Safety Concerns

[BrianB1964]

I have been reading about the drug trafficking wars going on in Honduras. I am wondering if this has spread to the island of Roatan?

[Guest 2000]

I travel as a solo female and have stayed on the island for up to three months at a time. I was there seven weeks last year.

 

While there is without a doubt drugs around... it has never been obvious to me nor have I heard of anyone involved. There was some very odd violent stuff going on late last year but it seems to have been handled.

 

If you stay with your tour group or on the more trafficked areas you will be golden. If your ship is docking at Mahogany Bay... and you stay there, you have NOT a worry in the world.

 

From what I read the caged monkeys are more dangerous than the locals. :D

[MsHoo]

We felt very safe using privately booked tour company.

 

I highly recommend Victor Bodden's tours. You basically let them know what you want to do and they take you to it. It was $40pp for the 2 of us. We could have buddied up with other passengers and for 4 or more it drops to $25pp. The weather didn't cooperate on our December 2012 cruise however our tour guide Anthony was still great. We told him we wanted to try local cuisine and he took us to this beachside restaurant that had a lunch buffet that was authentic and awesome. Because the weather was drizzling/raining we didn't stay out the full time. When we were ready to go back he took us right up to Mahogany Bay.

 

Here is the sticky part. To be picked up for the tour you have to take about a 10-15 minute walk from Mahogany Bay over a hill to get to the tour guides. Victor keeps the tour prices low because he doesn't go with the cruise company there his drivers can only go into Mahogany Bay is when they have passengers. It was no big deal for the short walk. We also went to Victor's Monkey Business, this where you will pay for your tour and you have the option to pay $5 more to see the small "zoo" he has. It was the best part of our trip seeing the animals. The cappuchin monkeys are mischievious little things. My partner walked into the enclosure and one landed right on his head. Hilarious. Another took my bandana off... we got great pictures and had good time. :D

You can also check out this tour company on Trip Advisor and many of the reviews will list the individual drivers and we were able to pick which tour guide we wanted. Great communicated from the company by email before we even got there.

[Colorado Kat]

Roatan is an island, and is very safe. Most of the drug problems are on the mainland. They know it is in their best interests to keep the cruise ships coming into Roatan.