Main Menu
Join Undercurrent on Facebook

The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975 | |
For Divers since 1975
The Private, Exclusive Guide for Serious Divers Since 1975
"Best of the Web: scuba tips no other
source dares to publish" -- Forbes
X
 

Dive Review of Anthony’s Key Resort in
Honduras/Roatan

Anthony’s Key Resort: "An old standard continues to thrive", Jul, 2015,

by THOMAS SMITH, MO, US (Sr. Reviewer Sr. Reviewer 7 reports with 11 Helpful votes). Report 8302 has 3 Helpful votes.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 4 stars Food 3 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving N/A
Snorkeling N/A
Value for $$ 5 stars
Beginners 5 stars
Advanced 3 stars
Comments It had been 15 years since I last visited Anthony's Key Resort, but much was the same, including many of the staff.

AKR is a clean, well run resort dedicated to divers. Our package included 3 meals a day and 3 boat dives daily (plus 2 night dives during the week).

Food is decent to good, with hot breakfast to order, and at least two entree options for lunch and dinner, sometimes three. Fish was usually one choice. Meals included soup or salad, and dessert. Wait staff was attentive and friendly. My only complaint on food was that I found it overly salty, but I seldom use salt at home.

The dining area, main bar and reception are up a couple of flights of stairs from the waterfront on the main island. Most guest rooms are on the key, with a short (30 yards?) water taxi ride between. The taxis run 24 hours at no expense to guests. Between the main bar, pool bar and pavilion on the key, there was some kind of happy hour going on most afternoons.

The dive operation is well organized and efficient, with friendly, well trained dive-masters and boat captains. AKR runs a bunch (6-8?) of custom built dive boats. Divers sign up for dives by marking their dive number on chalk boards for their assigned boats. Nitrox is available for $8/tank (rather steep) or $120 for the week. In our 5 1/2 days of diving, 19 boat dives were offered. Shore diving is also available at no cost.

Most dives are just a few minutes from the resort, although some dives might go around the other side of the island. Most dives offer some version of a wall, steeper at some places than others. Two wreck dives are available, although with the wrecks in the 100-110 foot range there isn't much life on them.

Dive-masters gave general profiles for dives, then left computer divers to their own devices for the most part. A dive-master led each dive, setting a slow pace and pointing out various fish and creatures. There was seldom any current to speak of, although there was some chop at the surface once or twice. The water was a balmy 82-84 degrees F (July). Most of the group wore 3mm suits; I dove with a 1 mm, and several folks dove in t-shirts.

Our group got shut out on Eagle Rays for the week, which was a disappointment, be we did see lots of turtles, mostly Hawksbills. Some sites were crowded with grouper due to DM feedings. Green morays were plentiful, with the occasional spotted moray, and at least one goldentail. Tropical fish were plentiful: tons of parrotfish (including several midnight PF), queen, french and grey angels, schools of blue tang and creolefish, lots of grouper, plenty of 4 eye butterfly fish, various damsels, hamlets, squid, 4 octopus on one night dive, huge yellow frogfish etc etc. Arrow, hermit, king and neck crabs, plenty of lobster. We saw a couple of nurse sharks but no reef sharks except on the shark feeding dive.

One highlight of AKR is their dolphin program, though no dolphin dives were offered during our week due to mating season. Various dolphin encounters are available at RIMS (Roatan Institute of Marine Science) from snorkeling to a full specialty course that includes being a trainer for part of a day. (I took this course in 1999 and loved it.)

The dive shop offers a marine life slide show on Sunday evening which I highly recommend as an introduction to what you should be looking for out on the reef. The instructor recommended small marine life behavior over "your 21st turtle sighting of the week", and highlighted the cool little stuff you need to slow down and look for, such as yellow headed jawfish incubating eggs in their mouth, sailfin and secretary blennies, and the various types of cleaner fish and shrimp, all of which we saw when diving.

