lemurs2
Contributor
HI All,
Thanks for all the great advice. We just got back a few days ago. Here's the skinny:
Flew in on Taca to Roatan, stayed at the Inn of Last Resort for 5 days. Very happy with the staff and room. Food was very good as well as service and DMs were great too. Never had to change a tank. The first day of diving was not so good so we went to the other side to Mary's Place and the ship wreck Prince Albert. Good dives. We had a total of 6 + the dm in our group. The rest of the time we dove on the ILR side. Vis was good but dropped each day and on the last day the swell was pretty big and the vis dropped down to about 20 ft. Did see loads of grouper, turtles and a couple of eels as well as other things. Did the shark dive and loved it, got the DVD too. Also did the canopy tour. Ed, the manager of ILR drove everyone down to Foster's to watch the super bowl. Tried to get in to do the Dolphin snorkel at AKR but too many pod people had all the bookings. Ed told us at the beginning of our stay not to worry about tipping and that it could just be added on at the end and they had a tip pool with each area getting a certain amount which made things easier. He said the DM's and Boat capt were at the top of the percentage scale.
Took the ferry to La Ceiba to get to Utila
Stayed at Mango Inn in the cottage, very nice. Pretty much ate at the restaurant there which had good food and great pizza. Also ate at the BBQ place which was quite tasty and entertaining. Dove with the Utila dive center. Large groups but they were broken down into groups of 4-6. Professional staff and we were on the fast boat so we got the all the dives sites before the other 2 boats got there. We had 2 full days of diving there and were only able to hit the other side of the island for one dive, no whale sharks though they said there had been many sitings. Last dive was at a seamount, vis was about 70-80ft, loads of life, saw a huge moray out and about. Plus a spotted eagle ray. Best dive of the trip. On the way back the boat capt spotted some rough toothed dolphins and we were able to slide in quietly and swam with them. I had a good encounter with a mom and here baby for about 30 seconds before they took off. Last place to visit was the Jade Seahorse bar. Very cool place but lather on the deet because the mozis were really bad and cactus juice didn't work against them.
Took the ferry to La Ceiba and stayed at the Pico Bonito lodge for 3 days to take it easy. Rained heavy for over 24 hours and then cleared up. Did the boat ride in the reserve, no monkeys or manatees but lots of crocs and a caymen, as well as a great birding place. The food at the lodge was really good and the place is a great place to hike.
We are planning to go back in June for a week to Utila and this time try AKR. It was really handy taking a $100 in ones and also another $200 in 5's, 10's, and 20's. We will be bringing the 100% deet though and lots of it for the mozis. Cactus Juice handles the black flies very well though. Our only big dissappointment was that we had a flight booked from Roatan to La Ceiba and ended up taking the ferry because the airport was closed on the La Ceiba side. From now on we'll just stick to the ferry. Water temp for both places was 81 in Roatan and 80 in Utila.
Thanks for all the great advice. We just got back a few days ago. Here's the skinny:
Flew in on Taca to Roatan, stayed at the Inn of Last Resort for 5 days. Very happy with the staff and room. Food was very good as well as service and DMs were great too. Never had to change a tank. The first day of diving was not so good so we went to the other side to Mary's Place and the ship wreck Prince Albert. Good dives. We had a total of 6 + the dm in our group. The rest of the time we dove on the ILR side. Vis was good but dropped each day and on the last day the swell was pretty big and the vis dropped down to about 20 ft. Did see loads of grouper, turtles and a couple of eels as well as other things. Did the shark dive and loved it, got the DVD too. Also did the canopy tour. Ed, the manager of ILR drove everyone down to Foster's to watch the super bowl. Tried to get in to do the Dolphin snorkel at AKR but too many pod people had all the bookings. Ed told us at the beginning of our stay not to worry about tipping and that it could just be added on at the end and they had a tip pool with each area getting a certain amount which made things easier. He said the DM's and Boat capt were at the top of the percentage scale.
Took the ferry to La Ceiba to get to Utila
Stayed at Mango Inn in the cottage, very nice. Pretty much ate at the restaurant there which had good food and great pizza. Also ate at the BBQ place which was quite tasty and entertaining. Dove with the Utila dive center. Large groups but they were broken down into groups of 4-6. Professional staff and we were on the fast boat so we got the all the dives sites before the other 2 boats got there. We had 2 full days of diving there and were only able to hit the other side of the island for one dive, no whale sharks though they said there had been many sitings. Last dive was at a seamount, vis was about 70-80ft, loads of life, saw a huge moray out and about. Plus a spotted eagle ray. Best dive of the trip. On the way back the boat capt spotted some rough toothed dolphins and we were able to slide in quietly and swam with them. I had a good encounter with a mom and here baby for about 30 seconds before they took off. Last place to visit was the Jade Seahorse bar. Very cool place but lather on the deet because the mozis were really bad and cactus juice didn't work against them.
Took the ferry to La Ceiba and stayed at the Pico Bonito lodge for 3 days to take it easy. Rained heavy for over 24 hours and then cleared up. Did the boat ride in the reserve, no monkeys or manatees but lots of crocs and a caymen, as well as a great birding place. The food at the lodge was really good and the place is a great place to hike.
We are planning to go back in June for a week to Utila and this time try AKR. It was really handy taking a $100 in ones and also another $200 in 5's, 10's, and 20's. We will be bringing the 100% deet though and lots of it for the mozis. Cactus Juice handles the black flies very well though. Our only big dissappointment was that we had a flight booked from Roatan to La Ceiba and ended up taking the ferry because the airport was closed on the La Ceiba side. From now on we'll just stick to the ferry. Water temp for both places was 81 in Roatan and 80 in Utila.
