Paya Bay Resort

Has anyone stayed at Paya Bay Resort in Roatan, Honduras, during a Naturist Week? If so what can you tell us about the place as a nudist resort during that time. Their website says you can be nude everywhere except certain designated common areas during the Naturist Weeks. Is this really true? I hate to go to a place where I think we can be nude, and be given stern glances, or worse, lectures! I am thinking of this resort as a replacement for "N" in Jamaica, now that it is closed.

We have been to Paya Bay twice, both during naturist weeks. I was pretty much nude all of the time other than around the restaurant, where I usually just wore a sarong. It's common for people to be nude there, so you won't get anything negative from the staff. But, they have been trying to build a local following for the bar, which is on the nude beach, and that is bringing in a lot of textiles. They don't seem to gawk and know what to expect, but it didn't always feel like a naturist resort.

I can't say that I would recommend Paya Bay, though. Our first trip we had a nice time and the trip to Pigeon Cay was a real highlight. But, we got sick on the trip and had to take Cipro when we got home to clear it up. It took a few years before we decided to try again and our second trip was a bit of a bust. We were prepared in case of the stomach trouble this time. We avoided dairy products and anything that might have been washed, but still caught it. We did have pills we got in advance that cleared it up. We got eaten alive by sand flies, in spike of lots of Deep Wood Off. I don't know why this was not a problem our first trip, but was our second. The worst thing was that we felt we were treated as second-class guests the second trip due to low occupancy. It was low the first time, but this time the promised Pigeon Cay trip never happened, the local entertainers never happened, and they just didn't seem to care as much. We won't be back.

Our trip report from our trip 2 years ago, this week!!....

It’s a nice place and we enjoyed it. There are two different areas that are clothing optional during naturist weeks. The first main beach is great, the pool there is also clothing optional and we loved it when it was opened. After a day of heavy rain it needs to be drained and it stayed that way for the following three days… a huge bummer for us.
Also just as wife went “natural” a small group, family with kids, showed up to share the beach. We were warned, almost asked, ahead of time. Again a bit of a bummer. They are also building a new big beautiful bar on the beach and I don't know how that will effect nude use of the pool as it directly overlooks it.
The back side of the island, always clothing optional, is hot. No breeze with still sitting water. Nice to visit and sit at but not enjoyable for an extended time for time in the water.
We thought the food was great, you just need to be flexible with what’s available.
Over all a nice change but we are looking for other options for next visit away from SX

We really enjoyed the trip, had the place to ourselves for most of the time but for a few days. One day 2 couples were there in suits, no big deal and we even stayed nude and used the pool with them near by but the other day as reported above was a bit of a bummer with a large family coming in. They didn't seem to mind but it was a bit of a "mood" killer.
I think the new bar looked great as it was being completed but I do worry that it would be more of a bummer if it was full of non-nude beach goers.
If it was, (never thought I'd say this) mandatory nude <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Wink.gif" alt="" /> we might think about going back.

There are several Paya Bay reports on Trip Advisor that address this issue. It seems that they don't have this nude/non nude week thing down very well. It appears even during naturist week they still bring in cruise ship day visitors who are not nudists. Not a harmonious mix in my view. But each to their own I guess.

That is exactly the wrong attitude. If the textiles are fine with you, you should be fine with them. This is the only way C/O places will survive. Forcing them to be nude mandatory will force them out of business and further reduce our already depleted options in the Caribbean.

<img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Clapping.gif" alt="" />
Good point.

Wow. Who said anything about forcing people to be nude. Where did you get that? My point and the point of others is that PB should be clear about what "naturist week" really means (or doesant mean) so they can make a informed choice on whether to visit or not visit- based on their persoanal comfort zone.

This is the main issue with PB, they try to be all to all and the process tend to be inconsiderate to their guests and reason their guests are there. We had a couple of similar situations while we were there last May (photo shoot with the crews families, w/kids on bliss to name one)with total disregard of us. Maybe if the manager was more interested in seeing to his guest satisfaction instead blogging about nirvana, they could get it right...will we go back??? maybe, but not anytime soon!!

Yes, I understand your destination choices are limited and mandatory anything is not always good which is why I said that with a smile however I feel it's a bit unfair to advertise a naturist week and then bus in a family reunion on top of you. They, the "textiles" didn't have an issue because we got dressed and they were only exposed to us briefly as we were told they were coming.
I would not be happy lounging nude by the pool and have people come in to use the bar (which looks like it was going to be awesome) as it looks directly down on you.
I'm all for each her own but this just doesn't seem like it would work well at Paya and I thought Kevin would want to know. If it were a "true" naturist week, just may have returned.