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Dive Review of CoCo View Resort in
Honduras/Roatan

CoCo View Resort, Nov, 2013,

by April Anderson, CA, US (Reviewer Reviewer 4 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 7325.

No photos available at this time

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

Accommodations 3 stars Food 2 stars
Service and Attitude 3 stars Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 4 stars Shore Diving 5 stars
Snorkeling 5 stars
Value for $$ 4 stars
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 3 stars
Comments We chose this resort because their website showed a good set up for shore diving. With two boat dives a day, we wanted to maximize our number of dives & have the freedom to do our own diving. Well much to our surprise and delight CoCoView does what they call "drop offs" in the morning & in the afternoon. As they near the resort, the drop you off on one of the two walls (Newman's Wall in the morning & CoCo View Wall in the afternoon). Since we were staying for more than a week, & in order to not see the same section of the wall every day, we chose to start deep & then each day start 10 feet shallower. By the end of the trip, our last dive was near the top of the wall at about 20 feet. Both walls are fabulous, but Coco View wall is my favorite. It's more vertical, feels more lush, with overhangs and lots of nooks & crannies to find stuff.
We are not Saturday to Saturday kind of vacationers, we like to do 10 days or so arriving mid-week and leaving the following Friday or Saturday. CoCo View is definitely set up for the Sat. to Sat. folks. We thought we would be able to do a shore/check out dive that afternoon, but they require an orientation dive with a staff member. At the time I was a bit irritated; we arrived early afternoon & I wanted to get in the water! The next morning we met up with our dive master & did a shore dive in front of the resort. Had a great dive & saw an eagle ray four times (same one) during the course of the dive. They take you out to the wreck that sits in the channel in front of the resort & then orient you to both walls. Afterwards, I see why they do this, but at the the time I simply thought he was giving us the lay of the land for shore diving. That afternoon we were assigned a boat, which we had the entire trip. Much to our surprise, after the dive we did a surface interval on the boat after inquiring how many wanted to do the drop off. They had adequate second tanks on board & changed tanks over for everyone doing the drop off. At this point I realized the importance of the orientation! If you arrive on a Saturday all this is clear as they do a mass orientation, introduce you to resort staff, & let you know how everything works. We had already figured everything out by then (times for meals, diving, etc.), but it would have been nice to have received a "mini" orientation when we arrived. They also said the Saturday orientation was mandatory, so we went, but really didn't get anything new other than where the nurse was located. Yes, wonderfully they have a nurse on site, free of charge (donations are excepted to replace any supplies or medications). Thankfully we didn't require her services but it was nice to know that if I needed something it was available.
The resort is well maintained & the dive operation has a great set up. All rooms are either ocean front or over the water. Due to our somewhat last minute booking we got ocean front. These are the oldest rooms at the resort, & while they're large the bathroom especially could stand to be remodeled. We met with some other guests in an over the water unit, definitely newer & nicer. They were there two weeks and the first week had the over the water bungalows. Their comment was the bungalows were nicer because the deck over the water had better breezes, while the over the water rooms the decks are closed in on both sides. Bungalows are the way to go, there are only four so you need to book far enough in advance.
The food is all done buffet, breakfast is probably the best because it's harder to overcook & they have a make to order eggs/omelette station. The food is pretty horrible, everything is overcooked to the point of being ruined. After the first night or two we looked forward to the steak & lobster menu on Friday (or Saturday?) night. The steak was grey & the slipper lobster cooked to the point of being rubber. We were never "late arrivals" when you might expect things - as they continue to cook in the serving pans - to be overdone. No, this food is served this way consistently. Surprisingly, there were lots of people who thought the food was good. I can only understand their scale of "good" equals lots of it. I also understand that not everyone knows really good food. They do have a salad bar at dinner, and by the end of the week I noticed staff & return guests got creative with what was being served. Instead of just going through the line & taking some of everything they would make something out of what was offered. Like making a big salad, & then adding one of the ingredients from the buffet. The best meals were local style stews; again hard to ruin by overcooking. The desserts on the other hand were consistently good. However, if you lingered over your meal, you might miss out. I frequently saw other guests piling up with multiple servings (yes for themselves) thus leaving any late comers without. I do not eat mass quantities of food, so I don't understand this mindset, but be aware and get your dessert (if a treat is important to you) when you get your meal.
