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Scuba Forum / General / December 2006Royal Playa Resort - Roatan - Honduras
We are planning a dive trip to Roatan in November. We saw a website for a really nice looking, small resort called royal playa resort at Port Royal (http://www.royalplayaroatan.com/). It seems to be a never resort and I could not find any postings or reviews about that place. Has anyone ever been there and if yes, did you like it? Do you have any comments about the place? Any information would help! Thanks ahead! Lee The Royal Playa opened less than a year ago. It is on Port Royal Harbor and only accessiable by water. Nice place and nice owners, also in residence is Tommy Jennnings, who was one of pioneers in Compound Bows. The diving is by boat only as well, reefs are about a half mile out and are very nice. There is no shore diving. However I'm not sure it is open. I know it was closed in late June when the owners flew stateside for family matters. No idea if it reopened, but had not as of July 1. The couple running the dive portion of the operation was let go in late June and AFAIK have not been replaced. If that is the case they do not have any dive professionals working there and cannot offer any courses. The resort has been up for sale since it opened and was likely built as an investment just to increase value of the land. If they are open and you go, you'll have a relaxing time and some great diving. > We are planning a dive trip to Roatan in November. We saw a website for > a really nice looking, small resort called royal playa resort at Port [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > Any information would help! Thanks ahead! > Lee > We are planning a dive trip to Roatan in November. We saw a website for > a really nice looking, small resort called royal playa resort at Port [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Any information would help! Thanks ahead! I've been to Roatan a bunch of times in the past year+ and Ron, who I see has answered your question directly has considerably more experience in the area. My question to you, is what are you really looking for on this vacation? If you can answer that, we can probably help you quite a bit more. Thanks a lot for your answers! Ahhh, that explains why the people from playa royal did not answer to our mails... We are looking for a more quiet place where there are not too many rooms and not too many dive boats leaving from the same resort. We hope for smaller dive groups with a max of 10 people with responsible dive masters and great diving sites. We don't need night live and we don't need luxury. Since playa royal seems to be out of question, we searched the web some more and currently think that the reef house might be the place we would like. the reviews are very good and they say that there is a nice reef in front of the resort for beach dives. Do you know the reef house and is there anything that we might not have considered/not like? Or would you recommend a different resort that would fit our description? Thanks a lot! Lee > Thanks a lot for your answers! Ahhh, that explains why the people from > playa royal did not answer to our mails... [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > Or would you recommend a different resort that would fit our > description? I can't speak to Reef House, sorry. Inn of Last Resort gets consistently good reports, though I'm not sure it has shore diving. It is a smaller place though. I've been having it recommended to me for years but I'm not really into dedicated dive resorts. A few people here have stayed at Bay Islands Beach Resort and been reasonably happy. I went diving up at Cocoview this past year, with a rec.scuban that has stayed at both Cocoview and Bay Islands Beach Resort. Come to think of it, I dove with him at Bay Islands Beach Resort too. In any event, I enjoyed the shore dive at Cocoview and thought it was a well run operation over all. Cocoview has a devoted following too. Reef house is in Oak Ridge and dives the same reef line as Playa Royal did outside Port Royal harbor. While they offer shore diving (not beach, there isn't one) you could not pay me to swim in the waters directly off Oak Ridge. It is highly polluted with fuel, garbage and human waste (many homes over the water use outhouses). Further the reef directly outside Oak Ridge is essentially dead. While I have never been inside the guest quarters, I would be quite leary given the condition of their dock. I stay in Port Royal and am familier with Oak Ridge and the area. Currently there are no operators in the east-end that I would use. Further to the west, but not to Westend - look at Subway Watersports - http://www.subwaywatersports.com. They may have what you desireand run a quality dive operation. > Thanks a lot for your answers! Ahhh, that explains why the people from > playa royal did not answer to our mails... [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > Thanks a lot! > Lee > Reef house is in Oak Ridge and dives the same reef line as Playa Royal > did outside Port Royal harbor. [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > While I have never been inside the guest quarters, I would be quite > leary given the condition of their dock. Ah geez. There's a local dive shop that has a group trip planned to Reef House in October. I guess they'll find out. > I stay in Port Royal and am familier with Oak Ridge and the area. > Currently there are no operators in the east-end that I would use. > > Further to the west, but not to Westend - look at Subway Watersports - > http://www.subwaywatersports.com. They may have what you desireand run a > quality dive operation. I've heard great things about Subway for a few years now. > > Thanks a lot for your answers! Ahhh, that explains why the people from > > playa royal did not answer to our mails... [quoted text clipped - 18 lines] > > Thanks a lot! > > Lee > Ah geez. There's a local dive shop that has a group trip planned to Reef > House in October. I guess they'll find out. hopefully I'm wrong. They do seem to have a decent reputation but their location and appearence would sure indicate otherwise. But given the alternatives on the isand in the same price range, why chance it. Regardless, I would advise anyone going there to take ear drops to use after any dive done directly off Oak Ridge. I am not sure which Reef House Resort Ron T. has been to and I am not sure which reef has been diving in Roatan however I can tell you that the reef in the Oakridge area is probably in better condition than 90% of the reef around the island. I have stayed on both ends of the island and have stayed at the Reef House. I can assure you the reef on the west end of the island has been beaten half to death with divers who don't care and an abundance of building that is out of control and run off that is killing the reef. The Reef House resort was purchased by new owners a couple of years ago and the new folks have done an incredible job of pumping life back into a resort which was pretty much out of business. There is no doubt it is not a five star place but what it offers is clean and comfortable, probably some of the best food on the island, wonderful staff, and some of the best diving the island has to offer. I am not the expert that Ron is however one look at tripadvisor.com tells the entire story about this place! >> Ah geez. There's a local dive shop that has a group trip planned to Reef >> House in October. I guess they'll find out. [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] >Regardless, I would advise anyone going there to take ear drops to use >after any dive done directly off Oak Ridge. |
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