Shark feeding dives are available throughout the week for an additional $100. A larger deep V boat takes you around the island back in front of the airport for the dive. The water can be rough for the ride. Our feeding had over 20 quite large (5-6') Caribbean reef sharks milling about while the divers swam with them. Divers then put their backs to a small wall and knelt in the sand for the release of the bait. After the feeding frenzy, divers had a frenzy of their own as they crowded the sand looking for lost shark teeth.

Our boat captain, Kenly, and dive-master, Jeromie, were professional and knowledgeable, but better than that they were friendly, funny and extremely personable. They really made the week fly by.

My one complaint is that our DM did nothing to stop/help the horribly over-weighted newbie diver, with the giant knife strapped to his leg, who walked and dragged his feet and fins across the reef all week while he tried to take the 1000th picture of his daughter underwater. It is a marine park for Pete's sake.

Bottom line: easy comfortable diving for novice and advanced alike; not much big stuff but plenty of little stuff if you slow down and look. Top notch resort and dive center.
Websites Anthony’s Key Resort   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience Over 1000 dives
Where else diving Belize, Cayman, Dominica, Saba, Bonaire, Fiji, Cocos, Galapagos, Palua, PNG, Solomons, French Polynesia, etc etc
Closest Airport Roatan Getting There Direct from Dallas for us

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, dry Seas calm, choppy
Water Temp 82-84°F / 28-29°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile ?
Enforced diving restrictions General profiles were provided, but seldom enforced.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

Sharks 1 or 2 Mantas None
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 3 stars
Large Pelagics 1 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter 4 stars Boat Facilities 4 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 4 stars Shore Facilities 4 stars
UW Photo Comments Macro heaven
Was this report helpful to you?
Report currently has 3 Helpful votes

Subscriber's Comments

By Jay Jones in CA, US at Sep 16, 2015 11:08 EST  
Would concur with all comments above as we did two weeks there end of August. This was our first trip to Anthony's and clearly the best of our Roatan experiences having been to Co Co view, Laguna Beach and Fantasy Isle.The only thing that will keep us away are the "bugs". They are horrible w/deet,premethrin, picaridin, c
By Jay Jones in CA, US at Sep 16, 2015 11:09 EST  
Would concur with all comments above as we did two weeks there end of August. This was our first trip to Anthony's and clearly the best of our Roatan experiences having been to Co Co view, Laguna Beach and Fantasy Isle.The only thing that will keep us away are the "bugs".
By report author: THOMAS SMITH in MO, US at Apr 28, 2018 16:13 EST  
Yes, the sand fleas were everywhere. I had no problem with them as long as I used Cactus Juice on my feet/legs, but when I stopped they ate me alive.
Leave a comment (Subscribers only -- 200 words max)
Subscribers can comment here
 

Subscribe Now
Subscribers can post comments, ask the reviewer questions, as well as getting immediate and complete access to ALL 560 dive reviews of Honduras and all other dive destinations. Complete access to all issues and Chapbooks is also included.

 
Featured Links from Our Sponsors
Interested in becoming a sponsor?
Reef & Rainforest, Let our experience be your guide -- Reef and Rainforest
Reef & Rainforest
is an agency for travelers that like to scuba dive. Want to see dolphins, whale sharks, Mayan ruins? Let us plan your adventure to Honduras.

Want to assemble your own collection of Honduras reports in one place?
Use the Mini Chapbook Facility to create your personalized collection.

Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

Undercurrent Home


Get more dive info like these and other important scuba updates sent monthly to your email.
And a FREE Recent Issue of Undercurrent

Free Undercurrent Issue
Get a free
monthly email and
a sample issue!


Find in  

| Home | Online Members Area | My Account | Login | Join |
| Travel Index | Dive Resort & Liveaboard Reviews | Featured Reports | Recent Issues | Back Issues |
| Dive Gear Index | Health/Safety Index | Environment & Misc. Index | Seasonal Planner | Blogs | Free Articles | Book Picks | News |
| Special Offers | RSS | FAQ | About Us | Contact Us | Links |

Copyright © 1996-2024 Undercurrent (www.undercurrent.org)
3020 Bridgeway, Ste 102, Sausalito, Ca 94965
All rights reserved.

Page computed and displayed in 3.67 seconds