If you've ever considered discovering the world of scuba diving, now is an excellent opportunity to do so in the Caribbean paradise of Honduras, Roatan. The Bay Islands are made up of three main islands (Roatan, Utila, and Guanaja) and 65 cays and islets, some recently made famous by the reality TV show, Supervivientes. The second largest barrier reef in the world, after Australia's, runs along its coast.

Divers from all over the world have been traveling to Roatan for years to enjoy its seabed and witness the explosion of underwater life, from sunken ships to encounters with dolphins playing with divers, from landscapes of beautiful coral to walls teeming with sponges and tropical fish. The clarity and temperature of its waters make it the ideal place to enjoy scuba diving and even to discover it if you haven't tried it yet. With an average water temperature of around 28°C and an idyllic setting of white sandy beaches surrounded by palm and coconut trees, what more could you ask for?

If you're already a diver, in one week you can enjoy a plan of daily boat dives, with the convenience of a dive center on site, avoiding travel and wasting time, allowing you to dive at the best spots on the island. If you're traveling with non-divers, this is the ideal destination, as there are always activities for them (beach, kayaking, snorkeling, hotel entertainment, pool, tennis, island tours, zip-lining through the jungle), and you can return to the hotel immediately after each dive.

TURQUOISE BAY DIVE & BEACH RESORT

Discover Roatan, a unique destination in the Caribbean, famous not only for its natural beauty but also for its rich Caribbean culture. Far from the hustle and bustle of other islands, Roatán offers an authentic experience with all the amenities you desire. Since its recognition as a diving paradise in the 1960s, the island has improved its infrastructure and accessibility, making it an even more attractive destination.

At Turquoise Bay Dive & Beach Resort, located on the northeast coast of the island, you'll enjoy an exclusive experience in a pristine and tranquil setting, perfect for diving, swimming, and kayaking. With spectacular views and a private white-sand beach, our small resort offers personalized service and a welcoming atmosphere that will make you feel right at home. In the heart of Roatán, Turquoise Bay promises to exceed all your expectations and provide you with an unforgettable experience.

Turquoise Bay Resort has 26 rooms located on a spectacular 30-acre tropical property. Its comfortable rooms with ocean and hill views represent 20 of its units, and are similar in size and amenities.

Accommodation

Ocean View Rooms are located in a lush tropical garden. Each room features spectacular views of the Caribbean Sea from a private balcony. The rooms are comfortably furnished for two people and include a king-size bed, personal storage closets, and a private bathroom with a shower. The rooms are also equipped with a desk and chair. Accommodates up to two guests.

The 76 m2 Hill View Rooms feature private balconies overlooking our tropical gardens and the Caribbean Sea.

The Ocean View Double Rooms each have a private balcony with seating and fabulous views of the azure waters of the Caribbean. Each room is equipped with a desk and chair, two double beds, and a private bathroom with a shower. Accommodates up to four guests.

A great option for families with diverse interests. Measuring 76 m2, these rooms offer plenty of space, a private entrance, a shared balcony, a private bathroom, air conditioning, a telephone, cable TV with international channels, and daily housekeeping.

Udurau Restaurant

Variety is written in the stars here at Udurau. Latin American, Italian, and Caribbean dishes are offered daily, while classic dishes and comfort food are prepared with flair.

Start your day with a wide variety of breakfast options, from the typical Honduran favorite, a made-to-order omelet, or fresh fruit and yogurt. The à la carte breakfast menu is also available daily with traditional, vegetarian, and gluten-free options.

Enjoy fresh fish, pork, chicken, fresh local island vegetables, or a variety of our daily lunch specials while gazing at the ocean from palm tree level. The menu is extensive and includes a variety of options for every palate.

Fresh, seasonal, and locally sourced fish is served daily. Tuna, snapper, wahoo, mahí-mahí, grouper, or king mackerel are all caught fresh from our waters every morning and served as an entree at lunch or in the evening.

