Rony's Vs. Victor Bodden

Which would be the best company for an island tour, shopping, beach and the monkey experience? HELP!!

DW and I used Rony's when we were in Roatan in Dec. WE had a great time seeing the island, visiting the Monkey's and then some snorkeling at Half Moon Bay. Roatan is a beautiful place, you'll love it.

We were in Roatan last week and used Rony's tours. We got lucky and had Rony as our driver/guide. He was fabulous! He was polite, kind, funny, and informative. He was very interested in giving us a great day. He even bussed the table at the restaurant so we would have a place to sit. We ran into another group who had another one of Rony's tour guides and they seemed to be having a great time, as well. We toured the island, visited a school, rode horses with Sharky, saw the monkeys and iguanas, ate, shopped and snorkeled. It was a great day! I highly recommend Rony's tours!

any other opinions? Mainly want to see the country and have some beach/snorkeling time.

Just back this week from Crown Princess (2/13 - 2/20) and used Rony. He was wonderful! Great tour, fun stories and took us wherever we wanted to go. Took as much time as we wanted at each stop, never rushed and he had a brand new van.

Lew

We did the Bodden "best of.." tour. 2 of us, $40 each (less per person with larger group). Joseph drove us all over- great views, saw many different areas, went to Victor's zoo (love that anteater!), took us to the Mayan Princess for the beach break- check out the MP website- the place is beautiful- access was an additional $10 each- fantastic beach and a fabulous pool; we went shopping and into the downtown area to see how working people live- they have a list of suggestions-it was a great day.

We used Ronys several weeks ago and had read many good things about him here on CC. Booking with him was very simple, he always responded to emails immediatly with all the specifics needed. My DW and I wanted to see as much of Roatan as possible in the hours we had since we are contemplating possible retirement in the next few years. We booked the custom tour and the cost was $80 for the day.(had there been four of us, the cost would have been divided even more)

We originally wanted to include the Pirates of the Caribbean zip line, but my DW's back acted up before we left Galveston and we decided as we arrived at the pier to forego the zip this time. Rony met us at the pier and had a driver and car waiting for us. Changing the plan to exclude the zip was no problem and Rony went to work to set up other things instead. Car was clean and the a/c was cold. Michael (our driver) was very pleasant and since he grew up on the island, he knew just about everything there was to know. We started the tour with sightseeing around the entire island with numerous stops to take pictures and to see points of interest to us. During the drive, Michael showed us one of his favorite spots and that was Anthony's key, a real must for anyone planning to return to the island for more than a day. It is a beautiful resort with cabanas on a small island surrounded by over 30 snorkel and dive spots. Next, it was on to see the monkeys and other animals and we had a blast with the white-faced monkeys. We made stops at several shops during the drive and also the supermarket. Amazed as how everything and anything you might want was there.(brand names from the states and the prices were great). Also spoke with several other ex-pats (Americans) currently living on Roatan. Visited Mayan Princess and West beach, had lunch and bach time at Foster's beach, took the glass bottom boat out to the reef, and stopped at south shore canopy zip to see the facilities. Then it was on to the local shopping area near the pier where we found some excellent bargains.

To sum up, we could not have asked for a better driver, Michael was perfect and was open to whatever we wanted to see or do. Rony spoke to us as we ended our day back at the pier and was truly pleased that everything was to our liking. He invited us to come back as soon as possible and even sent an email several days later thanking us for using his service. Please give Ronys Tours a try and tell him "poppajoe" sent you. (Pic of Michael below)

Website for Rony's????? Thanks.

Website for Rony's????? Thanks.

Here is Rony's website: http://www.ronystours.com/ Have fun and great cruizing!

How was the trip on the glass bottom boat? Did you get to see a lot of marine life?

My group used Rony's for our island tour of Roatan. Rony was very prompt in returning my emails and arranged for our guide to pick up one of our group who has difficulty walking at the bottom of the hill, inside the security gates. Our terrific guide was SONYA, please ask for her! Sonya was a wonderful guide, very personable and you can tell she takes pride in her country. She took us just everywhere we wanted to go. We were more interested in seeing the island from a residents perspective. She took us to a market to buy fresh pineapple which we ate in the van, simply the best I ever ate!!! Everyone in the market area seemed to know her. She took us to a Jamaican restaurant for lunch which was very delicious and reasonable. Sonya watched the time and got us back to port in plenty of time. I would definetly use Rony's again! And ask for Sonya!:o

How was the trip on the glass bottom boat? Did you get to see a lot of marine life?

It was really great. Only about ten people on or tour and we spent over an hour slowly cruising along the reef. Saw lots of different fish and several sting rays, one was an albino. The reef itself has so many different colors and it was a tour well worth the cost. Hope you enjoy.

Thanks. We are looking forward to it! Dad doesn't want to snorkle, but I wanted to make sure he got to see life beneath the water.

We just used Victor Bodden Tours last Friday. We can't recommend this enough. YOU decide where you want to go and what you want to see.

Our driver was a delightful young woman named Johanna. We drove around the whole island, stopping at any places we wanted. She answered every single question we asked of her. And we asked about everything from weather to education to heritage to typical life to traffic to imports/exports, politics, religion, etc.....

