Travel to Roatan: Fly or Take the Ferry?

Since I live in La Ceiba, travel to Roatan is easy. I have two options: I can fly or take the ferry. When I first moved to Honduras, I could only fly, as there was still no ferry service available. Fortunately, we now have a state of the art ferry that is efficient, safe and fast! Before the Galaxy wave was in operation, there were two different ferries. The first ferry to service Roatan was the Tropical, which was replaced a few years later by the Galaxy.  Both were very safe boats, but they were originally crew boats that served the oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico.

These ferry boats were seaworthy, and were ideal to move crew and cargo from land to the oil rigs. But, they were not designed with comfort in mind. As such, they would roll and heave and many passengers would become seasick.  Back in those days, I preferred to fly. But when the Galaxy Wave started operations, things changed. Finally, Roatan had a seaworthy passenger ferry that was comfortable to travel in. Travel to Roatan became easy, comfortable and most of all affordable. Flying was much more expensive, and most travelers would use the ferry.[themify_hr border_width=”1″ width=”1″ color=”light-gray”]

Several airlines used to offer the service between La Ceiba and Roatan. Many closed or stopped flying that route because the travel by ferry was much cheaper. A couple of years ago, a new airline started operations in Honduras. LANHSA developed a commercial strategy to compete with the ferry fares. For the last year, the cost of travel to Roatan has been about the same, regardless of whether you fly or sail. In other words, it costs the same to fly or sail to Roatan from La Ceiba!

So this time around, I decided to give LANHSA a chance and tried their service. I am glad I did! LANHSA is flying modern Jetstream J32 aircraft. These planes are small, but fast. Best of all, they are in very good shape and well maintained. The operation was flawless. The flight was to depart at 2:30 pm, and the engines started up at that exact time. Flying time? Only 18 minutes! Another plus is the baggage delivering system. Delivering bags to 21 persons at the airport is a lot more efficient than doing so to 2 or 3 hundred passengers on the ferry![themify_hr border_width=”1″ width=”1″ color=”light-gray”]

So I have made my mind up! Next time I travel to Roatan, I will not ask myself if I should fly or take the ferry. I will of course fly with LANHSA. Booking with them online was easy! I went to their webpage, purchased a ticket and then showed up at the airport. I love it when companies make it easy to do business with them!