Naboo Resort & Dive Center - Adults Only

Thirty Years on the Island, and It Shows in the Details

The owners arrived on Roatan in 1996, long before West Bay became the address every visitor is sent to, and Naboo is what they built once they knew the island properly. It stands in the middle of the bay but behind a screen of tropical planting, so the first thing you meet is a pool and a jacuzzi deck rather than a lobby. Rooms look onto that water from their balconies. The restaurant is outdoors and Italian in accent, the bar occupies a large open deck, and the dive centre is the reason the whole thing exists.

Why It Works

We kept it because it solves the diver's problem at a hotel standard. Most serious dive operations on Roatan come with rooms that are an afterthought; most comfortable hotels subcontract the diving to whoever is on the beach. Here the centre carries PADI five star status, the boats are the resort's own, and the kitchen is run by people who cook rather than cater. The adults only policy keeps the pool deck quiet in the middle of the day, which matters when half the guests are on a surface interval, and the resort puts its weight behind the Roatan Marine Park.

Why This Location

West Bay is where Roatan's reef comes closest to the shore, and Naboo is in the centre of it, a walk from the sand rather than perched on it. That geography is the point: the beach is there when you want it, and the gardens absorb the noise when the day boats arrive. From the dock the numbers speak for themselves, with around eighty sites reachable in a quarter of an hour or less across calm, clear water. West End and its restaurants are a few minutes up the coast road, and a golf course lies within a short drive.

Fast Facts

• Price: Premium

• Vibe: Dive led, adult, Italian run, garden quiet

• Rooms: Eighteen rooms with king or queen beds, each with a private balcony over the pool

• Best For: Divers and dive courses, couples, travellers who want a hotel and an operator under one roof

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The open deck bar beside the jacuzzi, which fills with divers comparing sites at the end of the afternoon

• Dining: Outdoor restaurant in an Italian and international register, bar with cocktails on the pool deck

• Amenities: Pool with jacuzzi, PADI five star dive centre with its own boats, tropical gardens, private parking, adults only

• Attractions: West Bay Beach and its reef crest, around eighty dive sites within fifteen minutes by boat, the West End strip, a golf course nearby

Eighteen Rooms Around a Pool

The building is arranged around the water rather than a corridor. Each of the eighteen rooms opens onto a private balcony with the pool and the gardens below, in king or queen configuration, and the finish is modern and plain in a way that suits a place where people come in wet twice a day. Nothing is oversized and nothing needs to be. What distinguishes the rooms is the calm around them: the planting is dense enough that you can forget you are in the busiest bay on the island, which is not true of most of its neighbours.

The Dive Centre and the Water It Works

The centre is the heart of the operation and carries PADI five star resort status, with multilingual instructors and equipment on site for courses from first dive to professional level. Boats leave from West Bay, and the site list runs to roughly eighty entries within a fifteen minute crossing, which covers the walls, the channels and the wrecks that make Roatan worth the flight. Guests who do not dive snorkel off the beach instead, where the reef crest sits close in. The resort's support for the Roatan Marine Park is the sort of commitment that shows up in the briefings.

What to Know Before You Book

This is an adults only house, so families book elsewhere. Staff work in Italian, Spanish, English and French, which tells you who comes here. The hotel is a walk from the beach rather than on it, and the gardens are the compensation. Check in runs into the evening and check out is late morning, which fits the flights into Roatan. Dive packages are worth arranging with the room, since the centre and the hotel are the same business, and the winter months fill early.