Ronys Independent Tours

[1948buddy]

We usually use Bodden in Roatan, but want to go to some of the unpaved east end, and I have heard Rory might take us there. Any past experience info would be appreciated..

[1948buddy]

I misspelled it His name is Rony Bennet

[kingstonKouple72]

we used his company On March 6th of this year.

 

He actually just emailed me today following up to see if we had a good time on our vacation.

 

I would use him again.

 

We did the Monkey Canopy ziplining tour and then West Bay beach.

 

We left all our stuff in Felix's (our driver) car (new Toyota - great condition)... when he dropped us off at the ziplining. he met us at the bottom... showed us around. Stopped for pictures when we wanted... took us to the beach... asked us when we wanted him back. We told him 2pm and he gave us his cell number if we wanted him back sooner.

 

I would certainly recommend Rony Tours. We were very comfortable and felt safe.

[#1TravelMom]

We use Rony every time we are in Roatan. ronystours.com He is extremely friendly and will give you a great island tour. He takes great pride in making sure all of his customers have th best experience possible. I highly recommend him. We really like the "freestyle" tour - we can go where we want and stay as long as we like. I'm also a bit of a "photo person" - so, it's nice to have someone who will stop when you see a photo opportunity. You'll have a great day with Rony.

[sharks48]

We just returned from a cruise with a stop in Roatan. We booked with Rony, for what we thought was supposed to be a "group tour". It turned out we had a private tour with Rony's father, Cameron. What a delight!!

 

We went to the South Shore zipline. He kept our things in the trunk of his car and waited for us. Then we went to West Bay beach. He took us to the "best spot" for snorkeling - even found us shade to sit in. Great snorkeling!! He waited for us, then took a different route back to the ship, through Coxen Hole and past the house where he grew up. All along the way, he related lots of interesting information about Roatan, etc.

 

I highly recommend using Rony's tours - especially if you can get Cameron!

[CDNJehn]

Ditto to all the good things said. Love Rony, highly recommend!!! Agree that Cameron was great.

[edgars]

We just got back from a cruise on the CrownPrincess that stopped in Roatan and we (7 of us) used Rony's tours for a private charter. Very friendly, great English an there on time. We used him to take us to West Bay beach to drop off 3 of us for fishing and then his service (Edwin the bus driver, Thea, his Mom as guide) to take the remaining people to the monkey farm where my wife and 2 kids had a blast. Saw alot of animals and birds. Thea, Rony's Mom, was fantastic. So friendly and knowledgable. She liked to talk and we liked listening. Then they went back to the beach to wait for us and hang out. Then we were back on the ship on time at the end.

Will definitely use Rony's tours again.

[olsoncam]

We just returned from a tour with Rony's tour. Steve Bush was our Guide on our freestyle tour, and he took us all over the Island. We ended the tour snorkeling at West Bay beach, and had a wonderful time. This tour was the highlight of our cruise.

[ash97206]

Just got back from Roatan, Rony took us himself on our tour to Gambalimba Park, ziplines and snorkeling. We had an excellent time, he was very professional and made sure that his service lived up to our expectations. This visit was a 180-degree change from our visit to Roatan in '08 with Victor Bodden tours, which we sourly refered to as the Honduran Ghetto Nightmare Stop.

 

We recommend Rony's company without any hesitation.

[Jsim2011]

Add our vote for Rony's tour too - and we also got Cameron.

 

Can't wait to go back to Raotan and will definitely be booking Rony's tour again.

[dz63]

This is a pictorial review of our day in Roatan during our port stop off the Carnival Legend, August 16, 2012.

 

We had a freestyle tour booked with Rony’s Tours. Our plan for today was to go ziplining on the Pirates of Caribbean Extreme, Extreme Zipline, visit the monkeys at the monkey stop, stop for lunch at Rony’s mothers restaurant and then head to the Mayan Princess for some beach time. We knew we had a full day of activity ahead of us, so we quickly made our way through the Carnival village.

 

 

Upon exiting the Carnival Village, we made the trek up the large hill...

 

and then went down the other side.

 

It took us between 10-15 minutes to walk from the ship to the bottom of the hill. All independent tour operators congregate at the bottom of this hill. We arrived here around 8:30 and found Rony’s Tours very easily.

 

 

We met our tour guide Tia (Rony's mother) and our driver for the day was Pedro. Although Tia could speak English very well, Pedro could only speak Spanish. (You can see Tia and Pedro in the photo above). Once in the van, Tia informed us that we would not be able to have lunch at her restaurant because she closes it down during low season (summer months). Although we understand the expense of keeping her restaurant opened during this time, we would have appreciated Rony informing us about this when we made our booking. This was one of our three disappointments with Rony’s Tours.

