Tabyana Beach?

[stingraycityslicker]

If you've been to Tabyana Beach, how was your experience? Was the beach clean, beautiful, well-staffed, etc?

[sallycruiser]

Just there, Beach was very nice, lots of chairs, shade with trees, water was beautiful, lots of people snorkeling.

 

I don't recommend the food there.

 

Have fun

[skidder]

I've been to Tabayana Beach twice. It's a very nice beach with wonderful snorkeling. The service was great both times. There were plenty of chairs to go around and the area was very clean and tidy. Lots of trees and beautiful blue water

[stingraycityslicker]

Thank you both. I'm looking forward to it. :)

[mx315]

You will Love it...Was just there,Awesome,Clean,And blue water,Palms swaying,Walk to the east end of the beach towards the cliffs,Take some cereal from the ship,Throw it the water and be amazed by the fish all around..Great times,The drinks were awesome also.ENJOY

[407dm]

Has anyone done this beach through carnival?? if so does the transport stop anyplace??

 

is there any shopping near the beach??

 

thanks

[bellatsava]

IF you did this on your own, did you just grab a taxi and tell them to take you there and if so, how much to get there and back?

 

Also how far is it from the pier?

 

 

I really would like to go here.

[Englishchap]

Can you rent a chair if you come in from the beach side and if so

what does it cost?

[markstudy]

Does the ship tour provide you with a shuttle, that runs all day? so you can pick when to come back to the ship? Or is it a set time?

 

Is it better to just rent a taxi, and walk to the beach near the reef? Thus skipping the resort... and ship's tour group? We like to spend a lot of time snorkeling and at the beach. Don't want to feel rushed.

 

Can you snorkel anywhere you want? I always worry about the ship tour. I know you get to use the beach chairs and resort, but I don't want a bunch of restrictions to where I can swim, based on the beginners in the group. (I've seen snorkel tours where they set up such safe boundaries for the beginners, that it was no fun for anyone with experience snorkeling).

[MissRabbit]

isn't Tabyana beach just part of West Bay beach area?

 

ETA: or is it West End?

[SANJOSEGAL]

I'm curious too:confused:

[watchdiva]

Tabyana is just a small section of beach located on West Bay Beach (not West End - two separate places). If you're looking for a lounge chair, you can walk down the beach to Bananarama and rent a chair for $5 for the day. The chairs in the section called Tabyana are strictly for the use of cruise ship excursions and if you're not wearing an ID band on your wrist, security will ask you to vacate the chair.

 

You can certainly grab a taxi and be driven to West Bay Beach and you can ask to be dropped off near Infinity Bay, Bananarama, Mayan Princess, etc. I have no idea what the fare would be......

 

Read through a few pages of this forum and you'll find great info on West Bay Beach.....

[wadethegringo]

I need to look for the link.....I found a driver for the day that charges $20 per person for the day......I will look and update.

 

Theris' Roatan Tours

[CATJAMMIES]

Know much about either of these? and in comparison to Tabayana?

[CATJAMMIES]

jaguar paw is in belize! not roatan!

[seeyakids]

For those interested in looking at photos of West Bay (Tabyana) go to Tripadvisor.com, search West Bay, Roatan, then "things to do", then photos (on the left side) to get a good prespective of WB. Stayed in West Bay 3 times in the past 3 years.....my favorite Caribbean island.

Enjoy.....

[SANJOSEGAL]

For those interested in looking at photos of West Bay (Tabyana) go to Tripadvisor.com, search West Bay, Roatan, then "things to do", then photos (on the left side) to get a good prespective of WB. Stayed in West Bay 3 times in the past 3 years.....my favorite Caribbean island.

Enjoy.....

 

Great suggestion thank you so much we can't wait to go :).

[MamaParrotHead]

I went through the ship (and I usually don't) but it was fine. It was like $25-$30 per person for the ride (20 minutes about) and water/lemonade/iced tea while you were there. Shuttles going to and from the ship throughout the day. Service was great, drinks tasty, area was immaculate and gorgeous.

 

Breath-taking, our favorite stop on that cruise. Would go back in a heartbeat.

[markstudy]

I went through the ship (and I usually don't) but it was fine. Would go back in a heartbeat.

