Fantasy Island Beach Resort, French Harbor

Old, run down, unfriendly staff, rooms moldy and unclean, terrible food. Would not go back even for free! Gift shop smells like a backed up sewer. Great place if you like motorized leaf blowers going by your room at 0630, chain saws wailing cutting dead trees. Don't be fooled by the pictures. Save your hard earned money, there are better places. Save yourself the grief, sleeping in the park would be a more pleasant experience.

Had a great week of diving and relaxing with my wife and friends. Nice, quaint resort that is clean and well maintained. Food was variable but generally good. Quiet place, easy to relax and great for sleeping after a day of 3 -4 dives. The dive masters were excellent. Service was friendly and very prompt. Will definitely return.

October 2009 We took advantage of a buy one get one offer due to the local political happenings on the mainland-business was slow and it was off season, we read all the reviews and weren't expecting much and that's what we got. Not much. Had we paid full price the service/accomodations wouldn't have been twice as good. The place is run down, held together w/ paint and duct tape. Our shower was hand held, the device to support the shower nozzle was broke, the hose feeding the shower nozzle kinked and you had to keep it from bending w/ one hand while showering w/ the nozzle in your other and applying shampoo/soap w/ your other hand-wait-that's not enough hands to operate a shower. We paid $611 +- each, got 3 meals, 3 dives a day, 1 night dive, a dive master (Derry is awesome!!), a run down boat held together w/ peeling paint, broken cruddy lockers for gear w/ no doors or ability to secure your gear, a nice pool, patio, transport to/from airport, free cocktails (limited selection but enough to do the job). The resort is not orgnaized or managed well, the orientation is hard to understand due to the Dive Mgr's dialect, the resort does nothing to explain other activities available (they have some!) and doesn't really capitalize on the ammenities they have. The night entertainment consisted of local folk dancing groups, children's dance groups and a small locall band-the band did ok. Local nationals use this resort as their own playground-which is fine, be prepared for children and leering men who act like they have never seen a caucasion female. The food was really bad. Over cooked and badly seasoned if at all. 3 of our crew got sick, could have been anything but the food, but they got sick at any rate. Mushy zuchinni, cooked cabbage, cooked turnips, crab legs cooked to mush, dried out chicken filets, strips of Spam cooked up as "ham" for Bfast and then later "disguised" in tomato sauce for lunch w/ cold spaghetti. Fitted sheets don't fit, they pop off and wrap over you. They also won't be changed all week. My pillow had a FORK sewed inside the pillow itself. Couldn't explain that one. Thought maybe the pillow/fork making factory had a defect one day. AC worked, another fellow in our group had to service his AC unit and clean the filter due to it being frozen over. Doors on bathroom and closet don't close properly. Towels get taken and don't get replaced. 7 am brings guy w/ fogger smoke machine outside your balcony. Request for wake up calls go ignored. Requests for light bulbs being replaced go ignored. The diving is great. Get the place on sale, go for the diving and consider the rest gravy and a bonus if it good.

