Top 10 Marinas in Honduras
The Bay Islands of Honduras — Roatán, Utila, Guanaja, and the Cayos Cochinos further south — occupy a privileged position at the eastern end of the Mesoamerican Barrier Reef System, the world's second longest at approximately 1,000 kilometres. The islands sit roughly 50 kilometres north of the Honduran mainland coast, close enough to reach in a half-day sail from La Ceiba but remote enough to retain their character as a distinctly Caribbean community. The reef surrounding Roatán ranges from 200 metres offshore on the southern side to 2 kilometres on the north, where it drops steeply to 300 metres just outside the reef crest. For divers, this is among the best in the Atlantic basin; for sailors, it means a protected lagoon 60 kilometres long where you can anchor in 3 to 10 metres over white sand and never feel the Atlantic swell.
French Harbor Yacht Club and Hotel — Roatán's premier marina
The French Harbor Yacht Club and Hotel at French Harbour on Roatán's south coast is the island's flagship marina and the social centre for the cruising fleet. It has around 40 wet slips for vessels to 150 feet, with a fuel dock dispensing diesel and gasoline at island prices, a haulout facility using a floating dry dock capable of lifting vessels to 250 tonnes, a bar, restaurant, pool, and a weekly social programme that makes it easy to connect with other long-range cruisers. The yacht club is within walking distance of French Harbour's commercial zone, where crews can source produce, hardware, and imported yachting supplies.
Honduyate — the full-service boatyard
Honduyate, located adjacent to the French Harbor Yacht Club, is the Bay Islands' most capable boatyard and the go-to facility for any serious hull or mechanical work. Its equipment includes a 250-tonne syncrolift, fibreglass shop, machine shop, steel-welding bay, and refrigeration engineer. Honduyate has handled vessels from 30 to 200 feet and its workforce includes specialized technicians trained in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. The boatyard's long-term storage facility is used by liveaboards departing Honduras for the hurricane season and returning the following year.
Jonesville Point Marina — the eastern end
Jonesville Point Marina lies at the eastern tip of Roatán's protected inland waterway, a natural channel running 25 kilometres along the island's south shore between the reef and the mangroves. The marina is smaller than French Harbor, with around 20 slips, but its position near the Jonesville anchorage gives it access to some of the best snorkelling on the island — the Roatán Marine Park's protected zone adjacent to Jonesville covers 10 kilometres of pristine reef.
Mahogany Bay Terminal — the cruise port option
Mahogany Bay Terminal at Coxen Hole, on Roatán's western end, was purpose-built for cruise ships and handles the vast majority of the island's 1.5 million annual cruise visitors. Private yachts can arrange berths at the terminal's outer dock by contacting the port authority at Coxen Hole. The terminal is the island's customs and immigration point, making it the standard clearance location for yachts arriving from Belize, Guatemala, or the US Gulf Coast.
Brooksy Point — the north shore anchorage
Brooksy Point on Roatán's north coast is a preferred anchorage rather than a formal marina, but its importance to the cruising fleet justifies mention. The north coast faces the open Caribbean and the Atlantic, but the reef — 100 metres to 2 kilometres offshore depending on the section — breaks most of the swell. Anchorages at Brooksy Point, Flowers Bay, and Sandy Bay are used by divers who want to access the famous Roatán wall dives: sites like Mary's Place, Spooky Channel, and Half Moon Bay, where the reef drops from 10 metres to over 200 metres in a near-vertical wall.
Utila Town Dock — the dive island
Utila, the smallest and westernmost of the main Bay Islands, has a tiny but busy waterfront centred on the Utila Town Dock. The island's 12 kilometres of reef-surrounded coastline has made it famous for whale shark sightings — particularly between March and April and again in October and November when the whale sharks feed on herring spawn above the north-west reef. Several dive shops double as informal marina offices for visiting yachts, and the town dock accepts vessels to 20 metres alongside with advance notice.
Guanaja — the Garden of the Bay Islands
Guanaja, the easternmost of the Bay Islands, is the least developed and most beautiful of the three main islands. The town of Bonacca (or Guanaja Town) is built entirely on stilts over a lagoon at the eastern end of the island — it has no roads or vehicles. Yachts anchor off the town in 3 to 8 metres over sand and use the municipal dock for water and fuel. The island's interior is crisscrossed by hiking trails through 20-metre-high primary forest, and its north reef has some of the most undisturbed dive sites in the Caribbean.
Molo Czech Village — the social bar dock
Molo Czech Village at French Harbour is a small floating dock and bar popular with the cruising community for its informal social atmosphere and its practical fuel stop. The Czech-owned establishment was established by European liveaboards who settled permanently in Honduras, and it has become a useful secondary clearance point for yachts coming from the east. The bar hosts a Friday evening gathering that is the informal end-of-week meeting point for visiting sailors.
Cayos Cochinos — the protected archipelago
The Cayos Cochinos, a small archipelago of 13 islands 17 kilometres south-east of Roatán, are managed under a Honduran marine research foundation and have a permanent research station. Anchoring inside the protected zone requires a permit (typically obtained at French Harbour), and private yachts must anchor in designated areas to protect the coral. The reef here is the healthiest in the Bay Islands system: elkhorn and staghorn coral grow to 5 metres tall in the shallows, and the water clarity in Cochinos often exceeds 40 metres visibility.
Valencia and the Río Patuca coast
The Honduran mainland coast east of La Ceiba stretches toward the Nicaraguan border through the Mosquito Coast, one of the most sparsely settled and biologically diverse shorelines in the Caribbean. The Valencia area, near the mouth of the Río Patuca — Honduras's longest river at 500 kilometres — has a river mouth anchorage used by yachts exploring the coast. The Río Plátano Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site protecting 5,000 square kilometres of rainforest, cloud forest, wetland, and lagoon, begins just east of the Patuca delta.
Explore on the map
From the pristine reef anchorages of Guanaja on the map to the full-service boatyards of French Harbour, Honduras's Bay Islands offer one of the Caribbean's most complete sailing experiences. The interactive map shows every island, reef pass, and anchorage with depth data, helping you plan the approach from the Río Dulce in Guatemala or prepare the transit east toward Providencia and the Colombian coast. Tap any marina to check haulout capacity, fuel pricing, and what the community says about weather windows.