# Tell me about Roatan, Honduras!

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-roatan-honduras/661970>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 26, 2013, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-roatan-honduras/661970 "2013-06-26T17:35:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-roatan-honduras/661970/1 "2013-06-26T17:35:50Z")

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Some friends and I are spending a week on Roatan in October, primarily napping on the beach and drinking overpriced booze with paper umbrellas in it. Is there anything else we should absolutely make a point of doing? Also, how much should we worry about crime and police corruption? Do we really need malaria prophylaxis?

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**Author:** ![Snickers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5daacb/32.png) [@Snickers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snickers)\
**Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tell-me-about-roatan-honduras/661970/2 "2013-06-26T18:50:19Z")

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We spent a week in February, 2011 there and loved it. We rented a villa through VRBO (specifically, [this](http://www.vrbo.com/296963) one) on the north side of the island. We rented a car (it was required to get to our villa) and took drives on a couple of days, so we saw the more crowded west and southern ends of the island.

Staying on the north was definitely the get-away we wanted - there wasn’t much of anyone around. We saw the cruise ships, but didn’t have to deal with them at all. We went to a really nice ex-pat dinner, arranged by our hosts, and then to a karaoke/dinner with the same group of people later; was much fun. Avoided most of the touristy things, so I can’t speak to those.

Police corruption was nil when we were there. There were a few checkpoints set up on the roads that we crossed - handed them our license and rental papers, and were on our way with absolutely no problems. We were well off the beaten path, so crime was non-existant. (That said, there was a locked gate across the entrance to our villa that we needed to unlock and move, but it was a minor distraction.) Absolutely no problems at any stores or along any roads the few times we were out after dark. We did the anti-malarials - I’d much rather deal with some minor inconveniences before and during than full-blown malaria later.

If I were to go back, I’d probably look at staying in the West Bay Beach area - it seems like it’d be a little easier to explore on foot. That said, I recently heard that Honduras has been ranked one of the most crime-ridden countries in the world. I don’t know how much of that has bled over into Roatan, but I admit that I’m a bit leery of going back until that’s sorted.