I stayed at Fantasy Island twice - for a week in February 2008 and February 2009. Both visits were great. The rooms at this place are not fancy but they are doing some renovations on the resort. There is a new owner in place as of 2009. Our room was in the main building - thus closest to the bar/lobby/restaurant so it was only a short walk from our room to all of the meals. Each room has a balcony so you can hang things out to dry if you have any wet dive gear with you that was not left in your gear locker. Rooms are air conditioned and that functioned well for us. Fantasy Island generates their own power and we never had any power outages that are common througout the island. The rooms have laminate wood flooring and were kept clean each day. Hot water was plentiful at all times of the day. The food is buffet style with a varied selection. There are several vegetables and meats to choose from and always some kind of pasta. Breakfast had typical breakfast fare, and eggs made to order by the chef. For dinner a chef cooked steaks and also would custom-make a pan-fried pasta dish for you. We even had grilled lobster tails one night. There were a variety of desserts, and a selection of ice cream. Fresh fruits were available with all meals as well. The waiter staff reserved a table for our group for each meal (we had 10 people in our group). Our package was all-inclusive and had beverages including sodas, house wines, beer and a limited selection of well drinks. You cannot drink the tap water but they put a pitcher of purified cold water in your room's refrigerator and you can refill that at bar at any time. The diving was excellent. Most of the dive sites are located within a 10-15 minute boat ride. Visibility was generally 80-100 feet at most of the sites we visited and the coral was healthy. Fish were plentiful. Fantasy Island has a shipwreck and DC-3 airplane wreck that is accessible via about a 10 minute swim from shore. The wreck was filled with both big a little fish and health coral growth. It made for a nice day dive, and we also did several night dives (and even one before dawn). Navigation to the wreck is easy by following a cable with some submerged buoys from the gazebo shore dive entry. Gear storage is provided by the boat dock. The storage room is locked up in the evening and we had no problem leaving gear there overnight. The boats are older, but seem to be maintained allright. Our boat captain (Pedro) provided dry towels and freshly cut fruit after every dive. Everyone at the resort speaks english so communication was no problem. They have a nice beach and swimming area. There is a pool also which appeared to be pretty clean. We did not have any problem with insects except for a few no-see-um bites when I neglected to put on bug spray. Most of the time I applied some "cactus juice" repellant and had no problem. They do fog the area with bugs every morning, so I think that helps. They also have a lot of animals wandering around the resort. There are monkeys all over the place (they are NOT tame - do not try to pet them or feed them). We saw peacocks, deer, and even a kinakjou wandering around. The resort bus picked us up at the airport and returned us back there with no problem. They offer some off-site activities for an extra fee - we did the shark dive (which is done by another dive operator off site - it was awesome). Also did one of the zip line activities which was right down the road. For the money, Fantasy Island is a great deal. You can dive, eat, sleep, and dive some more. You can't go hungry at this place so it's easy to be well-fueled up for diving. Everyone in our group had a great time both years and we had no issues of maintenance, etc. If you are looking for 5 star accommodations, this isnt it. But for decent rooms, food and diving, I'd go back here any time.

We spent 3 nights there in Sept. of 2008. The all inclusive food was O.K. Front desk staff was totally inept. Rooms were run down. One person in our party informed the front desk that her toilet did not work. The management told her not to flush so often! The resort lost power 2 nights in a row and they had no reserve diesel to run the generator. Inquired about refund/discount and waited 2 hours for a manger that never showed. This was a first class resort back in the 1990's when it was locally owned and operated...a shame.

Spent a week at fantasy island in September 2008. I was a little nervous about the place because of some of the negative feedbacks that I read on line. The people that left neg. feedback for this place can not be satisfied! We had an awsome time!!! We were there just after hurricane Ike so the vis was not so great (80-90 feet). Rooms were very nice. Cold AC. Monkeys were fun to play with. Nice, quite secluded beach. The worst thing I can say is the food is average. Remember, you are in a third world country. If you are expecting a 5 star resort, you will be disappointed. If you go expecting a nice time, great diving, and relaxing atmosphere...you will get exactly what you asked for. Watch out for the sea donkeys.

I found my way to fantasy island by way of an excursion on a criuse that ported in Roatan.. we paid 45.oo to hang out there for the day. We had a party of 18 that took a trip together, nine of us took the day trip from the ship. None of us are divers but are avid kyakers. so we did enjoy the accesw to take ourselves around the island. we were suppose to get free beverages with our fee and didn't. the place was beautiful and we did enjoy the beach but was awkward for the fact that there were topless women on it. my cousins 7 year old daughter was with us. anyway, for the price we got what we paid for i suppose.. Enjoyed all the little creatures that were running around, how often do monkeys come up to you and want to sit on your shoulder. they had a petting zoo of sorts, exotic creatures that we would never get so close to in the states. I would go again as an excursion but dont think i would stay there.

Nasty place, nothing to do if you are not a diver. Diving was just average for the price. Rooms are less than a good motel six. Again, you get what you pay for. Hopefully this place will get with the times and remodle everything to actually be considered for a resort.

Exceeded all our expectations. Very relaxed setting, international flavor, excellent food, and accomodations. Exquisite natural beauty. The people and staff are very sweet spirited, polite, attentive, and full of joy. The only draw back is we have some concern about waste management, and how fragile the ecosystem is. The entire Island appears to be struggling with the growth, and managing environmental care. We hope that this becomes more a priority.

I loved the food, but hated that the restaurant wasn't opened all the time! keep an eye on all your things because there are so many monkeys around and they WILL take your personal things!!! Beach is not the best spot on the island, rooms not so clean.recomend Henry Morgan or Mayan Princess.....at least thats my next stop!!!