Planing Your Trip to the West End of Roatan, Honduras

If you tell someone you’re headed to Roatan, blank stares and a questioning look are sure to be the immediate response. This little island off the north coast of Honduras in the turquoise Caribbean waters has not found itself on many tourists bucket lists… yet. Roatan has been a scuba divers destination since the early 90s, with more dive sites within 100 yds of the island’s shoreline than I’ve seen anywhere in the world. Lucky for me, my wife, Courtney, had always knew about this little slice of paradise and we planed our diving trip here for 2025!

West Bay or West End?

When booking, first thing you need to do is decide where on the island you will want to stay. Sure, Roatan is a small island, but way too big to explore without renting a vehicle. It’s definitely not Caye Calker where you can cover the entire island by foot in a couple of days. For your first trip here, you primarily choose between West End or West Bay. The cruise ships port in Coxin Hole, but there really isn’t much going on there. Both West End and West Bay are beautiful places with similarly excellent access to Scuba sites, sandy beaches, and are only a short 20 minute taxi ride from the airport. The major difference between the two beach towns is the vibe. West Bay consists mainly of the resorts, families, and larger crowds. Where West End is the laid back Island  vibe with palm trees, uncrossed beach bars, and restaurants you begin to recognize fellow travelers by the end of your trip. If you couldn’t have guessed, we chose to stay in West End.

Lodging in West End

If you’re looking for the Ritz Carlton or 5-star accommodations, the West End is probably not the place for you. The West End is the laid back Caribbean beach vacation that you might find romanticized in a Ernest Hemingway novel. Sure, there are definitely nice options, private apartments, standard Caribbean hotels, but even more cheap options that are well under $100/night. We stayed at the Lands End Beach Resort, though a shell of it’s former glory, it was a middle of the road hotel with amazing breakfast, full service bar and restaurant, salt water pool, a short walk into town, and best of all, a private stone stairway into the ocean for snorkeling. I believe the higher end, more western hotels can be found in the West Bay, but then you’re giving up the charm of what the West End has to offer. 

Bars and Restaurants

There are no shortage of places to eat and drink in the West End. While I thought seafood would be the primary menu item at every restaurant, in reality, it was much closer to standard American fare. For a meal you will be shocked how big the portions are, the Texan owners of Sandy Buns Bakery is a must. Eat fish tacos out over the water at Ipanema Beach Bar and Grill. Two of the absolute staples of the West End are Gingers Caribbean grill and, our favorite, Sundowners Beach Bar. Nearly every night ended at Sundowners for drinks, along with all the other divers and gringos. The best time at Sundowners is for sunset, but more-so because the large cocktails are half off. For a more upscale style, we kept going back to Silversides for a unique twist on the normal beachside dishes. All this to say, no plan is ever needed to find a great bite to eat. Every day, for lunch and dinner, we’d just walk the West End Road along the water and just see which restaurant or bar stood out, and walked right in! One last place to catch a sunset drink if you don’t mind the walk, is Tita’s Pink SeaHorse. Tita is an amazing person and made us feel like a local, plus the Barenas are ice cold. 

Scuba diving

If you aren’t planning to go scuba diving while in Roatan, regardless of where you’re staying, then you are likely in the minority. Surrounding the island, separated by less than 100 yards, there are nearly a hundred dive sites. While here, we only got to experience 5 of them, but the dive shops do an incredible job, especially Native Sons, at getting out to new sites every week so you’ll never have to dive the same site twice. Special about Roatan, all the dive sites are a quick 5-15 minute boat ride, making this the only place I’ve where they only go out for 1 tank dives, then return back to shore for the surface interval. Unsure at first, this was fantastic, because we could go dive early, come back, hang out for lunch, then go out for the evening dive rather than staying on the boat for a 2 or 3 tank dive.

There are a mixture of shallow and deep dives, with dive operations going out 3 to 5 times per day. The reefs are primarily hard corals with soft coral fans spread out across, and since this island had volcanic origins, the reef represents a mountains topography. There are ravines, cliffs, drop-offs, and slopes to explore, with most dives including all of these features for a diverse experience from start to finish. The life on the reef I’d say is pretty standard for the Caribbean, from what I’ve experienced and what I gathered talking with other divers. While downplaying the quality of the reef, it is absolutely covered in life of all sizes, and you’ll never be bored with the variety of sea life. Though we didn’t see any large animals, it’s really just luck of the draw, since some of our new friends saw sharks on a dive we didn’t go on. I cannot recommend enough diving El Aguila shipwreck, and even more, the String of Pearls on a night dive. If you have any questions, just ask another diver at the bar! It’s so laid back, you can walk up to any shop and likely get on a boat that day for a dive.

Snorkeling

Snorkeling in the West End is shockingly great, although, it depends on where you go. The two main access points to the water safe for snorkeling are going to be the main half-moon bay in town, or via the rocky shoreline north of the bay. I do say safe, because the boat traffic around the island is frequent, to say the least. Within the bay, there is a designated marine sanctuary that is great for snorkeling and avoiding any of the incoming water taxis. The easy entry sandy beach has mostly tall grasses so you’ll see different fish come cruising through in search of a meal. I even saw a large jack-type fish one afternoon. The better snorkeling here will be off the the left side of the bay when looking out to the ocean, as that is where all the rocky shoreline is, and you’ll find a much more interesting day of snorkeling here. If you have the ability from where your hotel is, or would just enjoy a longer swim, north of the bay is a rocky paradise for marine life. Tucked in all the cracks and under the rocks, you’ll find crustaceans large and small, and different reef fish hanging out between adventures out into the open. Best yet, we found a cave that we could dive through and come out the other side, making for a true underwater adventure.

Brewery

For the beer drinking travelers here, a trip out to Roatan Brewery is a near must. Admittedly it sucks how far from town it is, but I can assure you it is worth the trip for an afternoon. To get there, if you don’t have a vehicle at your disposal, simply walk up to the group of taxi cab drivers that hang out in the center of town by the beach and just ask for a ride. The 30 minute ride, each way, will cost you about $40USD for the entire trip, since the cabbie will hang out in their car in the brewery parking lot until you’re done. The road to the brewery will take you up and over the jungle hills, through small towns both developed and not, ultimately until you reach one of the coolest looking breweries you’ve ever seen. Tucked inside the walls of a dense jungle with countless palm trees towering multiple stories above. The the indoor/outdoor venue ties the brewery to the scenery outside the building’s walls. Like any normal brewery, you have your choice of getting a regular pint, or the chance to sample anything you want on the menu. A complete contrast to the bland Caribbean beer like Sal Vavida or  Barena Roatan Brewery made an excellent selection of IPAs, Lagers, Sours, Seltzers, and even Stouts and Porters. This is the kind of brewery you could spend the entire day at without getting tired of the beer or the vibe. After drinking for only an hour or so, we returned to our cabbie in the parking lot, only for him to be shocked how soon we finished. So don’t feel bad for making them wait, the fair is priced accordingly and he didn’t seem to have a problem at all! Plus, it was a mini-tour on the way there and back with little bits of stories along the way.

All in all, the West End of Roatan is an amazing place to visit. There are few places, that I’ve been to so far, that are still as laid back as Roatan. The Scuba Diving was amazing, especially with how close the dive sites are from the beach. The people we met, and ran into every day, were so friendly. So bring your SPF, a couple of bathing suits, your favorite sunglasses, and get on down to the West End of Roatan.