Utila - What is your favorite place to stay and dive?

My wife and I are looking at a week long trip to Utila 25 May 25 to 1 Jun. We have been around the carib to many places and to CCV on Roatan twice and was thinking about doing Utila this time. We enjoy a relaxing time and lots of diving. Looking at either Utila Lodge or Laguna Beach but are open to other suggestions.

the lodge and laguna are very different from each other but both are popular.
the lodge is in the middle of town (can be noisy at night), has no beach or pool but seems to be very popular with returning dive shop groups and divers who love to do karaoke in the bar at night (a friend of mine is a neighbor and swears she has considered suicide after listening to hotel california 100's of times a month).
laguna is a five minute boat ride from town (quieter), has a beach and a pool, is considerably larger than the lodge and is also popular with dive groups and couples but your access to town is limited (not necessarily a negative in my opinion).
both offer the same diving experience with nice boats, good skippers and highly recommended dive masters.
if its a "resort" you're after, two others to consider are deep blue (just down the beach from laguna, rustic but comfy) or utopia (newest resort on the island and furthest from town), both are mostly frequented by independent travelers and visit all the same dive sites as laguna and the lodge.
if you want more of a desert island feel away from the package dive groups, i'd head to the southwest of utila down by the cays and rent one of the lovely beach homes such as the cabana at big rock, the coral house etc. and have utila cays diving pick you up from your private beach each morning for dives and snorkel the beautiful reefs steps off of the beach.

I echo the house rental idea, but i'd say to not do it on the south shore even though it is beautiful. The logistics of it are a major pain in the rear. There are MANY wonderful houses to rent on mainland Utila which are quiet and away from the noise, still offer snorkeling or diving right out your patio door, plus it offers you the ability to go to the stores anytime, bars to party if you wish, and dine out whenever/where ever you wish - all things you cannot do (easily) by staying out near the keys.

But to more directly answer your question, if money wasn't a factor and the only choices were the Lodge or Laguna, you'll have a better diving experience at Laguna in my opinion.

we'll have to agree to disagree re. the location of the best places to stay. unless you want to party your brains out every night with like minded people, being near town has no advantage imho, in fact the further away you get the more beautiful the scenery and the easier the living.
the caretakers at jack neil beach, treasure beach etc. have boats so if you want to go to town you just have to ask, the "logistics" are taken care of for you, they also do all the grocery shopping for their guests so there's no need for stores within walking distance (who wants to grocery shop when you're only got a weeks vacation).
utila cays dive co's boat picks you up right from your beach (don't have to walk 15-20 mins into town to get on a dive boat like you have to from any of the quieter beach front locations near utila town).
the best restaurant on utila (perhaps honduras) chez lola is out there and picks up dinner guests in their boat at sunset (i had one of the best meals of my life there last night) and then brings you home afterwards.
if you want to party, damn partying on the cays actually means partying with locals not just tourists and dive masters, much more of an authentic utilian experience.
i'm definitely biased towards the southwestern end of utila and the cays but once you've lived in utila town and then moved out here like me, its impossible not to be.

however, i agree that if i only had the option of laguna beach or the lodge, it would be laguna beach.

Henry,

Laurence is correct. Most of the south shore rentals offer transport on request as well as provisioning etc. We even offer our own dive master, boat captain and boat. Separately, the pineapple house and the coral house to our west are just adjacent to UtilaCays diving. With the addition of Lola and Neptunes, the south shore is perhaps more convenient than other residential areas of the island.

Utila Dive Center and Mango Inn were very good - check this forum for my posts about both.

I'd like to go back and do a cays trip.

I've stayed at Laguna beach and liked it a lot. A bit away but easy enough to go into town if you want, by boat. The dive op and dive boats are first rate. Utila Dive Center is in town, which is a draw back imo, and Mango Inn is not ocean front. Laguna also has nice grounds, beach, and one of the few pools on the island.

Doctorfish:

I've stayed at Laguna beach and liked it a lot. A bit away but easy enough to go into town if you want, by boat. The dive op and dive boats are first rate. Utila Dive Center is in town, which is a draw back imo, and Mango Inn is not ocean front. Laguna also has nice grounds, beach, and one of the few pools on the island.

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We did 3-4 dives a day so beach front wasn't a priority. When we want to do lounging we will likely do Barefoot or another cay sometime in the future, which gets us 360° of waterfront and the pool is a bit redundant. Mango Inn has a pool but we never went in (did i mention 3-4 dives a day?).

About half our dives we had 2 DMs in the water for 2 divers on a nice rear-platform boat. For about a pittance per tank if there was anyway to work out the cost, which there really wasn't because it was a package.

What's wrong with the dive op being in town? It's not a hang out. Mango Inn drove us there every morning, we got in our boat and dove dove dove.

My takeaway is that UDC and Mango Inn are for DIVING. Their DMs frequently will have more experience training DMs than other DMs have experience DMing.

There are probably other great ops on Utila but we didn't try them. For sure go elsewhere if you want a vacation that happens to have some diving too. Don't go to Mango Inn/UDC for that.

Utila town is not only about partying, not sure why you misrepresent this. I have friends and family stay here all the time and they never hear any noise which you seem to insist they will hear. Heck i live waterfront in Sandy Bay and don't hear the partying most nights. Can they party until 4am? Sure. If they choose not to can it be entirely avoided? Absolutely.

I realize these people you keep recommending are your neighbors and friends, but that doesn't mean you should misrepresent the other facilities.

Personally I find the Red Cliff area far more attractive/picturesque than the Cayes.

If you must choose the Cayes, Other dive ops serve the Cayes, too. I've personally docked at Little Bight for several different groups over the years. I consider Utila Cayes diving as friends (Kathryn was my neighbor when living in town) but they are a new operation. 6 divers this week? Up goes the ad begging to be sold extra tanks for their growing clientele. Not necessarily a bad thing, but not exactly a business with 20 years of operation either.

Funny you mention a 20 minute walk if staying in town. most dive ops pick up their guests by van and shuttle them back an forth for no fee. Many guests love the idea of renting a golf cart, too, and touring the island.

If you don't see staying in the Cayes and wanting to get into town as a hassle then I see our differences straight away. There is nothing convenient about a 20 minute boat ride in growing swells from the eastern trade winds. Want dinner in town? Want to party your last night on the island? Bring dry clothing or you'll be eating dinner dripping in saltwater from the boat ride. Plus usually there is an expense associated with this. I know Utopia charges $75 for this. Not sure about others.

like i said, agree to disagree, one mans meat is another mans poison.