Roatan, Honduras

We absolutely loved Roatan. After being in the more central/ inland parts of different parts of Central America for five weeks, it was time to get to the beach! We also knew this was our last bit of warmth before heading over to much cooler temps in Europe. We've been fortunate to visit a handful of places in the Carribean, and I have to say that Roatan is now a favorite. It has a super laid-back vibe and even when it's kinda busy, it's not THAT busy, at least when we were there. 

We stayed in Sandy Bay, which is relatively quiet and on the north side of the island. Our little cottage was part of a small, rustic development with a shared pool and was literally 20' from the beach. Extending out from the beach was a 200' private dock with benches, a hammock, and another lofted deck with benches. Others from the development, renters and owners, full and part-time, would typically gather out on the dock for sunsets each evening. During the days, another 200' or so swim from the dock is the southern end of the second largest barrier reef in the world. The bay is typically fairly protected and sees very little boat traffic (other than small dive boats). We were able to do some amazing snorkeling in both Sandy Bay and West End (more on that in a minute). About a five minute walk down the beach in sleepy Sandy Bay was a top-rated (yet also super chill and laid back) dive shop. We did a snorkeling tour and two scuba dives with them and had pretty amazing experiences. We didn't get the best pics of the wildlife we saw, but there were smaller and one huge Eagle Rays, sea turtles, lion fish, barracuda, parrot fish, angel fish, tons of cool coral plants, some huge crabs, tons of starfish, sand-dollars, and so much more. It was really awesome all around. I realize now that going back through the week, almost all of the picture-taking I did was under water, so I apologize if they're repetitive.

While we're super psyched we stayed in Sandy Bay, and would happily stay there again, there's not a lot else there and not much even within about 20-30 minutes of walking. It's about a 15 minute drive to get to West End, a great small beach town on, yep, the west end of the island. West End should not be confused with West Bay, which is also on the west end of the island, just another 15-20 minutes south of West End. West Bay is a little bigger, has a longer beach and is pretty lined with resorts/ beachfront restaurants. But it's still not THAT busy or overcrowded. We liked West End a little better (we loved going in for a snorkle around the protected waters in horseshoe bay, followed by reading books on the beach), but they are both super cool little towns. There's a robust shared-taxi service that moves about the island made up almost exclusively of white Toyota Corollas and a few vans and they're relatively easy to spot and flag down. We had heard that these were $5/per person, which is awesome for one person, but upon further research, we also learned that it's harder to flag one down for a family of four, as they're "shared" taxis, and often have other passengers already on board. Even if we did catch one with room for all four of us, it would be $40 to head to either town and back (or the grocery store). We quickly researched renting a car, and had one delivered to our spot for $35/ day all-in. So easy. The car really made Sandy Bay even better. We were able to get groceries regularly and cook at home, or pop into West End for amay-zing $2 Baleadas (IYKYK), then return to the quiet of our little beach cabin as a nice retreat from the "hubub" of the "bigger" beach towns.

We met several people, mostly from the US, who have been coming to Roatan for years over and over again, and I totally get why. I think it's the least built-up but still-has-a-little-of-everything-you-need place I've been to in the Carribean and, for me, that's a sweetspot. I would come back in a heartbeat.

Unfortunately, over the last few days we were in Roatan, Nicole, Carter, and lastly Miles all started to feel lousy. We made it to the tiny airport in Roatan, flew to Miami, and arrived in Madrid with the three of them needing lots of rest and time to get well (not to mention deal with jetlag!)