Caribbean Dive Resort Treats you like one of the Family

The Galindo Family have owned Anthony’s Key Resort for over 50 years. Haydee Galindo-Hyde is the Director for the booking office at Anthony’s Key Resort. Haydee spent her summers working as a young teen at Anthony's Key Resort in various roles, from thawing fish, to housekeeping, accounting, inventory and helping in the kitchen.

You’ve been a family-run resort for over 50 years. Could you tell us how it all started?

My father, Julio Galindo, was working at this resort back in 1968. At the time he was a young man working on the property for the owner Paul Adams. When Paul passed on, he left the resort to my father in his will. At first, my dad had a few partners helping him manage things, but by the 1980s he had bought them all out and was running the place with my brother Samir Galindo as the General Manager. I also had an older brother, Julio Galindo, who used to work here, but sadly he passed away. I work in our booking office in Florida. So, we’ve been a family-run resort since the eighties, and we still are to this day.

If you stay with us here, you’ll probably see Dad having coffee with guests and saying hello, while Samir will be behind the scenes in the office, taking care of day-to-day operations and stuff like that. But he’ll definitely be on the property. He takes care of people and quickly fixes any problems on-site. Yeah. It’s lovely.

Did the family have links to Roatan before Anthony's Key Resort?

My parents were both born and raised in Roatan. The town doctor was from Dad’s side, and my mom's family were entrepreneurs who founded Roatan’s first grocery store and hotel. So, I'm descended from hard working people on both sides.

My family started the first clinic in Anthony's Key, where the Hyperbaric clinic is today. My grandfather was a delivery doctor and was basically the only one in town. If you were sick and needed to get your vaccines, he was who you'd go to.

What was the original ethos of the resort, and does it still hold true today?

Oh, I think that it always had to do with nature. Nature was our canvas and we built around all that natural beauty. Anthony's Key island is as pristine today as it was back then.

The bungalows were built around the trees using shore rock. So, to this day, the resort has that relaxed and natural atmosphere so many of us are looking for. It’s a great place to unplug from the modern world - one reason we don’t have TVs or phones in any of the rooms.

You won a Tripadvisor Traveller’s Choice award again this year. What did you do to achieve this?

55 years of hard work!! I think it has to be a little bit of everything – the hotel, the service, and of course, our wonderful staff. We have people who have been with us for 30-40 years. It’s so great that guests can come back here after 10 years and find the same Divemaster and people they know. Our staff have loads of experience and know what they are doing because they’ve been working at our hotel for so long – they really go above and beyond to make sure guests have a great experience. It means there’s consistency in the services we offer, but equally, we’re always doing something new or upgrading the resort.

We have a new restaurant, which was a big investment for us, and it’s beautiful. The food keeps improving too. We also have a fleet of custom dive boats and a compressor room – no one else in the Caribbean has that.

What can someone expect from a visit to Roatan if they have not been to this part of the world before? What's the diving experience like?

I think what really makes Roatan unique is the friendliness of the people. Roaton people are so very welcoming, and it is a safe island. Expect humidity for sure, it's warm during the summer months – but that’s even more reason to go diving!

The reef is really close to the island, so there's not a lot of travel time to get out and dive. The conditions are really nice and easy, with no strong currents. I only dive at Anthony's Key and I live in Miami. It just feels so safe here.

One reason I feel that way is that we have the only Hyperbaric Chamber in the whole region of North Honduras and excellent medical facilities. We have a clinic with doctors on call 24/7, a lab, and our own pharmacy. So, if there is a health incident, guests can get seen by a doctor very quickly. I think that’s added peace of mind when guests book a vacation in a remote area like this. It makes everything go a bit more smoothly.

Diving is so relaxed here. You have the luxury of going out and coming back as you please. Leave at 8.30am, come back, use the restroom, have a snack, head out diving again at 10.30am, have lunch, then dive again in the afternoon. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you can also do night dives to see the water lit up with bioluminescence, and these are included.

