Is Roatan safe,

I am reading a lot of threads how people think Roatan is not safe and should only use cruise ship excursions. Can someone elaborate on this, is this true?

We will be on Roatan in January and we were thinking of heading to Mayan Princess for the day. We would hire a driver to take us there for a few hours and then a quick peek at the Island. We are not shoppers so we would not be wandering around town.

Someone please ease my concerns - is this another Panama?

If you have read posts here about people feeling Roatan is not safe then you no doubt have also read the multitude of replies from others suggesting how safe they felt.

What do you consider safe? Does it mean drinking at 9 am right off the ship and being blutto while waving around cash and jewelry? Does it mean you should be able to go to unknown areas alone? Does safe mean a place where there is never any crime or danger? if so then is anyplace safe?

Relax,

If you have read posts here about people feeling Roatan is not safe then you no doubt have also read the multitude of replies from others suggesting how safe they felt.

What do you consider safe? Does it mean drinking at 9 am right off the ship and being blutto while waving around cash and jewelry? Does it mean you should be able to go to unknown areas alone? Does safe mean a place where there is never any crime or danger? if so then is anyplace safe?

Relax,

Sand: I did not say we were stupid, we have traveled enough to know that you need to use caution when in other countries (even our own) I also stated that we would not be wandering around.....

So back to my original question, if we hired a driver and spent the day at Mayan Princess and then toured the Island.....what can we expect

And DST, As I said

If you have read posts here about people feeling Roatan is not safe then you no doubt have also read the multitude of replies from others suggesting how safe they felt.

Of course on a cruise it will not be possible to spend the day ay Mayan princess and then tour the Island so while I have never suggested your stupid, that was your choice of words, I would suggest you are not being logical.

For every post here about safety being a concern there are dozens telling how safe and comfortable people felt. There is risk in everything, if you want a 100% guarantee then that will not happen anywhere.

Sand: I did not say we were stupid, we have traveled enough to know that you need to use caution when in other countries (even our own) I also stated that we would not be wandering around.....

 

So back to my original question, if we hired a driver and spent the day at Mayan Princess and then toured the Island.....what can we expect

Sand:

Although I appreciate your post, you have failed to even elaborate on your experience in Roatan - or have you been there. I was simply asking for people who have been there to share their thoughts on the Island and using cruise ship excursions, nothing more.

Your comment regarding not enough time at Mayan Princess and then touring the Island would show your lack of knowledge. People have done it, continue to do it and one of the tours through the ship we are considering is to Tabayana Beach (which is next to Mayan Princess) and a tour of the Island -

I would appreciate it if you would merely share your experience, which you have yet to do..............

Have a lovely day

DST,

Yoy say you want to spend the day at Mayan Princess AND Then tour the Island. Sorry but this is not possible. Maybe you ment visit the beach and then do an island tour. You are not even on Roatan a whole day so visiting the beach for a day and then doing and Island tour remains impossible.

If you read through the hundreds of posts on Roatan safety that are already in these forums you should have a pretty good idea what to expect but maybe your one of those that if the reply about safety, no matter how recwent, if it is not addresed directly to you it must not be relevant. Please go back and look at all those posts you mention safety being questioned and read the many replies that say it is not so. Why do you take interest in the few saying it was unsafe and then disregard the hundreds that say it is?

DST,

Yoy say you want to spend the day at Mayan Princess AND Then tour the Island. Sorry but this is not possible. Maybe you ment visit the beach and then do an island tour. You are not even on Roatan a whole day so visiting the beach for a day and then doing and Island tour remains impossible.

If you read through the hundreds of posts on Roatan safety that are already in these forums you should have a pretty good idea what to expect but maybe your one of those that if the reply about safety, no matter how recwent, if it is not addresed directly to you it must not be relevant. Please go back and look at all those posts you mention safety being questioned and read the many replies that say it is not so. Why do you take interest in the few saying it was unsafe and then disregard the hundreds that say it is?

