Utilia/Roatan vs. Belize vs. Cozumel?

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Ben Prusinski

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I am trying to decide whether to dive from Belize (Blue Hole), Cozumel and Utlia/Roatan, Honduras. Which has the best most interesting diving for a newly certified diver?
 
You will have better luck with answers if you post this in the general forum - this subforum is for people offering or looking for specific trips. I've been diving all places, and would probably suggest Roatan for a new diver - but there is lots of information on each of these places out there. Cozumel is mostly drift diving, which means that you float by stuff pretty fast sometimes. I did a liveaboard in Belize and wasn't really impressed with the health of the reef. But as i said, there is lots of info - many reviews of specific dive ops and resorts - in the main Central America forum and the Bay Islands forum.
 
Roatan is pretty amazing. Cozumel is mostly drift dives which some new divers find a little hard to get used to. I have been to both but not to Belize. My vote goes to Roatan.
 
Well congrats on your cert, but the blue hole wont be all that fun at 60 ft.

You want a place with many reefs, Belize itself would be great, and the hole is super expensive also
 
I would probably suggest Roatan also. Good reef diving within your training and lots to see. Almost no current to deal with which will lessen your task load and allow you to concentrate on skills and enjoying the dive. There is a lot of wall diving and shallow reefs with lots of small critters to see.
 
Hello. I have been to Cozumel twice- limited # of dive sites means lots of people in a small area. I own a house on Roatan because it is great diving all around the island. Check our house and the nearby resorts by Googling "vrbo 347034".
 
I've been to Cozumel, Belize and Roatan last year and I would rank this destinations like this:
1. Cozumel: my best choice. Great coral and many different kind of dives..shallow or deep. Good choice of dive operators.
2. Belize: I was not so impressed by the local dives. The blue hole...ok it's a "must dive" but it's quite expensive for a 4 minutes on the bottom time dive.
But I really enjoyed the other dives on the Turneffe island even if it's 2 hours from Ambergris or Caye Caulker.
3. Roatan: too many people in the water especially since the huge Cruising ships are heading to this destination. The inside reef is getting badly damaged.
But you still have great dives on the walls outside the reef
4. Utila: they are so many young guys getting there to get certified, it is not easy to go diving with an experienced and cool dive masters....Too many Dive centers make you dive to the nearest spots form the harbour. But the ambiance is nive...Next time I will try to head to Guanaja island: exactly the same reef but few dive operators are diving there. It should be like Roatan but 30 years ago.

If you need more information, you can take a look at these pages:
Mexico: Scuba Diving in Mexico - Dive Wonders on Every Cost / Divers Reviews
Honduras: Scuba Diving in Honduras - Dive Roatan & Utila. Low cost Padi certification
Belize: SCUBA DIVING IN BELIZE: Dive a 200 mile-long Coral Reef
 
:headscratch:
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

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