Turquoise Divers

Welcome to the new era of Turquoise Divers!

Turquoise Divers has completely renovated its facilities to offer you an exceptional diving experience. Upon entering, you'll notice its renovated lobby, now larger and designed to provide you with the best support from the very first moment.

Its classroom has been transformed into a larger and more comfortable space, equipped with state-of-the-art technology to facilitate your learning.

Outside, you'll find the improved restrooms and showers, more spacious and comfortable. There's also a locker area with five new spaces, each with a capacity of 12 people, ensuring your privacy and security. Turquoise Divers presents its fleet of boats, motors, tanks, and compressors, which have been completely tuned and improved to offer you the best on every dive.

Last but not least, a wide range of excursions are offered throughout the island, from exciting shark dives to wreck explorations and much more.

Turquoise Divers is ready to welcome you and provide you with a renewed and unique diving experience!

THE CARIBBEAN PARADISE OF HONDURAS

Diving in Roatan is easy; the reef is so close that you can swim there, snorkeling, or using tanks. This coral reef offers the largest colony of diverse sponges, more than 70 varieties of hard corals, turtles, dolphins, sharks, and, at certain times of the year, whale sharks, with average visibility exceeding 30 meters.

Diving in Roatan is divided into two main areas: the north coast, where the dives are shallower and feature corridors of multiform, bright corals, ideal for photographers and beginners. You can find a variety of reef fish fauna typical of the Caribbean, as well as the always friendly seahorses. On the other hand, the south coast dives, where the platform is shorter and the dives always take place on a spectacular wall full of multicolored tube sponges, are the most common. The Caribbean-style drift dives are a long stretch of the wall. Here the currents are stronger and the wall sometimes drops into the depths, which is where there are more opportunities to encounter pelagic fish and sharks.

The distance to the usual dive sites varies between 5 and 30 minutes by boat. Anchoring is done around buoys installed on the edge of the wall, a precaution that prevents marine damage. Most dives are conducted on the wall that borders the island, which descends from 12 to 200 meters with multi-level platforms. The walls are colonized by thousands of tube sponges, giant barrel sponges, and beautiful, dense formations of black coral. The numerous cavities and crevices provide shelter for countless species such as lobsters, spider crabs, and moray eels, and are the usual habitat of typical Caribbean fauna such as groupers, parrotfish, barracudas, French angelfish, and more. You can also dive around some interesting wrecks, explore their interior, and enjoy the marine life that takes refuge within them.

UNDERGROUND / TURQUOISE BAY CHANNEL / TURQUOISE BAY WALL

Whether you’re looking for a deep dive, a wall dive or an exceptional swim through, this site offers a variety of dive options all from the same starting point.

With a buoy marker on the reef crest at 35ft, one choice is to go west and follow the gradually descending wall. However, heading east from the buoy and following the contour of the reef on your right, will soon turn you facing south towards the beach and lead you into the entrance of Turquoise Channel.

The channel dive site portion of the dive site offers a small channel wall dive, with the channel being only about 70ft wide with walls on either side that reach down to depths of 100ft. Here you can find sea rods and encrusting corals along a rock and moss bottom with inconsistent visibility that can sometimes be murky due to the mixing of lagoon water with the ocean. If you continue to follow the channel far to the south, you will eventually encounter a sandy bottom at 15ft spotted with sea stars and turtle grass.

To find the “Underground” portion of this site, you enter Turquoise Channel the same way by heading south from the buoy. After about 10 minutes you will find the entrance to a swim thru at 30ft on the right, for which you’ll want to have a flashlight handy. Considering its topography, length, and the way the light penetrates in certain places, this special swim thru is definitely worth a look. Depths inside range from 25-30ft as you travel parallel to the wall, and there are a couple of opportunities to exit out to the channel along the way if you so desire. However, you’ll probably want to travel to the end of the swim thru where it suddenly opens up wide to the outer wall giving way to interesting rock formations and extraordinarily large examples of soft corals.

