Best Carribean Vacation

[blazeracer]

Matts on a killer trip right now to an island. My wife Maria is from Honduras, which owns the island of Roatan. Rather than jacking Matt's thread I thought I'd put up some info and pics of Roatan. If anyone wants to add their two cents from their Carribean experience feel free to do so.

The hotel we stayed at ON THE BEACH is American owned called Bananarama Dive. We got a garden room with one bedroom and second loft bedroom. We paid like $117 a night three years ago. It's like $126 a night now. Still a GREAT deal for a beach hotel that includes breakfast. Plus we got the military discount. I think I paid about $750 booked for the whole family for the entire week.

The Banarama hotel is located in an area called West Bay. Peacful, tranquil family oriented hotels are there. A short water taxi ride away is West End. All the clubs and bars you would like to attend are there, but keep in mind the water taxi's don't run after dark so you have to take a recular taxi back to West Bay, about $10.

We did a couple tours, a lot of snorkling, visited a monkey park, nad the coolest thing of all. A one hour jungle tour on zip lines. Here's a pic of Maria all geared up along with various other pics from the island.

Notice how calm the water is. Roatan is surrounded by the second largest barrier reef in the world. Water is always calm and 100= foot clarity. Scuba divers paradise. I'm not a scuba guy, but snorkled a lot. Saw startfish, rays, a shark and a bunch of other wild colored fish. Oh, swam with a sea tortoise for about 5 minutes.

 

[Crusader]

Wow!! Stunning!

 

[duanehydro]

so the zip line thing...is it all high speed, or more for viewing wildlife and scenery?

And it's....kinda dead if you don't dive or fish?

Place looks awesome! clap.gif

 

[blazeracer]

Houston has direct flights to Roatan also. You could do a 4-day weekend there for a grand including air fare. Maria's jonesing to go back so we'll probably go this summer.

 

[blazeracer]

so the zip line thing...is it all high speed, or more for viewing wildlife and scenery?

And it's....kinda dead if you don't dive or fish?

Place looks awesome! clap.gif

It's high speed. A couple of the legs are over a kilometer. Yeah, kinda dead of you don't dive or fish. If you want to chill it's awesome.

 

[duanehydro]

so the zip line thing...is it all high speed, or more for viewing wildlife and scenery?

And it's....kinda dead if you don't dive or fish?

Place looks awesome! clap.gif

It's high speed. A couple of the legs are over a kilometer. Yeah, kinda dead of you don't dive or fish. If you want to chill it's awesome.

cool, ought to take a helmetcam next time. :smile27:

 

[blazeracer]

I have video. I can put something together on my laptop at the house. this POS at work won't do it.

 

[Last Mohecian]

I'll post up our experiences.  We have stayed in Cancun, Cozumel, Playa Del Carmen and Isla Mujures on the Caribean side.  We have been to Puerto Vallarta on the Pacific side.  Long story short though we are both 50/50 on Isla VS Cozumel for top spot.

How long is the flight from DFW to Roatan?

 

[Last Mohecian]

Of the places we have been we are split 50/50 on Isla VS cozumel.  Cozumel has better beaches at the more upscale resorts.  The best beaches on Isla are at the more modest resorts.

Isla Mujures: The food in town on Isla is fan-freakin-tastic.  IMO, You are better of not going all inclusive on Isla and walking into town to eat and drink.  Within two blocks of my room there was 3 or 4 beer stores.  It was pretty much a wash between what we spent to eat VS how much additional the all inclusive package would have been.  The big difference is we got to see the local culture and eat what we wanted when we wanted to eat it and not have to make a reservation for dinner.

Cozumel:  I have no fear renting a car here.  We usually get one for the entire time we are there. We have the rent car company pick us up at the airport and take our self to the resort.  The ocean side of the island is beautiful.  If you go to Cozumel and spend all your time at your resort you are missing the best reasons to visit this island.  The beach at the lighthouse is the best I have been to.  It's hard to beat the view while drinking beer at Coconuts.

Mainland:  One of the cooler things we did on the main land was snorkel the Cenotes.  Definitely worth the trip if you are staying in Playa or Cancun.

Pacific:  The food in Puerto Vallarta is fantastic as well.  We did an excursion to Yalapa while we were there and it was  lot of fun.  We actually drank some local "moonshine" called racilla.  That was some wicked stuff.  to say the least.

