Cocolobo and Roatan: my perfect honeymoon!
I've just come back from a better honeymoon than I dared hope for, and it's largely thanks to the amazing place I visited and the wonderful hotel I stayed at, so I thought I'd better plug both of them.
The place is Roatan, one of Honduras' Bay Islands, a little tropical island less than three hours' flight from Houston (direct flights also go from Milan, Toronto and Miami in season), and the hotel was Cocolobo, in the village of West End.
First, a little about Roatan. This island is a former British colony, with four main populations: English-speaking "islanders" descended from freed slaves from the British era, Spanish-speakers from the mainland, Garifunan-speakers, and expats from the US, Canada, Europe and elsewhere. It's a narrow, tropical island with a single paved road and many unpaved tributaries, and it sits squarely on the second-largest barrier reef in the world (itself a protected marine park reserve).
We stayed in West End, a town that's touristy enough that you can get a delicious meal at any of several restaurants and draw out cash from one of the two ATMs (when they're working!), but also far enough off the beaten track that it felt sleepy and safe and absolutely tranquil and isolated from the cares we'd left behind.
A huge part of that was Cocolobo, our hotel, where we stayed for about $75/night, in a large room with air-conditioning, a ceiling fan, a back porch with a hammock overlooking the sea and the "iron shore" (fossilized coral) with spectacular nightly sunsets, a pool, and delicious hot breakfasts every day. Rory and Claire, our hosts, were magnificent, helping us find dive-shops, babysitting, great food, and fun things to do while there.
We dove every day, mostly with Ocean Connections (who were fantastic) as well as with Coconut Tree. The diving was unbelievable -- clear seas, warm water, and an amazing variety in dive-sites from high-speed drifts along the wall to mellow dives among the giant barrel-sponges. There were turtles and rays and morays in plenty, and dolphins and sharks, too, as well as a couple of challenging and spooky wrecks. Dives were very reasonable -- about $25/person including gear rental.
We spent a lot of time at Cocolobo, too, relaxing and reading, playing with the baby, snorkeling off the iron shore, getting online now and then. It was incredibly comfortable and beautiful, besides.
For meals, we favored the $6 lunch at Mavis and Dixie's, right on the beach, where we got a generous portion of blackened wahoo, plantains, beans and salad, usually with a fresh banana-pineapple smoothie. Sometimes we'd take the baby to the secluded lagoon behind Mavis and Dixie's for a splash and a dig in the sand (the folks at the restaurant even loaned us a spoon so she could dig in the sand!).
There were lots of good dinner options, but the most remarkable was Ooloontho, a gourmet Indian restaurant run by a Canadian-born chef and his Indian-born wife. We ate dinner there twice and I was knocked off my seat both times by the delicate flavors, the inventiveness, and the quality of the ingredients. I'll never forget the calamari, and I'll never, never, never forget the banana bread-and-butter in a salt caramel sauce! I was in Mumbai in September and while I ate some great food there, Ooloontho beats everything I tasted in India or here in London.
(Speaking of tastes, ZOMG, Bucanero hot sauce kicks 18 kinds of ass -- we brought home ten bottles!)
We barely scratched the surface of all there is to do in Roatan -- dolphin encounters, yoga, horseback riding, a butterfly reserve, zip-lines through the jungles, and the world's deepest-diving civilian submarine (built by a hobbyist who taught himself to weld!). Nearly every person we met was friendly and helpful. I've never felt so relaxed in my adult life.
We fell in love with the place and are hoping to return next year with our extended families, taking over five or six of Cocolobo's 12 rooms, along with one of the smart little self-catering cabins they were finishing while we were there. The hotel and island are the picture of paradise: laid back, kid-friendly, warm and unspoiled.
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Awesome, I'm glad you had a good time. Roatan is incredible; my brother Tom lived there for a few years. I only got to visit him once, but it was great.
A woman named Bobbian had an amazing restaurant - Tom would tell her what we would like to eat later in the day and her husband tried to catch it for us. Whatever he caught was delicious, though.
How did you find this place? How did you pick this destination out of all the many interesting vistas that you know of? I've never heard of it.