You are an interesting individual - I was looking for information on how people felt in Roatan and started my own thread;I know you are new to CC but that is what we do around here!

I really have no need for your bantering - you my friend are not relevant.

PS - try using spell check next time you post

I am reading a lot of threads how people think Roatan is not safe and should only use cruise ship excursions. Can someone elaborate on this, is this true?

 

We will be on Roatan in January and we were thinking of heading to Mayan Princess for the day. We would hire a driver to take us there for a few hours and then a quick peek at the Island. We are not shoppers so we would not be wandering around town.

 

Someone please ease my concerns - is this another Panama?

DST= You should be fine in Roatan. You should be able to spend quite a few hours at the Mayan Princess and still have time to do a short tour of the island. I have been twice [my sister 3x's] and we feel perfectly safe touring the island. We have always used Victor Bodden's guides as they come so highly recommended on these boards. He is very flexible, so you may want to contact him. If you decide to just grab a taxi to the Mayan, I'm not sure how you would do a tour on the way back. It would be hard to speculate on how good a tour or impression you would get with just a random taxi driver. I have not gone to the Mayan Princess, but have read great reviews. I would just be sure they will be available for cruise passengers on the day you would be there.

Roatan is a beautiful island, with much to see and do. The people are wonderful. Just like most ports, there are areas that aren't as nice or safe feeling as the rest, but overall, I think you will have a great time. Just have a plan.

Sanddiver:

Didn't you say in another thread (Earthquake, I believe) that you LIVE on Roatan?

I might consider that relevant.;)

:)We just returned and it is now our official favorite port...until the next time we cruise. We went to Fins and Flippers..not a CCL excursion..go to their web site, it is $20 a day with transportation, to the island includes. It is wonderful, peaceful, clean and so very safe. There is lounges on the finsandflippers.com beach. A fresh water pool, monkies and beautiful birds. It is just heaven...Just go and visit web site..it is a beautiful day.on this island. It is right at the port. Only took us 20 minuts from ship to island.Great food as well..

DST= You should be fine in Roatan. You should be able to spend quite a few hours at the Mayan Princess and still have time to do a short tour of the island. I have been twice [my sister 3x's] and we feel perfectly safe touring the island. We have always used Victor Bodden's guides as they come so highly recommended on these boards. He is very flexible, so you may want to contact him. If you decide to just grab a taxi to the Mayan, I'm not sure how you would do a tour on the way back. It would be hard to speculate on how good a tour or impression you would get with just a random taxi driver. I have not gone to the Mayan Princess, but have read great reviews. I would just be sure they will be available for cruise passengers on the day you would be there.

Roatan is a beautiful island, with much to see and do. The people are wonderful. Just like most ports, there are areas that aren't as nice or safe feeling as the rest, but overall, I think you will have a great time. Just have a plan.

Thanks so much, I have read a lot about Victor Bodden as well and I think the best thing would be to use them. We checked into Mayan Princess and they charge 10.00 for the day to use their beach and beach chairs, its right next to Tabayana so we would be able to see both :)

Thanks again for the info, it really helped

:)We just returned and it is now our official favorite port...until the next time we cruise. We went to Fins and Flippers..not a CCL excursion..go to their web site, it is $20 a day with transportation, to the island includes. It is wonderful, peaceful, clean and so very safe. There is lounges on the finsandflippers.com beach. A fresh water pool, monkies and beautiful birds. It is just heaven...Just go and visit web site..it is a beautiful day.on this island. It is right at the port. Only took us 20 minuts from ship to island.Great food as well..

Thanks - we have looked into Fins and Flippers as well, can you tell me if there were a lot of kids, how the food/beverages?

We are torn between Mayan Princess and Fins n Flippers, the nice thing about Mayan is that we would get to see some of the Island with a bit of a tour. Did you see any of the Island or shop after Fins?

We hired a driver from Victor Bodden and spent several hours touring the island, visiting the monkeys at Victor's home (an experience NOT to be missed) and then drove to Mayan Princess. We arrived there around 11:30 AM and were told that they had no more beach passes available - they sell a limited number. They did offer us a pool pass but we declined.

