Cheapest Diving in the World (Caribbean Sea)

[naick]

Amazing aquatic life on Utila in Honduras! Utila is one of the Bay Islands, in the mesmerizing Caribbean Sea.
It is famous for its diving and it is famous for being one of the cheapest places to dive in the world. Beautiful underwater landscapes, amazing sea life AND great adventures.

We spent a week diving in Utila with Alton's Dive Center. This is by far one of the best dive centers I've ever been diving with. They are sooooooo well organized. They are also very very very safety focused, with good briefings, safety checks, roll call and great safety procedures and communication. All dives done were at least 60 mins, which is really important to me as I hate those 40-45 mins dives. I'm used to shore diving and we regularly do dives of 70-90 mins, sometimes longer, so less than an hour feels very short.

The resort is very comfortable and has some nice rooms. The rooms are only 30 meter away from the dive boats and the place where you can have breakfast. So you can roll out of bed, have a really good coffee and some breakfast next to the boat and then just hop on the boat. Very hassle free. For each day you do two dives, you get the accommodation for free. We paid 65 USD for two dives, including all equipment rental. With the exception of Pulau Weh in Indonesia (which was a really basic setup), this is the cheapest diving we've ever encountered.

This is our story:

 

[Diving_Parrot]

Thanks for posting.

 

[tkaelin]

Wow, that is a deal.

 

[scubadada]

What did you do for dinner?

 

[Grateful head]

I’m curious too as Utila is on my radar.

 

[diversteve]

just more expensive/longer to get there - flights are higher than other Carib destinations plus you have the ferry/puddle jumper to Utila from either mainland Honduras or thru Roatan on the weekends.

You can find the same prices on Roatan in the West End also. There's 2 hostels - one with it's own dive operation (Chillies/Native Sons) - and boat dives are 10/$300/350. Several of my friends rented small cabins with full kitchens for $40/nt. - the dive boat was across the street. (Coconut Tree Divers/Cabins)

Food is also really cheap and you don't really need a rental car - we walked everywhere except two places and each cab ride was under $10.

Utila is really good diving though. IMO better than Roatan. In the spring there's a good chance to snorkel with whale sharks after the dives - we saw 8 over a week and got in the water with them. There is no diving with them allowed.

 

[naick]

What did you do for dinner?

There are loads of options there. We staid at Alton's Dive Center and just across there is a grill house that is open 3 days a week and according to our DM's they had the best food in Utila and we'd have to agree.

On the same road, within 5-10 minutes walk there were plenty of option from more local popusa's (salty pancakes, filled with whatever you want, I highly recommend the lobster), to burgers, pizza's and slightly more upscale restaurants (an Argentinian restaurant came highly recommended, but we didn't make it there).

There's also an open-air kitchen you can use at Alton's, which was decently equipped to cook up some basic things (pasta with tomato, garlic and onions, hmmm). We used it a couple of times as we've quite our jobs to travel the world and unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) we can't eat out every day.

 

[naick]

just more expensive/longer to get there - flights are higher than other Carib destinations plus you have the ferry/puddle jumper to Utila from either mainland Honduras or thru Roatan on the weekends.

You can find the same prices on Roatan in the West End also. There's 2 hostels - one with it's own dive operation (Chillies/Native Sons) - and boat dives are 10/$300/350. Several of my friends rented small cabins with full kitchens for $40/nt. - the dive boat was across the street. (Coconut Tree Divers/Cabins)

Food is also really cheap and you don't really need a rental car - we walked everywhere except two places and each cab ride was under $10.

Utila is really good diving though. IMO better than Roatan. In the spring there's a good chance to snorkel with whale sharks after the dives - we saw 8 over a week and got in the water with them. There is no diving with them allowed.

That might be the case, we were already in Guatemala and just hopped across the border (well, it was an 10 hour journey), so couldn't comment on flight prices. Diving at Dalton's (and probably some other places too) includes free accomodation, so it's hard to beat for people on a tighter budget (like us haha). I also heard some good things about Roatan too.

 

[divinh]

Koh Tao... $7-10 USD/day hostel + unlimited multi-dive pass and just go whenever the boat goes out, so 4-5 dives per day, which results in a little over $14/dive. Food is good and cheap. Flights from the West Coast to Bangkok are about $600 + another $100 to/from Koh Tao.

 

[naick]

Koh Tao... $7-10 USD/day hostel + unlimited multi-dive pass and just go whenever the boat goes out, so 4-5 dives per day, which results in a little over $14/dive. Food is good and cheap. Flights from the West Coast to Bangkok are about $600 + another $100 to/from Koh Tao.

Sounds like a great deal. What dive center offers this unlimited multi-pass dive?
4-5 dives a day sounds like a lot though.