Caribbean's budget diving paradise — the Mesoamerican Reef, West End, and island pace
Roatán is the largest of Honduras's Bay Islands — a 64km-long Caribbean island with the second largest coral reef system in the world (the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef) running along its south shore. The combination of exceptional reef diving (wall dives, shipwrecks, whale sharks seasonally), low costs (some of the cheapest PADI certifications in the Western Hemisphere), and the relaxed West End village scene has made it the Caribbean's leading budget diving destination. Above water, the island's zip-line canopy tours, beaches, and the indigenous Garifuna villages on the east end tell a differen…
The Bay Islands were home to the Paya and Lenca peoples before Columbus passed through in 1502. Roatán was colonised by the British (who called it Ruatán) and used as a base for piracy against Spanish shipping — Henry Morgan operated from the island in the 1660s. The British ceded the Bay Islands to Honduras in 1859, but the English-speaking Garifuna population (descendants of Afro-Caribbean Caribs exiled from St. Vincent by the British in 1797) retain their distinct culture, language, and traditions on the island's east coast. The modern dive industry began in the 1960s when Anthony's Key Re…