lglass

My husband and I are planning a trip in July - one week in Costa Rica and one week in Roatan. We have been to Costa Rica before, but not to Roatan. What can we expect? How much English is spoken? We love to hike, see wildlife, and snorkle. Are there many places to hike? We tend to stay in moderately + priced places with air conditioning. What do you suggest? I have heard about the sand fleas. Are they a big problem and can you handle it with good bug juice? What is the weather like in July? Thank you for all your help and advice!

jwaia

Well, I did neither while I was there but I do have some input.I stayed with friends, not in a hotel... I gather the snorkelling is great. It's a pretty funky place, with the West End seeming to be the place to stay (I can't really suggest any specific places as I didn't stay in one) albeit it seemed like a somewhat rowdy neighborhood full of snorkelling/ scuba types. The hotels seemed more like motels, and I wonder if they are air conditioned. The island is pretty, english is spoken a great deal as the island was a former English colony until the 60's(?). But it is still pretty undeveloped from a tourist point of view- the hotels/motels are extremely casual, the restaurants are a bit rough around the edges, "shopping" is non- existent essentially. Which can be a good thing. Even if there were places to go at night- there are outdoor restaurants and bars on the West End, I wouldn't want to be driving around at night because some of the villages on the one paved road are kind of scary looking.
I think you should expect to be roughing it in a sense. There were sand fleas, I was there in April. Altogether, I had a great time- and challenging one- Roatan is way off the beaten track, very rough around the edges. Over in Palmetto Bay there was a nice looking small resort being built- but it is very isolated, and they filmed "Temptation Island" there for that reason. Lots of Americans around and living in Roatan, interestingly. It's a real adventure if that's what you want.

StanKase

I highly recommend Anthony's Key Resort but staying in the A/C cabins on their island. #48-52. They will take you out snorkeling twice a day. If you are there a week and you go 2 times a day if you tell them where they have taken you they will go elsewhere. In 6 days out 2x a day we had 8-9 day good to very good spots out of 12. Not bad, at all.The food is included and for it's remote location I rate it very fair to good. We were there in June 2004 and will return in April/May 2006.

Lili_ANN

I've been to Roatan and personally loved it. A rare version of english is spoken, but there's no problem in understanding it. Some hotels you could try for moderate prices:

www.roatanvillas.com (Paradise Beach Club)

www.roatanpearl.com (Island Pearl) We stayed in these villas and loved them!!!

Sand fleas will be taken care of with a good bug juice.

The rainy season starts in May, but you can e-mail the hotel and ask them what the weather will be like in July.

There's also a site: www.letsgohonduras.com
where you can find more information on Roatan.

Latitude9Lisa

We spent one week in Roatan early February 2005. The weather at the time was fabulous but as I understand it, gets pretty steamy during the summer mos. as per what the locals indicated. We live in Costa Rica fulltime so we're anxious to get back to Roatan during the summer mos. to really compare "the heat index". We're accustomed to the heat so it all might be a relative factor. We stayed in West End at the Seabreeze Inn. We had a suite/room with kitchen, living area, porch and bedroom (two A/C units) third floor. Not fancy but absolutely fine for us. We walked to restaurants in the West End area and I've posted a trip report if you're interested in our findings. Very good by the way! Additionally, we rented a vehicle for a day an did some exploring of the island on our own. We both enjoyed Roatan but found it to be very different than Costa Rica but certainly not in a bad way! Very caribbean waters (loved it!), wonderful snorkeling even from the shore in West Bay, just an all around enjoyable trip. I know there is an iguana farm, butterfly farm and native animal habitat on the island. We weren't able to visit any of these on our trip but it might be the wildlife you're looking for in Roatan. We didn't have a sand flea problem but were VERY preventative. Used Cactus Juice daily and reapplied several times/day. Not a problem for us but we were well advised prior to our trip to be on the watch-out! Pls. email w/ more question if you need.

Lisa in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

jeanfromboston

We just got back from Roatan. We stayed at Las Rocas and liked it a lot. The units have air conditioning plus fans. As others have said, many people in Roatan speak English as their first language, and most speak at least a little. We snorkled, both off the beach at West Bay, a short walk from Las Rocas, and with the Las Rocas dive boats. Breakfasts are included and the food is good, even if the service is slow at night. We paid $65 plus the usual taxes and liked the place and location. We used 100% deet bug juice, applied in the morning and after showering in the evening and had no problems.