What's good TOO?
- Thread starter bowhunter1023
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Thanks. I'll do a write up later but Roatan kicked Hawaii's ass. The reef system in Roatan is a thousand times more diverse and healthy than in Hawaii. The people are far more friendly and cost value considerably better in Roatan. Hawaii reminded me of an airport Resturant where service and food quality is poor but prices are high because they don't worry about return customers and you're a captive audience. I found the resident Hawaiians to be quite rude both the native and resident whites. They love your money but hate you. It's a beautiful place if you try to remove yourself from the touristy areas but then you have to deal with natives who are not shy about their dislike towards tourists.
Meh, I had the opposite experience except for pricing. I was on Oahu and Kauai. Pretty happy people that smoked a lot of weed.
What island did you stay on?
What island did you stay on?
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Kona. The big island. I've also been to Honolulu on Oahu and found it to be much the same. Anyone involved with tourism was nice and friendly, those who don't stand to make money from you aren't as nice. For example I'm not a fan of crowded tourist beaches so I always search out little hidden out of the way beaches and places to grab a little slice of paradise. One such beach I found on a surfing forum before we left. You had to park up on the road and walk down a path about half a mile to a secluded cove with a nice strip of sand. Popular beach for locals as the beaches in Hi are all public use. Within 2 minutes of pulling over in a well used pulloff where it's obvious people have parked regularly we were told by three locals that parking there wasn't allowed. Despite two other cars already parked there. One was a guy who had just returned from the path and was getting ready to leave. He left and I pulled forward in his spot thinking he meant the spot where my car was. I pulled forward and a man came out of a house across the street and told us the beach was off limits to tourists. The only difference between the car I was in and the other cars was a rental car barcode.
I could see wanting something of your own,especially in a tourist State. Look how most here react when we see the out of state hunters parked "in our spots". That kind of reaction is pretty natural.
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On another instance I saw a sign that said "public beach access" I drove down a little road and at the end was a small guard shack for a private neighborhood. I pulled up and said hello and said that I might have taken a wrong turn as I was looking for the beach access. (Which was impossible as there were no turns) I was quickly informed this was a private neighborhood. I apologized and asked where the beach access was the the sign referred to. She then said it was about 5 miles further through the neighborhood but there was no safe water and swimming and no lifeguard on duty. I told her I wasn't really looking to swim just lay in the beach and relax. She was very hesitant to tell me how to get there and gave some half assed directions.
On the other hand if you want to go to the crowded public beach near the resort, pay $10 parking that is free for residents, you can do that. You'll see nothing but smiles from the beach rental people, the vendors, and drink waitresses.
On the other hand if you want to go to the crowded public beach near the resort, pay $10 parking that is free for residents, you can do that. You'll see nothing but smiles from the beach rental people, the vendors, and drink waitresses.
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The difference is without non residents we would be fine, Hawaiians on the other hand would be living in huts, eating poi, and swatting trillions of Mosquitos. The economy of the entire island is tourism based. Without it they would literally starve as there's zero industry. Like I said, they love your money but hate you. Tourism is cool as long as they stay in their little tourist areas and spend money that allows the locals to live in a thriving economy. Get outside your tourist bubble to discover the real Hawaii and you'll find some pretty shitty people. If I wanted to sit on the resort beach and drink margaritas while staring at tourists and eating at overpriced tourist restaurants in make believe paradise I can do that in Mertle or any other the other 1000 tourist beaches in the us.. That's not why I go to far off destinations. I go to explore, find out of the way slices of paradise, and relax.
I am not condoning rudeness but their reaction is a realistic one for most that live there I would imagine. That is their home and they have to deal with tourists constantly. Having areas of "your own" probably has become an emotional issue. The ultra rich have private beaches, the tourists have overrun every public beach so you protect the rocky beach that is a trek to get too. Then the tourists show up to it...
They have something we want...a paradise island that is safe.
For most folks they aren't going to Honduras. Even if they continue to isolate Roatan, the country is still one of the most violent/volitile in the world.
I'd be down with going but most wouldnt, yet. Roatan is growing in popularity and soon will be "touristy" but in .gov controlled style. It will be interesting to see how it develops.
Roatan is basically a complete tourist area. The only "locals" that are allowed to live there, work there. It is only 32 square miles of island. Pretty easy to control the locals attitude, in general, when it is forced.
They have something we want...a paradise island that is safe.
For most folks they aren't going to Honduras. Even if they continue to isolate Roatan, the country is still one of the most violent/volitile in the world.
I'd be down with going but most wouldnt, yet. Roatan is growing in popularity and soon will be "touristy" but in .gov controlled style. It will be interesting to see how it develops.
Roatan is basically a complete tourist area. The only "locals" that are allowed to live there, work there. It is only 32 square miles of island. Pretty easy to control the locals attitude, in general, when it is forced.
