Utila Dive Ops/Hotels

[lep]

Hi,

My dive buddy and I are looking to go down to Utila in early July. Any recommendations on places to stay/dive? Typically what we look for is a quiet dive atmosphere, we are not there to party all night, but definitely like a few beers in the evening and good dive talk. We are both advanced divers. Looking to stay about a week. Also, any ideas on the baby flights over to Utila vs. the ferry? We will be coming in from Houston, TX.

Any advice or info is much appreciated.

Thanks,
LEP

 

[laurenceh]

there are basically two utila's.

1/ the town, lots of dive ops (all decent) and lots of cheap but rather grim hotels/hostals. in town there is a party atmosphere as the crowd is mostly young backpackers doing their open water and/or advanced certs. the kids are a nice bunch, mostly from europe, israel, aussie etc. typical traveller crowd. best hotel there is probably the lighthouse inn, the town is the only part of the island that has a road but doesn't have any nice beaches.

2/ the other utila, the beautiful part, is away from town and is accessible by boat only, there you'll find miles of deserted beaches and a couple of really nice dive resorts that are mostly used by experienced divers and/or dive groups. this is the part of the island that the people staying in town only get to see from their dive boats as they pass by, its what people expect the caribbean to look like. probably the best dive resort out there is utopia and its certainly in a different league than anything you'll find in town. deep blue resort is good as well.

getting to utila just got a lot easier. cm is a new airline that connects with the u.s. flights that land in san pedro sula, it leaves sps at 3pm every saturday and arrives on utila at 3.30pm. its definitely the best and cheapest way to go ($212 rt), flights to sps are much cheaper than flights to roatan.
info about cm and its booking agent can be found on Utila Guide- your best source for information about Utila. | Utila Guide Honduras

i've been living on utila for 5 years, if you need more info, just ask.

 

[itsjustme0770]

Laurence is right. Depending on what you are looking for he has a couple of fantastic houses that might suit you.

 

[laurenceh]

i wasn't going to self promote BUT as itsjustme0770 brought it up i also recommend the pineapple house, where dive boats will pick you up from your own private dock and there is world class snorkeling right in front of the house. utopia is a 10 minute walk down the beach if you want a nice restaurant and beach bar. see Utila Vacation Rental - VRBO 245992 - 4 BR Bay Islands House in Honduras, The Pineapple House - New Luxury Home on Treasure Beach for info

 

[diversteve]

We stayed at Deep Blue a couple years ago. It's probably a lot of what you're looking for. Only 10 rooms so 20 guests max. Nice bar/lounge/dining room/pool table area. Steve Fox - the owner is passionate about whale sharks so we had some very good conversations around said bar. There's also a shore dive off their property. Large, older fast boat which is important as a lot of the better dives are off the northside (there's nowhere to stay on that side) At night it was pretty quiet. Good food also. I'd go back.

We had one of the rooms closest to the "lodge" so the wifi worked from the deck. All the rooms are probably 50' from the waters edge and on the ocean side. (many of the Laguna Beach cabanas - nearby - are on the lagoon side). The sand flies were pretty bad on the lagoon side near dusk. Decent beach except you'll want Deet or something b4 sitting on the sand.

Must dives:

Duppy Waters
Pinnacles
Black Hills
Labrynth - just off Deep Blue.

We did the ferries. The worst part was getting thru Roatan immigration. We were on the CO flight from IAH that arrived at 12:10 and waited almost an hour thru customs (the fast lane is the right one - it's shorter once inside the building. The Galaxy Ferry leaves at 2PM sharp from Dixon Cove - a short cab ride away. We made it with about 1/2 hr. to spare. After changing to the Princess in La Ceiba we were on Utila at 5PM. Steve's mom Shirley met us at the ferry dock and one of their crew transported us over to Deep Blue - a 5min. boat ride. Deep Blue, Laguna Beach and Utopia are all cut off from the mainland by a lagoon channel.

The return is much easier except you have to meet the Princess Ferry on Utila at 6:10AM. The Princess and the Galaxy dock next to each other in La Ceiba so the transfer is pretty simple. Another option is sailing over on Vern's Catamaran.

 

[fab50diver]

I'll second the motion for Deep Blue. We're brand new divers and this was our first trip but the others in our party who had hundreds of dives said it was some of the prettiest they'd ever seen.
We flew from Roatan to Utila via private plane that Shirley arranged for us. There were eight in our party so we needed two planes (6 on one and 2 on another) to get us there with dive gear. The flight was $225 pp and we paid for it along with our Nitrox ($125 pp) Reef fees ($24 pp) and extras like bar and soft drinks the night before departure.
The resort was beautiful and SO quiet! Best sleep I've had in years! They pay very close attention to details (like what kind of veggies you leave on your plate) and work hard to please in every aspect. Our gear was aboard the boat every morning then was rinsed and put back in the lockers at night. All we had to handle were our wetsuits. Very smooth operation with a very professional captain and DMs.
The Labrynth was a beautiful dive as was Pretty Bush..both shore dives from the resort. I also really enjoyed Silver Gardens and Blue House. Actually, I don't think there were any dives that weren't wonderful (nothing to compare to here though).
The only complaint I heard all week was that the younger girls didn't get enough diving in. But you CAN shore dive as much as you like. They bring your equipment to you and it's a VERY short distance to the shore. Diving was typically 3 dives a day, 2 morning dives and 1 afternoon or night dive.
One of our party had a medical emergency one night and the response was very impressive. The boat was back in a matter of minutes to take her to town and the care received was very good both in Utila and in Le Ceiba.
Do take some time, if you can, to walk around town. The Jade Seahorse is an impressive structure,the bar isn't open during the day but you can grab a beer across the street and take a self-guided tour through the property.
We passed another pretty property that looked like a good resort as well, Laguna Beach? Some of it's units were over the water on the lagoon.
Have a great time in Utila! I hope I can go back soon!

 

[rob@diveinutila.com]

there are basically two utila's.

1/ the town, lots of dive ops (all decent) and lots of cheap but rather grim hotels/hostals. in town there is a party atmosphere as the crowd is mostly young backpackers doing their open water and/or advanced certs. the kids are a nice bunch, mostly from europe, israel, aussie etc. typical traveller crowd. best hotel there is probably the lighthouse inn, the town is the only part of the island that has a road but doesn't have any nice beaches.

Utila is what you make of it. Yes there is a young crowd of 20 somethings on the backpacker trail but we also do a good business with the vacationer crowd (who tend to be a bit older). There are several hotels in town that would be offended to be described as grim, and several that you would only stay in if you were a 20 something on a tight budget of $10 or less per night. You get what you pay for. If you want maid service fully fitted modern apartment with a/c, private bath, kitchen, internet, on shore front, etc you can get it. Expect to pay around $400 to $500 a week for a modern comfortable maid service apartment.

If you want a comfortable hotel Lighthouse as you say has some great rooms overlooking the bay at around $50 per night. There is The Colibri Hotel, Margarittaville, Mango Inn, and others offering different service levels for different prices.

Utila is just like everywhere else in the world. You get what you pay for, in accommodation and diving service.

 

[lep]

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the information, especially about the flights to Utila. What I'm finding right now is that it costs about $300 more to fly in on a Saturday than say a Sunday from Houston. So that will be the tricky part. I found that SOSA airline, not CM, flies other week days, but looks like they have a few stops along the way. Anyway, thanks again!

LEP