Utila in late April?

A couple friends and I are starting to make plans for our next warm-water trip ... and are considering Utila. Is late April a good time to go there?

We're in the information-gathering phase ... none of us have ever been there. So any info/advice/cautions would be welcome.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Hi

April is one of the best times to be in Utila, Whale Sharks hopefully, good weather and not too many bugs.

What are you looking for what do you expect from your trip, if you tell us maybe we can all help you.

NWGratefulDiver:

A couple friends and I are starting to make plans for our next warm-water trip ... and are considering Utila. Is late April a good time to go there?

We're in the information-gathering phase ... none of us have ever been there. So any info/advice/cautions would be welcome.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

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April is a great month for Utila! My wife and I are planning on trips in december and February. Contact Steve at Deep Blue divers or Tex at Ecomarine/Gunters. Both will be very helpful and forthright. Both are members on this board. Have a great trip.

Regards,

Was there in May every one said the whale sharks were gone! Saw one the first day and two more later that week. Watch out for the cattle boats! It was really uncomfortable to try and gear up with the herds they load on the boats. And if you do a drift dive be carefull I spent a 1/2 hour in the water waiting for the boat hanging on a bouy! They do not have captains like Coz, and have no idea how a drift dive works!!!I guess that explanes the price. Good food too! But from Dallas it took 5 flights to get there-Dallas -Houston-San Pedro-La Cieba-Roatan-Utila!!!!!!!!!! I should have gone direct to Roatan then to Utila but dates were not right. For food pizza at the Mango Inn, Ricks BBQ ck when open & I have forgot the rest, sorry.Oh by the way post anything negative about the dive ops and they will black ball you.

NWGratefuldiver,

You and I dove together a while back out at Cove 2, hear you passed your DM congrats. We dove Utila and Roatan a couple of months ago. Here is a link to my long report. If you have any questions drop me a email and we can chat.

http://www.scubaboard.com/t66281-coco-viewutila-lodge-reportpics,-long.html

DeepBlueDivers:

Hi

What are you looking for what do you expect from your trip, if you tell us maybe we can all help you.

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Some more info ...

There will be four of us going ... two couples, all in our 50's. Night life isn't important ... excellent, abundant diving is. On our recent Bonaire trip we were doing 4 to 5 dives a day, and that's what we would like from our next trip.

Easy access to shore diving would be a big plus ... a pre-dawn dive to watch the reef "wake up" was one of the highlights of our last trip, and we'd like to make it one of our next ones as well.

Boat diving is fine, but we don't want to be part of the cattle boat scenario ... smaller boats, and smaller crowds appeal to us.

We're all experienced divers, but we don't need the tech thing. Our typical dive in Bonaire had us max'ing at about 75 fsw, and spending most of our dive above 40 fsw. That seems to be our comfort zone ... not to mention getting in those 70+ minute dives was really nice.

Which brings up another point ... we don't want boat dives where the DM leads us around and calls the dive when the first diver gets low on air. I'd prefer a good dive briefing, then the freedom to choose our own dive profile and bottom time.

Walls would be appealing, but aren't a requirement. Healthy reefs are.

We don't need fancy accommodations, as long as they're clean and the meals are decent. We're there to dive ... and meals are just a way to spend surface intervals.

Price isn't a huge issue ... we're all reasonably well employed ... but we're not rich either, so it will be a factor in the balance of our decision.

The opportunity to see whale sharks is very appealing to three of us ... the fourth isn't so sure she wants to be in the water with something that big (although she said the same thing about six-gill sharks till she actually saw one, now she's as enthusiastic about it as the rest of us).

Having read further, I'm wondering if perhaps Roatan (and CoCoView) might not be worth considering instead ... what do y'all think? The convenient shore access sounds appealing. But so does the remote location (and less chance of crowded conditions) of Utila. Does Utila offer shore diving? So far what I've been reading is about diving from boats, and that rather limits your options.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

mjh:

NWGratefuldiver,

You and I dove together a while back out at Cove 2, hear you passed your DM congrats. We dove Utila and Roatan a couple of months ago. Here is a link to my long report. If you have any questions drop me a email and we can chat.

http://www.scubaboard.com/t66281-coco-viewutila-lodge-reportpics,-long.html

Click to expand...

Thanks for the congrats ... it must've been a while back if it was before DM. I've since logged a few hundred more dives and become an instructor ...

Excellent trip report ... and most informative (great pics as well). However, now I'm going to have to look closer at CCV. Looks like it's got a lot of what we're looking for.

Hmmm ... whale sharks or excellent shore diving. Hard choices ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

Hi NWGrateful Diver

If you want the best chance of seeing Whale Sharks stick with Utila. There is a range of hotels in town from $6 to $45 per room per night, depending on the level of comfort you require and a reasonable choice of good eating places nothing fancy but good wholesome food. In terms of dive schools again plenty of choice 3 five star PADI centres Bay Islands College of Diving, Utila Dive Centre and Deep Blue Divers. My choice by far is Deep Blue Divers, the owners are an English couple also in your age bracket and they run a small professional outfit which has a very good reputation, I have dived with them many times. All the schools go out twice during the day for 2 tank dives each trip and most will do night dives on demand so your 4-5 dives a day will be no problem. Deep Blue goes to the North side every morning weather permitting where you will dive on the second largest barrier reef in the world with big walls and even bigger drops. They only take 6 divers per group and all groups are instructor led and their instructors are excellent at finding really cool small stuff. The dives I did averaged 60 mins if we got organised and off the boat first and on last. There is no shore diving from the town, shore diving is only accessible from 2 of the resorts Laguna Beach and Deep Blue Resort see there website at www.deepblueutila.com

Have a great vacation. :10:

I can stongly recommend Utila as a world class dive destination. If I were you I would check out Cross Creek Dive Center and Utila DIve Center, bith are PADI 5 Star resorts and both offer daily trips to the North side of the island. A must if you want to see whalesharks. Both of these centres also have great package deals with accommodation. The Mango Inn (Utial Dive Centre's hotel) is beautiful and has recently had the addition of a swimming pool. These dive centres also have packages to meet all budgets, rooms from $6 up to $70 per night depending on the level of luxury you desire. Actually, we saw whalesharks yesterday morning which was absolutley lovely.

Please feel free to PM me if you want more info. And for all the people wondering who I am, yes I am instructor on Utila and it shouldn't take to much more to work it out.