Just got back from a wonderful, one week trip to Roatan. Roatan is truly an island paradise with a laid-back attitude, friendly people, great food, clear blue ocean, and of course beautiful beaches.

We flew Taca Airlines from LAX to Roatan with connections in San Salvador and San Pedro Sula. All flights left on time and our luggage arrived with us without any problems. (As a side note, we discovered by chance that San Pedro Sula airport has free wireless Internet access for your laptop in the International terminal.)

We stayed at Las Rocas Resort in their "Panarea Room," which has a king size bed, a very reliable and quiet air conditioner, and the best ocean view of all their bungalows. The owners and staff are very friendly and helpful. Within the week, we got to know most of them by name. Las Rocas is located at the end of West Bay Beach. It is a short 2 minute walk to the actual beach part of West Bay, and then another 5 minutes to the other end of West Bay Beach for the best snorkeling from the shore. Las Rocas is a little more secluded and quiet than the other resorts located directly on the beach, which I really liked as the other resorts seemed to be packed side by side with lots of people sunbathing out front.

A continental breakfast was delivered to our room every morning around 8 am. Roundtrip airport pickup/drop-off is included in the room price. They have free water taxi service to West End scheduled 4 times a day at 10:30am, 3pm, 6pm, and 10 pm. Return water taxi service from West End back to Las Rocas is at 10:45 am, 3:15pm, 6:15pm, and 10:15pm. The 10:15pm free water taxi service is really convenient as there are no public water taxis running at night. Most restaurants in West End close by 10pm, with the bars remaining open a little longer; 3-4 hours in West End is plenty of time to do a little shopping, drink a few beers, and eat dinner. Las Rocas also has a computer with fast Internet access in the reception area, costing $10 to use for your entire stay. If you don't want to pay the $10, West End has a few Internet cafes charging about 4 lempiras a minute....about $13 an hour. Las Rocas also offers laundry service, charging $1 for pants/shirts/skirts and about 50 cents for undergarments.

We went to Roatan for rest, relaxation, good food, and snorkeling. We were not disappointed. West Bay Beach has excellent snorkeling from the shore. We saw lots of parrotfish, angelfish, damselfish, squirrelfish, small schools of fish that I don't know the names of, and lots of different kinds of coral and sponges. We snorkeled almost everyday from West Bay Beach and never got tired of it. We did do a resort dive through Las Rocas one day, which was great too. I highly recommend Roatan if you love snorkeling!

The food in Roatan is exceptionally good. Lunch at Hole In The Wall restaurant in Jonesville was a highlight. On Sundays, they do an all-you-can-eat lobster and steak bbq served with mashed potatoes, beans, cole slaw, and bread. The lobster tails were excellent and plentiful. Delicious! People arrive at the restaurant between 1-3pm for beers and socializing; food is served buffet style at 3pm until the food runs out. Then everyone just hangs out drinking more beers. The Hole In The Wall can only be reached by boat/water taxi. Within the short amount of time we were there, I felt like I made friends with everyone. When we finally had to leave, everyone waved goodbye as we took off by water taxi. Lunch for 2 people with 4 beers came to $30.

Gio's Crab House in French Harbor is another excellent restaurant. Their conch ceviche (called conch salad on their menu) is honestly the best ceviche I've ever eaten with lots of lime and some jalapenos added for a spicy kick. We shared the "Big Fish Platter" (a big plate of grilled fish, shrimp, lobster, calimari, and vegetables) which was plenty of food for the both of us. Yum!

West End also has several excellent restaurants. Try the "King Crab platter" at Pura Vida...it's huge and comes with a hammer to crack open the claws. A platter of king crab (not the same as Alaskan king crab, by the way) and a platter of lobster tails along with 3 beers at Pura Vida came to $32. If you like Cuban food, try Casa Marta...the food is just okay, but they have the best mojitos I've ever tasted; plus entrees come with a free shot of Cuban rum. Dian's Garden of Eat'n is also a good restaurant (with air conditioning!) serving fresh-tasting, spicy Asian/Thai style food; the shrimp in spicy green curry sauce is excellent.

Las Rocas also has an exceptionally good restaurant. The special one nights was "Caribbean Butterflies" which was butterfly shrimp, lobster, and calimari served in a spicy curry-like sauce over pasta. Mmmmm! Their seafood pizza is just as tasty.

I honestly never had a bad meal in Roatan. Food is just really good there. And it's the only place I've ever visited where a cold bottle of local beer ($1.25) costs almost the same as a bottle of coke.

We rented a scooter one day and explored the island. Saw the iguana farm and the butterfly farm. Visited Coxen Hole, French Harbor, and Oakridge. Toured the mangroves. All of which were highly enjoyable but not a must-see. We had such a relaxing and great time in Roatan with sunny skies and beautiful weather the entire time. Between the awesome snorkeling, lazying-around, eating good food, shopping and sightseeing, we never got bored. Las Rocas Resort was the perfect choice for us, and I will definitely stay there again if/when we return to Roatan.

Oh, I almost forgot....bring plenty of bug spray for the sand fleas.

