First, the West End is two strips of sandy beach that make up two bays (West End Bay and Half Moon Bay). In between the two bays lies a narrow rocky peninsula with several high end villas facing Half Moon Bay. The
West End is a unique and very quaint area of Roatan. It is full of cruise boat tourists, dive vacationers, island vacationers and back-packers who wind up staying for a months. It is easy to recognize the back-packer because they usually tend bar or wait tables for a few months and they all congregate at the same little bars on the beach. The various cultures of the transient back-packers, local island people, and mainland Hondurans really make this place a unique island location that everyone MUST visit (not to mention the INCREDIBLE beaches).
You can find more than seven thousand Expats on the island (Ex-Patriots, Americans and Canadians). Not all are there at the same time, but this about the number of homes owned by Expats. Many restaurants and bars are owned by retired people. Usually the bar is managed by people in their 20s or 30s while the retired owner is either away (did I mention you can catch tuna and mahi mahi just a couple of hundred yards off of the shore) or in the background talking with patrons. Roatan is not only a beautiful island, but is a life style all in itself. With laid back people and opening/closing times completely irregular the pace of life is a slow one. The average salary for a Honduran on the island is about 150 limps a month (18.5 limps = 1 US dollar). The average salary for a non-Honduran waiter (like a back-packer who hangs around the island for a few months) is about $6 US Dollars a day not including tips. This is roughly about $3500 limps a month. Most bars are run pretty ad-hoc, meaning there is not a great deal of inventory control or computer systems to run financials. I am really pretty amazed by this personally… I can see where a well managed bar or restaurant could bring in some really good revenue.
There are many bars and restaurants in the West End. Most of them are pretty small bars with a very limited number of bar stools. There is not a big bar/restaurant like a Sr. Frogs, but no doubt at some point there will have to be one. Parking in the West End is limited, but there is a big parking lot behind the Palms that has not really been discovered. The Palms is a new development with still some bar and restaurant space available. I don’t know if the parking lot will be for busses only or not, but time will tell. Land in the West End is hard to come by. Most of the vacant land has been built on. There are two waterfront lots (about 160 feet of waterfront) still available on the North part of the West End. The lot could be ideal to build a small condo complex, small resort or a magnificent house.
TJ has owned and operated a bar on West Bay is as knowledgeable about opening a business has it comes. If an opportunity to open a beach bar or restaurant interests you contact TJ Lynch ([email protected])