Anthony's Key Resort Review

A recent, unbiased review of Anthony's Key Resort in Roatan, Honduras that is posted on the internet as a public service.

   I tried to write this review with as much fairness as possible, pointing out the good and bad aspects of Anthonys Key Resort.  Most readers may see this as a critical review--it is. But I am not writing this to discourage anyone from going to Anthony's Key Resort.

I visited Anthony's Key Resort in May of 2000.  When I chose Anthony's Key Resort I had a list of activities that I wanted to do during my vacation.  Anthony's provided scuba diving, a guaranteed dolphin encounter, horseback riding, kayaking, and a chance to see a "jungle" region.  Anthony's delivered all of these.  But the problem that has prompted me to create this web page was my disappointment with the room accommodations.  

Anthony's Key Resort is a scuba diving resort and diving, of course, is the primary focus of the services they provide.  I have found that normally the level of quality of accommodations at a dive resort should be expected to be lower than at a typical vacation resort. If you want to go to an unspoiled region of the world to dive in an area away from development you can't expect the Hilton. I did not expect room service and mints under my pillow.  What I expected is adequate quality room accommodations and receiving the quality that their sales materials indicated. Although the other service accommodations were delivered as advertised, Anthony's Key Resort most certainly did not deliver on room accommodations. The excuse of "hey, this is a diving resort--you should have known" does not pardon Anthony's for misrepresenting the quality of room accommodations.

Although their brochure lists many classes of room accommodations, there are really two main types of rooms--air conditioned and non-air conditioned.  After my visit I would strongly recommend that you not consider staying at Anthony's Key Resort unless you can reserve an air conditioned room.  Not because the air conditioning is necessary (it was cool enough during my stay that air conditioning was not required), but because of the great difference in room quality.

There are 56 "bungalows" and only 16 are air conditioned.  While the term bungalow may describe the air conditioned units, the term "cabin" would better describe the non-air conditioned units. (One person we spoke with there described Anthony's as "Dive Camp" because the cabins will truly remind you of summer camp.)  Many people we spoke with who reserved the non-air conditioned cabins had immediately gone to the front desk and asked for an upgrade to an air conditioned room. We were also in this group.  Unfortunately, because there are so few of them, it was hopeless to upgrade to an air conditioned room.

The rest of the services at Anthony's ranged from adequate to good.  The diving was good most of the time. The wrecks were fascinating. The diving personnel were all good.  The meals were alright but grouper appeared on the menu a bit too frequently during our stay. Enjoyed the dolphin encounter and the horseback riding very much and would recommend these activities also.  They will provide great memories. The people were all very helpful and their service made the week more enjoyable and helped make up for the poor room accommodations.

Although there are activities besides scuba diving, your non-diving spouse may not have enough to satisfy her for an entire week unless they also want a lot of quiet time to read some books.  Otherwise, once she does the 90 minute dolphin snorkel and takes the horseback ride for a couple of hours, she might soon become bored.  If you want to work on your tan make sure the balcony on your room has sun exposure.  There is a beach but the sand fleas will quickly make you run.

 I must warn those of you who have not experienced a remote tropical environment that bugs (mosquitoes, cockroaches, lizards, sand fleas, and spiders) are also part of a tropical experience.  Anthony's can't do anything about the bugs outside of your room. This is a tropical region and outdoor bugs come with the territory. Expect to get bug bites. But Anthony's gift shop sells a great bug repellant that is non-chemical and really helps, but bug bites are inevitable.  

The first night of our stay we looked out from the balcony of our water-front cabin and saw a lobster, crab, and star fish in the water a few feet away.  We were impressed with the closeness of this natural world.  However, that night, because of the poor quality of our room accommodations, the natural world (cockroaches, flying ants, and mosquitoes) invaded our cabin and kept coming back during our entire stay. You might say, "I should have known this comes with a tropical environment." Or you could say, " I should know that I have to put up with these discomforts if I want to sleep close to this natural, unspoiled world."

I would agree if I were camping outdoors. But we had paid for that beautiful room in the sales brochure. Unfortunately I didn't see that room while I was there. However, while I was there I was able to inspect the newer, air conditioned rooms at Anthony's. Even though I could not get an upgrade to an air conditioned unit I could see that our neighbor's air conditioned unit was much better sealed from the outside and would allow you to sleep close to the natural world without the bugs invading your room. More importantly, the newer, air conditioned rooms have better plumbing that does not drain into the water surrounding the resort.  In our cabin the plumbing of our shower and sink emptied the waste water directly beneath our cabin.  This was the standard plumbing for both non-air conditioned cabins we were in. Since our first cabin was perched above the water, the sink and shower emptied directly into the water around the resort. That is a fact. So to those of you who are sincere about preserving the quality of the local environment, you will not only do yourself a favor by insisting upon only a newer, air conditioned room but you will truly be doing a service to the local environment by preventing pollution of the local waters.

Some of you may believe that I am simply complaining about a part of the world where these types of conditions should be expected. No, let me say that what I am displeased with is that room accommodations were misrepresented in their sales brochure and web site.  If the room conditions had been properly represented I would accept what I had gotten. I never like to be short changed and I don't let this type of thing go without saying or doing something about it. I felt compelled to create this web site to warn others and perhaps motivate Anthony's to fix this problem.  If you don't say anything about a problem--things will never change.

 You can still have a satisfying stay at Anthony's.  I recommend the dolphin encounters (recommend the dolphin snorkel over the dive) --and recommend you insist on an air conditioned room.  But overall, you can enjoy better diving and accommodations in other dive locations in the Caribbean.