What a wonderful time our family of 4 (2 adults, 2 teens) had at Las Rocas this month. The diving of course is phenomenal in Roatan but the location and the team at Las Rocas made all the difference. Located on the northern end of the West Bay, we were treated to top notch diving - thank you Mirta, Aaron, Geraldine, Otto, and Paco! In all, our family of four completed nearly 60 dives in 6 days.

The food at the resort is great - fish tacos, pupusas, freshly made chicken fingers, and hot breakfast. Try the cocoanut pie - like a cocoanut macaroon cookie, but with a pie crust. Thank you Winson and Devon and the amazing ladies in the kitchen. So attentive.

Every bungalow has a hammock (where my son could be found whenever he was out of the water). The soaking pool was a good place to cool off if you chose to lay out in the sun for a bit. We stayed in the two superior bungalows - single level, dead on ocean view with perfect sunsets every evening. 25 steps to the beach and the dock. This is a diving focused resort - the rooms are basic, but with good A/C. My only concern was the shower - tiny and dated.

A quick water taxi ride takes you to the West End restaurants and shops ($5 pp). Creole's rotisserie chicken was delicious. Whole chicken and 4 sides ($20) cash only.
Be sure to hit the ATM at the airport before getting your ride to the resort. ATMs are few and variably had cash in them nearby. We didn't go, but Ibagari is supposed to be the place to go for a celebration dinner at sunset. Make a reservation.

Walk the beach to the West Bay restaurants. Both Beachers and Argentinian Grill had great dinners. We didn't make any reservations and had no problems getting a table at dinner time.

Treated myself to a deep tissue massage - Luis Woods is the proprietor of Roatan Mobile Massage. Got all those WFH knots in my neck and shoulders worked out. Be sure to check with the front desk staff as they may have others they contract with - they seemed a bit put off when I let them know I had booked him to come to the resort.

Insect bites - not as bad as we had feared, but we all got some mosquito and sand flea bites. Take a daily Zyrtec while there as prevention, and bring good bug repellant and anti-itch cream (we used prescription topical steroid cream). Avoided eating raw veggies/salads and drank the bottled water to reduce the chance of tummy problems and did just fine. Got our typhoid and Hep A shots prior to going, and anti-malarial pills.

Already planning our next trip - the kids got Advanced Open Water certified and we are all thinking about the Rescue Diver certification course.

Resort Style: This casual, cabin-style dive resort is great for divers and snorkelers whose aim it is to spend as much time diving, snorkeling and sight-seeing as possible. While the open-air dining room and bar offer excellent service and value (the best we could find), this resort is not the best fit for those who expect their resort to provide all the typical comforts of an all-inclusive resort; nor is it meant to. If you're looking for that type of resort, there are other resorts on the island that you might find more suitable.

Returning? This was our second stay at this resort inside of two years. The dive shop and friendly staff is what drew us back to the resort and we hope to return again one day. But next time, we will avoid staying in the two-story cabins.

Cabins: The spacious, tastefully decorated cabins are of solid wood construction. It was great for coming and going with wet suits and equipment, but there is a downside. The solid wood floors and walls allow sound to travel easily between floors. 3 of our 4 total weeks spent in the cabins were great because our neighbours were courteous, taking care not to drop, stomp, drag, or party loudly. If you are a light sleeper, or go to bed early you will want to consider staying in one of the single-story cabins to avoid the risk of ending up with inconsiderate neighbours.

Security: There are no room safes, only one in the main office, but only the manager has access to it. We did not have any issues with this system at all, and we did keep quite a bit of cash in USD there on both trips. We had a housekeeper in our room daily and never had any concerns about theft from our room, even though we often left valuable electronics in there. That being said, we did take precaution not to leave our dive equipment out on our private deck at night since there was no way to guarantee against theft perpetrated at night, despite there being a security guard on site. It's just not reasonable to expect the security guard to be everywhere all the time.

Dive Shop: The dive shop staff had changed since we were last there two years ago, but the excellent, friendly service had not changed. Dives were $40/dive and the boat went out 3 - 4 times per day, every day (as long as there were people who wanted to dive). They rent and set up your gear for you, if you like. Thank you again to the dive shop operator who lent us a couple of tanks to do our own little private "refresher" before heading out on that first dive for the first time in two years. She did not have to do that but it made all the difference in the world to us!

Location: This resort is located at the farthest East end of West Bay Beach. It is quiet at that end, which is great when it's time to retire at the end of the day. But if you're looking for the party, you only have to walk a couple of minutes along the beach to find one, or hop on a 5-minute ($5) water taxi to West End.

Room: When in the Caribbean, we do not typically spend any time in our hotel room except to sleep. So, we do not expect much from our room except that it be clean and comfortable. The bed was comfortable, there was plenty of room for suitcases, gear, and clothing. The bathroom was well stocked daily and we never had any issues with towels or hot water (some visitors to Roatan have mentioned this problem). The Wi-Fi worked in our room as well as out in the open-air dining room. The housekeeper swept the floor daily which was very much appreciated. There is a small fridge which was adequate for storing cold drinks and snacks. It comes stocked.

Breakfast Included: Each day at 8:00 AM the dining room sets out a buffet of cold cereal, breads, yogurt, fruit and juice, and the chef prepares a warm dish which differs each day. The coffee is usually ready by 7:30 AM. Because we are early risers who like coffee and tea as soon as we get up, we brought and set up a water kettle in our room for instant coffee and tea.

Restaurant: The lunches and dinners at the restaurant were really good and we ate at our resort most of the time. When you're staying at the resort, you can ask to bill your room and we ran a tab for the whole 2-week period. This was very convenient.

Cash & Tips: We learned a lot after our first trip to Roatan, and one of the things we did differently this time was to bring A LOT of small bills in USD for tips ($1 & $5). The vast majority of the people who served us (in restaurants, dive shops, grocery stores, and tours) truly do depend on tips to make ends meet. Tips were never requested of us, and were received with sincere gratitude. Giving tips became an important priority for us on this trip especially since it was post-pandemic. In fact, we brought enough USD cash with us to handle most of our transactions that way because we weren't sure how well the bank machines would be stocked at this time.

The resort arranged for covid-19 testing for those who needed it to return home. They also arranged airport shuttles. The office staff was friendly and helpful as well. Pasquale is the office manager. He took the time to pop out of his office to welcome us back to the island. Thank you for such a wonderful stay, Pasquale. Please know that we appreciated your staff so much, especially Elliot and Winston! Those two worked really hard and provided consistently great service.

Great little resort. This was our 3rd time to Roatan, first time at Las Rocas. My husband is a senior diver and rated the service and experience as excellent! I enjoy snorkling and a 15 minute walk along the beach to the best snorkling was what I was looking for. Food excellent! The included breakfast and all day free coffee so much appreciated. Rooms rustic and very clean. Beds comfortable. A/C worked awesome. Looking forward to seeing all the friendly and super helpful staff again next year!