Coco View or Anthony Key?

Sorry if this question has been asked or discussed before but I could not find the link.

I am planning to visit the Bay Islands in September for 2 weeks, with a week each in Utila and Roatan. For the Roatan part, I am a bit uncertain as to which of two popular resorts to choose - Coco View or Anthony Key. IF all other considerations are closely comparable, the deciding factor in my case could be the resort that offers most opportunities for Night Diving. I absolutely love it.

As I understand it, with Anthony Key there are 2 scheduled night dives during the week's package and that's about it. The Coco View option seems less clear but they seem to have no scheduled night dives but allow guests to dive on the "house reef" on any night. Is that right? Any boat night dives will have to have a minimum of 8 people and in my experience, that is usually difficult (which is one of the reasons I strongly prefer liveaboards).

In any case, what are the pros and cons of each resort for an overall package?

Lorenzoid just posted an Anthony's Key Resort trip report that may be of interest to you.

Richard.

The CCV house reef is quite nice. I've been to CCV twice and really liked it.

drrich2:

Lorenzoid just posted an Anthony's Key Resort trip report that may be of interest to you.

Richard.

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Yes thanks, it was interesting. I might have written that myself.
OK, Coco View it is. It seems more like a "Diver friendly" place between the two.

Incidentally, depending on availability I am thinking of Deep Blue Resort for the Utila leg. The only slight doubt I had there was that in the past they have been considered more suitable for backpackers. But I understand that they now have more "traditional" type of accommodation for older guys (I am 58) like me.

You mentioned that you like liveaboards, if you enjoy sailing you may want to take a look at what we offer, our website is Zeppelin Dive & Sail | Roatan Live Aboard Sailing & Diving Charters. We do private, luxury all inclusive diving & sailing charters on a 47 foot custom built sailboat. It's your vacation and the schedule & itinerary are completely up to you. It's the ultimate in small group diving, you are in a private dive boat with 2 PADI Instructors as your guides, we bring the dive boat along with us wherever we go. You can choose to access dive sites that very few divers go to where we rarely even see another dive boat. We operate out of the south shore of Roatan so you are able to dive the best of the sites that CCV goes to, as well as the sites at the east end of Roatan and also the other islands, depending on the itinerary that you choose. If you have any questions about Roatan and the resorts & dive operators here feel free to contact us directly at zeppelinsail@gmail.com, we would be happy to help, even if you're not interested in our packages. Think of us as your local contact in the Bay Islands.

CCV = technically you could dive there every night, multiple dives each night. They have shore diving that is open 24/7, with self service tanks available for shore diving any time you want. CCV also offers 2 boat trips per day (totaling 4 dives/day)...each trip is one moored dive plus a drop off dive on one of the 2 walls that flank the resort.....you jump off the boat right along the wall and follow the wall straight back to the resort.....VERY simple navigation. One boat trip in the AM after breakfast....second boat trip after lunch.

You might think that doing night dives on the 2 adjacent walls would be become repetitive....but definitely not the case. You can vary depth along the walls (10-100+ feet) , linger on the wreck at 60 feet that lies between the walls, prowl around the shallows closer into the resort...all offer great things to see.

Chris

Thanks Mr Smith. The problem though is that I usually travel alone for my diving trips. My wife used to dive too but 'retired' from the sport last year. I do not have any divers among friends and so usually go on my own. On a liveaboard that is seldom a problem of course but that is not the reason I like them. I like the easy just-gear-up-and-jump-in lifestyle of a liveaboard cruise and have enjoyed all 15 that I have been so far.

I cannot afford a private charter and in any case, with the Bay Island trip I want to spend a whole week in each of Utila and Roatan. But thanks anyway.

Hintermann:

Incidentally, depending on availability I am thinking of Deep Blue Resort for the Utila leg. The only slight doubt I had there was that in the past they have been considered more suitable for backpackers. But I understand that they now have more "traditional" type of accommodation for older guys (I am 58) like me.

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I think you're confusing it with accommodations near the Deep Blue shop/school in town. Most backpackers couldn't afford Deep Blue - it's $850/wk in Sept. Also all access is via resort boat since it's on the other side of the lagoon channel from town - no roads so you can't get there on foot - so it tends to be only divers. Deep Blue Utila - swim with whale sharks at our all inclusive resort. Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras The rooms are decent and very clean - there's only 10 of them. They're seeing Whale Sharks in Utila in Sept. the past several years.

It's real quiet there at night and they'll take you into town as desired - they run their staff back and forth on the same boats. We had the closest room to the lounge/dining room (the rooms are in two separate buildings) so the Wi-Fi worked off our deck most nights. But that attracts the bugs also...Nice people run Deep Blue, Steve Fox the owner is an ex-pat Englishman. Pretty safe, we left the room key hanging on the door outside all week as it was too big to carry. No one really goes there unless they stay/work there. It's the same with the other two AI's, Laguna Beach (nearby) and Utopia Village - farther west from town. Although I understand the restaurant at Utopia is about the best on Utila.

If you go ask to dive Black Hills. It's shallow but spectacular in the amount of big stuff hovering nearby. Maybe double it with the Halliburton - a deeper wreck nearby. Many of the other better dives (Pinnacles, Duppy Waters, Blackish Point were some) are on the north side - they'll go there daily. If there was one thing I didn't like it's that the 3rd dive of the day is the night dive on those days that they're scheduled (2x week IIRC) There's good shore dives off the property - it's on the Pretty Bush site and Labrynth is nearby - we did a night dive there off their boat.

You know about the M/V Pearl right? - former Utila Aggressor. http://www.divencounters.com/honduras-bay-islands-live-aboard-diving/
If they're running the same itinerary now they visit both Utila and Roatan weekly - I saw the boat off both two different years.

diversteve:

IYou know about the M/V Pearl right? - former Utila Aggressor. Honduras Bay Islands Live-Aboard Diving | DivEncounters Alliance Live-Aboard Diving
If they're running the same itinerary now they visit both Utila and Roatan weekly - I saw the boat off both two different years.

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Thanks for all the info. Yes, I know about the Pearl but they do not seem to be taking many bookinggs for scheduled cruises as yet. Mostly private charters. But I'll keep an open mind. A week each in Roatan and Utila sounds really good even if it is land based....

While at Coco View, don't limit yourself to night dives. My favorites there are dawn dives. Go in the water before daylight and watch the shift change on the reef from night to day. The other plus is that this means you can enjoy after dinner adult beverages.