• Playa Del Carmen
o Iberostar Quetzal
• Great beach
• Not much to snorkel at the resort beach
• Typical resort food
• Too far to walk to town
o Grand Sunset Princess
• Rocky beach in the water – sand was good out of the water
• Not great service
• Resort was pretty

• Cozumel
o Iberostar
• Rocky beach – good sand out of water
• Beach between here and the Occidental grand is pretty nice
• Alberto’s is between here and the grand.  Great beach restaurant
o Occidental Grand
• Good sand in and out of the water.
• Little bit of structure at the hotel beach so it can be cool to snorkel
• Next door is Alberto’s
o Melia
• Got married here 12 years ago.  It was a decent resort and close to good beaches and snorkeling.  Chad was there recently and can probably review it better.

• Isla Mujures
o Avalon Reef Club
• Pretty run down
• Best beach on the island
o Privilege Aluxes
• Great resort.
• Rooms and service are excellent
• Beach could be bigger.  Not really an issue since you can walk around the point to the best beach area

• Cancun
o Avalon
• Super nice resort
• Surf is rough in Cancun.  The beach is beautiful but pretty dangerous to swim here.

• Puerto Vallarta
o Sheraton Buganvilias
• Great resort
• Great food
• Terrible beach for swimming

I'm going to have to dig for pics of all these places.  Here are a couple pics of the ocean side of Cozumel.

 

[Last Mohecian]

Oh, One last thing to add to this. We would love to go to DR and Aruba but every time we start looking at it, it's hard to beat a 3 hour flight and the price for the Yucatan Peninsula.  One place we do have in our sights is Holbox Island along with Roatan now.

 

[blazeracer]

How long is the flight from DFW to Roatan?

2 hrs and 45 mins from Houston. There is no direct fight from DFW. The drive to Houston will also save a few hundred dollars over a ticket from DFW and cost $7 a day for parking.

RTB is the airport code. $950 from DFW, $650 from IAH (Houston)

I think Maria and I are going to do a 4-day weekend in Roatan real soon here.

 

[Last Mohecian]

How long is the flight from DFW to Roatan?

2 hrs and 45 mins from Houston. There is no direct fight from DFW. The drive to Houston will also save a few hundred dollars over a ticket from DFW and cost $7 a day for parking.

RTB is the airport code. $950 from DFW, $650 from IAH (Houston)

I think Maria and I are going to do a 4-day weekend in Roatan real soon here.

Want some company?  We might be interested in joining you.  Where did you find the flights?

 

[blazeracer]

Want some company?  We might be interested in joining you.  Where did you find the flights?

That would be awesome. We fly Continental to Roatan. Go to the Continental website rather than one of cheap fares site. They are not too cheap for international flights. In fact, if a few of us go together we could chip in on a beach side cabin for $301 a night. Top of the line right there..

http://www.bananaramadive.com/accommodations/index-big-house.html

The bedrooms have two big beds in them, so you can either take the kids, or go with a bunch of swingers..  :smile26: Note: Edward will be with us...

Check that view from the front porch. The ocean is right there. You literally step off of the porch onto sugar beach sand.

 

[Last Mohecian]

Want some company?  We might be interested in joining you.  Where did you find the flights?

That would be awesome. We fly Continental to Roatan. Go to the Continental website rather than one of cheap fares site. They are not too cheap for international flights. In fact, if a few of us go together we could chip in on a beach side cabin for $301 a night. Top of the line right there..

http://www.bananaramadive.com/accommodations/index-big-house.html

The bedrooms have two big beds in them, so you can either take the kids, or go with a bunch of swingers..  :smile26: Note: Edward will be with us...

Check that view from the front porch. The ocean is right there. You literally step off of the porch onto sugar beach sand.

How soon are you talking about?  Are you thinking a Friday thru Monday trip?  sent you a text.

 

[Nitro Neil]

We went and stayed at Luna beach resort. It is awsome. Roatan is beautiful. When your there the diving, zip lines, fishing, etc are all incredible. We are going to go again. It is the 2nd largest coral in the world. Great vacation. 

 

[blazeracer]

We won't go until the kids are out of school, so probably in June. Here's a zip line video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2YERoq6TxA