Anthony's Key Resort: Join the Family

Anthony's Key Resort, Sandy Bay
A soft little hand patted mine as huge brown eyes looked up at me. “Did you come to watch me?” the 5-year-old asked as she scooted in beside me, focusing hard on her imminent hula-hoop solo as her dad loaded fire-dance gear into the panga with us at Anthony’s Key Resort.
     We were headed for the weekly island fiesta night, a guest favorite at the granddaddy of Roatan dive resorts. Minutes later I was covered in sandy kisses from the resident four-month-old miniature schnauzer, Gringo. Anthony’s Key has a way of making you feel right at home.
     “I remember the first time I came, I was just treated like family,” says Stacey Harris, 48, making her seventh visit from Austin, Texas. “Six months later, they re- membered who I was. Even in the dining room they called me by name.”
     AKR’s 16-acre namesake isle is a great place for kids, with meandering paths for exploring, plus kayaks, beaches and an enormous swimming pool. Dolphin Scuba Camp introduces kids 5 to 14 to the resort’s pod of resident dolphins in small-group learning of no more than four kids per instructor.
     “They learn to be a dolphin trainer,” says instructor Tatiana Pereira-Hughes, who helps run the program.
     The resort includes an attractive small museum exhibit on the natural and cultural history of the region, as well the Roatan Institute of Marine Science’s state-of-the-art classroom and laboratory facilities where a resident marine biologist works with students from all over the world.
     “We’re like a little village,” says operations manager Mandy Wagner, who’s been here off and on since 1979, of the nearly self-sufficient enclave that includes a clinic and decompression chamber open to all.
     As Wagner says, divers here are “friends of the resort, more than just guests of the resort.”

Anthony's Key Resort
www.anthonyskey.com
» Padi Five Star Center with PADI instruction to rescue diver.
» Boats Andre, Andrea, Haydee, Isamar, Nicolas, Sabrina and Trevor, all 15 divers max; Albacore, Barracuda, Miss Cheryl and Stingray, all 24 divers max
» Guided Dives by divemaster, 15 divers per guide
» Max Dive Time 40 to 50 minutes
» Gas Mix nitrox to 32 percent
» Rentals dive equipment and computers
» Storage secure overnight storage
» Accommodations 56 bungalows, with 10 hillside rooms and 46 rooms on the key, with and without air conditioning, all-inclusive
» Amenities dives, encounters and swims available with the resort’s resident dolphins; weekly trips to private nature reserve and cultural center on nearby maya Key; kayaks; horseback riding; on-site clinic and decompression chamber
» Reservations 800-227-3483, info@anthonyskey.com

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