Affordable Long Term Living on Roatan
West End is a very affordable place to be, with a variety of food and accommodation options to cover the full range of budgets. On Roatan Divers’ blog, we talked a bit about how much it costs for a week’s holiday on Roatan, but what about long term living? West End has a huge expat community so it’s been designed to cater to both short and long term people, but it’s still important to think about allocating your budget differently since we can’t splurge like we’re on vacation forever!
On that note, let’s talk about some tips we have for affordable long term living on Roatan to make your dollar go further.
Living Outside West End vs In
View of Half Moon Bay in West End, Roatan
Just as any city has higher rental rates in the center of town, living smack dab in the middle of West End will raise your monthly rent while generally offering you smaller accommodation options. However, the big upside is you are within short walking distance of just about all of West End, which only runs 1 mile long. As of now, average monthly rental rates are around $600/month for 1BR + utilities.
If you can take the time to look around, you’ll find that apartments on the outskirts of West End will give you bigger places for less. Places here might run closer to $500 /month for a 2BR + utilities. If you’re not keen on the 20 minute walk each way, considering buying a scooter and then selling it when you leave. It’s cheaper than renting since scooters don’t lose their value so much here, and have an easy mode of transport through West End for the time you’re here.
Cooking vs eating out
Yes, you can eat out for relatively cheap if you want to on Roatan, starting at only $2 for a baleada which consists primarily of a rich flour tortilla filled with beans and cheese. Even local plates of protein, beans and rice run about $5, so it’s easy to think that eating out every meal wouldn’t be terribly expensive. However, eating at Western restaurants on average run you about $10 for a meal.
The problem is that it’s not particularly healthy to eat this way for every meal for two months and like holiday drinking, things can add up before you know it.
It’s relatively cheap to cook for yourself, with pasta from Eldon’s Supermarket only 70 lempiras ($3) and canned vegetables starting at 23 lempiras ($1). Even if you’re eating loads of meat and vegetables, you can make this go a long way if you cook in bulk! So consider that even basic meals cooked at home can save you cash.
Don’t holiday drink
Just because everyone around is drinking on holiday doesn’t mean you should. Aside from holiday drinking interfering with your pursuit of professional scuba diving (nobody likes a hungover Divemaster trainee!), drinking perpetually like you’re on spring break will rack up your costs quick. Beers normally run about $3 and $5 for a cocktail in bars (and even less if you’re buying a six pack at the supermarket), but this can add up quickly.
Go into energy efficient mode
One of the biggest surprises for people who arrive on Roatan is our cost of electricity. Keep in mind that despite our many first world comforts that have made it to the island, the cost of power on an island of this size might not be what you expect. Roatan Electric Company, RECO, recently made improvements to their infrastructure which at least provides a more consistent delivery of power vs the outages experienced in the past.
The biggest warning is the cost of running air conditioning. To run a wall AC unit in a single room in an apartment, typically costs about $1/hr. Say for example, you only ran the AC at night, so 8hrs every night for a month, your bill is almost $250 in cooling costs alone. Not to mention your lights, refrigerator, and other small appliances. Do yourself a favor, go into an energy efficient mode by always remembering to turn off lights while you’re not in the room and most importantly if you are going to run an AC unit, be prepared to pay for the extra comfort! Or invest in a good quality fan during your time here.