Bay Islands; which island is best?

[CODMAN]

Hey all,
I'm presently looking over the Honduras Bay Islands as a possible dive trip this autumn (september-novembre ish), and was asking myself: which island is considered the best diving? Roatan? Utilla? The others?

So I'm asking you all, what are your oppinions, and why?

Personally, I'm kinda partial to exciting encounters (like turtles, sharks, Rays, rarely seen coral fish, etc...), so which island do you all think is best for me?

I've ordered the lonely planet Honduras guide to diving, but it's back ordered 2 weeks and I can't wait...

Thnaks in advance for your responses!!!

 

[Doc]

There is no best diving, certainly after you have looked at them all.

Each is unique and worthy.

To start, The Bay Islands also include Barbaretta, Moratt, St Helena, Guanaja, Cayos Cochinos and Cisne (Swan). I say this not to give a geography lesson, but to make a more important point. There are superb dive sites all over the Caribbean, but more than a few have no dive ops serving them! The same is brutally true of the Bay Islands.

The most operational of all of the Bay Islands is Roatan. For variety of soft and hard corals plus a veritable nursery of babies as well as macro critters, you cant beat the South side walls.

"Exciting encounters"? The stuff you can see after a certain number of dives anywhere in the Caribbean? Try the North side and West Bay. Yes, I am biased toward the S side as I have seen all of the big fish and easily spotted "bigguns" that I need to.

The uniqueness of the Bay Islands is apparent to the slow and careful diver with excellent observational skills + a good DM. The magnifying glass in hand is the mark of a Bay Islands expert! There are treasures!

The S side also has the canned shark dive, which by comparison to Stuart Cove... why it's pretty natural! If one feels the need, this one isn't a bad experience. I'd rather catch the glimpse in the wild.

All that being said, the next step in available dive-op infrastructure would be Utila. It is a waaaaay laid back environment, and if but for nothing else, I would recommend going to see it now so you can savor it before it really changes.

Guanaja? The transportation is an issue (time consuming) and the dive ops are spotty and few. Ditto for Cayos. The local liveaboard Utila Aggresor doesn't seem to move about much, the land options are a better deal.

Anyone who knows the Bay Islands looks at the Lonely Planet Guide for dive advice and snickers. They are clueless underwater.

 

[Bay Island Diver]

Try to go earlier rather than later in that time span, November is getting close to rainy season. October is a good bet to avoid both Hurricanes and torrential rain. Roatan has the shark dive while Utila has more Whale sharks. Rays and Turtles are common on both islands. Roatan certainly has a batter diversity of large fish such as grouper - As long as people stop ordering it in Restaurants!

 

[Lost_At_Sea]

My suggestion is Roatan. I had so much fun on Roatan and the diving there was just awesome. There were so many dive sites off of Roatan that it is rated high on my list of places to dive. Have fun.

 

[chuck41]

Hey all,
I'm presently looking over the Honduras Bay Islands as a possible dive trip this autumn (september-novembre ish), and was asking myself: which island is considered the best diving? Roatan? Utilla? The others?

So I'm asking you all, what are your oppinions, and why?
. . . .

RoatanMan is the "resident expert" on this area of the world. Everyone has preferences and opinions, but he has more experience than most of us to back his up.

Roatan and Utila are both great dive locations. Check my web site for a recent dive report on both with lots of pictures. I stayed on the west and north sides of Roatan and only dove the south side a few times. http://scuba.royalcs.com I have seen few sharks in either island in the times I spent there, but I like it like that. Eagle rays, turtles, big grouper, occasional nurse sharks, and the other common reef-dwellers large and small are what I like to see and both places have an ample supply of these. You can go on a "shark dive" in Roatan and watch the big dudes consume a huge hunk of fish heads if you like, I would just as soon watch the video myself. Seen enough of them up close and personal while I was busy doing other things - - like spear fishing. Both islands have lots of beautiful coral formations of many types.

If you want to go in the November time frame I understand you have a good chance seeing the whale sharks in Utila, but the very best month is March. At least that is what I have been told. Contact some of the dive ops down there and confirm that though. Most all of the dive operators I talked to down there were nice folks and they will try to honestly answer a respectfully submitted e-mail question. I am looking forward to going back to Utila next March. I personally loved the laid back and ultra friendly atmosphere there. However, we were treated very nicely on both islands and I am convinced you can't go wrong with either one.

 

[DeputyDan]

Hurricanes - September - OCtober - November

Been on Roatan during a Hurricane - makes for poor diving.

 

[Scared Silly]

We are looking at a similar trip and trying to decide on which island as well, at present we are leaning towards Utila. A few questions for those who know the turf.

We can get ourselves there for New Years, given that this is towards the end of the rainy season what is the vis like? Does all the rain greatly reduce the vis?

The other item we are trying to do is figure out connecting flights from San Pedro Sula to either Utila or Roatan. We can get in at 1:30pm and it seems the connectors time things for the international flight pretty tight. What are people's experience with this? Are people overnighting?

Also has anyone done a quick trip to Copan as part of their travels to Honduras?

Thanks for any tips.

 

[DeepBlueResort]

Hi

Your 1.30pm time for your flight arrival is fine, here you do not have to wait for hours to get through airports.

Most resorts if that is the type of vacation you require will arrange any flights that you need in Honduras.

As for Copan, I am sorry I cannot help much but I do know that the coach company Hedman Alas goes there, these are very good coaches look at http://www.hedmanalas.com/

Hope this is some help to you

 

[Scared Silly]

Thanks for the info. Knowing we can get there in a day greatly helps as we will do our Copan trip afterwards.

 

[hopefulist]

I spent a couple of week in Copán Ruinas and surrounds last summer and loved it; here's a link to my travelogue (let me know if you have questions).

http://sidewalkmystic.com/CopanRuinas.htm