BootsnAll Travel Community

Well I finally have a chance to get away for a week and I'm looking for some suggestions, I'd like to get to Central America and get in a few dives but mostly just relax on some calm beaches preferably someplace quiet but with decent hostels and things to do/see if I get ambitious. The ideal place would be only a few hours from the main international airport, I just won't have much time to spend getting anyplace remote.

Anyways, please let me know what you suggest. I will probably buy tickets on Saturday, it's short notice travel so I'm looking for suggested as soon as possible.... thanks!

Honduras - Roatán? (Photos and travelogues below if you're interested.)

Honduras.....UTILA....definitely. Cheaper, more basic and funner(?) with great nightlife AND day life and great diving.

roatan is very easy to get to. The beach in west bay is extremely beautiful! West end is a fun place and it's easy to get between west end and west bay in roatan. Utila is great too but not quite as easy to get to and the beaches on roatan are nicer...IMO

Sounds like Utila or Roaton are my best options, which has the better beach? I don't see myslef wanting to spend very much time on the beach but my wife might.

Thanks for the suggestions btw and please keep them coming!

We split 3 weeks between Utila and Roatan 2 summers ago. We loved both and at the time gave Utila a slight edge, but I find myself recommending Roatan more because there's more to do there - better beaches, easier access to shore snorkeling, interesting villages, and great hiking. The diving is great from both but much closer off Roatan. Utila tends to be cheaper but there are fairly inexpensive options on Roatan as well.

Lots of photos plus travelogues below. Happy trails!

What about the flight from San Pedro Sula to Roatan? If I get into San Pedro at 12:55 is that enough time to catch another flight to Roatan? What about taking a bus to the ferry, would I make it there in time to catch the ferry?

Hedman Alas www.hedmanalas.com has a shuttle bus from the airport to their station at 1:30 and another at 2:15, connecting to a 2:45 bus to La Ceiba. The trip is about 3 hours and the ferries leave La Ceiba for Roatán at 9:30 am and 4:30 pm. Arriving around 1:00 you could consider other buses that leave sooner than 2:45 but they're apt to be the type that stop chronically to let on other passengers, so might not buy you much time. In other words, plan a night in La Ceiba if you go that route and take the morning ferry.

There are 3 airlines that fly SAP to RTB (Roatán) and you shouldn't have trouble finding a flight to get you there that afternoon. I'd book in advance just in case as we got stuck at the airport for 6 hours once waiting for a flight with available seats to La Ceiba even though everyone we'd talked to said we wouldn't need reservations. The airlines are linked on the links page of the Coco Pando site www.cocopando.com .

quote:

Originally posted by janetlynne:
roatan is very easy to get to.

In case you don't want to deal with San Pedro Sula, Continental offers direct flights from Houston to Roatan.

...Delta and TACA also offer direct flights from the U.S. to Roatan. I found this page which lists 'em (note that the direct flights are only on weekends):

http://www.bibr.com/aboutisland.htm

Thanks to all,I just got tickets to Roatan from JFK,I need to drive to JFK to make it happen(5 hours) but it definitely maximizes the time I have. I leave JFK at 3:30am and arrive on the Island by 12:30PM. I end up getting a whole week this way and not 5 days with 1.5 days of travel... tickets were not too bad, they were more than I was hoping to pay but I'll pay almost anything to travel and I'm doing this with 3 weeks notice so the price was absolutely worth it considering.

Anyways, thanks again for the feedback!

Will look forward to your travelogue! :-)