Our driver then took us to West End Bay to use the public beach right in front of Infinity Bay Resort where we found palm trees for shade and the most awesome off-the-beach snorkeling that you can imagine.

Tabyana beach was a short walk (within sight distance) of where we were - the loungers are crowded close together and it was "busy" (to put it mildly).

We're returning to Roatan in September to look for our retirement home so I guess you'd say we consider it "safe".

We hired a driver from Victor Bodden and spent several hours touring the island, visiting the monkeys at Victor's home (an experience NOT to be missed) and then drove to Mayan Princess. We arrived there around 11:30 AM and were told that they had no more beach passes available - they sell a limited number. They did offer us a pool pass but we declined.

 

Our driver then took us to West End Bay to use the public beach right in front of Infinity Bay Resort where we found palm trees for shade and the most awesome off-the-beach snorkeling that you can imagine.

 

Tabyana beach was a short walk (within sight distance) of where we were - the loungers are crowded close together and it was "busy" (to put it mildly).

 

We're returning to Roatan in September to look for our retirement home so I guess you'd say we consider it "safe".

Thanks so much for the info, how crowded was the public beach, maybe we would skip Mayan Princess all together. Part of the reason we like to do that is it is close to Tabayana and we heard great for snorkeling.

Do you remember how much the guide was for the day?

Thanks - we have looked into Fins and Flippers as well, can you tell me if there were a lot of kids, how the food/beverages?

 

We are torn between Mayan Princess and Fins n Flippers, the nice thing about Mayan is that we would get to see some of the Island with a bit of a tour. Did you see any of the Island or shop after Fins?

We walk all over the island is beautiful, and there we very few kids..love it and will go again!

Thanks - we have looked into Fins and Flippers as well, can you tell me if there were a lot of kids, how the food/beverages?

 

We are torn between Mayan Princess and Fins n Flippers, the nice thing about Mayan is that we would get to see some of the Island with a bit of a tour. Did you see any of the Island or shop after Fins?

very few kids, and we shopped a bit on the island..we walked around and enjoyed it is beautiful

very few kids, and we shopped a bit on the island..we walked around and enjoyed it is beautiful

Thanks for the reply, we are looking into this......I notice you are also in Florida :) nice being so close to the ships!

I am planning on taking the city vans to West End and then hop on a water taxi to West Bay beach.

Need to exchange my dollars into lenopiras. Any help on where I can do this would be great.

Any idea how long it takes to travel this way? I know it cost less but am I better just getting a taxi to West Bay beach?

Any advice would be great.

Thanks

Thanks so much for the info, how crowded was the public beach, maybe we would skip Mayan Princess all together. Part of the reason we like to do that is it is close to Tabayana and we heard great for snorkeling.

 

Do you remember how much the guide was for the day?

DST- The amount for a guide for the whole day depends on the amount of passengers. For 2 people, it would be $40 per person. If you have more people the price goes down.

One other suggestion I have for snorkelling is to go offshore a bit to the Blue Channel. We went snorkelling at a place called Half Moon Bay, but the water was a bit rough and cloudy when we were there. We decided to take a glass bottom boat tour out to the Blue Channel [with a guy named Richard on the Ocean Explorer]. He picked us up at Half-Moon Bay. This was by far the best snorkelling I've ever done and Richard was a great guide. We left all our stuff locked up in our guides car and even had a few chairs saved for us at Half Moon Bay, while we were out on the boat snorkelling. That's one nice thing [among many] about having a guide for the day. We never had to worry about our belongings anywhere we went.

I have read about some places with great snorkelling off the beach in Roatan, but I just thought I'd suggest this idea also. It was an extra $15 to go out on the boat.

Thanks so much for the info, how crowded was the public beach, maybe we would skip Mayan Princess all together. Part of the reason we like to do that is it is close to Tabayana and we heard great for snorkeling.

 

Do you remember how much the guide was for the day?

