Safe Diving

Safe diving practices should be of major concern to any visiting diver. By asking the following questions and showing these things are important to you, you can help ensure diving on Roatan remains safe for many years to come.

Do they carry oxygen on the boat?
Do they carry a VHF radio - and no a cell phone is NOT nearly as good.
Does the boat remain at the dive site after dropping off divers. Shuttle services such as those run by Pura Vida and Henry Morgans TGI, a not only dangerous in the event of an emergency, but lead to divers getting cold while they wait on the surface for a boat to come and collect them.
Do you have the boat manned by a captain at ALL times (DMs or instructors can't do both jobs at the same time!)
Do you have your air analysed (The analysis certificate should be dated within the last three months)
Are your tanks all in hydro?
How long has my instructor been an instructor?
How long has the Divemaster/Instructor been on the island (local knowledge makes all the difference to your dive experience)

Roatan Dive Operators

grey angelfish on roatan reef When choosing a dive operator in Roatan, there are a number of things to consider. I use the facilities of Coconut Tree Divers to teach my PADI Pro and DSAT Tec deep and Trimix courses.

One of the best ways to research Roatan's Dive operators is at scubaboard, this forum is one of the most heavily used in the industry. It always contains many up to date trip reports detailing customers experiences and is very up to date. Coconut Tree Divers comes out on top more often than not.

The AI vs Independent Shop debate

One of the hardest decisions to make is all inclusive dive resort vs booking your hotel and diving separately. This is discussed ad infinitum on scubaboard and boils down to how much diving you want to do.

Many divers are happy with 2-3 dives a day on their diving vacation, if you are one of these, the better option is probably to book a hotel and pay for your dives on a dive by dive basis with one of the many independent operators near the hotel. For example West End is small enough for anywhere to be considered walking distance.

7 nights hotel accommodation will cost between $300 and $700, renting a 2 bedroom house and self catering roughly the same, or a bit more if you want something plush!
3 dives a day for 6 days total 18 dives - will cost around $500pp
Food and drink $40/day
Total cost $1000/week upward single person, $1750 upward for a couple.

This compares with about $1300pp for a weeks accommodation and unlimited diving at Cocoview, or $1500pp at Anthony's Key Resort. Cheaper deals can often be found. Watch for single occupancy surcharges though.

So to make it worth the extra cost of staying at an AI you really need to plan to do at least 5 dives a day. If that's your thing Cocoview gets consistently solid trip reviews.

Experienced Staff

Some shops tend to attract the seasoned pros more than others. Have a look at the staff bio pages on the website. If it doesn't say how long each instructor has been teaching on the island, that is a good indication that they haven't been there long! At the time of writing Coconut Tree, West End Divers and Native sons seem to have the most long term instructors in West End. In West Bay Anemona divers are a new dive shop which receive top reviews.

Experience in your dive instructor counts for A LOT. When shopping around find out how long YOUR instructor has been TEACHING not just DIVING. Also find out how much of that time they have been in Roatan, local knowledge of the reef also helps them help you.