Everything is taken care of and prepared for you and your boat is ready and waiting. We only take up to 12 guests per boat, so it’s a great and intimate experience. One of the reasons so many people come back is they know everything runs like clockwork and they will always be well taken care of.

We have a daily boat dive schedule, but our guests are happy to go with the flow. If they miss a boat dive, they know they can always make it up in the afternoon or go shore diving. This means guests can sleep in whenever they want without missing out on a day’s diving.

Anthony’s Key Resort is not just about the diving and snorkelling (although they are great). What other activities can people get involved in?

Horse riding is a big one. We also have a luxurious spa, and many guests enjoy just lounging around the swimming pool with a few drinks from the bar. It also has a lounge area where guests can play shuffleboard or pool.

Then, there’s stand up paddleboarding, kayaking, or ziplining. Or, for a more chilled-out option, you can take a tour of the Botanical Garden or spend a day at the beach.

Everything here is owned by the hotel, by the family. The resort consists of over 16 hectares of land, two private islands and Maya Key. We don't depend on anybody else for any services. The bus, the boats, the restaurant, the dive shop, the gift shop, everything is owned by us and we’re proud of that. We even have our own generator for power, and our water supply comes from our wells using a process called reverse osmosis.

In addition to serving divers and snorkellers who are looking for a great holiday, you do a lot for kids, young people and education. What are some of the programmes you run for the next generation?

We have a Dolphin Scuba Camp where children can learn about bottlenose dolphins. We also offer plenty of fun-filled activities for young people at the resort as I mentioned before, from stand-up paddleboarding to kayaking, horseriding, and ziplining through the rainforest canopy.

Besides all this, we have academic programmes and internships for students of Marine Science. Our Education & Research Co-Ordinator, Jennifer Keck, works with universities in the United States on initiatives like the coral reef programme and dolphin research projects. Students come here with their professors and get credits for working here with our marine biologist. We have a wet lab, a dry lab and a state-of-the-art education centre with audio-visual tech.

I've also heard about Maya Key. Can you tell us about the island and the animal sanctuary there?

Guests at Anthony’s Key Resort get to enjoy an excursion to our private island retreat: Maya Key. Not only is this an excellent place for snorkelling in beautiful, crystal-clear waters, it’s also home to our animal sanctuary. Many of the animals were injured in zoos before we rescued them – so they can never be released. We're taking care of them at our facility and our guests can go to see macaws, monkeys and jungle cats. It’s a great opportunity for nature lovers.

We also created a replica of the Mayan ruins at Maya Key, so people can get a sense of the culture without having to go to the mainland.

I understand you also pride yourselves on sustainability at Anthony’s Key Resort?

Yes, protecting Roatan’s natural resources is one of our main missions. We are always careful when diving in the marine park, which is made up of about 30-40 dive sites. These are also patrolled by guards who check people are not standing on the reef or mooring incorrectly.

In 2016, we implemented a coral nursery programme – which is something guests can get involved with. They can help to clean up and prepare little tree structures for the reef, which the corals grow on. Our resort also participates in the Coral Reef Nursery Foundation in South Florida.

Onsite, we have installed solar panels and are continuing to expand this, while following other eco-friendly measures like not using plastic water bottles, bags or straws in our resort. Everything is paper or biodegradable. We’re very big on that. We also celebrate PADI Earth Day and do beach clean ups.

How easy is the journey to Roatan?

It's so easy to get here because we have an international airport. American, United and Delta fly straight to the island out of Miami, Dallas, Denver, Houston and Atlanta, so for you guys in the UK it’s pretty straightforward using connecting flights. Roatan is just a 2-hour flight from Miami, and once you land, your transfer takes you directly to us (it’s just a 20-minute drive from the airport).

If you were to sum up Anthony’s Key Resort in five words, what would they be?

Friendly. Relaxed. Nature. Safe. Family.

Contact our friendly team to book your stay and to find out more about Anthony’s Key Resort.