Pat Sharman
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Which is better diving for sea life, and which is cheaper?
Utila or Roatan?
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Others may disagree--each island seems to have its fans--but I think the sea life is essentially the same around both islands. Whale shark sightings seem to happen more out of Utila, though. As far as cost, there are economical options and expensive options on both islands. Utila has a reputation as a backpacker haven, full of young people on gap year travel, etc., and for that reason there are a lot of economical options. However, there are also some nice resorts on Utila. If I were to have to choose between Roatan and Utila, I would use some other criteria than sea life and cost, such as what kind of dive operation and style of accommodations I prefer. But that wasn't your question, so I digress.
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Pat Sharman
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Good to know, thank you. Would you say the diving costs about the same on both islands?
CAPTAIN SINBAD
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Been to both and enjoyed them THOROUGHLY!!! Depends what you are looking for.
I found Utila to be cheaper when you land there but the plane that gets you there is around 150! So in the end it costs the same. Keep in mind that the plane ride to Utila and the landing in the banana field is as "INDIANA JONES" as they get. It is an adventure within itself and it is up to you how much value you put to it. Once you land in Utila the island has like four or five vehicles including one coke truck. Everyone else drives around on gold carts and mopeds. It is a party shack for the younger crowd. Most of the folks that I met over there were in their early to mid 20s. As for diving, the walls in Utila are vertical drops that descend straight into a bottomless abyss! Pick your depth and make sure you stay within it because some of the good sites there are bottomless. On surface intervals, skippers will chase whale sharks and depending on the season, you have a decent chance.
Roatan is more city like. Plane lands at the runway instead of a banana field and you are taken to your hotel in a van rather than on a golf cart. Topside has more tourist attractions. Marine life is the same but terrain appeared different to me. Instead of vertical walls you have reef formations that are like a maze sometime. There is shark feeding dive but unlike the wild whale shark experience of Utila, these are engineered tourist experiences.
In the end, price tag should be the same but the type of experience they offer is vastly different.
I found Utila to be cheaper when you land there but the plane that gets you there is around 150! So in the end it costs the same. Keep in mind that the plane ride to Utila and the landing in the banana field is as "INDIANA JONES" as they get. It is an adventure within itself and it is up to you how much value you put to it. Once you land in Utila the island has like four or five vehicles including one coke truck. Everyone else drives around on gold carts and mopeds. It is a party shack for the younger crowd. Most of the folks that I met over there were in their early to mid 20s. As for diving, the walls in Utila are vertical drops that descend straight into a bottomless abyss! Pick your depth and make sure you stay within it because some of the good sites there are bottomless. On surface intervals, skippers will chase whale sharks and depending on the season, you have a decent chance.
Roatan is more city like. Plane lands at the runway instead of a banana field and you are taken to your hotel in a van rather than on a golf cart. Topside has more tourist attractions. Marine life is the same but terrain appeared different to me. Instead of vertical walls you have reef formations that are like a maze sometime. There is shark feeding dive but unlike the wild whale shark experience of Utila, these are engineered tourist experiences.
In the end, price tag should be the same but the type of experience they offer is vastly different.
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Depends on what you like to see. As mentioned, the only sharks we saw on Roatan were at the paid shark dive, but we saw them throughout the week on Utila at various dive sites. Whalesharks on Utila can happen anytime but spring months are best. I've heard September also.
My theory is they go past there migrating to Mexico for the summer. I've read of people seeing whalesharks on Roatan but even the larger staff at our dive shop had never seen one there.
I thought the smaller life was better on Roatan - esp. the small stuff on the south side. One day we didn't see much at 2 different north side sites - even the DM remarked the fish didn't show up.
One of the best shallow dives off Utila was the seamount Blecck Hills it's a 5min. boat ride from town. A lot of Utila's north side is deeper - it seemed like some of it just dropped endlessly. Farther out on that side is where we found the whalesharks - all 9 of them over the week. We'd morning dive, go look for them then do an afternoon or evening dive.
As far as resorts, Utopia Village is probably the nicest on Utila but it's not in town, it's about a 10min. boat ride on the SW side. There's a shore dive there - one of 2-3 I know of unless you rent certain houses.
On Roatan there's obviously a lot more choices, we liked Barefoot Caye - but we just spent the day there diving Mary's Place. Anthony's Key on the north side is where SB holds their Roatan Invasions - IIRC there's been 2 there. I think they also extended their 2 for 1 thru the end of this year which makes that a good deal.
