You won't be doing any driving around from either place, there's no way to cross from the peninsula they're both on to town except by boat.
To get out to the reef at Deep Blue requires you to be sure-footed as the entrance is over some coral/rock rubble. It was recommended to us to float all our gear out and then put it on in deeper water. There's a cut in the reef there that takes you out to deeper water - from there you can swim to about 2-3 divesites - mostly back towards Laguna Beach afaik. There's an unusual amount (for Utila) of boat traffic in the area, one of the sites is used for training by one of the in-town diveops so we saw several boats moor there daily. Boats from town going out to the west end run along there also.
Nice people work at Deep Blue. The food is great, you have several choices daily and the dive pkg. might be tailored to your needs, they do 2am + 1pm boat dives - on the days they night dive there was no afternoon boat dive (at least for us)
You'll be there during peak whaleshark season so they'll go looking for them after your morning dives. I'd do that in a heartbeat rather than shorediving. Except for one day we always managed to get back by about 1PM for lunch.
The accommodations for Deep Blue are right on the beach so there was almost always a breeze rustling through the palm fronds. All the decks face the water as well. And they have A/C. Rooms are basic but adequate. They have internet access in the dining room/bar/lounge, a nice bar and a pool table. And wifi (it's a little slow...) We had the closest room to the side of the lounge where the router was so I could connect from our deck.
It's supposed to be one of the three nicest places on Utila, Laguna Beach and Utopia being the others.
Not to deride Laguna Beach as I've never stayed there but the cabins all were on the lagoon. So there's no ocean view. They probably still get the breeze though, it's a pretty narrow strip of land and they're right on the point. Also we were tore up by sand flies just b4 the sun went down on the lagoon side - Deep Blue's dock/diveshack is on that side. Although it wasn't much better on the ocean side...lol. Bring Deet or an equivalent.
Steve Fox who owns Deep Blue posts here often. [user]deepbluedivers[/user]