ACTIVITIES AND ATTRACTIONS
Most of
Roatan’s attractions are located between our beach house in Sandy Bay and West
End, although there are some very interesting villages to tour and beautiful
mountain top vistas on the eastern end of the island.
Swim with the Dolphins – At Anthony’s Key Resort (AKR), the Roatan Institute of Marine Sciences offers a number of opportunities to learn about and experience dolphins close at hand. There are two dolphin shows daily, plus supervised encounters with dolphins where you may wade, swim, snorkel or scuba alongside these friendly and intelligent creatures. The Institute provides Bay Islands exhibits on geology, coral reef life, fish, birds, reptiles and invertebrates. There is also a bilingual museum on local archaeology and history.
Carambola Botanical Gardens, Sandy Bay – located directly across the highway from AKR provides two trails – a mountain path and a jungle path - that wander through a large collection of tropical plants. Labels identify banana, chocolate, coffee, fruit and nut trees, as well as an impressive collection of ferns, palms, hibiscus, jungle cactus, orchids, medicinal and spice plants. The mountain path takes you to the top of Carambola Mountain, where you will have a great view over AKR, the reef and the island of Utila in the distance.
Wild Cane Historic Village, Sandy Bay – depicts what life was like on Roatan a century ago. This open-air museum displays cane and mud houses, medicine garden and a farm, which are tended by islanders who will share stories and folklore about island life, medicines, food and family. Every Tuesday evening, there is a village party where you can sample regional food prepared in handmade mud stoves.
Natural Aquarium Snorkel Trail, Sandy
Bay
– is an underwater
trail at the Bay Islands Beach Resort. Twelve stations, marked by buoys, guide
you across lush coral heads, turtle grass beds and sand flats, where you will
encounter everything from gorgonians, sea stars and squid to eagle rays, trumpet
fish, goat fish, schools of damsels and sergeant majors and more. You can also
snorkel the trail at night when lobsters, octopuses and shrimp are out.
Roatan Butterfly Garden, just outside West End village – Join a guided tour or explore the park on your own to see and learn about some of Honduras’ most colourful butterflies. Besides butterflies, the walkways take you through the tropical trees of Roatan – cashew, mango, hog and admiral plums, papaya, tamarind, bananas, key limes and breadfruit – plus a lush garden containing such flowering plants as hibiscus, crotons, orchids, jasmine, ginger, lantana and parrot flowers.
Horseback Riding – El Rancho Barrio Dorcas in West End and Keifito’s Plantation Resort at West Bay Beach provide guided horseback rides.
Glass Bottom Boat, West Bay Beach
– the Coral Reef Explorer is a unique glass bottom boat that allows passengers
to sit completely below sea level with a direct view of the passing coral reef
and its exotic marine life.
Iguana Farm, French Harbour
– Just east of French Harbour at French Cay, the Arch family has established a
refuge to help restore Roatan’s once abundant iguana population that was hunted
to near extinction for their meat. Hundreds of iguanas of all ages, species and
sizes can be observed here. The best time to visit is noon when you can
hand feed the iguanas. They are quite friendly and some like to be petted.
Mangrove Tour – Before there were roads on Roatan, Indians used dugout canoes to travel between villages on the east end of the island. In order to avoid rough seas outside of the reef, they carved a waterway through the mangroves connecting five harbours. Water taxi/dory tours out of Jonesville, Oak Ridge or Calabash Bight may be arranged to travel through this unique mangrove ecosystem and view isolated homes, shops, fishing boats, swimming holes and a lagoon that are accessible only by boat.
Sailing and Boat Tours
– can be arranged at locations all around the island for local diving and
snorkeling, bonefishing on the reef flats or deep-sea fishing beyond the reef. Day trips to
neighbouring islands and cays may also be arranged.
Punta Gorda and Oak Ridge – are two very interesting villages located towards the east end of Roatan on opposite sides of the island where the paved highway ends. Punta Gorda on the north shore is a Garifuna village dating back to 1797 when some 3,000 Garifuna, deported by the British from the island of St. Vincent, were abandoned here on the Roatan beach. Punta Gorda is the quintessential laid-back Caribbean village. On the south shore, Oak Ridge’s 5,000 citizens of English descent live primarily in a tight cluster of homes built over the water on stilts around the central harbour.
Camp Bay Beach – the largest undeveloped beach left on Roatan is an idyllic strand of sand and swaying coconut palms. Although located on the remote north coast of the island about five miles east of where the paved highway ends, it is well worth a trip here to enjoy a picnic and day of near complete isolation - swimming, sunning and snorkeling.