 

Thanks for the details. Was there any limits to where you could snorkel? I'm trying to make sure that I don't get stuck in a roped-off area because the cruise ship doesn't want its tour group to swim out too far. (this happened to me once in the Bahamas and I've been careful to ask ever since).

 

That's why I've stuck to doing it on my own, but I liked to take the ship tour and make it easy.

 

But I still have bad memories of the Bahamas, where the cruise ship gave us a wrist band to use the resort, but wouldn't let us swim out to many areas of the reef. I saw people who took their own taxi swimming anywhere they wanted :rolleyes:

[seeyakids]

Mark.....If you are not part of the ship's excursions, you probably can snorkle anywhere you want. The "kayak guys" will not hassle you. Regardless, most of the ships group will be herded to an area just to the right of Tabyana. Now this is a pretty nice snorkling area but the motherlode is about 30' to 50' farther out thru some channels. Again, if you are independent just look for the channel heading straight out. You will be amazed at the clarity of the water (baring stormy days) and the abundance of critters. You will then cross a sandy bottom area and another 30' will be a bigger reef running parallel to shore. Just beyond this is the drop off......magnificent.

You can actually do the same by walking about 100 yards to the left of Tabyana to "the iguana wall" (see photos of this on Tripadvisor.com). Now this is just as pretty and you can basically snorkle to the same areas. However......this route is shallow. So be extremely careful not to touch the coral. It can be done, though. I have done this the last 3 stays at West Bay (Tabyana). Love this little island.....

Have fun!

[Roatan1]

For those interested in looking at photos of West Bay (Tabyana) go to Tripadvisor.com, search West Bay, Roatan, then "things to do", then photos (on the left side) to get a good prespective of WB. Stayed in West Bay 3 times in the past 3 years.....my favorite Caribbean island.

Enjoy.....

Or just go to Google, type Roatan and hit image search, there are also thousands on Flickr as well

[MissRabbit]

Now this is a pretty nice snorkling area but the motherlode is about 30' to 50' farther out thru some channels. Again, if you are independent just look for the channel heading straight out. You will be amazed at the clarity of the water (baring stormy days) and the abundance of critters. You will then cross a sandy bottom area and another 30' will be a bigger reef running parallel to shore. Just beyond this is the drop off......magnificent.

!

 

The thing i worry about most with venturing too far from shore, is running into boat traffic. If i go out to the drop off where you suggest, won't i be out where the boats are? especially what with the water taxis runnign from west bay to west end?

 

We're planning on using Bananarama as a homebase. It appears, from Google Earth, that between Bananarama and Infinity Bay resort, would be some good snorkling closer to shore. Wht do you think? I don't mind swimming out 100' from shore for good snorkling as long as i won't be having to dodge boats to do so.

[markstudy]

The thing i worry about most with venturing too far from shore, is running into boat traffic.

 

Yep I was wondering the same thing. Do people use Dive Flags... when snorkeling out further in this area?

 

I found it interesting in Bonaire that no one used Dive Flags. They just had the entire bay marked as a dive site.

 

I guess its always good to ask.

[billie5]

We are expecting to be there in mid-November, which of course is the high point of rainy season. So we will have to depend on luck for the weather. My question is whether the sand flies are likely to be a problem at that time on Tabyana?

 

Bill

[watchdiva]

Again, we snorkel this particular area of reef at least 1x a week and the best spot to enter the water is below Infinity Bay (if you stand facing the water it's to the left of the water taxi dock). Since West End is in the opposite direction, the chances that you will encounter water taxi traffic are quite slim (if at all). The snorkeling down by the rocks is awesome - last week we snorkeled over the drop-off and saw the most amazing fish hanging out just where the coral ends and the drop begins. Each time we snorkel West Bay, I tell my husband it's the best yet and yet each time is better than the last.

 

The "kayak guys" are there to protect the reef (and cruise pax) from standing on/damaging coral and also to make sure that snorkelers stay safe. The kayaks (on cruise ship days) are stationed in front of/very near to the beach section known as Tabyana (to the left of Infinity Bay). They aren't there if there are no ships in port (which is when we go).

 

We don't use a dive/snorkel flag. Sound amplifies underwater and believe me if you hear the telltale sound of an engine, you're going to pop your head up and look around - and I'm willing to bet that you'll be surprised to find that it is either an airplane flying overhead or a boat hundreds of years from your location.