Deen on Deck. It's a travel blog.

I think there are many of us who feel a certain kinship to the sloth. He takes his time, rushes for no one, and lives what appears to be the humble and chill life we’d all like to have. Holding a sloth was bucket list stuff for my companions, and I was no exception. That part was truly magical. My group of five ladies did Victor Bodden’s Fun and Sun tour in Roatan, Honduras, and I’m here to lay out the good and bad for you:

The Good:

1. The sloths themselves, of course. These creatures are just as beautiful and sweet as I’d imagined — just being that close to them was wonderful. There were even babies. Baby sloths. I’m dead from the cuteness.
2. Victor’s Monkey and Sloth Sanctuary was truly a splendid place, right out of my tropical dreams. Just gorgeous and really felt like you were somewhere exotic and otherworldly. The building and grounds are not something I’ll soon forget.
3. The gift shop was a pleasant surprise! Now, I’m no stranger to tourist traps, but this one was reasonably priced and sold beautiful local items. We were told it’s run by Mrs. Victor Bodden herself.
4. The staff at the sancturary. JUST. AWESOME. Our guide AT the sanctuary really took his time speaking to us about all the animals in great detail, and was so patient and lovely. I noticed he particularly took the time to make sure the younger folks with us had the best experience possible. The animal handlers there seemed very knowledgable and gave us a lot of great info about the sloths.
5. It’s not just sloths! There’s a lot to do at Victor’s. You can add jungle canopy ziplining for an extra fee ($45), and although it’s not mentioned too much in the marketing, you’re also going to be seeing monkeys, macaws, parrots and a few other animals I forget – at no additional charge. AND you will get a chance to interact with these animals, too.

The Not Good:

1. The “included” stuff outside of the sloth sanctuary was downright bad, and we’ll skip it next time. Some of the gals in our group mentioned they wouldn’t mind doing a little shopping, and our driver took us to a local, open-air pop-up kind of market. With very, very aggressive salespeople. And small children dancing in the street for money. Our driver seemed to know some of the vendors there personally. It just wasn’t a good vibe and I wouldn’t do it again, along with…
2. The included “West Bay Beach Day Pass” Ugh…. this place. Crowded, and the pressure to buy add-ons is HIGH. We were told by our driver that if we didn’t purchase beach chairs here at $25 each, we’d be harrassed by people selling stuff — which kinda felt like extortion, and made us wonder what exactly we WERE getting that was included, if not even the chairs. The beach itself was also just ok, and very small. We did not stay long, and again, our driver seemed to be on a first-name basis with a lot of folks there…
3. I’m still not done with West Bay Beach. The Bar and Grill here was highway robbery. With prices for food posted as 7.00 for chicken nachos, 9.00 for a lobster roll – we thought, ok, this is very reasonable for lunch. Wrong. We were told those prices are in “honduran money” (which doesn’t jive with any conversion I can find online) and those nachos were actually $17 USD, and the lobster roll $39 USD. Wow, that’s quite a…ripoff – and that’s all clarified AFTER they ring you up (I cancelled my order). Now that’s a tourist trap.
4. Monkeys are quite mean. One of my favorite former students of all time, who’s from Barbados, warned me about this, but I was fool enough not to take him seriously. Sure enough, I got scratched in the face by a monkey at the sanctuary. I’m not sure it was intentional or just part of their jumping on you and constantly moving in their endless quest for food, but it definitely gave me a nasty little mark. They also kept removing my hat. The 10-yr-old with us refused to enter the monkey cage, and she turned out to be wise beyond her years. The other animals were great, but you won’t catch me messing with the monkeys again.
5. The walk to where the van picked us up. This is not the fault of Victor’s at all, as I think port regulations prohibit the vans from coming directly into the cruise port, but it was a bit of a hike to get to our van, down a very steep hill. So steep that they have a splintery-rope along side of it for you to hold onto for dear life during the 10-15 minute walk. This wasn’t prohibitive for anyone in our group, but be aware of it if you’re considering this tour.

All in all, Victor’s Sloth Sancturary ITSELF is fantastic. But if I had to do it over again, I’d take a cab there and simply pay the admission fee, or book a tour that included only the sanctuary and none of the other stuff.