Experience required: Beginner. Intermediate for swim throughs.

DOLPHIN´S GRAVEYARD / DOLPHIN'S DEN 

The site was named because of the discover of several of Dolphin skeletons. In the summer of 2007, a pod of 13 bottlenose dolphins swam into the cavern, got trapped and drowned. The most common explanation of the tragic event is that the dolphins followed a school of silversides into the cavern and got disoriented in the thick cloud of bait fish.

Dolphin’s Graveyard is a spectacular site that provides divers with a choice of routes that vary in light penetration and surface access. Approaching this site from the inner buoy, you will find yourself at a large sandy area at a depth of 15ft where you often see giant anemones, upside down jellyfish and turtle grass.

Heading north from the buoy, the coral walls guide you into the entrance of the channel, greeting you with large schools of silversides at a depth of 25ft. Here the channel splits and you can choose to go right or left. Keeping to the right, the channel is more illuminated and maintains more surface access. Opting to go left will take you into short but dark caverns where a flashlight is required to navigate your way through and see what’s inside. Both paths offer overhangs to explore with an opportunity to see the channel clinging crab and green moray eels that frequent this site. The paths join together in an illuminated chamber that reaches a depth of 40ft.

From here you can continue north to follow the open and illuminated path, or turn left into the darkest chamber where you can find the diminishing remains of a dolphin skeleton. Continuing north, the paths reunite again and lead to a narrow rock-lined channel at 15ft that gradually opens to the reef with walls that extend almost completely to the surface. Here you can find examples of bluehead wrasse, juvenile striped parrotfish and red fuzz algae. This channel can serve as an entry or exit point to Dolphin’s Den depending on where you begin and end your dive. Continuing north from here will lead you to the outer buoy and a gradually sloped reef face at 30ft covered with soft corals, notched blade and cryptinc algae, with possible sightings of harlequin bass and trumpet fish.

Experience required: Intermediate

CEMETERY WALL

Receiving its name from the Punta Gorda cemetery that overlooks this site (also known as Yubu due to the nightclub nearby), Cemetery Wall is a good example of the kinds of terrain you will find in the northeastern region of the island.

Dropping in at the buoy at a depth of 20ft, you will immediately notice the amount of elkhorn coral present. Following the wall down will lead you to an expansive sand patch at 60ft with small coral heads containing sea rods, finger coral and encrusting lettuce coral. Typically this is not a site for deep dives, but if you’re looking for more depth, you can continue north across the sand patch until you eventually encounter more reef covered with soft corals, azure vase sponge and star corals that gradually descends past 80 and 90ft.

Opting to stay shallow and following the wall to the west will lead you to fun channels to explore at about 40ft deep with walls that reach up to 15ft at the top. Here along the rocky bottom you can find saucer leaf hanging vine that have the kind of light penetration that makes for a kind of cathedral effect.

On your way back to the buoy marker you can easily follow the top of the reef for a safety stop where additionally this could also be a good site for snorkeling due to the shallow depths.

Experience required: Beginner to intermediate

KEY HOLE

Characteristic of channels you’ll find on Roatan where lagoon water mixes with the ocean and tides have eroded deep channels into the reef, Key Hole/Gully Galore offers an impressive display of topography with ample wall space and overhangs to explore. Even though there is an outer buoy that can be used as an entrance and exit point, you may find it preferable to be let off at the inner reef indicated by the GPS coordinates shown, and then head out towards the buoy the exit there.

Starting from the inner area and heading north, you will begin at a 30ft deep sand bottom containing turtle grass and Pine Cone algae. The reef walls guide you into the channel that gradually descends to a depth of 100ft with impressive walls on either side of you that reach all the way to the surface. Even though the focus of this site is the excellent topography, keep your eyes open for sightings of banded butterflyfish, fan worms, small leaf hanging vines and star coral. For advanced divers there is a swim through in the channel at 90-100ft, and for everyone there is a set of 3 swim throughs to the right at 50ft and another one at 30ft on the left. Be sure to look in the tight spaces for a possible sighing of the elusive toadfish.

