Give your Roatán resort your flight number and skip taxi haggling
Hotel and tour shuttles at Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport (RTB) run as pre-booked vans, usually costing $10–$15 per person for the 10‑minute ride to West End, West Bay, or major dive resorts. Many larger operations, like Anthony’s Key Resort, include this transfer in package pricing once you send your flight details.
These shuttles don’t have a public desk inside RTB; resorts and tour companies meet guests just outside arrivals with printed signs or a clipboard list. Vans park in the same small lot that holds about 65 vehicles, so when the Miami, Houston, Dallas/Fort Worth, and Atlanta flights land close together, the access road and pickup area feel jammed.
Frequency is roughly every 15–20 minutes around big US flight banks, but that’s “as needed,” not a clockwork schedule. If you fly in on a smaller regional airline or arrive late in the evening, regulars report longer waits and sometimes switch to a taxi instead of hanging around for a promised shuttle that’s on resort time.
On arrival, you clear immigration and customs in RTB’s single terminal, walk out the main doors, and push past the taxi crowd to find your name. Some guests miss their driver because the sign is small or the staff member is standing off to one side, then pay for a cab and later find out the pre-paid shuttle had been there the whole time.
Expect basic vans, not luxury coaches: on busy Saturday changeover days, travelers mention full rows and bags stacked in the aisle on the short 10‑minute airport–dock or airport–resort runs. Cruise excursion operators sometimes hold a van up to 20 minutes to corral guests from multiple flights before leaving for the pier.
Pricing can be fuzzy. Several hotels advertise “free” pickup, but repeat visitors point out that the cost is rolled into package rates, and stand‑alone transfers often bill per person. Families and small groups sometimes beat that by walking to the official taxi stand and negotiating a flat fare cheaper than four individual shuttle seats.
Regulars email their resort or dive shop with flight numbers a few weeks out, then reconfirm shuttle details 48 hours before departure and again the morning of travel. Do the same, and agree on a specific meeting point and backup plan (for example, “wait 15 minutes, then take a taxi”) so you’re not stuck outside RTB arguing about who was late.
Quick tip: if your package includes a return shuttle but your outbound flight isn’t on the main weekend bank to the US, budget for a taxi back to RTB and treat the hotel shuttle as arrival-only.