Hi all!!!!
I´m travelling with 2 friends to Roatan on April ,we are staying 1 week, is my first trip there and i would like to know if anyone can recommend me the best diving spots.We are interested in spots you can see mainly fish rather than corals.
I searched some hotels that have diving packages but i have a doubt , usually the diving spots of this packages repeats or they take you to different spots every day?
Anyone knows if Utila o Guanaja are good places to dive? You can go by boat from Roatan?
Typically larger stuff is seen off the North side of Roatan. Turtles, Grouper, Barracuda etc. At one dive site - Spooky Channel - we saw all three on the same dive. El Aquario (the aquarium) is probably a given also - there's a vertical wall there and a couple of cleaning stations so you tend to see bigger fish. Mostly you'll see a lot of coral everywhere also - it's typical for Roatan.
The south side is often more macro/small stuff in the coral. Except for the Shark Dive, that's off the airport. The dive resort can book that for you, they don't take direct bookings.
There's a lot of dive sites on the North side so no reason for a dive operator to repeat during the week - we did about 15 dives with Coconut Tree Divers with no repeats.
Trips to Utila and Guanaja are possible but Utila would be an all day trip. One thing to consider is that you would be going to Utila during prime Whale Shark season if that's of interest. It's snorkeling rather than diving though due to their rules. I've never been to Guanaja.
As mentioned above, Anthony's Key Resort might be an option for you, they also do the Dolphin dives.
If you do go to Utila, one site for larger fish on Utila is Black Hills. On one dive we saw 4-5 4' grouper, 6 3-4' Oceanic Triggers and 100+ Barracuda. I was able to get within about 10' of the Grouper for as long as I wanted. Plus schools of other fish. It's also a really shallow sea mount dive - 40-50' or so.
Someone recently posted here that Cocoview may be starting to run day trips over there soon. The
SeaGrape Plantation resort diveop goes there also - I had contacted them about it once.
There's also a catamaran that sails daily from the West End to Utila but it's a smaller boat. And that's an overnite also - they don't sail back til morning.
The sure way to get to Utila is via the two ferries, but that would mean an overnight stay on Utila due to their schedules. It's an easy 3 hour trip as both ferries dock adjacent to each other in La Ceiba. We've done that trip from Roatan.
Links to everything I've named:
Coconut Tree Divers - PADI 5-Star IDC Dive Resort on Roatan, Honduras
Roatan Shark Dive
All Inclusive Roatan Resort & Roatan Diving | Anthony's Key Resort
Ferry between Roatan & Utila daily with Capt Vern on the Nina Elisabeth II Catamaran
Safeway Maritime Ferry - Roatan to La Ceiba
Utila Princess Ferry | Utila Guide Honduras