The lagoon water mixed with seawater along with the high walls that block the sunlight can sometimes make for cloudy visibility in this channel, giving this site an eerie setting. However, as you make a gradual ascent towards the reef wall and the outer buoy at 35ft, the water quickly clears up as if exiting a smoky room.

Near the buoy, the channel widens and opens to the reef where you can find a variety of soft corals such as plumes and rods as well as schools of black durgon and yellowtail snapper. With a reef crest at 20ft (6m), this is a great area for a safety stop as you finish up your dive.

Experience required: Beginner to intermediate 

ROCKSTAR / GARDEN OF EDEN

A favorite among visitors to the northeastern region, Rockstar and Garden of Eden are known for their unique topography and impressive displays of marine life. With the Rockstar buoy marker located at a depth of 15ft at the very edge of the reef wall, you can opt to drop down into a large trench at 60ft where you’ll find a substantial overhang at the base of the wall running west to east. Inside the overhang there are distinctive sponges that appear to be fluorescent in color as if someone were shinning a black light on them.

Leaving the overhang you remain in the trench formed by the main wall on one side of you, and pinnacle-shaped coral structures distributed parallel to the wall on the other side. These pinnacles reach heights of 25ft up to 45ft, giving you the feeling of being surrounded by coral as you navigate your way through. The north sides of the pinnacles give way to a gradual descent in the event you would like to explore a bit deeper and farther out where you can find examples of vase, striated, rope and encrusting sponges.

Continuing east will bring you to a shallower area loaded with a wide variety of sponges and corals, which is why this area is called the Garden of Eden. Among the high concentration of soft corals here, keep an eye out for slender filefish and trumpetfish that like to hide in heavily covered areas such as this. Nearing the buoy marker for Garden of Eden at a depth of 25ft you’ll find pilar, brain and lettuce coral, and perhaps schools of black durgon, seargeant majors, and wrasses.

Experience required: Beginner to intermediate

SPONGES

At this amazing wall you can find many different sponges and corals including huge barrel sponges and spectacular pillar corals. The drop-off is at 60ft and drops to 180ft. Very often there are turtles, nurse-sharks and eagle rays passing by, as well as morays. During the dive it is common to find several cleaning stations, and the safety stop has some beautiful elk horn. Depth range: 15-130ft.

Experience required: Beginner to intermediate

BIG BIGHT

A cool wall dive to the west of the mooring which sits in about 40ft of water and just under the buoy there are a few swim throughs which can be fun at the end of the dive. The wall starts at around 15ft and goes down to 60ft near the mooring further west it goes beyond 140ft the wall has a lot of sponges and look out for lobsters and crabs in the crevices. Large grouper are often spotted along with barracuda and sometimes the odd turtle or eagle ray can be seen. To the east of the buoy the wall is a little more sloping and in the sandy areas at around 90ft nurse sharks have been seen under the reef skirts.

Experience required: Beginner

BARRACUDA

A top site with many different routes to explore each new dive master has developed their own route to this site, the mooring sits in around 26ft of water with a reef shelf underneath. To the east of the mooring there is a sandy area at around 44ft depth, this ideal for training, and also spotting the occasional southern sting ray, following the sand patch to the east look out for lobsters in the base of the reef, in the reef surrounding the sand porcupine fish are often seen, carrying on north-east from the end of the sand patch takes you to an area called shark garden. Here as the name suggests we often spot nurse sharks at around 100ft.

