Roatan Island

Honduras

Roatan is the largest and most popular island of the Bay Islands chain. This 30 mile long stringbean-shaped island is the beating heart and soul of the Islands. Its geography, accented by a rolling rocky interior and shoreline pockmarked with cays and coves, made it an ideal hide away for pirates in early days. Today, it harbors expatriates and divers looking for their own Central American adventure.

Prime sites include West End Wall, a gently sloping plateau of hard corals and tube sponges; look for turtles and grouper and keep your mask peeled for cowrie shells in the shallows. Drop out of the dive boat and down to Peter's Place, where you're immediately surrounded by a posse of Nassau and black groupers in a series of coral terraces. The sloping wall at Crawfish Rock is so completely shingled with sheet coral that it seems as if you are floating over an enormous submerged rooftop. Lush stepped terraces, typical of northern reef sites, are interrupted only by valleys, spurs and grooves at Big Bight East. If it's a unique underwater rendezvous that you crave, try a dolphin encounter at the Institute of Marine Sciences.

Dive Packages on Roatan are offered by the following Resorts:
Anthony's Key Resort, Bay Islands Beach Resort, CoCo View Resort and Fantasy Island Beach Resort.