• 1. Where to Stay
• 2. Where to Eat
• 3. What to Do
• 4. Insider’s Tip
• 5. An Oddball Day

(Photo: Courtesy of Anthony’s Key Resort)

Dive the perfect beginner's spot with Sueno del Mar Dive Center (800-298-9009), voted best on Roatan by Scuba Diving magazine. It's located on the island’s touristy West End, and skilled instructors will take you fifteen minutes to the novice dive site—the water is 80 degrees, the current is almost nonexistent, and underwater visibility is at 100 feet.

For prime reef diving, head to Mary's Place, where parrotfish, king crab, and hawksbill turtles are abundant. Here, the reef wall is broken in spots, exposing a maze covered in rope-and-tube sponges as well as graceful pink, purple, and yellow sea fans. Book through Subway Watersports, a National Geographic dive center. They have locations at Turquoise Bay Resort and Palmetto Plantation Resort.

Explore the sunken vessel El Aguila, a 210-foot cargo boat lying in a hundred feet of water. Then head over to the Odyssey, the largest wreck off Roatan. Lying 110 feet below the surface next to a vivid part of the reef wall, the ship's stern lists at about 30 degrees, and it's possible to swim through it. Subway Watersports organizes dives to both wrecks.

Swim with sharks by going on a dive through Waihuka Adventure Diving (Dixon Cove, Las Palmas; 504-445-1283), an experienced shop located on the island's south side. Seventy feet down, groups of up to fifteen docile gray reef sharks zoom in to be fed by a dive master. Keep watch for large schools of fish, like grouper.

Snorkelers, arrange trips to the reefs through your hotel. Roatan's waters are clear as vodka (you can even spot fish from the plane as you are landing), making for prime fish-spotting even from the surface.

Published on Mar 19, 2008 as a web exclusive.