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This ship’s excursion is a must-do for craft beer fans!

I’ve been a fan of craft beer since the late 1990s, so I was intrigued to learn that there was a craft brewery in Roatan. I’m not particularly familiar with the island, though, and the brewery is a significant way outside of the port area. So I thought I’d check it out using a ship’s tour called “Roatan Brews and Island Views.”

For whatever reason, though, I kept missing my opportunity. One time, I had to cancel the cruise that I’d bought the excursion for. Another time, it was sold out. A third time, the excursion was canceled once I was onboard the cruise.

Finally, success: on my June 2026 Enchantment of the Seas cruise, I was able to take the tour and check out this mythical place. And all I can say is – I really do wish I could have come sooner!

To call this an island tour was a bit of a stretch; we did drive for about 20-25 minutes to reach the brewery, but it wasn’t a particularly scenic drive. Still, I think this was maybe my first time leaving the port area in Roatan, so it was a good opportunity to get an idea of what the island was like.

Once we got to the brewery, the real fun began. We were walked through the lovely grounds of the property and were greeted by the owner and brewmaster, Ilias. He gave us a brief history of the brewery itself along with an explanation of how beer is brewed and how they do some things differently at Roatan Island Brewing to make their particular beers. We got a great opportunity to see the equipment they use and learn about how the process works.

After this presentation, we moved over to the commercial side of the brewery for the best part of all – the beer! A flight of four beers of your choice was included in the tour, and for an additional $8, you could upgrade to a flight of 8 (which they call “the Ocho,” a reference to Dodgeball that anyone can appreciate).

I should mention that of the 13 taps, not all of them were beers. There was a cider, a seltzer, a kombucha, and a couple of other non-alcoholic options.

How were the beers? Well, coming from someone who’s been drinking craft beers for almost thirty years now, I hope it comes across with the appropriate credibility when I say that they were really, really good. In fact, their Citrus IPA was so good that I went through the trouble of bringing a four-pack home with me. (As the owner Ilias says, I became a “micro-importer” – the brewery’s beers are distributed all over the island, but not off the island at this point.)

We were also given a small plate of complimentary snacks with our beers, and the brewery had the option to purchase additional food. I was surprised with how reasonable the prices were for the food – we had the chicken wings and pretzel bites, a lot of food for just $20 total. We also purchased an additional pint each.

Too soon, it was time to leave the brewery and head back to the ship. I would have loved to have spent more time here, and in the future, I’d love to see about organizing private transportation during my Roatan port stop, so I could be on my own schedule.

On the way back to our ship, the excursion van did stop at a small chocolate factory/gift shop, Carambola Chocolate Factory, where we could do some shopping for souvenirs. I must say, they knew what they were doing taking us to a gift shop after we’d been drinking beer for two hours!

I would definitely recommend this excursion to anyone who was interested in visiting the brewery. In the future, I’m hoping to find a way to get to the brewery without purchasing the shore excursion.