Quieter Beach Recommendations

[Sunbather80]

We are traveling on the Royal Caribbean (port is Coxen Hole) in a couple of weeks and have heard nothing but rave reviews of the west beaches in Roatan but also have heard how busy they can be and how annoying the boat traffic is along the beach. We would love to find a beach that maybe has fun off shore snorkeling and relaxing beach chairs without all the traffic. Is that realistic?

[PlanoDebbie]

You might consider checking out Bodden Tours.  We were just in Roatan last week Wednesday.  Being on Carnival, they have their own port Mahogany Bay.  Went there 2 years ago and didn't like the long line down to the beach there.  

 

This time I booked the Fun n Sun Tour with Bodden.  I'm not sure how Coxen Hole is.  It's in the much older part of town.  We drove through there on our tour and could see a RCL ship there.  Our tour was $30 per person.  We had to walk out of our port and about a block past the security gate.  Carnival controls who they let into the port, so only THEIR tours are allowed in.  We were added with a family of 6 into a large van.  Elliott was a great driver.  Our first stop was to see the monkeys and sloths.  It was really pretty cool.  First time I've ever held a sloth.  From there, Elliott took us to West Bay.  Beautiful beach.  We were at Bananarama and had nice lounge chairs in the shade.  Very relaxing beach.  They did offer activities there is you wanted them.  We just wanted to relax.  About our only complaint was the constant locals trying to sell you bracelets, massages, hammocks, sunglasses, t-shirts, hats, etc.  We did have a security guard stationed by us the entire time, which was nice.  After we got back to our ship, I went to relax in the hot tub.  Got talking to another lady to find out what she did in port.  She found a taxi driver and asked him how much to take her to a nice beach.  She also ended up at the same beach we were at and loved it, but her cab ride cost her $60.00.  

[Guest 2000]

The easy access to boat free snorkeling is from either Tabyana, a cruise ship only day trip section of West Bay, or Infinity Bay which shares a property line with Tabyana. The boats only go as far as Infinity's L shaped dock. The remainder of West Bay has water taxi and all manner of boat coming and going. Mind, West Bay is the premier beach on the island, everyone and their mother's, uncle's, cousin wants to experience it. 

 

Another possibility is Ginger's in the village of West End, if you stay in the water buoy area or along the edges the boats coming and going from the Half Moon Bay will not be a bother. 

 

Sandy Bay is very quiet but the sand is hard packed, the water is shallow and mucky for some distance and one need a dock to access the reef due to it being farther out.