I thought maybe you would go to Tetiaroa or Chernobyl or something crazy.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetiaroa
We were on a cruise that stopped in Roatan earlier this month.
Once we got there, everyone was disappointed to find that they wouldn't let us go ashore. There was a general strike in Honduras (something to do with the gas tax), and protesters were blocking the streets.
Sounds like a fabulous place. I'll have to add it to my list of places to visit one day. It even sounds like a reasonably priced trip, especially for everything you got.
Regarding that homebuilt submarine: If you think that's cool, you have to check out this one: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3005279
Built completely with donated help and materials and largely the work of one man.
And by that, you mean "it's largely thanks to my amazing wife"? You won't be married long with that attitude. :-)
Anyway... welcome back.
Maybe I'm overestimating the power of BoingBoing but now you've got me totally worried that Roatan is gonna get mega tourist swamped before I can trick a lady into marrying me and using it as the honeymoon getaway that I've hoped for since I was 12 (seriously) and went there on a trip with the then-new Discovery School of Tegucigalpa.
I wish I could remember much about where we stayed but the only detail I can extract from my rusty trap of a brain is that our family opted for a much less "upscale" place (Dolphin Bay or something like that, they were nice cabins) while all my friends were in a fancy, huge hotel. Still an incredibly beautiful place as you describe though and I don't think I got to see nearly as much of it as you did.
But yeah, if I go there in the future and it's teeming with droves of internet dweebs (other than myself) I'm holding YOU responsible Cory! :)
Seriously though, congrats on the wedding/honeymoon!
Sounds like a great place. Though the Cocolobo website had a news reader with this link:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-wi-hondurashomicide,0,642959.story
i stayed in one of those houses right on the beach next to Mavis and Dixie's for a week this year. I have to agree - it was the most beautiful place I've been.
Adjacent to Roatan is Utila, the smallest and least commercialized of Hondura's Bay Islands. If you're looking for a less-touristy experience (with no visiting cruise ships) try Utila.
We stayed at Utopia a very nice, all inclusive, boutique resort and had a wonderful time, even dove with whale sharks.
I second Utila--I spend two weeks there for my honeymoon. We rented a cabin with its own private beach for less that a hundred a night.
And the diving was fantastic--25 bucks for equipment, boat for two dives!!
Just don't expect exceptional food--it's pretty basic. And, because of the remote location, fruits and veggies come in from the mainland twice a week, and when they're gone, they're gone.
I visited Roatan in 2004.
Although I agree with you on the beautiful scenery and the friendly Garufa people, I remember it mainly for other reasons.
The island boasts the highest HIV infection rate in Central America and has all the symptoms that come with it: a lot of drug abuse, violence and shady 'tourism'.
Not to spoil your honeymoon or anything, I had a good time there myself, but I just didn't find it to be the paradise you described.
Hi Cory - I was in Roatan in about 1980 or so and I stayed at Anthony's Key Resort. I was a commercial diver and a dive instructor at the time, but I had previously learned to bring along my NAUI advanced card and ONLY use that... "Hey, you're an instructor! Great, you can be our second divemaster!" (when I'm paying for a dive I'm not going to be working!).
I had a great time - (insert all the superlatives you want about diving here) and loved the atmosphere and the people.
One thing I noticed though - my attitude was to have a vacation and enjoy the local food and drink. Too bad some of our friends from the US had to have Coke, American beer and burgers. I still remember a shredded beef dish, perfectly seasoned, washed down with local strawberry soda!
Glad you had a good time - happy honeymoon!
And yet you return to the land of surveillance cameras, leaky government databases and the "war on terror"?
What were you THINKING?!?
I am happily married to a woman from Helene, the un-touristy side of Roatan. A wonderful place, but not recommended for your typical Lonely Planet tourist (i.e. it is a good idea to know someone from there before popping into town.)
Here are some bits from the wedding:
http://www.roatanwedding.blogspot.com/
We also stopped at Roatan on a cruise in 2004. Parts of it were lovely, but the thing that struck me was the poverty. I wish I could locate the picture I took of a bunch of native kids having a ball in the bay at the mouth of a small river. A small, filthy river, with garbage and dead things floating in it (I didn't take a pic of the dead things tho). They were so happy...it still disturbs me.