Back to the diving, because after all that is really what it's about - which is why I would return to CoCo View. We got in four dives every day, had great dive masters & a great captain. The boat rides are short 5 - 10 minutes, the longest being to Mary's Place which was about 20. There are several cracks/cuts in the reef system here, where you drop into them & then swim out/down to the wall. In contrast, we did one dive off a point where large schools of fish, and lots of large fish (including grouper) congregate. Great dive! Then for those of us who like the little stuff we saw seahorses regularly, I want to say it was every dive, but that would not be true. It just felt that way! One one dive we saw FOUR, and they were all pretty large.
The other special thing about the diving here is free swimming green moray - no not on a night dive, but during the day!! Our last dive on CoCo View Wall we saw four!!! No not a miscount, just a coincidence. On another dive, while coming off CoCo View Wall we spotted a large one swimming along. We couldn't tell whether it was hunting or looking for a place to call home for awhile. We followed it to a coral head where it met up with a grouper. I was thinking there would be a confrontation, but instead they paired up, swam side by side over to the wreck! There they parted company & the eel proceeded to swim all over the wreck. I filmed it, and probably could have continued, but this was near the end of our dive so we finally headed in. We did keep a respectful distance at all times so that our presence was not influencing it's behavior. We were not in any way "chasing" & it continued to cruse the wreck as we swam away. Our last dive on Newman's Wall was also a treat. We decided to dive it on top of the wall which is sort of spur & groove. In one of the channels, my dive buddy noticed a field of rubble containing a huge grouping of yellow headed jaw fish. Knowing they are a favorite of mine, she motioned me over. We were enjoying them, when I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Much to our surprise it was a nice sized octopus, again out during the day!! We again approached very slowly, & followed along, filming the color changes along the way. It was a great way to end our dive trip! We saw lots of the standard Caribbean critters and corals. Everything is very healthy here. We had good vis for most of the trip, but the channel got worse as the week went on. The beginning of the trip we had some wind & surface chop, but their boats have a ladder coming up the center (yes in the middle of the boat) that makes it much easier if the back is bucking. It does take some getting used to though. By the end of our stay the winds died, the sea flattened out, and then we got afternoon thundershowers. In fact, the BBQ out on the island (connected by walkways) was brought indoors due to rain. The bugs weren't bad due to the wind, but I used bug spray religiously (they love me) and had no issues. Others who didn't got eaten up.
I would return to CoCo View because the diving & set up for diving is great! There are vacation rentals along the beach, north of the resort that you can rent & then dive with CoCo View. You can also add a meal package. They had bicycles to ride to & from if you wished, but most are only a short walk. For a group of people wanting to stay together, this might be the way to go.
Websites CoCo View Resort   

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 101-250 dives
Where else diving Thailand, Lembeh/Bunaken, Philippines, Central America, Carribean
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather sunny, windy Seas calm, choppy
Water Temp 79-82°F / 26-28°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 50-100 Ft/ 15-30 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions Hour dive times, but we frequently pushed those. All divers surfaced with plenty of air, so it wasn't an issue.
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? yes

What I Saw

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

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

Subject Matter 3 stars Boat Facilities 4 stars
Overall rating for UWP's 4 stars Shore Facilities 4 stars
UW Photo Comments Boats had generous set up for camera rinse tanks, as well as at the gear storage area for shore divers. The boat also had a table next to the rinse tank, but the main problem it was seldom dry, and towel used as a mat was not changed out regularly.
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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.

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