Utila Dive Operations?

[EricaDVM]

We are considering Utila for late March 2015. Any insight on particular dive shops to choose or to stay away from? I'm a "strictly fun" type diver and my friend is considering doing a rescue course on this trip. Nitrox would be a plus.

Also, we're looking at Tuesday to Tuesday. We would fly to SPS, and I've seen several recommendations to talk to Alice about flights. Is flying generally "better" than the ferry? I have some safety concerns given the State Dept warning, but I've been to Belize City on the way Ambergris Caye... is it substantially different than that, in that if you don't leave the airport, you'll be ok?

Thanks for any insight!

 

[diversteve]

From VA you should be able to get to SAP (SPS is Wichita Falls...) early enough for one of several flights on to Utila. They fly till almost dusk - there's no lights at the Utila Airport.

Sosa or CM are the two options - https://www.aerolineasosahn.com/ingles/index.php or CM Airlines: CM AIRLINES | Booking Flights and find flights Alice books one of them, Morgan's Travel the other.

That's preferred as the last ferry leaves La Ceiba at 4:00PM and it's at least a 2.5 hr. drive from SAP to La Ceiba via private car. If you use the Hedman Alas bus you have to overnite somewhere - preferably in La Ceiba - since it takes longer. Hedman Alas Bus | Transporte entre Honduras y Guatemala

I don't know the shops/accommodations in town but the three AI dive resorts are all pretty nice. All three are on the south side and only accessible by boat - a short ride from town. They all also have a shore dive off the property. Laguna Beach and I believe Utopia Village have pools. We spent a week at Deep Blue, it's a smaller quieter place.

The end of March should be a good for spotting Whale Sharks - we saw 8 the last week of March a few years ago. Snorkel only.

 

[Earl Grey]

If you are heading to Utila, then no reason to leave the airport at SAP. It is a small, modern airport with a small food court, ATMs and souvenir shops outside security. All flights (domestic and international) depart from the same terminal which has smaller food/drink offerings, a duty free shop and another souvenir shop.

CM flights are non-stop to Utila. Sosa flights usually stop in La Ceiba on the way to Utila. Prices are similar. For my travel dollar and time, flights are the way to go.

I've spent all of my time on Utila diving with UDC, but most of the shops seemed to have good reputation. All of the "in town" shops are easily walkable and are on the water in a fairly compact area. If you fly in, you should arrive in mid/late afternoon. My advice would be to walk to a number of shops and check them out for yourself. I would not make reservations ahead of time - shouldn't need them that time of the year.

As for nitrox, it is not common so if you want it ask the shop if they can offer it ahead of time.

 

[laurenceh]

it all depends on where you're staying, there are over a dozen dive shops in utila town. south shore resorts have their own dive ops and south/southwest rental properties have utila cays diving pick up from their private beaches.
tell us where you're thinking of staying and we can do a better job of recommending the best/closest dive operation.

 

[EricaDVM]

Thanks for the replies. We're looking at The Gardens (formerly called Jericho Gardens?) which I think is relatively close to "town". Not looking for an AI. Whale sharks would be awesome and we're hopeful! Any possibility of a day trip to Guanaja or is that too far?

I heard back from Alice's staff and it sounds like there are no scheduled flights on Tuesdays, but I also joined a Facebook group to watch for openings on charters.

 

[CAPTAIN SINBAD]

There are two ways that you could do Utila. First is the All Inclusive resorts like Deep Blue Utila and Laguna Beach resort. If you book with them then you do not need to hunt for a dive shop or a dive boat. You will only land in Utila and they will take care of your diving and stay etc. This is of course a high end option and will cost more.

The second option (which I used this April) is to call a dive shop and book a week long dive package with them and ask them to include the dorm room for 10 USD / day. I did this with Alton's Dive shop which is considered to be the one of the most popular dive shops on the island. In terms of accommodation, their rooms are very basic with one fan and a bed and a shared bathroom so you do not get the luxuries of a "resort." You will also be walking out to the town for food as they do not serve anything there. But the diving operation is extremely well run as they have the fastest boats in Utila. They dive the north side more often than anyone on the island and most of the time they would be the only dive boat to be seen on the northern walls. This meant we were snorkeling with whale sharks pretty much on all days.