Another resort for those who may be interested is Anthony's Key. We spent 9 days there in early June. The cabins in the 46-51 series are quite nice with effective A/C and comfortable rooms. They take you out snorkeling 2 times a day or diving 2 times/day. The food is good-not excellent-as some comments here have referenced at other places in the West End, but the menu changed daily. The weekly rate with 3 meals is about $1200/person for snorkeler's and $1500 +/- for divers.It is well run.
Bug spray is a requirement not just at Anthony's Key. 30% DEET is not enough. Get the Ben's 98% DEET and after 3-4 PM put it ALL OVER YOU or after a rainy period. We had no rain in 9 days but temperature was 86-88 and humidity was about the same after 10-11 AM but we got used to it.

We will return.

Geko
Good trip report & just what we're looking for! Considering Roatan for two weeks May/05 and want all info we can get to help make our decision on where to stay. Las Rocas is running first on our list at the moment, but we have a few questions .We love snorkeling & are seasoned travellers.

Is there decent snorkeling right around the resort beach - not that we're too lazy to walk 5 minutes, but just curious.

Is the beach close to the resort a nice beach for lounging on, and are there loungers on the beach? We're aware of the sand fly problems!

Can you give us idea of taxi prices (land) i.e. to West End 0r Coxen Hole?

An estimate price of meals at resort?

Are beach towels provided by resort?

That's all I can think of for now - may call on you again if you don't mind!
You can p.m. your response if you wish

Canadabeacher: there is some snorkeling from the beach at Las Rocas, but it is a little bit of a swim. The best snorkeling is at the other end of West Bay beach which is about a 5 minute walk. The walk is not that bad as you are walking along the beautiful beach of West Bay. Las Rocas is located just before West Bay beach starts, so it is about a 1 minute walk along a wooden path till you get to the nice long stretch of soft, white sandy beach that you see in photos. Las Rocas does have lounge chairs, a small dipping pool, and a small man-made beach area. But again, if you love snorkeling as much as I do, then you will want to go to the other end of the beach. Also, Las Rocas does not provide beach towels, although they do provide bath towels. We brought our own beach towels, so I never asked if we could have extra towels for the beach.

I really liked Las Rocas and would stay there again. The staff was really nice and friendly. And they have an excellent restaurant and bar. Prices for dinner at about $12 for an entree at the restaurant was a little more pricey than the rest of Roatan, but the food was excellent. I got the impression that they have a trained chef overseeing the kitchen because the food really was good. Cocktails were about $4.50 a drink and beer was about $2. The restaurant is open till 9pm and the bar till 10pm. The rooms at Las Rocas have a small refridgerator with drinks which were reasonably priced....a 1 liter bottle of water was $1 and a can of coke was $1.25.

A nice thing about Las Rocas is the free water taxi service to West End, leaving Las Rocas at 10:30am, 3pm, 6pm, and 10pm. The ride is about 10 minutes. There are no other public water taxis running at night. As far as I could tell, there is not any good snorkeling at West End. If you stay there, you will most likely be taking a boat out to snorkel.

We did not take a taxi to anywhere on the island. But another guest said he paid $10 to taxi from West End back to the resort, and $25 one way to Fantasy Island which is about a half hour away. Coxen hole is about a 15 minute drive from West Bay Beach. We rented a scooter one day which cost $25 for the day. You might be able to bargain it down a little. We just rented at the first place we saw. If you decide to rent a car, do it in advance. The reason we rented a scooter was because there were no cars available that day anywhere on the island (it might have been cruise ship day).

I hope I answered your questions. I was looking for the same thing you are when we decided to visit Roatan. I couldn't find the perfect place of snorkeling right from the beach at the resort with lots of good restaurants within walking distance. I think Las Rocas was a good compromise though. I was happy there and will definitely stay there again.

Hi Gecko,
We're leaving for Roatan in 3 weeks. I'm glad to hear you had such a wonderful time! I have some questions about money. Did you pay cash US dollars for everything or did you get some Lempiras? Was there any time where you could use a credit card? We were told by our hotel (Cocoview resort) to bring plenty of 1 and 5 dollar bills. We were told that we most likely wouldn't be able to use a credit card anywhere. I guess I am just a little nervous about carrying our only money around in 1 and 5 dollar bundles. Seems kinda strange to me?

Thanks for any help!

Chotzi: American dollars are accepted everywhere in Roatan. We were only in Roatan for a week, so I brought $100 in 1 dollar bills and a $100 in five dollar bills. It did look like a huge wad of cash I was carrying . We also brought money in $20 dollar bills. We ended up spending all of our 1 and 5 dollar bills just because it was so much easier making small purchases. Restaurants will take your $20 bills, but most small shops prefer small bills or lempiras. I found the bigger restaurants will take credit cards, although some will add a 5% processing fee. We paid with credit card at our resort, Gio's Crab House, and at a tourist store in Coxen Hole (don't remember the name of the shop though).

There is an ATM in Coxen Hole that we withdrew lempiras from without any problem. As far as I know, the only ATM is in Coxen Hole though. If you don't want to carry a lot of small bills, you can always bring enough cash to get you through a couple of days plus a taxi ride to Coxen Hole.

Hope that helps!

Thanks Gecko, that does help a lot! I feel better knowing that we aren't the only ones bringing in a 'wad'. And thanks for the tip on that ATM. (Just one of the many things I don't know!)

Chotzi: You're welcome . Hope you have a great time. Don't forget to post a trip report when you get back!