Areas of Roatan
The East End
The green, quiet half of the island: stilt villages, mangrove channels, Garifuna culture and long empty beaches.
Roatan is a long, narrow island, and most visitors stay on its western end. The East End is where the fishing fleet works, where the Garifuna landed in 1797 and founded Punta Gorda, where the mangroves can be explored by boat and the beaches are quiet.
It makes a wonderful full day out, by car or with a driver, and it shows a side of the island that many visitors never see.
Come here if
You have a full day, you want to see the island's quieter, greener side, and you love finding a beach almost to yourself.
Read before you go
Port Royal, when Roatan was a pirate harborPort Royal, at the far eastern end, was a raiders' harbor in the 1640s and the scene of the 1782 battle. The full story.
Four hundred years of visitors, from privateers to cruise shipsThe Garifuna landed at Port Royal in 1797 and founded Punta Gorda. The wider story of who came to Roatan, and when.
Roatan's reef and wildlife: what lives here and how to see itWhat lives on Roatan's reef and the best ways to see it.
On the ground
- The drive
- Plan on an hour or more from the west end. Leave in the morning and make a day of it.
- Oak Ridge
- A fishing village built over a deep-water harbor, with houses on stilts and boats where roads would be.
- The mangroves
- Local boatmen run trips through the narrow mangrove channels around Oak Ridge. Go with a guide who knows the way.
- Punta Gorda
- The Garifuna community founded in 1797. Come for the food, the music and dance, and the Settlement Day celebrations every 12 April.
- Camp Bay
- One of the longest, quietest beaches on the island, with kitesurfing lessons at Camp Bay Lodge.
- Cash
- Bring lempira for small restaurants and shops out here.
- Port Royal
- The historic harbor at the far eastern end, best reached by boat, with a story that goes back to the 1640s.
Checked October 2026. If something here has changed, tell us and we will update it.