Getting to Utila

[flesner]

So, what's everyone's favorite way of getting to Utila? I'm coming from the eastern US (Boston), and trying to keep costs down as much as possible.

Thanks for everyone's help!

 

[laurenceh]

united, american and delta all fly to san pedro sula via miami or houston, taca flies via el salvador and is a redeye. the other choice is to fly to roatan but thats usually $100-200 more expensive. as long as you land at san pedro sula by 1.30pm or roatan by 2.30pm you can connect to utila. from san pedro sula its a 25 min flight that costs about $220 rt, from roatan its a 10 min flight that costs around $160.
there are other ways of getting to utila from those international airports but they involve buses, taxi's and ferry boats, and often result in it being a two day journey if you miss a connection.
the best way to buy those connecting flight tickets is via alice hill at world wide travel on utila, these flights are not advertised online.

 

[flesner]

Here's the rub: The American flight gets in at 2:20. The Delta flight (coming from Boston) would have a 40 minute connection time in Atlanta - cutting it close! And the United flight (coming from Boston) has an *overnight* layover in Houston. And Taca's prices are twice what the other three are.

 

[lthomas132]

Get an early flight to Houston. Then, direct flight to Roatan, arrive by noon. We are traveling in March from Houston.
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[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent, colspan: 7"]FLIGHT INFORMATION
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[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Day, Date
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Flight
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Class
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Departure City and Time
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Arrival City and Time
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Aircraft
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Meal
[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Mon, 24MAR14
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]UA1434
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Q
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]HOUSTON, TX
(IAH -BUSH INTL) 10:07 AM
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]ROATAN, HONDURAS
(RTB) 11:55 AM
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]737-800
[/TD]
[TD="bgcolor: transparent"]Purchase
[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

 

[laurenceh]

unfortunately aa and the local connections don't take the changing of the clocks in the u.s. into account. when the aa flight lands at 1.20, there's no problem, i've asked the local carriers several times to leave later when aa arrives at 2.20 but they don't seem interested.
once when my flight was delayed, alice had a rep for the local airline meet me and whisk me through customs and immigration and got me on the connection in only 20 mins. i would email her and ask her opinion, or go via roatan.