Roatan Shopping

A variety of the gift shops on Roatan offer a little bit of everything, clothing, intricate carvings, woven baskets in different colors and sizes, t-shirts, contemporary Lenca pottery, Honduran woodcrafts, furniture, cigars, leather, jewelry, film, cameras, personal items and every trinket you can imagine.

The Roatan shopkeepers are always pleasant and are never aggressive or pushy and do speak good English. Shopkeepers will expect some bargaining for Honduran arts and crafts, but do not try to undercut prices too much; haggling is not as much a part of Honduran culture as in some other tourist destinations in the Caribbean.

Coxen Hole is the largest town and capital of the Bay Islands. The better souvenir shops and several banks are located here. Coxen Hole has several ATM machines that will dispense American dollars or Lempiras. The current exchange rate is 19 Lempiras to 1 US Dollar. Most shops and vendors on Roatan will accept either Lempiras or Dollars.

Most tourist activities on Roatan have small gift shops for Roatan trinkets and souvenirs. There are a wide array of Roatan T-shirts for sale everywhere you go. Some of the scuba shops have a great selection of Roatan T-shirts with beautiful graphics.

Yaba Ding Ding - Here you will find Roatan clothing and art crafts typical of the region.

Halu-Kiliki Souvenirs – Offering wooden and painted ceramics that are hand-made by Roatan's Lenca Indians and affordable mahogany wood hand-carvings: chests, coffee tables and doors, etc.

There are many shops at the cruise ship dock. But be careful, most of these shops sell items not made in Honduras and are a bit more pricey. You can always get a better price at shops away from the dock. Several jewelry stores in the cruise terminal have some incredible bargains on beautiful jewelry.

There are a couple of small duty free stores at the airport with a fair selection of duty-free staples such as liquor, cigarettes and perfume.

Shopping for Black Coral on Roatan

Roatan is famous for it's artists that carve black coral. Black coral is abundant around Roatan, however local artists will only carve black coral that died of natural causes. They do not harvest any living black coral for their artwork. Plenty of black coral washes up on Roatan beaches after a storm giving the local artisans all the black coral they need for their black coral carvings and Black coral Jewelry. The artisans of Roatan realize they must protect the coral if they are going to stay in business.

Black coral on Roatan is delicate and grows very slowly, about 1 cubic centimeter per year in Roatan's nutrient rich waters. Black coral is most abundant between the depths of 2 meters and 100 meters all around Roatan. If you do any snorkeling or scuba diving on Roatan, you are sure to see some black coral up close. Please do not take any souvenirs from the deep. If you find a piece of black coral washed up on a Roatan beach feel free to help yourself. The black coral of Roatan is a delicate natural resource and needs to be protected. While diving on Roatan, take only pictures, leave only bubbles.

Roatan's Mega Plaza Shopping Mall

Roatan has recently opened a Mega Plaza shopping mall. There is a wide variety of shopping and services : Applebee's, Wendy's, clothing stores, shoe stores, several banks, cellular phone companies, an ice cream store, and Aladino Casino. The mall is new and still has a lot of vacancy, once it is filled it will be like any other American Mall.