 

Enroute to the zipline, we stopped at French Harbour. We had to be careful where we stepped, as there were dog droppings everywhere. I do not really know what the significance of this harbor was, but overall we did not think there was much to see here. (In retrospect, this is a stop we could have easily missed and we would have been ok. with it).

 

[dz63]

Our next stop was the Pirates of the Caribbean Extreme, Extreme zipline. This zipline zips the rider from mountain top to mountain top. Although the Pirates Extreme, Extreme zipline only has 8 zips, it is known as having the highest (328) and longest lines (1,980 feet) in all the Americans!

 

 

 

Besides seeing a few monkeys, we did not see any other visitors there. We paid for the excursion and were quickly harnessed up.

 

-

[dz63]

Next we climbed aboard an open-air safari type truck with our guides Dwayne and Iron. We drove a short distance to a mountain top.

 

It appeared as if we were on the highest point in the middle of the island, as from this vantage point, we could see the ocean on both sides of us.

 

The open-air safari truck leaves the mountain top.

 

This way to the first line.

 

Ready to zip!

[dz63]

The boys enjoyed hanging upside down while zipping and it was almost like a roller coaster ride when the guides would pull up and down on the lines creating a nice bouncy ride for us! Lots of fun!

 

 

Click on the photo to see my youngest DS bounce his way to the end!

 

Oops. . .DS didn’t quite make it to the end so Dwayne reals him in.

 

As we zipped from line to line we slowly made our descent down.

 

 

The last line.

 

We completed all 8 lines in under one hour. We had a fantastic time and our ziplining guides were great too! Although I kept turning around, which caused me to ride the zip backwards, and although this zipline did not fly as fast as the zipline we flew on in St. Kitts, it was still a lot of fun.

[dz63]

From the zipline, Tia and Pedro took us to overlook which offered us a scenic view of Coxen Hole and surrounding area. We could also see Honduras, 35 miles away. We spent 10-15 minutes here.

 

The view from the overlook.

 

There were local venders selling their crafts here and we were able to pick up a few unique souvenirs.

 

[dz63]

Our next stop was the Monkey Stop, which was also like a miniature zoo.

 

Monkey Stop Entrance

 

Admission into the Monkey Stop was $8/person and included the services of a local guide who took us through this zoo. On the way to the monkey cage, we passed cages which housed spider monkeys, a Tamandua, some “squirrel”-like animal and toucans.

 

Spider Monkey

 

Tamandua (cross between a raccoon and an anteater)

 

These two little critters really wanted to get out!

 

Toucan

[dz63]

The most exciting part was going into a cage with two cute, little Capuchin monkeys. Anyone who watched “The Night of the Museum” or is familiar with the antics of Jack the monkey from “Pirates of the Caribbean”, will understand what these inquisitive little critters with their agile fingers are capable of doing. We were instructed to leave our bags outside the caged area—unless we were ok with these monkeys opening everything up and getting into our things!

 

This curious little guy really wanted to help me take photos!

 

We enjoyed having those curious little critters jump and crawl around on us.

 

 

 

[dz63]

Nice hairdo!

 

 

Up close and personal.

 

 

We were also able to hold a parrot.

[dz63]

After our monkey and bird encounter, we saw…

 

…a Lemur. This animal made unusual whistling/squeaking noises.

 

Click on the picture below to hear and see the Lemur.

This Lemur had such a cute little face, but boy where we surprised by the size of its fangs!

 

Island Rabbits

 

Deer

 

After this stop we were supposed to have at least 2 hours to enjoy West Bay Beach at the Mayan Princess. We arrived here around 12:30. Tia looked at her watch and said we could have 2 hours here. But the problem is...her watch is one hour behind ours and if we would spend 2 hours here like she suggested, we would not make it back to the ship by its 2:30 boarding time and likely even miss the ships departure. In reality we realized we would only be able to spend 45 minutes here before it would be time to head back to the cruise port. Since the resort charges a $10 fee per person, we decided it wasn't worth the money for our family of 5 to spend such a short time at this beach. We asked Tia to take us back to the port so we could at least enjoy some time on Carnival's private beach in Mahogany Bay (which is right next to where the cruise ship docks).

 

Not being able to experience West Bay Beach at the Mayan Princess, was our second disappointment with Rony’s Tours. Before I booked with Rony, I specifically told him that we wanted to be back at the port by 1:30 (because I wanted to have some time to check out Mahogany Bay). Realizing we have a limited time in port, I asked if we would have enough time to do the zipline, monkey stop, lunch and beach. He responded back saying, “yes we would.” When I asked him how much time we would get at the beach if we do all those stops, he informed me “2 hours.” Considering we skipped the lunch stop, spent a little under 1 hour ziplining and the monkey stop was no more than 20 minutes, how come we did not have enough time to spend 2 hours at the Mayan Princess as Rony assured us we would? We guess our driver Pedro may have had something to do with this. You see, Pedro drove the van as slow as a turtle. I am sure we could have walked faster than he drove. DH sat in the front seat and noticed Pedro drove only 20 miles per hour the entire day. No wonder cars were continually honking and passing us by! It is one thing to be cautious, but this was a little extreme. Our ride in the open-air safari truck at the Pirates zipline went faster than that! We spent more than half of our morning just driving around from one place to the next. We believe Pedro's extra slow driving made the travel time from getting from one spot to the other much longer than it should have taken. As a result, this ended up cutting out our beach time at the Mayan Princess. This was our third disappointment with Rony’s Tours.

