Dive Review of Dunbar Rock/Villas at Dunbar Rock in
Honduras/Dunbar Rock

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Dunbar Rock/Villas at Dunbar Rock: "The Island Liveaboard", May, 2024, by Martin Metzger JR, TX, US ( Reviewer 4 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 12956 has 1 Helpful vote.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Getting there: The ferry was very comfortable and smooth coming back, but rough on the way there and several people got sick. Next time we’ll either take motion sickness medication earlier, and/or those wrist bands with the ball, but more likely we’ll take the quick charter flight from Roatan to Guanaja, which is about 3 times the price of the $170 first class round trip ferry and with the charter there’s no waiting for the ferry. The all-inclusive weekly rate (includes 17 dives with first class valet service) was around $2850 for double occupancy and incl tax + $150 for nitrox + any rental equipment. House brands included Bacardi, Jim Beam and many others. Some top shelf liquor brands had a $2 or $5 charge, or there is a special liquor package, but I couldn’t/wouldn’t drink that much on a dive week. Accommodations: Upon arrival, Parrots Gina and Coco greeted us in the atrium while staff carried our luggage up to the rooms. We received a quick briefing and filled out a slip of paper to select that evening’s appetizer, main course (half, regular or double portion), sides, dessert and any special requests. Staff then showed each of us to our rooms. By the time we freshened up, the dive shop was reading our gear for the next morning’s dive, and dinner was ready. At the end of each meal, we get a new slip of paper with the menu choices for the next meal. Dinner that first night was either steak or lobster or a special request (we were asked to advise ahead of time any preferences). They then told us we could order anything they had as a special request, even lobster every night if that’s what we wanted. WHAT?! Lobster is off season, but a primary export of Guanaja, so we saw dozens of lobster boats docked in Guanaja, and thinking they’d be small Caribbean lobsters, I ordered the double portion. I was surprised that the two tails with sides barely fit on the plate, so I avoided that double portion selection box for most of the other meals. The meals were terrific all week, especially the soup appetizers, so I only had lobster 4 nights and did not order the double portion again. On the last night I enjoyed a special request of delicious steak and lobster. The rooms were good sized, clean and well appointed. We had a King, with 2 desks, a rocker, 2 chairs on a private ocean front balcony, walk-in closet and two smaller closets, and a decent sized bath. The rooms with 2 queens were a bit smaller but had larger private balconies. I’ve found that the size and thickness of bath towels is a pretty good indicator of a property’s overall quality of customer service, and these were right up there with those of Hyatt, Four Seasons, and other premier properties. The entire island of Dunbar Rock has only 9 ocean front rooms, plus a presidential suite and a penthouse suite, so never enough people to feel crowded. We found it very interesting that there are very few roads on Guanaja the larger island of. With most homes and businesses on the water line, everyone travels by boat, similar to Venice. Boat taxis are about a dollar. A few hours after dinner, the Dunbar staff leaves the island by boats for their 5 minute commute, leaving behind a security guard, yet we have access to the bar for anything we want. There were 12 guests our week (about 50% occupancy for Apr 27- May 4th), and we heard it ranges anywhere from 2 – 25 guests, with July and August being their low season (we plan to return for 2 weeks in August 2025!) Several other aspects put Dunbar Rock at the top of our favorites list. There were literally 0 bugs, except for the adventure day picnic lunch on a remote island, so no bug spray needed. Monday, Wednesday and Friday free laundry service means we packed a lot less and didn’t have to deal with a suitcase full of dirty laundry. Unlike mainland Honduras, the primary language of Guanaja is English, so it was easy to communicate things like which clothing items were to be dry hung. It was so nice to come back from a dive and find our clean clothes freshly folded on the bed. We learned the owner is Kirk Laney, from Plano, TX, which explains the décor including a good dose of Lone Star, even the emblem on the 6th floor helipad. The gift shop even had lone star swim shorts in addition to the local T-Shirts, dive shirts, and other souvenirs. It’s obvious that management treats the staff very well, as they all seemed genuinely happy to serve take care of us, especially Hayley, Zatina, Reba