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Turquoise Bay Dive and Beach Resort is an all-inclusive, family-friendly resort, located on the largest of the Bay Islands, Roatan. Known for being a small dive resort, Turquoise Bay will offer guests personal service that they cannot find at another hotel. Guests will enjoy the private, white-sand beaches and turquoise waters this resort offers, perfect for relaxing in the Caribbean sun.
Welcome to Roatan, the largest of the Bay Islands in Honduras. Discover an island with authentic Caribbean and Latin American lifestyles and warm, friendly islanders greeting you wherever you go. Located on Roatan's Northeast shore Turquoise Bay is the only dive resort in this lush and remote area of the island providing you with the opportunity to dive uncrowded, pristine dive sites. The resort is set on a hillside with spectacular ocean views and a protected bay which makes the water calm and perfect for swimming and kayaking. Beach lovers will enjoy our private, tranquil, 500 ft white-sand beach. At Turquoise Bay Dive & Beach Resort you will enjoy the very individual and personal service that only a small dive resort can offer. The friendly local staff takes pride in getting to know the guests and making them feel at home. History of Roatan and the Bay Islands The Bay Islands are located approximately 40 miles north of the coast of Honduras and offer a very different world from mainland Honduras. They consist of three main islands, Utila, Roatan and Guanaja, as well as numerous cays. Roatan is the largest, measuring 36 miles long and 5 miles wide. The islands' history, which includes many disputes between the Spaniards and the British during colonial times have given the islands a unique heritage. The pre-Columbian indigenous peoples of the Bay Islands are believed to have been related to Paya, Maya, Lenca or Jicaque, which were the cultures present on the mainland. During the Maya reign in Central America (between the 4th and 10th centuries), the Paya Indians populated the Bay Islands. The Payas were a smaller and less advanced group than the Mayans. Their civilization was characterized by simpler housing and tools. Payan artifacts (pottery, jade, and shells) are often found in Island burial and ceremonial sites and are referred to by the locals as "yaba ding dings." During the 13th and 14th centuries, Europeans discovered these islands. For almost 200 years Spanish conquistadores and British pirates battled for control of these islands, for the most part ignoring the Indians. In contesting with the Spanish for colonization of the Caribbean, the English occupied the Bay Islands on and off between 1550 and 1700. During this time, pirates found the vacated, mostly unprotected islands a haven for safe harbor and transport. English, French and Dutch pirates established settlements on the islands. They frequently raided Spanish cargo vessels carrying gold and other treasures from the New World to Spain. European pirates like Henry Morgan, Coxen, Morris and Van Horn used the island as a base for raiding Spanish ships beginning in the 1600s. They took refuge in the many hidden ports on Roatan, spending time hunting and fishing and lazing about in the tropical sun. After the Spanish eventually left the islands, the Bay Islands were re-settled first by the Garifuna, who settled in Punta Gorda on Roatan, and later by British-descended settlers from the Cayman Islands, who set up colonies in Utila, Roatan and Guanaja. The Garifuna story began to unfold a thousand years ago when the Arawak, a South American tribe of hunters and gatherers, moved up the Orinoco River, through Honduras and into the Caribbean Sea, where they traded with the Caribs. The mixture of Carib and Arawak created a new people who came to be known as 'Island Caribs'. The British eventually established control of the Bay Islands, until the early 1960's when control of the Islands was officially returned to Honduras. You'll receive a warm greeting from the friendly, bilingual (English & Spanish) population whose ancestral origins are a combination of the eight separate cultures that both fought and flourished here during the past 400 years. In the 1970's divers discovered Roatan's pristine reef and the tourist industry was born. Over the past 15 years Roatan has experienced increased development that allows current visitors to enjoy paved roads, well-stocked supermarkets, medical clinics, phone and wireless internet access but the island is still a small, tropical paradise…and one of the best-kept secrets in the Caribbean.