Dive Review of Roatan Dive Center in
Honduras/Roatan

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Roatan Dive Center: "Spring Dive Training", Mar, 2024, by John Miller, TX, US ( Sr. Contributor 20 reports with 7 Helpful votes). Report 12914.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations	N/A	Food	N/A
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	I have been diving with Roatan Dive Center for more than 10 years. As a PADI and SSI dive training center they are very dependable. Gary, the owner, has been a PADI Platinum Course Director and is one of the best in Honduras. Mary, his wife, is a PADI Dive Master and one of the best I have run across in my 6000+ logged dives around the world. I had taken 8 others from my dive shop in Lubbock, TX on this group trip where I conducted wreck, advanced wreck, deep and severl other dive specialties, along with just fun diving and Roatan Dive Center accommodated my needs as always. In the past I even conducted Instructor Training course and the final IE through them for my candidates. So with that said, lets talk about the reefs on the east side of the island. They are at their worst with lots of signs of bleaching. Water temperature was 80 degrees and I've seen higher so I don't contribute the damage to temperatures. The east side is where the cruise ships and other commercial ships port and I contribute the damage due to their higher almost daily visits. One 7,000 passenger ship was visitng during our trip, along with every other day small cruise ships. While the likes of "Mary's Place" and it's swim throughs are always exhilerating corals were covered in algae and dieing. I never saw even one turtle during my 15 dives which extended from 15" to 135 feet in the shallows and deep walls. An occasional sighting of an Eagle Ray and one shark slightly satisfied my large camera shots, and a nice cleaner shrimp and some Arrow Crabs fed my macro shots. We had a very nice Vrbo 5 bedroom each with their own private bathrooms, fully stocked kitchen, a new gas BQ grill that had never been used, bottled water delivered twice, that was just a 3 minute drive to a service station with groceries and restaurant that was only a 5 minute drive to the dive shop in our two rental pickup trucks. Roatan has a lot to offer and is relatively safe. There was a lot of road construction/repairs being made between Coxen Hole and the West End that was unbearable. All being said, Roatan diving is still a nice vacation spot to consider. However, like all tourist areas, they are trading income from cruise ships that overwhelm the infrastructure to that from divers that love their oceans and want to see them survice. It is a difficult choice for Honduras and the island of Roatan to make. For this 76 year old SSI Instuctor Trainer and dive shop owner I am seeing the choices becoming fewer and fewer due to cruise ship port visits and their damage to the reefs.
Websites	Roatan Dive Center
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Wakaobi, Figi, Roatan, Tobago, Cozumel, Cayman, Philappines, Belize, Truk, Turk & Caicos, Tabago, St Croix
Closest Airport	Roatan	Getting There	Flew American Airlines direct from DFW
Dive Conditions
Weather	windy	Seas	choppy
Water Temp	80-80°F / 27-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	1
Water Visibility	40-60 Ft/ 12-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Safety stops, avoid damage to reef, watch air consumption.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	None	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	If divers took a dive camera a bucket with fresh water was unboard and separate rinse tank was avqilable for after the dive.

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Dive Review of Roatan Dive Center in Honduras/Roatan

Roatan Dive Center: "Spring Dive Training", Mar, 2024,

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 Roatan Dive Center in
Honduras/Roatan