Cocoview on the south side is the diver's resort. I've been by it but not on it as we dove their Prince Albert wreck from Barefoot's boat.
If you plan to do anything other than dive on Roatan, try to locate near French Harbor to the south or either the West End or West Bay north. Unless you like quiet and long drives in which case look east also.
On both Roatan and Utila there's a lot of DM training so there's a lot of bars/loud music in some areas. Lots of cheap hostel style places since it's a large backpacking destination - esp. in the summer during SunJam. On Roatan they're mostly centered near the Water Taxi station in the West End, Utila mostly "downtown" There's some nicer properties west of town on Utila but still accessible by golf cart/bike. It's probably where I'd stay if we go back, we chose one of the AI's on the other side of the lagoon and found it too isolating.
You don't have to fly to Utila - there's a ferry from the mainland - it also does weekend Roatan/Utila runs. Since the Utila airport is tiny, all flights are daytime. Make sure someone is meeting you, it's not near much. Also your "cab" may be a small truck.
Dive costs are roughly the same - !0 dives/$300/350 seems the going rate. On Roatan due to reef proximity many dives are single tank returning to the dock between dives. Much of the better Utila diving is on the north side and all the resorts/town are south so they tend to stay out all morning. On good whaleshark days we probably didn't get back till 2pm or so. Food on Roatan ranges from really cheap to one of the nicer restaurants in Honduras. We stayed at an AI on Utila so no idea on prices. I think aboututila.com or the other portal has some menus.
For what I like, large pelagics - Utila was better. Some stuff was harder to find but our DM found several things I've never seen before or since. Inlcluding a ruby-lipped batfish and either a torpedo or an electric ray - no one wanted to touch it to find out which...
My theory is they go past there migrating to Mexico for the summer. I've read of people seeing whalesharks on Roatan but even the larger staff at our dive shop had never seen one there.
I thought the smaller life was better on Roatan - esp. the small stuff on the south side. One day we didn't see much at 2 different north side sites - even the DM remarked the fish didn't show up.
One of the best shallow dives off Utila was the seamount Blecck Hills it's a 5min. boat ride from town. A lot of Utila's north side is deeper - it seemed like some of it just dropped endlessly. Farther out on that side is where we found the whalesharks - all 9 of them over the week. We'd morning dive, go look for them then do an afternoon or evening dive.
As far as resorts, Utopia Village is probably the nicest on Utila but it's not in town, it's about a 10min. boat ride on the SW side. There's a shore dive there - one of 2-3 I know of unless you rent certain houses.
On Roatan there's obviously a lot more choices, we liked Barefoot Caye - but we just spent the day there diving Mary's Place. Anthony's Key on the north side is where SB holds their Roatan Invasions - IIRC there's been 2 there. I think they also extended their 2 for 1 thru the end of this year which makes that a good deal.
Cocoview on the south side is the diver's resort. I've been by it but not on it as we dove their Prince Albert wreck from Barefoot's boat.
If you plan to do anything other than dive on Roatan, try to locate near French Harbor to the south or either the West End or West Bay north. Unless you like quiet and long drives in which case look east also.
On both Roatan and Utila there's a lot of DM training so there's a lot of bars/loud music in some areas. Lots of cheap hostel style places since it's a large backpacking destination - esp. in the summer during SunJam. On Roatan they're mostly centered near the Water Taxi station in the West End, Utila mostly "downtown" There's some nicer properties west of town on Utila but still accessible by golf cart/bike. It's probably where I'd stay if we go back, we chose one of the AI's on the other side of the lagoon and found it too isolating.
You don't have to fly to Utila - there's a ferry from the mainland - it also does weekend Roatan/Utila runs. Since the Utila airport is tiny, all flights are daytime. Make sure someone is meeting you, it's not near much. Also your "cab" may be a small truck.
Dive costs are roughly the same - !0 dives/$300/350 seems the going rate. On Roatan due to reef proximity many dives are single tank returning to the dock between dives. Much of the better Utila diving is on the north side and all the resorts/town are south so they tend to stay out all morning. On good whaleshark days we probably didn't get back till 2pm or so. Food on Roatan ranges from really cheap to one of the nicer restaurants in Honduras. We stayed at an AI on Utila so no idea on prices. I think aboututila.com or the other portal has some menus.
For what I like, large pelagics - Utila was better. Some stuff was harder to find but our DM found several things I've never seen before or since. Inlcluding a ruby-lipped batfish and either a torpedo or an electric ray - no one wanted to touch it to find out which...
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