Heading straight north from the mooring you come to an area of sloping reef with some great swim throughs. The sandy areas stretch down to around 90ft and nurse sharks have been spotted in this area as well. From there head west and explore the swim throughs. To return to the mooring head south and you’ll find a shallow gravel canyon area that leads to the wall follow this shallow wall at 26ft with the wall to the right, therefore heading east again to return to the boy. As the name suggest there are barracudas around this site and its quite common for you to spot one at the beginning of a dive and then for the barracuda to follow you throughout your dive.

Experience required: Beginner

ANDY'S WALL

A colourful wall with soft and hard corals, often visited by groupers, schools of chubs, creole wrasse, horse-eye jacks and black durgons among others. The wall starts at 60ft, dropping to 160ft. Depth range: 15-130ft.

Experience required: Beginner to intermediate

THE CANYONS

Pinnacles and striking formations make this a dramatic dive site to explore. Stingrays and eagle rays are commonly found cruising the sandy bottom. Look out for barracudas, midnight parrotfish and king crabs.

Experience required: Beginner

SEA STAR CHANNEL

This site is ideal as training site as we begin our dive in the sandy shallows at around 7ft, we weave our way through the shallow corral heads to the west and down into the channel. The channel has got its name from the abundance of cushioned sea stars that lye in the base of the channel; this is a good area for spotting southern sting rays which on murky days are many.

Follow the channel out keeping to the slope in your right hand side the sand slope soon turns into coral heads which multiply until you reach a shallow wall at around 25ft, follow this till you reach an entrance between two coral heads which take you into a wide canyon bowl. Around the entrance we have seen eagle rays on numerous occasions. The middle of the bowl goes down to around 80ft and the topography inside changes into a rocky environment, look under the rocks for toadfish. After exploring inside the canyon bowl, take the same route back.

Experience required: Beginner

LABYRINTH

There’s something for everyone here, it starts with a shallow area of 40ft perfect for beginners and slowly slopes down to 60ft. Hidden in a big hole in the rock, a spotted drum patrols his territory among schools of glassy sweepers. The sandy canyons winding through towering rock formations provide thrilling swim throughs. Depth range: 15- 60 ft.

Experience required: Beginner. Intermediate for swim throughs

MONGOOSE

Mongoose is a site that like Dolphins Den takes you from the inside of the reef to the outside, the mooring sits in about 10ft of water. This dive site is an impressive canyon, and the cracks and crevices provide hiding places for many different sea creatures look out for eels and spotted drums. Also keep an eye out for rays around the entrance to mongoose as they have been frequently spotted. The site goes down to between 70 and 80ft.

Experience required: Intermediate

There are two additional diving experiences that are other great attractions of Roatan: The dolphin encounter and the shark face-to-face.

Both are optional excursions, which must be booked directly at the dive center of the resort where you will be staying. No refunds will be made for any dives included in the package if you end up participating in either of these experiences.

DOLPHIN ENCOUNTER

The dolphin encounter has three levels of interaction:

1. Dolphin Beach Encounter: This will give children, both divers and non-divers, the opportunity to meet these wonderful animals, enjoy their tricks, take photos with them, etc.
2. Snorkeling with dolphins: With simple goggles, fins, and a snorkel, you can swim with these friendly cetaceans, bringing them so close that you can photograph or film them in action.
3. Dolphin Diving: Divers will be even more privileged as they will be able to dive with them in open waters under the supervision of experienced guides. The dolphin encounter alone is worth a trip to Roatán.

SHARK FACE-TO-FACE EXPERIENCE

The shark face-to-face experience is a controlled dive supervised by experienced dive guides, where you'll experience the thrill of being up close to large gray reef sharks. The activity consists of a detailed briefing at the dive center on underwater behavior and the rules to follow during shark diving, a 40-minute cruise to the dive site, and a dive accompanied by the guides. At a depth of approximately 20 meters, you can come face-to-face with the sharks. Between 5 and 10 sharks usually come to the encounter, naturally curious about divers. This is definitely a perfect addition to a diving trip.. It's undoubtedly the perfect complement to a diving trip.