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I understand the reaction and the need to have something local that isn't overrun with tourists. I also understand their entire economy is 100% tourism based and that's the price you pay. They want to have their cake and eat it too. Only 12% of the island is native, the rest are all immigrant whites and Asians. It's almost like they visited as a tourist, moved there, and now hate tourists.
If you want to sit on the tourist beach, drink margaritas, eat at overpriced restaurants, and do the resort thing save yourself the flight and stay stateside and go the myrtle or daytona. In that regard there's no difference between Hawaii and any other tourist beach.
If you want to get out and explore an island, find a slice of heaven, relax and enjoy your vacation away from the crowds Hawaii is not the place to do it. You'll be accosted by locals at every turn. Regardless of how polite you are they are not shy about letting you know you're not welcome.
While beautiful I personally I don't see a reason go back unless you want to see the kilauea volcano, and even then they make you stay back a solid mile away at an observation deck. There's far better places in the Caribbean that are marvelous, don't cost a fortune, and the locals are over the moon to have you as a tourist.
As for being "Safe". Personally I'm happy that Roatan is unfairly painted with the same broad brush as Hondouras . While Roatan is technically part of Honduras it's an island 30 miles off the coast it's nothing like the mainland. When talking to locals they told me the mainland people don't like the island people, they're viewed as rich snobs and well to do. By our standards they're third world. I actually felt safer in Roatan than I do in Cincinnati or Springfield or even Hawaii. Most Ohio cities outrank Roatan in violent crime. Like any tourist destination property crime is the main concern, it's no different in Hawaii than in Roatan. Actually I would say it's far more prevalent in Hawaii due to the enormous homeless population. Roatan has tourism police, they watch the beaches like a hawk, only cleared vendors are allowed on the tourist beaches, and immigration or visitation of mainland Hondurans is tightly controlled. Everywhere we went on the island of roatan the people were friendly, polite, and very helpful. if you want to go to a far out of the way beach or reef a local will be happy to take you for a small fee. We went Snorkeling with two Hondouran guys selling snorkeling trips on the beach. We paid 30 bucks each and they took just the two of us out for about 5 hours to the best spots. They swam with us and showed us all the really neat places and even dove to bring up star fish, conch, and lobsters for us to look at even though we were very capable of diving down and looking ourselves. If you want to do that in Hawaii plan of it costing you over a $140 per person and you'll be going with 40-60 other tourists where they'll park the boat for a couple hours and generally not give a shit.
Been to Hawaii twice, Myrtle 10 times and Daytona twice. Daytona and Myrtle are not even in the same galaxy. Although I do think Hawaii is overpriced and their is much easier/cheaper island style vacations can be had. Maybe the main island just stinks?
The rude/annoying folks were all the Japanese tourists.
You chose Hawaii for all the Asian women to look at. Lol
The rude/annoying folks were all the Japanese tourists.
You chose Hawaii for all the Asian women to look at. Lol
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I've been all over the big island and Oahu, both are pretty much the same however Kona on the big island is way better and not as touristy as Honolulu on Oahu with far less japanese.
What i'm saying id there's no difference between a resort beach with chair rentals and drink service in Myrtle than there is Kona or Honolulu. Same stuff different tourists. A swim up pool bar, zipline tour, parasailing, jet ski rental, is all the same if you're in Hawaii or South Carolina. personally I don't fly to an island in the south pacific to sit on the beach and drink margaritas and rent a jet ski. If I wanted to do the tourist stuff I can drive to myrtle.
Was there at their airport years ago and it resembled a true 3rd world country lol, goats chickens walking around and we were picking up and dropping stuff off for the embassy and a hippy (American) wanted to bum a ride back to the states with our cargo plane lol... We were heading back to Panama and no way he was getting on board lol...
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No but I've read a ton of nice reviews. The snorkeling and diving along the reef and atolls looks extremely nice. We talked to a couple from Texas while in Rotan who visited Belize on diving trips on a few occasions. They loved it but thought Roatan was better. Jessica and I will likely go there or Bonaire next summer. It's a tossup but Bonaire looks to have a very healthy reef system.
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Look at isla Margarita off the coast of Venezuela. I'm not sure about property ownership but they're getting rocked with inflation. The government maintains official exchange rates of 6.3 - 13.5 bolivars per dollar. However their currency is so worthless that non government currency exchanges will give you 1000 to 1. Their currency has lost 81% of it's value in the past year and it's left people wanting USD. A few weeks ago when I checked you could get a condo that sleeps 12 on the beach with a pool for about 20 bucks a night. A beer was about 15 cents and a full day snorkel trip with lunch and drinks was about 10 bucks per person.
Just looke on an expat page and it said this.
DICOM rate around Bs.446 to US$1
This rate applies to tourists with cash, TCs or credit cards.
The black market rate is approx. 250% higher than the DICOM rate
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You don;t know what you're missing brother. It's like owning a billion dollar aquarium and sticking your face in it.
You just float around like this
and look at this.