and Emy. Every staff member we passed, seemed genuinely happy to be there and happy to see us! The owners are also serious about sponsoring the local community, including a Guanaja kids soccer team, and in a joint venture with DAN, the added a hyperbaric chamber adjacent to the Guanaja airport. Diving Water temp was a very comfortable 82 degrees all week and we never saw rain, but 30+ mph winds on the first two days limited dive sites to the north side of Guanaja. Most of our 17 dives were from a mooring ball, with about 3 decent drift dives in a barely noticeable current. Deibin did a great job as the second DM in the water, while Randy was Johnny on the spot when it came time to picking us up at the end of the slow drift dives, and helping everyone in and out of the water. Divers had the option of passing all of their gear up, or just fins, or climbing the ladder under his watchful eye. While I prefer being able to dive my tank, it was nice that everyone knew that the dive would end in 60 minutes and we’d be off without waiting for stragglers. They offered 80 and 100 CF tanks, and nitrox only in 80 CF. I try to test every tank, and they were consistently reading 30.5 - 31.5% on my Forensics analyzer. The boat was a little older, but very comfortable (9 – 11 of us on most of the dives) with a comfortable ladder, fresh water shower, and protection from the sun and water spray. I imagine the boat might feel a tad crowded when the resort is full and everyone is diving, but everyone gets a seat and 2 tank slots, and the resort is only at full occupancy a few weeks of the year. If you like operators that limit boats to 6 divers, then consider going in the summer (low season) when the seas are also flatter, and the locals tell us it’s about the same temperature (mid 80’s in the afternoon) with less breeze. What a pleasure to have the same senior divemaster on the boat for every dive instead of a different one every day. Raynel has been divemaster there for 10 years so he was very knowledgeable, professional, easy going, and had an intimate knowledge of the dive sites. The nurse sharks obviously recognized him, swimming right up to greet him and then check out his diver friends of the week. Sealife included multiple dives with the very friendly nurse sharks that hung around with us like puppies, for the majority of a couple dives. We saw a few Barracuda including an inquisitive one that slowly swam right up to 1 foot from my mask, sting rays, a few eagle ray sightings including two that swam right past us (video [gopro.com link] ), a few spotted eels, a stone crab that must have been about 16” wide, too many lion fish, lobsters, a sea horse, a fire worm, couple of toad fish, trunk fish, at least 4 drum fish sightings, a few grouper, puffers, a flamingo tongue, a few midnight blue parrot fish, lizard fish, damsel fish (my favorite) , Christmas tree worms, a couple of peacock flounders, and much more. Surprisingly, not a single turtle in 17 dives. One of the nurse sharks went into a swim through with us, came up from under and behind my wife’s armpit to slowly pass her in one of the tighter passageways. On the one night dive, we saw an 18” octopus who let us stare at it for a few minutes. My favorite dive sites included the huge cathedral swim throughs of Black Rock Canyon, Sandi’s Reef, Bayman’s Bay Drop, Pinnacle, Wonderful and the wreck of the Jado Trader. Some of us went briefly in and out of the large cargo hold which was similar to a cavern dive and very comfortable.
Websites	Dunbar Rock
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	101-250 dives
Where else diving	Bahamas Aqua Cat, Blackbird Resort Belize, Cayman Brac, Cozumel, Scuba Ranch, Texas
Closest Airport	Roatan	Getting There	Direct flight from DFW, TX or Miami to Roatan, then a 1 hr 45 minute ferry (or charter flight) to Guanaja, then 5 minute dive boat ride to the Dunbar Rock island.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas
Water Temp	81-83°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	50-75 Ft/ 15-23 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Be back at the boat ladder with 500 psi and no longer than 60 minutes
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish	N/A
Large Pelagics	N/A
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter	N/A	Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's	N/A	Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	[None]

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Dunbar Rock/Villas at Dunbar Rock in Honduras/Dunbar Rock

Dunbar Rock/Villas at Dunbar Rock: "The Island Liveaboard", May, 2024,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

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

Dive Review of Dunbar Rock/Villas at Dunbar Rock in
Honduras/Dunbar Rock