Bodden-Best of Roatan ?'s

[nathand95]

We are looking at the Bodden tour "Best of Roatan" and I have some quick questions:

Is Half Moon Bay or West Bay Beach better?

Will the guide give the history, culture, etc for the island? It will be my parents first time in Roatan.

How is the horseback riding?

Also, my mom is so paranoid about Roatan,so is doing tours through Victor Bodden safe?

[Sabiney]

We did this tour last month as a private tour. We really enjoyed our day and felt VERY safe at all times. We're going back in December/January and will ask for Frankie again. Below is part of my NCL Spirit review.

 

 

Day 5 - Roatan

 

Ah, Roatan, one of my new favorite ports. This was our first visit and after a lot of research on these boards, I booked the Best of Roatan with Victor Bodden. Frankie was our guide for the day and he did a great job. We booked a morning horseback ride with El Rancho Barrio Dorcas. We were a little late getting there and had to wait for the next group. Frankie helped us kill some time at West End Village, but unfortunately that cut into our snorkel time after the ride. The horses were well behaved and we never felt unsafe on the roads as some had mentioned. It ended up being the two of us with our guide. It was a nice long ride and I soon realized that I didn't have near the seat padding of years past. Maybe too many trips to the Casino. After the ride we stopped for lunch at a little restaurant called Marilyn's (I believe) and my husband had his first iguana meal. Hey, when in Rome...or Roatan. He said it was tasty, but had a lot of bones. We then headed to West Bay Beach with about an hour window to snorkel. This is one of those ports that I will go back to until I get it right. Next trip we will definitely go with Victor Bodden and hopefully Frankie will still be there. We really enjoyed his company! I think a day pass to one of the resorts would be nice to get lots of snorkel time in.

 

Pat

[nathand95]

Thank you so much! So glad you had a great time. It sounds amazing. I think we will definitely go with Bodden.

[ondebyou]

We are looking at the Bodden tour "Best of Roatan" and I have some quick questions:

Is Half Moon Bay or West Bay Beach better?

Will the guide give the history, culture, etc for the island? It will be my parents first time in Roatan.

How is the horseback riding?

Also, my mom is so paranoid about Roatan,so is doing tours through Victor Bodden safe?

 

The guide/driver we had(Lionel) was a very safe driver, very informative with history,culture,etc of the island..and most anything you would ask about. He was very candid, "our" program oriented. He also had us back to the Mohogany Bay Terminal safely and in a timely manner with time to spare for shop browsing and boarding for departure.

Our day was Zip & Dip, so the 2nd half of the day was spent at West End, so i can't really say how Half Moon Bay is, I would think it's very nice as well. Sorry, can't say on the horseback riding either.

[Putterdude]

I would say that I felt completely comfortable and safe with Bodden and the guide/driver we had. Victor has some 52 drivers who work for him and outside of the drivers he relies on vendors to provide certain aspects of his tours. In our case his snorkel excursion left him/us high and dry...so be aware. I have been waiting to hear from about this...but as some 2 weeks have passed and not a word, he obviously doesn't care.

[Holly2]

Was that the glass bottom boat with snorkeling? did he delete the extra charge? offer another activity?

 

We got with him next month.

[nathand95]

We are also looking that Zip n Dip but we are also ziplinning in Costa Maya. How was the ziplinning with Victor? Anything special?

[We-R-Off]

We recently did the full tour. The driver was informative and helpful, but to be honest Roatan is so small, I reckon we could have taken a taxi for less. There's not much to see, although it is picturesque.

 

I did the zipline which was my first time, it isn't at all extreme.

 

I hated the monkey business, as I don't like seeing caged animals and made a very fast retreat.

 

We did some snorkeling but didn't see much.

 

It is perfectly safe to book with Victor Bodden and takes the stress out of it for the nervous traveller.

[queenerin]

We are looking at the Bodden tour "Best of Roatan" and I have some quick questions:

Is Half Moon Bay or West Bay Beach better?

Will the guide give the history, culture, etc for the island? It will be my parents first time in Roatan.

How is the horseback riding?

Also, my mom is so paranoid about Roatan,so is doing tours through Victor Bodden safe?

 

My family and I did the Best of Roatan Tour with Bodden just last month as a group of 6 people. We did the island tour and our guide (Kimberly) was very knowledgeable about the island. She was young(25), and seemed a little bored with the same old stories, but she was very nice, and answered all of our questions in detail.

After the driving tour of the island we went to Victor's monkey/petting zoo, and we LOVED the monkeys! We stayed and played with them for quite awhile.

Then we headed to West Bay Beach -- originally we were going to the Infinity Resort but they were booked for the day, so we went to BananaRama instead. $5 each to rent beach chairs, and it was pretty crowded. We still really enjoyed it....it was a gorgeous beach. There are places to change/rinse off/eat/drink/rent water equipment/etc.

Overall we really enjoyed the day, and at NO point felt pressured into anything, unsafe, or unhappy with the experience.

[fly-1a]

I would say that I felt completely comfortable and safe with Bodden and the guide/driver we had. Victor has some 52 drivers who work for him and outside of the drivers he relies on vendors to provide certain aspects of his tours. In our case his snorkel excursion left him/us high and dry...so be aware. I have been waiting to hear from about this...but as some 2 weeks have passed and not a word, he obviously doesn't care.

 

We have booked Victor Bodden for next month with the snorkelling/glass bottom boat option - was this the one? is it really unteaible?

[rp23g7]

We did the Island tour last October., Monkey Business and the iguanna area. We had a private tour and the driver, i forgot his name, stopped where ever we wanted to.

 

We are going back again next october, as my camera somehow over wrote my pics from the tour and all the pics from that day got overwritten with Belize pics, It was a really great day and did not feel unsafe at anytime, there was no hocking of anything, although there were some people hanging out selling stuff at certain view points, but they didnt press you.

 

If you go, ask the guide to take you to the golf club, the view from the top is breathtaking

[sassy1ja]

We have booked Victor Bodden for next month with the snorkelling/glass bottom boat option - was this the one? is it really unteaible?

 

We did glass bottom boat last year with Tex and had no issues.

[Zelda911]

We had a wonderful day got so busy we forgot to go to lunch. But then you eat so much on the boat. Theref early feb on NCL Pearl. I think we had an Anthony. Took us everwhere we wanted to go. Went to monkey business, dorky but we had fun, botanical garden fun got a good walk in wish there had been more flowers and cruised down a beach road, took us to a little shop my sister-in-law had forgotten her bathing suit and went to a resort and swam in their pool and the ocean for a fee. He was right with us all day but also gave us space. A great day would do again and hit the other side of the island.:o