3-4 bedrooms.

 

[diversteve]

It's not private but Luna Beach resort has several Premium houses they rent on the hill above the resort. - 4br and private, the rest of the resort is down the hill oceanfront. It's between West Bay and the West End - closer to the West End - you can walk 10mins. along the beach to it. Premium Houses | Luna Beach Resort, Best Scuba Diving on Roatan

From there you can walk to many of the good restaurants nearby - as well as Woody's Market. Ooloonthoo is the best restaurant on Roatan - maybe the best Indian restaurant in the Caribbean - according to their reviews. http://www.ooloonthoo.com/ We also liked Tong's Thai and the Argentinean Grille.

You'll also have to deal with the cruise traffic in the West End and on both beaches during the day at times - depends on when you're going. They all leave by mid-afternoon since the cruise port is 30mins. away on the south side. Most days by the time we finished our afternoon dives it was quiet.

There's not a lot of bigger rentals on Roatan that are also directly beachfront. Most are going to be a few minutes walk to the beach. I've read somewhere that most of the beaches and docks are public access so maybe there's no point in locating directly on the water. We looked and settled on an oceanfront house on the ironshore a five min. walk from the West End. vrbo.com lists many of them.

 

[SBP Studios]

Thanks guys!

How is hanging out on the beaches there? Someone mentioned Sandflies being an issue.

 

[diversteve]

How is hanging out on the beaches there? Someone mentioned Sandflies being an issue.

It is, every time I've come back from Roatan or Utila my bite count has exceeded 4 dozen. (I count them on the flight...lol) Not only are they on the beaches but something is often under the tablecloths in the restaurants at night. Some resorts do things to suppress them from what I've read - spraying, raking the beach etc. I wouldn't open a window w/o good screens. We also had outdoor ceiling fans on our deck which seemed to help. Around dusk in certain areas you can see something flying around as the sun sets. After dark it seems to be less of a problem. I used an OFF spray with Deet in it daily.

And if you hang up wetsuits outside, invert them and shake them out. I read a post once from someone who didn't (at Cocoview) and regretted it all week. It is a lush tropical rainforest just behind the beach, humid, rains a lot, there's often standing water and the roads were frequently muddy. fwiw, we were there in late March also.

There's also mosquitoes and a Malaria precaution. Might want to both read the CDC recommendations and: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/bay-islands/413007-roatan-immunizations.html I took Malarone for Roatan.

Otoh I spent an afternoon lying on the beach at Half Moon Bay and escaped untouched. Right after diving so whatever I had applied had washed off earlier.

You may want to read some of the recommendations about not driving there also. It seems like a huge hassle if you hit something. Cabs are cheap and plentiful, there's a taxi stand at the main entrance to the West End. Negotiate always. Our group of 7 did some running around across the island so hired a van driver suggested by our rental agent to/from the airport and the south side.

 

[SBP Studios]

so how did you like it overall and how would you rate the topside for a place with great diving?

 

[diversteve]

Honestly I wouldn't even consider it for a non-diving vacation. Some other things you can do there: Roatan Activities

We went there to dive - even that while good, was not the best I've done in the Caribbean. The only sharks you're likely to see are at the shark dive. A lot of the dives are interesting (Mary's Place, Spooky Channel) but not exactly the profuse fish life you see elsewhere. We mostly dove the north side - at a couple of dives even the DM's said the fish just didn't show up that day. Macro life is pretty consistently excellent though. On the north side we also saw turtles often, the occasional large grouper. We didn't dive the south much, just Mary's Place and Prince Albert off Cocoview.

It's a poor island off the one of the poorest nations in the world. The infrastructure just isn't there yet. It kind of reminds me of smaller Mexican coastal towns - just a jumble of shops, outdoor restaurants, bars, various stages of construction/dilapidation that you often get with seaside communities. There's been some mention here of safety/security issues, I honestly didn't feel that was a problem - and we walked around late at night. I did notice that most resorts had some sort of restricted access, gates, fencing etc. but I've seen that on better islands also. Our house had a chain across the road that limited access but anyone could walk onto the property. If you go, rent a house with a generator - our power failed twice at night and once all afternoon. The West End was dark at other times also - we didn't always notice it since our caretaker usually switched us over automatically - part of his job was to watch the house from his shack at the entrance nearby.