Today I am sharing about our visit to the port of Roatan.
I was really looking forward to our stop at this port in Honduras. From the research I had done it looked like a beautiful place. And I was excited to try the chair lift to Mahogany beach.
I am happy to report that this port had a very short pier (see my review on Costa Maya). Once you were off the ship it was a short walk to the action.
(photo credit DiscoverRoatan.net)
The pier is set up so you walk through a large air-conditioned shop to get to the courtyard on the other side. It’s the first attempt to get you shopping. But there were no high pressure or pushy sales people. Not that I encountered.
Shops and restaurants surround the courtyard. There were a few cute photo-opt spots. They were hard to resist, as you can see.
My daughter was ready to hit the beach, but first I wanted to get some better internet than I had on the ship. I went to a kiosk that sold a days worth of internet for $5.00. I asked if it would also work on the beach and I was told there was a little dead zone on the path over but once on the beach it would also work. I will tell you now the internet was a mess. It was VERY spotty, and I walked around A LOT to try and connect. Even in the same spot I would have connection on minute and gone the next. I would say skip it, because it was a distraction and a frustration you don’t need on vacation.
We went to the chair lift to get a ride to the beach. We wanted to just get a one-way ticket, just for the fun of trying it and then walk back from the beach when we were done. However they only sold round trip tickets and it cost about $15 per person to ride. It was not worth it for the 3 of us since it was like a 5-minute walk to Mohogany beach.
(photo credit Carnival.com)
The beach area was very nice. There were lots and lots of places to sit. But you did need to get there early to get the nice covered beach chairs. There was also plenty of beach, if you wanted to just pick a spot and sit on the sand. If you were hungry or wanted a drink you just walked to strip of restaurants and bars, which were right by the beach. The water was nice and cool, and you had a perfect view of the ship while you played in the ocean.
On the way back to the ship we checked out the little shops on the far side of the courtyard. There you will find more of the local vendors. I wanted a gift that said “Honduras” on it and most of the vendors had burners so they could customize items.
We also discovered one of the shops was a local pharmacy. We took advantage to purchase a couple albuterol pumps. They were selling them for $10.00 and it costs us $40 at home WITH insurance. Since we were not 100% sure what the rules are about buying overseas we did not pick up anything else. But they had a lot of different medications to offer.
Roatan was my favorite port from that cruise itinerary. I would happily visit there again and again.
(If you want to learn about how I budget and save for my cruises check out www.CruiseWithJosie.com)
PEACE.LOVE&CRUISES to all...
