Port guides, tour notes and booking answers, written by the people who meet you at the terminal gate.
Carnival, Princess, Holland America, Costa and P&O dock at Isla Tropicale, which Carnival renamed from Mahogany Bay in May 2026. Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Celebrity, MSC, Disney and Virgin Voyages dock at Coxen Hole. The two terminals sit about 8 kilometres apart, roughly fifteen minutes by road, and both let you walk straight off the pier. Only Isla Tropicale has a beach inside the gate.
Read the guide · 6 min
Ships in Roatán usually give six to eight hours alongside. After disembarkation and the walk back to the gangway, most passengers have four to six usable hours ashore. Every tour we run is built backwards from that number.
Our representative waits just outside the port exit holding a sign that reads MONKEYLALA TOURS. This works the same way at Coxen Hole and at Isla Tropicale (formerly Mahogany Bay). You do not need to arrange transport or find a shuttle at either terminal.
A tour built for someone staying a week is a bad fit for someone with an all aboard time. What you need is a named meeting point outside the terminal, a driver who knows how port traffic behaves, and a return that leaves a real cushion rather than cutting it close.
Confirm whether your ship docks at Coxen Hole or Isla Tropicale (formerly Mahogany Bay) first, because they are not interchangeable pickup points. Then pick one headline activity, wildlife, snorkelling, beach, or something more active, and add one or two stops around it rather than booking four separate things.
For a closed loop cruise that starts and ends at the same US port, you almost never need to carry your passport ashore in Roatán. Your ship's key card is what the terminal and the gangway check. Honduras clears the ship as a group, so passengers do not go through individual immigration.
For a shore excursion, 10 to 20 US dollars per person for a half day and 15 to 25 for a full day is the range most cruise passengers use, given directly to the guide at the end. Restaurants add 10% service to the bill already, so anything on top is optional.
If your ship docks at Isla Tropicale, the former Mahogany Bay, you can walk to the beach on a shaded trail in about ten to fifteen minutes and use a lounger without paying. At Coxen Hole there is no beach within walking distance, so free ends at the terminal gate.
Carnival docks at Isla Tropicale, the terminal it renamed from Mahogany Bay in May 2026. Princess, Holland America, Costa and P&O use the same pier. You walk off the ship with no tender, and this port has its own beach inside the gate, which is the main thing that separates it from the island's other terminal.
Royal Caribbean docks at Coxen Hole, also called the Port of Roatán or Town Center. Celebrity, Norwegian, MSC, Disney and Virgin Voyages use the same terminal. You walk off the ship with no tender, but there is no beach inside the gate, so a beach day here means leaving the port.
Norwegian Cruise Line docks at Coxen Hole, the Port of Roatán, alongside Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, MSC, Disney and Virgin Voyages. You walk off with no tender. Carnival and its sister brands use the island's other terminal, Isla Tropicale, about fifteen minutes away.
MSC docks at Coxen Hole, the Port of Roatán, the same terminal as Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Norwegian, Disney and Virgin Voyages. You walk off with no tender. Carnival, Princess, Holland America, Costa and P&O use Isla Tropicale, the island's other pier.
Still deciding how to spend your port day?
Send us your ship and date. We answer from the island, usually within minutes.