Cubicle Throwdown

tales of a serial expat

Roatan Rent: What $300/month Gets You

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Want to know all about rent in Roatan? Here’s the latest in my Roatan Rent series! (You can check out the $350/month one and the $400/month one for more posts on this topic.)

Hello from my new office!!

 

this is my dining room table. it’s on my deck!

One of the most common questions I get emailed is, “how much does it cost to live on Roatan?” While I’ve answered this a couple times already, I know people have different budgets and price ranges than I do. However, I’ve just moved to a new house, and I thought I’d show you what $300 USD per month can get you for a rental in Roatan.

My advice if you’re looking for a cheap rental: first, these are only cheap because these are LONG-TERM prices. They’re not this cheap for a month or two. They’re cheap because that price is for six months or a year. Second, everything on Roatan is done through word-of-mouth and in Roatan Facebook groups. Search for the Roatan Rentals groups on Facebook, post your dates and budget and wishlist, and see who gets back to you. Don’t send any money to book a place unless you’re 150% sure it’s legit. There’s really no way to prevent someone taking your deposit and then renting the place out from under you (and fun fact, there’s no functioning legal system there so good luck getting that back). For this reason, I personally don’t recommend booking in advance for a long-term rental.

My recommendation is always to book a hostel or vacation rental for the first two weeks and then start asking around when you arrive. Viewing places in person is best. You can also get a feel for the neighborhood – the pictures of the house might look nice but they won’t show rowdy neighbors with hundreds of screaming kids, a tied-up dog next door barking non-stop, the bar nearby blaring bachata music until 3am… you get the idea.

(Edit 2017: small reminder that I no longer live on Roatan and cannot find a rental for you. See my suggestions above. There are many people on the island working as property managers and they deserve your business.)

My house is just outside of the popular village of West End (about a 10 minute walk which is safe in the day but totally not at night). The neighborhood is fairly small with a few gringos living around here but mostly local families. I have a 1 bedroom apartment that is on top of one other apartment, so it’s just the two of us in this two story building. My rent includes cable (of which approximately 3 channels are in English, the rest are in Spanish), water, drinking water (we have an onsite well that brings up filtered drinking water through a separate tap, this is way better than buying water and hauling 5-gal jugs up the stairs), propane gas for the stove and…drumroll… a cleaning lady once a week. This is seriously such a godsend. I love my cleaning lady!! We also can use the washer and dryer across the way at the landlord’s house but the dryer is $4/hr. Still cheaper than taking it in to get done, so I use it. (I can’t line-dry because my next door neighbors literally cook for their family on an open fire behind my house, so when I use the line all my clean clothes smell like campfire. It sucks, but I can’t ask people not to cook!) My apartment is by no means fancy and $300 is actually a killer deal for what I’m getting. I also have A/C, but I pay my own electricity bill so we’ll see how much I use it! I am the most happy about my king size bed (nice upgrade from a futon) and my beautiful deck.

You know you want to see it….

living room

 

living room

 

living room splits into bedroom, kitchen and bathroom

 

king size bed! yay!

 

i also have a real closet for the first time on roatan

 

tiny kitchen

 

tiny kitchen

 

 

bathroom

 

bathroom

 

bathroom

 

deck

So what do you think? Rent is pretty expensive on Roatan for budget accommodation (especially with the ‘gringo tax’ landlords seem to charge when they see it’s a white renter)… I don’t think anywhere in North America this would be a steal for $300 (except maybe Vancouver, where I moved here from, so I have a skewed perception for rent!). In the $600+ rental prices, you can get some pretty nice stuff here. But budget rentals are few and far between, and if you want to live solo you’re probably going to have to pay more than you’d like if you want to live in/near town. It can be cheaper the farther away from the west side of the island you get, but most people don’t like living so far away from shops, restaurants and stores. I think I found a great place here and I’m really happy with it! I also think if/when I go back to Canada I will be much less picky about rental places. I can’t believe the kind of stuff I used to turn my nose up at before living here!

 

Guys, make sure to follow me on Facebook and Twitter … there’s lots of extras posted there that don’t make it onto the blog. (I also have Google+ if anyone even uses that?) Plus it makes me not strangle the roosters outside that are waking me up at 4am daily. So there’s that.
 