It depends how you want to do it. The way you asked the question made me think that you are sold on option # 2 already so I would recommend Altons. Lisa and Alton are great people and they have the friendliest funniest dive-masters and instructors. Beto and Steve are awesome people to dive with.

As for getting to the island, I highly recommend taking the plane. It takes a very long time to go to mainland and then board the ferry to Utila. Furthermore the plane trip to Utila is so much fun and there are very few places where you will have such a breath-taking plane journey followed by the landing in banana fields, that it really makes no sense to miss that for riding a boat which you will be doing anyways.

Good luck and feel free to pm me if you have any questions!

 

[keesmon]

I'll second the vote for Alton's. We rented a room 2 properties over from Alton's and the office staff assisted us with that. We had a lot of questions, regarding being split up from new OW divers etc. and Alton's came through, both in communication, and in delivering what they promised. Both of us took the rescue course there, which was tough, but fun. For our fun dives, we were assigned the same dive master every day, who let us do our thing. We dove the north side almost daily, as we requested. Sadly, a whole week of diving in April 2010, and not a single whale shark sighting near the island, but that's how it goes.
Regarding transportation, Alton's arranged for a driver to take us from SAP to La Ceiba, and it being Good Friday there was no ferry. No problem though. We hitched a ride with a local family heading that way for a wedding. It was us and a cooler full of freshly slaughtered goat! We left NYC at 3AM and were diving in Utila by 1PM! Your results may vary obviously. Enjoy, whomever you dive with, or however you get there.

 

[Stout]

I stayed at The Gardens in Jan/Feb of this year. Bang up place, they don't mess around. Tony and Jo are stupendous hosts. The location is sort of "out of the way" by Utila standards and the closest dive op is the Bay Islands College of Diving, right at the bottom of the hill. I was hearing stories of 40 minute dives with those guys though.

For dive ops, take a look at Coral View. One of the smaller shops and as such, won't provide you with the instant social life that a big shop like Alton's or UDC will. Coral View will pick you up, and drop you off at The Gardens at no extra charge so their rather remote location is not much of an issue.

For me, it all comes down to the DMs and finding one whose appreciative of my really slow swimming style and not in a hurry to get the group back to the boat because the big breather is approaching low on air. This style of DMing appears to be unique to CV ( maybe Utila Cays Diving does this as well ) and never once did I feel pressure to do something like abandon that juvenile Grey Anglefish that I FINALLY found and swim like mad to catch up to the rapidly fading bubble trail of the group.

 

[SaltyKSue]

Good to read all this info as my friend and I are planning a trip for early March and haven't decided where to go yet but Utila is one of the places we are seriouly considering.
We would be renting a vacation rental and then finding our own dive op. We are NOT interested in any AI.
So , not to steal the thread but I have many questions too. Some have been answered -kind of
What dive op to use. We prefer a small one to cattle boat type but do like the social life that goes with meeting new folks.
What area is best to try to get a place to stay if we were to go with Altons (are they a small op or cattle boat type?)
What are the water temps in March?
Who do we contact to find flights from Roatan to Utila?

 

[diversteve]

https://www.facebook.com/wwtutila/info?tab=overview - the above mentioned "Alice".
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Utila-Morgans-Travel/672137666183420

I don't get cold easily so I wore a t-shirt/board shorts all week. My buddy probably had his full 3mil. Was a little cold at depth even for me - I called one dive because of it - a deeper wreck on the south side. This would've been the very end of March - the 29th on....

The other option that worked pretty well from Roatan are the ferries. There's two - you first go back to La Ceiba from Roatan then over to Utila. http://www.deepblueutila.com/ferry.php The Galaxy Ferry port is in Dixon Cove about 10-15mins. from the RTB airport. We arrived on Roatan just after noon - even with a delay thru customs/immigration (they're not fast..) we were at the ferry port by about 1:20. After that it was easy - the ferry docks at La Ceiba are adjacent to each other. Around $100 R/T for both. The Princess was in drydock for a while last? year but I haven't read of any problems lately.

http://www.roatanferry.com/index.html
http://www.utilaprincess.com/index.html