We took a recent vacation to the beautiful island of Roatan which is a few miles off the coast of mainland Honduras. It will certainly be an island we visit again. Check out this feature blog post of our adventures.
We choose this island for a few reasons....it is recognized as one of the best dive and scuba destinations in the world because it sits on the world's second largest coral reef, the amazing food and great island tours to name a few.
We stayed in the quaint area of the island called West End which was filled with great restaurants and most importantly more of a local feel and less touristy. We rented an AirBNB property called Iron Shores which was at the end of the island with epic views with great amenities and private pool.
My wife loves to plan our trips and we also prefer the more local type trips where we see and live the "real" vibe and experience of the places we go. Erin found great value and referrals from the Roatan Facebook Page and even spoke with a local resident and acquaintance through mutual friends that use to live in our hometown of Greensboro, NC. She and her husband picked us up from the airport, showed us around the island a bit and even brought us by the well stocked grocery store for supplies.
We spent the first full day fishing with the Wahoo Slayer and then getting the lay of the land in West End and near our condo. We then secured a great tour guide group called Cleve's Tours which took us around for an entire day of site seeing, learning about the interesting history of Rotan, visited the zoo, toured the mangroves and had an amazing late lunch on the side of the road to wrap up our day.
We then took a rest day and chilled at the condo and went snorkeling near by in Half Moon Bay and saw tons of cool fish and coral. I used my GoPro for this entire trip and was fun creating photos and videos in such a different way then my usual camera set up. I'll be working on the video footage soon and plan to make another post come the new year with that content.
The following day we booked Jackson Marine Adventures and they did an incredible job showing us around the other side of the island we had not been to. They provided multiple snorkeling trips, dropping us off at a local spot for lunch which was my favorite meal of the trip and of course cold beer and rum :)
I will have the tour guide info at the bottom of this blog post to help these great local businesses with future bookings and referrals. The island relies on great referrals and always want to help and by local!
Our final tour later in the week was at Anthony's Key for the swim with the dolphins tour. It was cool learning how they train these animals and really take pride in their work. It was also nice to know the trainers take the dolphins out in open water often for exercise and fun and then bring them back to the sanctuary.
We then wrapped up the day with all you eat fresh seafood at Blue Bahia Resort which was a quick 10 minute walk from Anthony's Key.
I highly recommend this island for a vacation destination and be sure to contact the amazing tour guides and recommendations below.
Happy Travels !
Jackson Marine Adventures -
https://www.caribbeanroatan.com/fishing.htm
Cleve's Tours -
https://www.cleves-tours.com/
Wahoo Slayer -
https://www.wahooslayer.com/index.html
Iron Shores Condo Rental -
https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/790614171146857264?source_impression_id=p3_1702814467_ocDEkcPItsRn5XTw
Anthony's Key -
https://anthonyskey.com/dolphin-programs/
Roatan Rum Company -
https://www.facebook.com/RoatanRumCompany/
Blue Bahia -
https://bluebahia.com/
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