Best Places To Stay For A Split Roatan/Utila Trip

[Damselfish]

Throw a rock? It's small but not that small. At least a mile of stuff along the water. As far as Utopia, I wouldn't consider it if I wanted to go into town more than once - it was a fairly long (and rather wet) boat ride.

 

[lthomas132]

Our group, 3 couples, just returned from Utila 2 days ago and we all had a great time, guys diving, wives not. I was hesitant about staying more-or-less in the middle of town at Utila Lodge but had no noise problem except one night with the thumpity-thump beat of the Tranquila Bar a few docks down. Seems that the bars take turns on nightly specials & it was Tranquila's Saturday nite. The bars can stay open till 4 AM on weekends but must close at midnight according to the locals. Our diving was done through the lodge which is closely associated with Bay Island College of Diving. BICD was packed with kid's in their 20's getting certified or interning to be an instructor. The energy level around the place is tremendous. Diving was good, mostly sloping reefs with a few walls; reefs were in good shape but very few large fish or lobster due to fishing. The Sea Mount had the most fish life of any of the sites we visited. Duppy Water was by far the best wall dive but on the north side of the island-long boat ride. Our wives said that they were never bored; the rode horses, saw the sites and we all went with Whale Shark Research Center (WSORC) boat searching for whale sharks to no avail. I have been to Roatan many times and enjoy it always but it's nice to get away to a laid back, slower paced dive destination like Utila, no car traffic-but plenty of golf carts and tuk tuks. I would recommend Utila Lodge with all 8 of it's rooms out over the water on the pier system there; get an upstairs room furthest out on the pier; dive boats and BICD is right there on the same pier. Very easy and fun!

---------- Post added September 29th, 2015 at 07:13 AM ----------

For Roatan, if my flight gets in at 1:10 pm, is it too tight to catch the ferry leaving for La Ceiba (then connecting ferry to Utila) for 2 pm?

My advice - fly to Utila. They're a couple of small planes flying back & forth to Roatan from Utila. We used Island Air (Roatan Flights | Island Air, Bay Islands Flights). It's a bit pricey but they plane has twin engines and held all 6 of us plus dive bags, and clothes bags. You can also post on Utila Buy & Sell on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/116804641783120/) close to the time you are arriving Roatan and get a cheaper price from the other small planes. As mentioned above, arriving Roatan was a pain to get through immigration. There was a huge line, fingerprints & photos slowing everything down. Island Air guy saw us in line (tags on our carry-ons) and moved us up to the front some how and got us through quicker - guess he had "connections".

 

[laurenceh]

i second the post re. flying to utila the ferry rides will cost you a total of $110 plus a total of 3-4 hrs each way flying takes 10 mins, can be arranged around your schedule and costs around $180 round trip i always use world wide travel on utila to arrange my flights

 

[timgarcia]

I don't know about Utila, but when I was in Roatan I stayed at the Splash Inn, and couldn't be happier with my experience there. I did the 4 night package for $400: that's room and diving included. It was by far the best price I found, and I'm pretty sure they have other packages for people staying for less time.

The hotel is literally in the middle of West End, right across the road from the beach. Nightlife starts about two blocks away, I had no trouble with noise at all and it was super convenient to not have to worry about cabs. I highly recommend it if you're looking for a centrally located, cheap place to stay and dive in Roatan. The water taxis to West Bay also leave from in front of the hotel. I seriously wouldn't consider staying anywhere else in West End. Here's their website: Home | Roatan Splash Inn | Roatan Dive Resorts

Also, there's a little boat to Utila that leaves from West End, the station is a few blocks away from the hotel. It doesn't seem to have an official schedule or website but tons of people take it and you could just ask the manager or someone at the reception to show you where it is.

 

[cleung]

At this point, we are thinking of staying at Chillie's and diving with Native Sons in Roatan and staying at Colibri Hill in Utila. Not sure which would be the closest dive op to Colibri Hill yet - does anyone know?

These places at least returned our emails and they look on the map to be in relatively quiet areas but still within walking distance to the bars. What do you all think of these places?

I'm just amazed how many hotels/inns we contacted via email have not responded in over two weeks and at least two emails were sent to them asking for availability.

 

[laurenceh]

bay islands college of diving is the closest to colibri hill (200 yards down the hill).
colibri is decent for the money, its a 10-15 minute walk to the town beach. very close to all the bars and restaurants and there is a new restaurant at colibri hill (i haven't tried it yet).
in town my favorite hotel is the lighthouse inn.
unfortunately many of our hotels are run by people who are on island time and are terrible about returning emails or they prefer not to take advance bookings because a lot of people coming to the island are touring central america for several months and just don't show up on the day they say they will.

 

[diversteve]

I'm sure you're aware that Chillies is the hostel in the West End. Native Sons has a good reputation also. And a good dive boat, I saw it several times. Being Roatan some of the other shop boats are converted from something else or big pangas.

It's in a good location, Sundowners is across the street (more of a casual beach bar) and next to Chillies is Argentinean Grille, a better restaurant with good steaks. Next to that is Woody's - the bigger of the two markets. The other at Coconut Tree which is just across the road west of Chillies.

It's an easy walk from there to "bar row" which I'm defining as around Booty Bar. We did most nights from farther east than Chillies.

All the reservations we made on Roatan we just called. IDK how it is now but the Internet wasn't very reliable a few years ago. And slow.

 

[cleung]

For dive ops in Utila, we are considering Bay Islands College of Diving, Captain Morgan's and Ecomarine Gunter's Dive Shop. Any insights on these ops? Our main objective for our April trip is to see whale sharks.

 

[lthomas132]

For dive ops in Utila, we are considering Bay Islands College of Diving, Captain Morgan's and Ecomarine Gunter's Dive Shop. Any insights on these ops? Our main objective for our April trip is to see whale sharks.

My post above describes our trip to Utila in September. Whale Shark Research Center is associated with BICD (part of same building). Great group of young people doing some great diving and WSRC does the whale shark trips. Staying at Utila Lodge is extremely convenient for diving with BICD although they have a separate boat for the lodge customers so that you don't have to be in a group with the certification divers. Fly to Utila from Roatan, the hell with taking a ferry to La Ceiba then another to Utila!

 

[scrane]

I have stayed at Splash Inn and Chillies and dove with Splash Inn and Native Sons. Splash Inn is in the center of town and can be noisy on the weekends. The facillities are nice, and the restaurant is very nice, but a little expensive. Chillies is more a hostel than a hotel. It lacks AC and there are shared bathrooms, but it is set back from the street in a nicely landscaped location and is quiet. Chillies is family operated, but does not have a restaurant. Dorm rooms are about $10. per person and privates are $25. per night for a double. There is a food stand in front where you can get a very nice $5. breakfast or lunch. If you stay at Chillies you must be prepared for mosquitos.
Dive operations at Splash Inn and Native Sons are very similar. Both go to the same sites, have comparable prices, and both have knowledgeable and skilled dive masters. Splash has a dock where you can jump onto the boat while you have to wade to the boat from the beach at Native Sons.. On my trips I split my dives between both operations.