Skip to main content

Roatan - the best hidden Gem in Central America

We had the most wonderful trip in Roatan. In the last few years, we had spent Thanksgiving in Hawaii and we enjoyed the quick getaway to warmer weather and beach. However, this year, we decided to try something new after researching the best beaches to be in Central America. The reviews were correct and we were not disappointed.
We had the best time there: great beach, warm water, amazing snorkeling, jungle access. Flight there was convenient and affordable (red eye through El Salvador). You leave home one evening on a cold rainy night and by mid-morning the next day, you are in paradise. So convenient!

We stayed at the Grand Roatan Resort, which was very convenient for snorkeling. We went to a natural park closeby for a day, where we hung out with parrots, monkeys and enjoyed a nice and beautiful ziplining tour. For another afternoon, we went to a rescue center on the other side of the island where we hung out with sloths. It was a good opportunity to see the rest of the island and we found out that the locals put a big deal of emphasis on Black Friday, which was going to take place a few days later.

For most of the time though, we stayed close to the hotel and we went snorkeling or enjoyed the pool. There was so much to see right at our fingertips and the water was sooooo warm (big contrast to Hawaii). The snorkeling just in front of the hotel was amazing; the 4-year old didn't even have to swim a bit! The bigger kids got their bubblemaker certificates  right off the shore from our hotel. (first step for diving, when you are too young to get your official diving license). 

Hotel pool

Ocean in front of the hotel

Who doesn't like hanging out with sloths?

Zip Lining in the jungle

On the way back, we had a long layover in San Salvador and we did a day tour to see some old settlements and enjoy the local specialty (pupusas). It was also a lot of fun. Now we just have to go to Panama and Nicaragua and we will have visited all countries in South America. I am sure we will come back soon. We love it here!


Old settlements by San Salvador

Pupusas!



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Merry Christmas & Yule log ("Buche") review

Merry Christmas Everyone! Wishing you wonderful Christmas celebrations. Since we were not able to travel this year, due to covid, we couldn't enjoy the typical French Christmas dinner, and we miss the typical dessert, the delicious "buche". So we brought the buche to us. Thankfully we have a few bakeries around town who now offer it as part of their standard holiday offering. Here is our review. We tried: Draegers, La Baguette, Woodside Bakery and Mademoiselle Colette. Enjoy! And please let us know in the comments if you have tried any other yule logs.

Turkey travel with toddler - a good idea after all

After 10 days traveling in Turkey with our 16-month old son, we found that going to far-away countries with a toddler is not as difficult as many people believe. Yes, we also had our own concerns, and we had set our expectations that we might have a rough time. Yet, we had decided that it would be worth the effort since we were very eager to visit Turkey. As it turns out, most of our concerns weren’t justified, and we found that Daniel had a great time in Turkey. Below are a few things we have learned in our trip. • Jetlag : Interestingly enough, it was easier for Daniel to adjust after this complex trip than after a “simple” journey to Germany. After a 26-hour journey (2 flights and one 2.5 hour car drive) and a jump of 10 time zones, internal rhythm is typically quite upset for everyone, big and small. We flew with the night flight from San Francisco to Frankfurt, so Daniel had a good night of sleep behind him when we landed in Germany. From then, we paced his naps until the follo...

Alisal Ranch review and round up of California ranches

We just came back from our latest visit of a California ranch. As I mentioned earlier, we have been visiting several dude ranches in California over the last few months and we have enjoyed them all. With the weather getting colder, many ranches have closed for the winter, but The Alisal in South California remains open all year. This is where we decided to spend Thanksgiving and we were not disappointed. It was the perfect time to visit the Alisal and we had a wonderful time. To be honest, I was a little skeptical first. The ranch is very expensive and I was not impressed by the initial contact I had had with them. I was told we had to book rides in advance because space was limited; and the back and forth was quite painful. I thought it was disappointing for such a high-end resort. But I learned later on that they were short-staffed because of Covid, and that horseback riding was not necessarily the primary activity for the resort so they were juggling a lot of priorities. But once ...