If you are going to be in Roatan on vacation, you may be considering renting a car. If you’re staying on the beach in West Bay or in West End, you probably do not need or want one unless you plan on doing a lot of travel outside these areas. If you rent a house outside of these areas, you probably need/want one. Check with your property manager to see if they recommend car rental or not and if it is better if it is a SUV (steep unpaved roads are not uncommon once you leave the “main road”.
To the positive, there is no need for any kind of international driver’s license if you are from the USA. Rental cars are widely available at the airport.
To the negative, the road conditions, especially on the west side of the island where most of the tourist destinations are, are fairly bad. The east side is a lot better and most of my concerns here do not apply there. However on the west side, the main road is literally littered with huge pot holes (think moonscape). This makes driving “interesting” in a couple ways. First, you want to try to avoid the large pot holes unless you want to be changing tires. I have seen a few I would even be concerned about breaking a car’s suspension. Second, to avoid these pot holes, you and the other drivers will all be swerving on both sides of the road to try and avoid the holes. Given the main road is about 2 – 2.5 cars wide, this means a whole lot of the time you or the car coming the other way at you are going to be going head on with each other at 30-40 MPH. While this is not high speed, it is still dangerous. And if a tourist and a local wreck, we all know whose fault it is. Ok, legitimately it probably is the tourist’s fault, but it will be by default.
Driving is even more dangerous after dark. I have said this before in other areas, but when it is dark, it is very dark on Roatan. There are not street lights… but there are still pot holes. They are just harder to see after dark. Several of the cab drivers I met told me they refuse to drive on the west side at night.
While the naïve solution might be to simply drive slower, the locals don’t. You going slower just presents a scenario where you are more likely to get rear-ended or in-directly cause a wreck when someone tries to get around you on the narrow road against the oncoming traffic.
All this said, most expats who live here have vehicles and eventually they acclimate to driving like a local. Most tourists should consider if they really want to drive here. The east side road conditions are a lot better but it is far less travelled. Be warry of travel after dark in these areas… as it may not be safe to travel these areas.
Where / How to Rent & Rental Costs
Cars can be rented at several places on the island. I saw them at Captain Van’s in West Bay.