 

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Andrea Murillo G says

    Hey Rika thanks for your early reply. I already joined the group, I just can't find many available options. Thanks anyway 😉

  2. Rika - Cubicle Throwdown says

    Hi Andrea, well I still live in this one, so it's not available 😉 The other one is also rented long-term at the moment to a friend of mine. If you're looking for long-term rental accommodation on Roatan, I would suggest joining the Roatan Rentals group on Facebook!

  3. Andrea Murillo G says

    Hi Rika by any chance do you still have the contacts for any of the two places you lived?

  4. Rika - Cubicle Throwdown says

    Ah, one of those kind 🙂 Rotisserie Chicken is still there, although sadly Jurg (the guy with the glasses) fell ill and passed away at the end of last year. He was a bit of a legend around here and everyone was very upset about it. However, they re-opened and the rest of the staff are still cranking out delicious chicken!

  5. Jonathan Look, Jr. says

    Well, let's just say, she didn't like much of anything, anywhere. That is okay, free of that now. Yes, I think I may need another look at the Bay Islands soon. Is the rotisserie chicken place still there?

  7. Jonathan Look, Jr. says

    When I first started traveling Roatan was one of the places I most liked. Unfortunately my partner, who didn't like much, didn't like it either. After reading your blog I am thinking I need to put Roatan (or maybe Utilla) back in the list!

  8. Rika - Cubicle Throwdown says

    New York has some really crazy rental prices! Reminds me of back in Vancouver before I moved here. I was paying close to $1500 for a one bedroom piece of crap place in a trendy neighborhood. To be fair though, I was making about 5x what I make here!

  9. Anna R says

    OMG jealous! I pay 5x that for my NYC apartment that looks about half the size 🙂 And I live in the cheap part of Queens and pay less than everyone else I know!

  15. Alex says

    I feel like that's a total steal! I pay €300/month for my bedroom in my shared flat in Germany (no AC or dryer). In Houston or Austin, you'd pay out the wazoo too but your place would have a lot less personality. I absolutely love it!

  16. Where in the World is Nina says

    This is a cute spot! I love it! It's amazing what you learn to live with/without when you travel abroad. I too would be turning my nose up at most of the places I have now lived in compared to home. Simple living is actually really great 🙂

  17. Steph (@ 20 Years Hence) says

    Rika, you are SPOILED there, I tell you! We are paying slightly less than that here in HCMC, but for that we are only getting a bedroom (w/ private bathroom) in a shared house. I would KILL for a deck, and would totally have no problem sporting bbq-scented clothing as a tradeoff… That actually sounds like a perk to me! 😉

    Even though your apt looks waaaaay nicer than what we have here, I have to agree that if we ever do go back to living in Canada or the U.S. it'll be crazy how much we'd be wiling to trim from our housing budget because now we know how little we need to be happy!

  20. Rika - Cubicle Throwdown says

    Yeah man…rainy season is a nasty one here. It was pretty much non-stop for three months. We're starting to get some breaks now. The best time of the year to visit is May/June..after the Easter crowds, before it gets too hot!

  21. Dmitri says

    Really?! Raining all the time or just in the morning? When is it supposed to be nice again? I'd like to drop by for some quality diving.

  24. Rika - Cubicle Throwdown says

    Charming is a good word! I think it's so funny because the downstairs unit has finished floors and nice kitchen cupboards and tiles, and up here has like unfinished drywall and is missing doorframes…I think they ran out of money when they got to the upstairs one 🙂

  25. Rika - Cubicle Throwdown says

    I know, right? The deck is my fave part (besides my ridiculous giant bed). Moving here from Vancouver, BC where the rental units are horrifically overpriced, I feel like I'm getting a great deal, although my friends from smaller towns find the rental prices pretty high for what you get here.

  27. Dmitri says

    Hey Erica,

    Nice new digs! Congrats on getting something like this at that price. The place has all you need and looks really comfortable. It's a 5-star hotel compared to where I was staying during my visit. 🙂 Is it just up the road from West End, close to that baseball stadium?

  28. Wendy says

    Wow – the deck!!! What a beautiful place, and a reminder what bang you get for your buck in other places. I am living in LA, $300 would get you a cot in a living room if that! lol!