Roatan Turkey Sandcastle
Our first overnight trip to Roatan happened to be over the week of Thanksgiving 2017. My wife and I had made the decision to forgo the usual turkey and dressing and get away for some much needed rest and relaxation at the beach. While neither of us were particularly worried about not having the usual dining fanfare of Thanksgiving, it did raise the question for me as to what people, particularly expats, do for the usual US holidays while living a life filled with SandAndSunscreen. I would not be at all shocked if many of the expats head back to states for the Holidays to visit with family and friends. In some cases I imagine this happens in reverse. But for me it raises the question of what do people do for Thanksgiving if they are on Roatan? This question can/should probably be addressed as both as a tourist and as a local.
Thanksgiving as a Tourist
Roatan Thanksgiving Dinner
During our Thanksgiving 2017 Roatan Trip, we had chosen to stay in West Bay at one of the more high-end resort options – Infinity Bay. Like most of the resorts of West Bay, Infinity Bay is largely targeting foreign tourists and expats, many of which come from the USA. Infinity Bay has definitely not ignored the significance of the Thanksgiving holiday to many people from the USA, and was that evening putting on a full-blown turkey dinner extravaganza for the expats and tourists that were calling Infinity Bay home for the holiday. They had priced this at $26 USD a person, which is not exactly cheap – but is also about in line with their buffet restaurant’s rack rate for any other night. They even had a poster up to advertise their offerings for the evenings and you can see what was on the menu that night in the picture below.
Beyond Infinity Bay, I also saw similar offerings in at least one other West Bay resort, in this case at Bananarama. I had noticed they at least took some level of interest Thanksgiving a few days before as we were walking up the beach and saw the sand sculpture above.
My wife and I ate at Bananarama shortly before Thanksgiving and the wait staff was quick to point out to us as tourists that they would be offering a Thanksgiving dinner of their own. This one would have been even more inviting in my mind than the Infinity Bay one as the Bananarama restaurant is right on the West Bay beach. I unfortunately never ask the price of their offering but I am sure it was in line with, or a little cheaper, than the Infinity Bay version.
My wife is not a huge fan of Thanksgiving food in general, so rather than partake of the Infinity Bay or Bananarama offering, we went into the West End for some Mexican food instead. I was also curious about how much if any Thanksgiving would affect the operations of the main tourist shopping area of the island. Overall, the foot traffic that evening was pretty light but it was busy earlier in the day when the cruise ship crowd was still on the island according to several of the shop owners we talked to.
Thanksgiving as an Expat
When my wife and I went through Eldon’s Grocery Store in Coxen Hole earlier in the week on our shopping trip I had not noticed any Turkeys for sale or the usually Thanksgiving specific end-caps you would see in an US grocery store a few days before Thanksgiving. Granted, I was not specifically looking for these things at the time, but it hit me later that I had not seen them when I started seeing the signs for Thanksgiving Dinners at the West Bay resorts.
Doing some research on the Internet, I did see that turkeys are available at the larger “Americanized” grocery stores on Roatan. They are just not something that people there normally eat so finding one can be hit or miss. When my wife and I were back on Roatan shortly after Christmas there was no shortage of turkeys at Eldon’s in Coxen Hole.
Several people online suggested you had to be very careful where you bought your Turkey, and meat in general, because of the intermittent power outages that impact Roatan. The problem being at many of the smaller island grocery stores they do not have backup generators and the meat may thaw and re-freeze several times given the extended period of time slow moving items like Turkeys might set in one of their freezers.
The bigger “Americanized” grocery stores on the island, have more volume / turnover of the stock, especially non-chicken meat, that their customers eat. They evidently also have installed backup generators to deal with the power issues on the islands and keeping meat preserved. It was suggested however that you try to “time” your purchases of such specialty items, and other things in general, to when new deliveries come in from the mainland. Much like in most small-town grocery stores, stock may set on the shelf well past the best by dates. My wife and I were burned by this on our trip when we bought some frozen food for the condo that had clearly spent a bit too much time on the shelf.
Beyond the “bird”, side items at a usual Thanksgiving table may also be harder to come by. Several of the expats were recommending that if there is something that is specific and special you may want to make alternate plans to ensure you have your “must haves”. Things like Cranberry sauce was once example of such items. Several of the expats said if you are having Thanksgiving visitors, or visitors in general these are some of the care package items you may want to ask your guests to bring in for you from the states.
I personally consider this all part of the adventure of living in a foreign land, but it is still something you may want to give some thought to before spending your first holiday in paradise.
Christmas Bonus Observation
Roatan Christmas
At least at Infinity Bay, they waste no time in moving from Thanksgiving into the Christmas season. There was a Christmas tree up the next morning after Thanksgiving for breakfast. The front of the main building had been decorated as well.