 

We had a great time ziplining and the monkey stop was a lot of fun, but overall we felt somewhat let down with Rony’s Tours. Not only where we disappointed that we couldn’t do everything Rony confirmed we would have time to do, but if Tia knew we were running short on time she should have advised us of that and let us make a decision what we would like to do. This could have saved some time driving around. After having read so many glowing reviews about Rony and how people have expressed how their day with him was the highlight of their entire cruise, we felt disappointed that we could not have this type of experience as well. Although Tia was very sweet, pleasant and informative, I cannot say that our time with this tour company was the highlight of our cruise. Again, I am sure that if we had Rony himself, our experience would have been completely different.

 

Lesson learned: if you hear great reviews about a tour operator, specifically request that person!

 

(FYI: We received an email 10 days following our day in Roatan from Rony. He asked us how we enjoyed our day with them. We were impressed that he took the time to ask for feedback. My DH sent him an email informing him of our disappointments. We never heard from him again.)

[dz63]

We arrived at Mahogany Bay after 1:00. This allowed us to spend almost 1 1/4 hours on Mahogany Beach--a beautiful, man-made, tropical, palm lined, white sand beach--before boarding the ship at 2:30 for the Legend’s early 3:00 departure time.

 

From the pier, you can ride the chairlifts (Magical Flying Chairs) to the beach for $12/person, or walk it in about 10 minutes. We were dropped off near the beach, so it was a short 5 minute walk for us.

 

 

Welcome to Mahogany Bay Beach. Doesn’t the Carnival Legend look Grande?

 

The beach is stunning—truly a tropical paradise.

 

There are clam shells which can be rented for a fee…

 

or enjoy the tropical surroundings in the shade of the palm or almond trees.

 

[dz63]

Enjoying the water. Can you see the shipwreck in the background?

 

DH and I and the Carnival Legend.

 

All too soon, it was time to head back to the Legend.

(BTW it was on the other side of this sign where we were dropped off by Rony’s Tours—no need to walk back up and down the hill again!. It was about another 5-6 minute walk from this point back to the ship).

 

 

Overall we had a lot of fun during our port stop on the island of Roatan. Even though Rony’s Tours did not live up to our expectations, at least they were there in the morning to greet us with a smile, we felt safe with them, and in the end, they did return us to the cruise terminal on time.

[#1TravelMom]

We've had a GREAT time every time with Ronystours. I have no idea how your day ran so long. We usually zipline and play with the monkeys and have 2-3 hours at the Mayan Princess. I'm sure Rony would be sorry you didn't have the best day possible - although it did look like you had lots of fun(great photos!). Rony is very proud of his business and really wants everyone to enjoy their day in Roatan. I really think his freestyle tour is the best!

[dz63]

We've had a GREAT time every time with Ronystours. I have no idea how your day ran so long. We usually zipline and play with the monkeys and have 2-3 hours at the Mayan Princess. I'm sure Rony would be sorry you didn't have the best day possible - although it did look like you had lots of fun(great photos!). Rony is very proud of his business and really wants everyone to enjoy their day in Roatan. I really think his freestyle tour is the best!

 

That is great that you were able to do everything we had hoped to do. We felt somewhat mislead into believing that we would have time to do it all--zipline, visit the monkeys and spend at least 2 hours at the Mayan Princess. At least it is good to know that it is possible to do this itinerary. We really think our day ran so long because our driver drove so slowly, causing us to spend almost two hours of our time just driving around. I guess this just gives us a reason to come and visit Roatan again.

[ADB]

When we used Ronys Tours, we drove the entire island, zip line, went to the beach and shopping. Got back with enough time to shop at the port. We never felt rushed and enjoyed the day. Basically it depends how much time you spend at each stop on how much you get to do. They are really great and I've got them booked again in December.

[dz63]

When we used Ronys Tours, we drove the entire island, zip line, went to the beach and shopping. Got back with enough time to shop at the port. We never felt rushed and enjoyed the day. Basically it depends how much time you spend at each stop on how much you get to do. They are really great and I've got them booked again in December.

 

Glad to hear you were able to do so much and had a great time too! The more I hear of others having enough time on their excursions, the more I realize how much we just "lucked out!"