We wanted coffee and vanilla from the grocery store, as we had heard it was much less $ than the gift shops. She told us which ones would be best, went in with us and helped us with any questions we had. We bought 2 bottles of vanilla, 2 bags of coffee and 2 banana sodas. Cost $16. US. It was clean and bright, just like an american grocery store. The touristy gift shops and the ship were selling the coffee for $16/bag. Ha!!

We went to Victors home and played with the monkeys for as long as we wanted.....held the parrots....my DH hand fed a new white tail deer fawn. The staff at Victors house was very friendly and happy. There is a spider monkey there with a new baby, absolutely adorable!

We shopped at a few other gift shops, etc. Our main goal was to visit the Stone Castle Cameo factory. We purchased 4 of them. Their credit card machine was not working, she took my DH to a bank while I stayed there and ogled the cameos. The bank didn't work out so......we took one of the store clerks with us back to Mahogany Bay where they have a new store "Gem Carvings" and used the cc machine there. It was toward the end of our tour and we needed to take our purchases with us. Our driver then took the clerk back to the Stone Castle location for us. Talk about service!!!

We can't wait to visit Roatan again and see more with a Victor Bodden Tour guide!!! :D

Here is Rony's website: http://www.ronystours.com/ Have fun and great cruizing!

we just used rony's tours and were severely disappointed. I cannot even tell you my guide's name since he never introduced himself! he never spoke, and we had to pry little tidbits of island info from him. when he went on the glass bottom tour with us, he actually sat with a spanish speaking couple and "guided" them during the tour, rather than the actual family who hired him!!

We used Rony's tours back in January and had a fantastic experience! We did the iguana farm (kids LOVED it!), Victor's monkeys (my kids loved it; my brother's kids not so much), and stopped briefly at Anthony's Key Resort so my dh could look around and take a few pictures (he used to lead dive trips to Roatan and stayed there several times 20+ years ago). Our guide was amazing, and had lots of interesting and amusing tales of his life and the island. I would recommend them highly.

We used Victor Bodden and had an AMAZING day! Our guide was Will and went way above and beyond our expectations. Well worth the money for a private tour. Wewill absolutely use him on our next visit.

We used Victor Bodden for a tour on March 12th. We were celebrating my in-laws 50th anniversary. It was INCREDIBLE!!!! We had 8 people in our group. Our tour guide was Derek, he was WONDERFUL! He took us everywhere we wanted to go plus he suggested some other places he thought we would like. He was able to answer all the questions we had. We learned a lot and had a lot of fun doing it :)

We started with a tour of Roatan where we learned about and saw a lot of in interesting things. We stopped at a few places to shop and take pictures along the way. Then we stopped at Victors place and played with the monkeys which was a lot of fun. Victor personally greeted us when we arrived and asked about how our day was going.

We ended the day with a stop at the beach and Derek surprised us by having a 50th anniversary cake waiting for us!!

I was so glad we picked Victor Bodden Tours for our day in Roatan. I do not think any of the other tours could be better than them!!

Thank You Victor Bodden for providing us with Derek. He is an awesome tour guide and our day with him was a wonderful way to spend my In-Laws 50th Anniversary!!

What is Victor's Bodden's web address?

We're looking forward to our tour with Victor in June!!! Here's the address...victorbodden@yahoo.com

Here is the website so you can see what all he has to offer.

We did the "Best of Roatan Private tour." Since we had 8 people it was only $25.00 a person and lasted all day. We basically had a driver and transportation to take us wherever we wanted to go all day long!

www.BoddenTours.com

www.MayanJungleCanopy.com

What optional tours did you do? I have 2 kids (8 & 3) and requested price quotes for the monkey business and glassbottom boat/snorkeling tours (in addition to the "best of roatan" private tour). For all that it should be about $175 for the day. That's better than the Carnival prices AND we would have a driver for the day. What did you tip the driver for the day?

My only concern would be getting back to the ship on time, but I didn't see anyone have any problems with that! :)

Thanks, TF

I think the kids would absolutely love the monkey business. The monkeys climb on you and there are also parrots that will perch on your shoulder.

There is also an iguana farm which some people on our ship did and they really liked it.

We were very generous with our tip. We had such a good time and our driver (Derek) was great. By the time our day was over it felt like we had known him for years! You do not pay for the tour untill the end, other than the add ons you choose, so each couple paid him the $50.00 for the tour ($25 ea) and then we each tipped him about $30 extra dollars so in total we gave him about $120.00 in tips. We thought it was well worth it but of course it was definitely not nessesary to tip him that much!!

We used Rhony's. We had a good time, but probably would have prefered Boddens. Our tour guide was nice. I dont really have any complaints, other than the van, which had good AC, was dirty and a little run down. They did everything they could to make us happy, and we were.

We were in Roatan late March and used Rony's tours. Here is Rony's website: http://www.ronystours.com/ He promptly answered all emails, listened to what we would like to do and set us up with Maleen. He was great, told us about life on the island, answered our questions, and took us to photo stops, the monkeys, and snorkeling. After snorkeling one side of the bay, he drove us to the resturant, got a waiter, and then we snorkeled the other side of the bay after lunch. Before returning to the ship, he took us to Bananarama so we could see that beach in case we return. I would definitely recommend Rony's tours. We also saw Rony during the day, and he asked how everything was going, and if we had any recommendations. Wonderful day, could add or change original plans at any time.!