For a long time DH and I were the only ones in the water with only a few other people lying out on the public portion of the beach. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that just walking into the water from the beach and then snorkeling out maybe 20-30 feet put us over an awesome portion of the reef and we experienced incredible snorkeling. We easily spent 1-1/2 hours just drifting over the shallow reef enjoying the beauty of what we were seeing.....I don't know how the snorkeling was in front of the beach section that the Tabyana excursion occupies. There were tons of people just standing in the water, drinks in hand when we took our walk down that way.........

It's important to understand that the distances we are talking about are very small indeed......

DST- The amount for a guide for the whole day depends on the amount of passengers. For 2 people, it would be $40 per person. If you have more people the price goes down.

One other suggestion I have for snorkelling is to go offshore a bit to the Blue Channel. We went snorkelling at a place called Half Moon Bay, but the water was a bit rough and cloudy when we were there. We decided to take a glass bottom boat tour out to the Blue Channel [with a guy named Richard on the Ocean Explorer]. He picked us up at Half-Moon Bay. This was by far the best snorkelling I've ever done and Richard was a great guide. We left all our stuff locked up in our guides car and even had a few chairs saved for us at Half Moon Bay, while we were out on the boat snorkelling. That's one nice thing [among many] about having a guide for the day. We never had to worry about our belongings anywhere we went.

I have read about some places with great snorkelling off the beach in Roatan, but I just thought I'd suggest this idea also. It was an extra $15 to go out on the boat.

That sounds wonderful, we are going to use a guide and I wll certainly mention this to him - again thanks for your response and recommendations :)

For a long time DH and I were the only ones in the water with only a few other people lying out on the public portion of the beach. I am not exaggerating when I tell you that just walking into the water from the beach and then snorkeling out maybe 20-30 feet put us over an awesome portion of the reef and we experienced incredible snorkeling. We easily spent 1-1/2 hours just drifting over the shallow reef enjoying the beauty of what we were seeing.....I don't know how the snorkeling was in front of the beach section that the Tabyana excursion occupies. There were tons of people just standing in the water, drinks in hand when we took our walk down that way.........

 

It's important to understand that the distances we are talking about are very small indeed......

Thanks - I am so excited to do this, we have never been to Roatan and are looking forward to spending the day.

We just returned on June 14th from the Valor and went through Victor Bodden to hire a driver for the day on Rotan. We felt completely safe and welcome. Our driver was George Martinez who worked for Carnival for 20 years. He was very polite, very informative and a pleasure to spend the day with. He took us on a quick tour of the island and to grocery store (I wanted to bring back coffee). Was not impressed with the souviner shop above the grocery store, seemed very overpriced. After that we went to Victors to see the Monkeys. We loved them and the shop at Victors was more reasonable. Then we went snorkeling for as long as we wanted and had a snack at this great little restaurant overlooking the area where we were snorkeling. George was there when we finished and took us back to port. We all agreed that Roatan was our favorite port, and we snorkeled in all of them, with the exception of Key West. Eden Rock at Grand Caymans was our next favorite. We took a Carnival excursion in Belize and it was our least favorite and most expensive. Too many people snorkeling in a small area, kept getting kicked by flippers, plus we felt rushed and herded through and Bannister Island is boring all very touristy. Some others at our table used a private tour company for the cave tubing and had a blast. I will be happy to eleaborate on any of the ports if you have any questions.

bebe:

Thanks for the information - we have been to Belize and agree with you the Island is not the nicest at the pier but is beautiful if you leave the area. We plan to do a private tour in Belize and stay away from the crowds. Our last trip there we did the Cave Tubing and had a great time.

I am so happy that you enjoyed Victor, we will be using him as well. He comes so highly recommended on these boards! Do you know where you went snorkeling? We may request George as out guide for the day

Again thanks for the info, it was very nice of you to share

I was also on the June 14 Valor and Roatan was my favorite port as well. I would easily consider a land vacation there and it looks like soon there will be plenty of resorts to do so (this could be good or bad depending on how you look at it).