A Domaine Cabayo retreat · Roatan, Honduras
From forest to sea
A week on the world’s second-largest reef. Earn your first certification or spend seven days diving — taught start to finish by a certified SDI Instructor, in a group small enough to know everyone’s name.
Reserve your week → See the week$2,495 CAD, all-in Two departures, January 2027 Blue Horizon, Roatan
Every day here moves the same direction. You start on land — quiet, in the forested hills above the bay. Then you go to the water. That’s the whole rhythm of the week, and it’s the reason people come back different than they left.
The forest runs straight down to the reef.
Choose your line
Whether it’s your first breath underwater or your five-hundredth, there’s a track with your name on it.
Track 1 · Learn
For the first-timer, or the person who’s been meaning to do this for years. You’ll earn your SDI Open Water Scuba Diver certification in warm, calm, shallow water — taught personally by a certified SDI Instructor, in a small group with no rush. No cattle-call dive shop. No feeling like you’re holding anyone up. By the end of the week you’re a certified diver, and Roatan is where you did it.
Track 2 · Dive
For the already-certified who just want to be in the water. Guided dives on Roatan’s walls, coral gardens and famous sites, with time between dives to do nothing at all. This is the week where diving is the whole point — not a thing you squeeze in between excursions.
Haven’t dived in a while? A guided refresher on day one shakes off the rust in calm, shallow water before we head to the reef. A few years out is no reason to sit this one out.
Track 1 · The course
Your SDI Open Water course runs across your first three days on the island. Here’s exactly what those days look like — so nothing about the week is a surprise.
Before you fly
Your online coursework is included in your deposit and sent to you as soon as you book. You do the theory on your own couch, at your own pace — which means you spend your days in Roatan in the water, not in a classroom.
Day 1 · Monday
You meet your instructor, get fitted for gear, and take your first breaths underwater in shallow, calm, chest-deep water. Mask, regulator, buoyancy — every skill practised until it stops feeling strange. Nobody moves on until everybody is comfortable.
Day 2 · Tuesday
Off the beach and onto the reef. Two shallow dives where you repeat the same skills in open water, then simply swim — which is usually the moment it stops being a course and starts being diving.
Day 3 · Wednesday
Your final two dives, deeper, on the wall. You finish, you sign off, and you are a certified SDI Open Water Scuba Diver — qualified to dive anywhere in the world, for life. The rest of the week you are simply a diver on holiday.
Mornings stay yours throughout — the island activities run alongside the course, not instead of it. Already certified? Track 2 skips all of this and dives from day one.
The shape of a day
No two days are identical, but they all run the same direction — and none of them start with an alarm you resent.
Early
The forest wakes up loud. Breakfast is laid out, the water is flat, and nobody is asking you to be anywhere for another hour.
Mid-morning
Horseback into the sea, the island chocolate factory, the rum distillery — or a hammock, if that’s the honest answer. This half of the day is yours.
Afternoon
Gear up at the shop on the sand, a short ride out, and down the wall. Two dives most days, with a surface interval that isn’t rushed.
Evening
Salt still in your hair, the beach bar, and everyone telling the same dive back to each other slightly bigger than it was. This is the part people actually remember.
Why here
Roatan sits on the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef, the second-largest reef on earth, and it’s one of the calmest, clearest, most forgiving places in the world to learn. Warm water. Short boat rides. Walls that drop into blue, and coral you’ll remember for years.
We stay at Blue Horizon, a resort set into the forested hills above the water, with the reef a short ride away. Quiet where you sleep. Alive where you dive.
A short boat ride from shore.
Home base
A small beachfront resort tucked under the trees, with its own dive shop steps from the water and a beach bar for the hours in between. Simple, comfortable studios open onto a shared veranda — close enough to hear the water, quiet enough to actually sleep.
The reef doesn’t care what week you’ve had. You go down forty feet, the noise stops, and for forty minutes the only thing you have to do is breathe.
Why people come backThe land half
Before you ever get wet, the island has its own things to show you — and they’re included in your week.
Horseback along the beach, ending the way every ride here should: in the water, horses swimming.
Roatan’s own chocolate factory — from cacao pod to bar, with tasting included. You’ll never look at a candy aisle the same way.
A visit to the island rum company — how it’s made, how it’s aged, and yes, how it tastes.
The whole thing
Not included: flights — roughly $750 CAD return from Montreal. We can book them for you at cost if you’d like the whole thing handled, or check them yourself first:
Air Canada flies Montreal to Roatan nonstop for the 2026–27 winter season — but only on Saturdays. Since our weeks run Monday to Sunday, most people fly in on the Saturday before and take an extra night on the island. We’ll sort the timing with you.
Roatan’s airport code is RTB. If the Saturday nonstop doesn’t suit you, connecting routings run daily through Toronto or the US — and we can book any of it for you at cost.
Handled in-house
Two kinds of cover, and we arrange both so you land with nothing to sort out. Because your host is a licensed travel agent, your trip protection is handled in-house — not left to a website checkbox.
On land · Blue Cross
The everyday cover: emergency medical care while you’re out of country, trip cancellation and interruption, delays, and lost or damaged baggage. Arranged directly through our own agency, Voyage Aquaterra — so if something goes wrong, you call us, not a 1-800 number in another timezone.
In the water · DAN
Divers Alert Network is the standard in diving, and it covers the things ordinary travel policies specifically exclude: dive-related injury, hyperbaric chamber treatment, and emergency evacuation. It is the single most important piece of paper a diver carries, and every diver on this trip carries one.
Both are required to travel and dive with us, and quoted separately based on your age, trip length and coverage — not baked into a one-size price. We’ll set them up with you before you go.
How you pay
Nobody should have to put $2,495 on a card in one go. You hold your spot with a deposit, then the balance is split into three equal payments — the last one at least 30 days before departure.
Track 1 · Get certified
$500 CAD deposit
Higher because it includes your SDI eLearning registration — your course materials are bought and sent to you as soon as you book.
Track 2 · Go diving
$250 CAD deposit
You’re already certified, so there’s no course registration to cover — the deposit simply holds your place and your week.
Your deposit
The deposit confirms your place and your week. On Track 1 it also pays for your SDI eLearning registration, which we buy on your behalf as soon as you book — once that code has been issued to you, that portion can no longer be refunded.
If you cancel
Cancel more than 60 days before departure and every instalment you’ve paid beyond the deposit is returned in full. Between 60 and 30 days, we refund whatever we can still recover from the resort and dive operator. Inside 30 days the trip is fully committed on our side and we can’t refund it — which is exactly what trip cancellation insurance is for.
If we cancel
If we don’t reach the minimum group size, or we cancel the departure for any reason of our own, you get everything you have paid us back in full — deposit included. We’ll tell you no later than 45 days before departure.
Moving your week
Want to switch between Week 1 and Week 2? Free, if there’s a spot, any time up to 30 days before departure. If you can’t travel at all, you may pass your place to someone else — we just need their details 14 days ahead.
Prices are in Canadian dollars. Flights and insurance are separate and not included. This trip is sold and operated from Roatan, Honduras; travel and dive accident insurance are required to join, and we’ll help you arrange both. Full written terms are sent with your booking confirmation before any payment beyond the deposit is taken.
Two departures · January 2027
$2,495 CAD per person, double occupancy
Seven nights, breakfast daily, all diving, certification or guided dives, and island activities included. Hold your place with $500 if you’re getting certified (it covers your SDI eLearning) or $250 if you’re already a diver.
Small groups, so each week is limited.
Your deposit holds your place and picks your week. The balance is spread over three equal payments — the last one lands at least 30 days before you fly. No lump sum at checkout.
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