Flying From One Island to Another

For many travelers seeing more than one country at a time on vacation is on their travel itinerary. Today’s guest post by Kendall Beymer takes you on a fun short trip from Belize to Roatan. It is a fast easy flight that takes 1 hour, shorter than the weekly workday commute for many. Enjoy 🙂 For a guy living in Belize, you’d think getting away to another tropical island wouldn’t be top on the ole “to do” list…and you’d be right. Never the less I recently saddled up my ponies for a trip to Roatan! The island of magical beauty just a stone’s throw away. Situated just a bit off the coast of Honduras I quickly realized that saddling my pony had been an utter waste of time and found myself in a scramble looking for a much better way to travel there. Luckily I subscribe to tacogirl.com (mainly cause Laurie is my friend). When I first happened upon the blog I thought it’d be about tacos…it isn’t…but that’s okay too. I knew she offered 10% off on all Tropic Air flights with her handy coupon code. This quickly became a no-brainer for me; I love my pony and while he could no doubt swim the distance it would likely take much longer than the one hour flight from Phillip S.W. Goldson International Airport in Belize City to Juan Manual Galvez International Airport on Roatan. The journey was lovely! It was only a couple pilots, three guys behind me and a blonde chick across the aisle. I thought I’d take a nap myself but was continuously interrupted by the beauty. We flew past Turneffe, Lighthouse Reef, and the outer Atolls. Such amazing scenery and so easily view-able on from the windows – pretty much every seat is a window seat AND an aisle seat!! In fact – there aren’t ANY middle seats. That’s love. Normally I’d break into a long story about why I went to Roatan…this is one of those instances that I’m gonna just say nothing. All in due time people 🙂 So – West End (WE), West Bay (WB), Lawsons Creek, French Harbor, Pristine Bay, Parrott Bay…where to stay?! After a bit of a fiasco we ended up at the lovely Paradise Oceanic compound, and after being shown around by the lovely Cristy (on her day off no less) we dropped down the card to checked in (by “we” I totally mean East shelled out the cash…like a good Father does for his son). My office for the few days had a pretty stellar view as well. This great place has a restaurant on the beach, as well as set back, pool bar with a magnificent pool surrounding the area, multiple levels for easy relaxing and lots of trees to find shade under. There is an on-site gift store (where I got a cool shirt promoting a dive shop I didn’t dive with¦but there’s an awesome shark on it) along with a great breakfast place that was included in the room¦I think¦they had an omelette station, fruits, yogurts, lots of hot tray items (waffles, cakes, bacon, sausage, potatoes, beans, on and on). The best part was everyone we encountered was totally amazing. With that settled the fun was to begin… French Harbor was one of the few places I actually didn’t explore. Pristine Bay is several “0’s” above my pay grade, as is Parrott Bay. Lawson’s Creek was a bit too “rural” to use as a proper exploration base – so one of the West places it was – West End is a much “busier” place. Don’t get pictures of high-rises and highways…it’s one street. It is just a very packed street. Bars, restaurants, dive shops, gift shops, people…everywhere! It is very well done though. I live in San Pedro, the thick of “fun” on Ambergris Caye. So for my change of pace, I wanted seclusion. I will say that if I lived on Roatan I would certainly visit often for food and fun! West Bay was certainly the vibe I was looking for. Spacious resorts, beachfront access for those resorts, and the only throngs of people were on the beach during cruise ship hours when I could sit at the beach bar and watch unlimited amounts of eye candy casually stroll down the beach. The resorts were quiet, and the best part was at night – dark beaches; the moon and stars were nearly the only lights. It was amazing and a welcome change from the lights, and hustle and bustle of San Pedro. West Bay really only has beach restaurants that are part of the various resorts, so that means the only “real”; nightlife is up in the West End (once again I am on nightlife avoidance currently). WB still has great places; my favorite was Thirsty Turtle and Pizzarama both part of the Bananarama. The pizza was amazing – my Pops and I split a medium and it filled us for $14 US. Great taste. The sunsets viewed from the place were pretty amazing as well…made better by the 6 pack of Barena which I’ve since been told is “beer the hookers drink”…still like it!) we went through all too easily. One of my best meals was at the Landings, part of  The Beach House up in WE – a lovely spot that is the only place right on the Beach, everything else is across the street. I had the steak special; a delicious rib-eye perfectly cooked and lightly sauced with a horseradish spread. The steak is SO much better in Honduras. A huge stack of al dente sauteed vegetables and a chunky mashed potato that had a caramelized and lightly crisped stack of onions on top. Another not to be missed is The Thai Place, also in WE; by far the best Thai I’ve had since leaving the US. To conclude the fun I took the wonderful Tropic flight home with Pops¦but I napped on the way back. Next time I need to hop to Cancun, or Cozumel, or any of those international places Tropic Air flies to I’d certainly use that Discount flight code on Tropic Air “ get one today from your very own tacogirl. It’s a perfect option for divers who want to cross more than one place off their “diving bucket list” at a time while on holiday. The post In love with Cozumel Mexico and getting ready for Belize is a good example of a couple that enjoys both places regularly.

About the Author

Kendall Beymer writes Life Stories of a Meandering Fool, Belize Blog (link is to Facebook page). You can see more of his Honduras travel adventures with his dad in this very funny post – How to Guide: Hooker Advertising. In addition to writing a Belize Blog, Kendall also owns and operates Ecologic Divers on Ambergris Caye. He fancies himself a traveler and story teller – tune in for those stories.Since the original date of this post, Kendall now operates Ecologic Adventures on Roatan. I will leave you with a couple Kendall’s pictures, to see the gorgeous sunsets in Honduras and learn more about the island, click to Roatan – A Fool’s Guide to West End and West Bay.