Anthony's Key Resort (AKR) is a great, well-established and well-respected resort that offers guests the best of what the Honduran Island of Roatan has to offer.
The resort is first class, compared to other resorts I have visited on this island and also in this neighborhood. It is in good repair, has beautiful grounds, and a great dining area with good food. Other resorts in the area that I have visited have been run down and had problems with hot water, plumbing, mildew, etc. This resort is very well maintained.
You have a choice of hilltop rooms or rooms right on the water, on a small island a couple hundred feet from the resort. The hilltop rooms start at S168/night, and the rooms on the water (key rooms) start at 214/night. We stayed in hilltop superior room and were very happy. These rooms are closer to the resort, dive shop, and dining areas, but the key rooms are conveniently serviced by a water taxi that is available 24 hours a day. The hilltop rooms are accessed by beautiful wooden walkways through the lush jungle and lined with beautiful flowers, where agoutis (local rodents that are almost like a cross between rabbits and squirrels) and colorful birds can be seen foraging in the bushes. The meals were good and plentiful, with a wide variety of continental and local cuisine that included fresh fruits and vegetables, and wonderful, homemade ice cream.
The dive resort and fleet of boats were well-run and well maintained. The dive masters and boat crews were personable and once they were comfortable with your diving skills, were happy to let you dive your own profile. They approached life with a relaxed, Caribbean vibe, that, as an experienced diver, I appreciated, but were always attentive and ready to help those newer to the sport. The only complaint that I had was that they did not always seem as diligent at finding and pointing out critters, as say dive guides at a resort like Crystal Blue in the Philippines.
The diving itself was good, with quite a bit of variety, but there were not as many large schools of fish as I would have preferred. This is probably partly due to over-fishing and partly due to the invasive lionfish, but dive guides are attempting to train local predators, such as moray eels to eat the lionfish, and seem to be having some success. I definitely saw fewer of them around AKR than in the Bahamas, for example. There were many turtles, and some very interesting canyons and swim throughs, my favorite one being Spookie Channel, and of course, the well-known Mary’s Place. They offer 3 boat dives a day, and unlimited shore diving, but I did not take advantage of the shore diving during my trip, and I heard from other guests that it was somewhat lackluster. I did spend one day snorkeling under the dock where the dive boats are kept, and found quite a few interesting critters. AKR does offer two exceptional experiences at an extra cost: a shark dive and a dolphin dive. The shark dive was very well run and featured beautiful Caribbean Reef sharks that you were allowed to swim around with for 20 minutes or so before the feeding actually commenced. There were probably 10-15 sharks in attendance. The food is kept in a five gallon bucket that is opened by pulling on a rope, towards the end of the dive, so that the divers get a chance to swim with the sharks first, and so the sharks don’t get accustomed to actually being fed by divers—a good and safe arrangement in my opinion. The dolphin dive features dolphins that have been raised in the dolphin research center that is onsite at AKR, but occurs in open water. The dolphins are introduced to the divers in their fenced off lagoon and demonstrate a series of tricks and behaviors, including some amazing vocalizations, before being released into the open ocean for the 40 minute dive experience. This was a great experience, and I was able to get a few good shots of them swimming by, which, to me were much more interesting than watching them do tricks.
Overall, this is a great destination for guests who want a nice resort, good food, and good value, and easy diving, and is also good for photographers, especially those wanting to shoot wide angle and see dolphins, turtles, and sharks. It might be more disappointing for those expecting a lot of macro subjects, or reefs teaming with large schools of fish, although the reefs themselves appeared to be in good condition for the most part. In my opinion, it was definitely money well-spent.