Lewis Smith
We wanted to share some of our personal travelling experiences with you, and last time out we gave a day in St. Barths in the Caribbean. If you missed it, catch up here.
Nevertheless, I am going to continue our journey to another of our destinations, Roatan, one of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras. Measuring 77km long and less than 8km at its widest point, this small island offers a great lifestyle. Home to the second largest reef system in the world, the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, Roatan is high on the list for diving enthusiasts, with warm and clear water providing excellent visibility and an abundance of sea life, just snorkelling around the pristine reef is fantastic.
The main tourist and diving hub is the West End Village, where the Capital of the Island and most populated town, Coxen Hole is located. We however, stayed at the other end of the island, away from the main towns in a secluded, private and relatively deserted area at Paya Bay Resort. We were lucky enough to spend a few days here, completely relaxing and escaping from the surrounding world.
We would wake in the morning, and practice yoga on the sunrise platform taking in the views and first rays of light, which was spectacular and something not to forget. There were various walking trails through the forest, which we would stroll along in the mornings taking in our surroundings. Private viewpoints were dotted along, places where all you can see is forest and sea, nothing else. A few of the trails led to private white sand beaches and natural sea pools, and because it was a small hotel, and a quiet time of the year, we often had these places all to ourselves.
Roatan though, is not just great for its sea life, along the walks, you would see: lizards, iguanas, even whilst having breakfast you could see Humming Birds feeding. After a filling healthy breakfast, we would stroll to the beach with fins and mask, plunge into the warm water, and float amongst the fish. After a morning swim we would let the sun dry our bodies, whilst reading a book and sipping on an iced cocktail at the beach bar.
During our stay at the resort, we also went horse riding through the local forest and along a long white very quiet beach. We also took advantage of the spa whilst we were here, with the beach massages being a must! However, for the thrill seeker in me, I really wanted to try a different activity. On this small, intimate resort was a kitesurfing school, run by a German couple that had fallen in love with the island and moved out to live the simple lifestyle. I had been wakeboarding before, and I loved it, so combining it with sailing I hoped it would be great. The moment you stand up on a board powered by nature, there is no other feeling quite like it, the speed and rush it gave me was incredible. From that moment, I was hooked and fell in love with kitesurfing, wakeboarding just isn’t quite as exciting anymore.
The biggest thing that we took away from Roatan (apart from a new purchased set of kitesurfing equipment) was the lifestyle that the locals have here. It is completely relaxed; everyone is super friendly and more than happy to help if you have an issue. For example, we were dropped at a jetty where we were meant to be picked up. Unfortunately, our taxi never arrived; luckily, the friendly landowner offered us a lift to the hotel. The healthy, holistic lifestyle that the island offers is second to none and should really be experienced and applied to other places in the world, we try to apply it to our daily lives as much as possible.
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Disclaimer
All opinions within this blog are our own and any hosted stays will be disclosed in the relevant blog posts. We do not trade off complimentary stays for a positive reflection of any kind, and we will only give credit where credit is due. We put in a lot of time and effort researching the properties we visit, we want to build long standing trust with you, our readers, with honesty and integrity being incredibly important to us. If you would like to submit a guest post please contact us and we will gladly consider any ideas you may have. |