Trip Report Trip Report: Alton's Dive Center, Utila. Late May 2019

[Ironborn]

@ 'to be continued' Any way you might include $ amounts/costs in your documentaries ?

@scubafanatic My round-trip airfare from New York to RTB on American Airlines was $488. That was an exceptionally good price for RTB airfare, particularly for a holiday week (Memorial Day). It would have been a great deal if the airline had not cancelled my connecting flight home from Dallas to New York and damaged my luggage in the process.

A round-trip ticket on the Utila Dream ferry from Roatan to Utila was $62 when purchased in advance via PayPal.

Alton's has its prices on their website. Two-tank trips (either in the morning or afternoon) are $75 each; one night dive trip counts as a two-tank trip. They also offer a discounted package of five trips for $350, or $70 per trip. Nitrox fills are $10 each in aluminum 80s, $12.50 each in aluminum 100s (no extra charge for use of air in aluminum 100's though); no Nitrox packages. Private, air-conditioned rooms on-site are $45 per night on any day on which you dive and $55 per night on any day when you do not dive.

I do not remember the exact prices of breakfast and lunch at Alton's on-site cafe, but it was cheap, rarely or hardly more than 100ish lempiras (about $4-5 USD). Dinner offsite could cost anywhere from $10-20 USD, depending on what you have. I would plan on about $40 USD per day for food and non-alcoholic beverages. The cigars that I bought at Bay Islands Originals were $8 USD each.

I would say that this was great value for the money, except for the relatively expensive Nitrox and the incredibly poor service by American Airlines on the way home.

 

[Grateful head]

So Ironborn.....I gotta ask seeing as I started another tread about diving similar to Roatan. Would Utila work as a 20 year wedding anniversary destination. Something like Roatan in regards to easy, good diving with a proximity to watch a sunset at a local restaurant or bar enjoying cocktails and good food. Every time I enquired about Utila while on Roatan, the general consensus was it was just for 20 something backpackers with not much in way of lodging or restaurants.

 

[Ironborn]

So Ironborn.....I gotta ask seeing as I started another tread about diving similar to Roatan. Would Utila work as a 20 year wedding anniversary destination. Something like Roatan in regards to easy, good diving with a proximity to watch a sunset at a local restaurant or bar enjoying cocktails and good food. Every time I enquired about Utila while on Roatan, the general consensus was it was just for 20 something backpackers with not much in way of lodging or restaurants.

@Grateful head

From a purely diving perspective, Utila would be a great choice. It is similar to Roatan but easier and with better marine life.

From a topside perspective, I am not confident that the town of Utila would be the best place for an anniversary trip for a 40+ couple, but that would all depend on one's tastes. I was able to get some great Argentinian steak and good Honduran cigars, so the town was good enough for me, but my tastes and priorities might be different from yours.

The town has plenty of restaurants and bars, and the food was good (definitely go to Che Pancho, if you do end up going to Utila and staying in town), but the overall atmosphere and environment might not be what one would want for an anniversary trip. As for lodging, I only saw a hotel or two and more apartment rentals, so I can't comment on that in any detail. My room at Alton's was adequate for me but would probably be a tight squeeze for a couple and perhaps not what one might want for an anniversary trip.

The crowd on Utila is definitely younger, overwhelmingly in the 18-35 demographic, but I would hesitate to paint it with a broad brush as a backpacker crowd. The other guests at Alton's seemed to be young professionals, including two young couples.

The two places in Utila that might be a better fit for a couple's anniversary trip, based on what I read, are the two first options that I considered but ultimately decided against. Both are outside of town, to the west. Utopia Village, by all accounts, is a very luxurious resort from a topside perspective, but they also changed their mind in the middle of my booking process and decided to close the resort for that week, which I did not see as a good sign, so I moved on to my next choice. Utila Cays Diving was unwilling/unable to quote me rates as a single traveler, a problem that would obviously not apply to you and your spouse. They do not have Nitrox, which is important to me to reduce fatigue, but aside from that, Utila is shallow enough that one could probably do without it. They can also arrange lodging in the Utila Cays, which might be closer to the watching the sunset after a day of diving experience that you are looking for. In fact, if I remember correctly, you can even rent your own tiny island in the Cays as lodging. The downside, as far as I could tell, would be that there are fewer dining and drinking options out there.

 

[Chidiver1]

@Grateful head


The town has plenty of restaurants and bars, and the food was good (definitely go to Che Pancho, if you do end up going to Utila and staying in town), but the overall atmosphere and environment might not be what one would want for an anniversary trip. As for lodging, I only saw a hotel or two and more apartment rentals, so I can't comment on that in any detail. My room at Alton's was adequate for me but would probably be a tight squeeze for a couple and perhaps not what one might want for an anniversary trip.

Rj's is where the good food is though

 

[Chidiver1]

Why I Chose Alton's and Why I Would Recommend It

The divemasters were professional, knowledgeable, and skilled in dive planning, briefing, and execution, but they really knocked it out of the park with their exceptional wildlife spotting skills and knowledge of the local marine life and reefs. The only places where I have encountered similar or better skills in that

One of my reservations about diving with stand-alone dive shops in town had been their emphasis on training and their high proportions of relatively new divers. by For dinner, there is a restaurant across the street that will deliver food to the cafe area at Alton's. Its food was good, but I found that the best food in town was at the Argentinian restaurant Che Pancho, which the office manager at Alton's recommended and had exceptionally high-quality food at modest prices. I recommend the steaks and the grilled tuna filet sandwich at Che Pancho.

(to be continued)

Steve told you to go there? I liked Rj's the best, so maybe I'll check this one out if I go back down. Not Sure if I ate there or not.

Was the guide Beto by any chance?

 

[Chidiver1]

@Chidiver1 Yes, he was quite particular. Under other circumstances, it might have rubbed me the wrong way, but I was so busy enjoying the steady stream and high volume of critters that he pointed out that I hardly noticed. I think his particular attention to detail was what also made him a great macro spotter.

Beyond that, was your take on Utila in general and Alton's in particular consistent with mine?

I didn't stay with Altons, I believe I did 5 or so dives with them, I also hung out there a bit more because a friend of a friend worked there.

They didn't have any rooms available so I went with Utila dive center and stayed in a deluxe cabin at their mango inn and diving with Utila dive center mostly.

My trip was different as I came into San Pedro, did a couple days at a retreat/spa in the national reserve before coming down via bus to the ferry then to utila. Same thing on my exit..... Utila to ferry to mainland, to San pedro, spent the night in a B&B, and ate at a fantastic restaurant down the street from it for dinner.

Utila was cool, I didn't have as much fun as I could have, was dealing with multiple issues up to the trip and even during it.

I was looking at going back down to jump out with some tech training at UDC but not sure since Andy isn't there now.

 

[Grateful head]

@Grateful head

From a purely diving perspective, Utila would be a great choice. It is similar to Roatan but easier and with better marine life.

From a topside perspective, I am not confident that the town of Utila would be the best place for an anniversary trip for a 40+ couple, but that would all depend on one's tastes. I was able to get some great Argentinian steak and good Honduran cigars, so the town was good enough for me, but my tastes and priorities might be different from yours.

The town has plenty of restaurants and bars, and the food was good (definitely go to Che Pancho, if you do end up going to Utila and staying in town), but the overall atmosphere and environment might not be what one would want for an anniversary trip. As for lodging, I only saw a hotel or two and more apartment rentals, so I can't comment on that in any detail. My room at Alton's was adequate for me but would probably be a tight squeeze for a couple and perhaps not what one might want for an anniversary trip.

The crowd on Utila is definitely younger, overwhelmingly in the 18-35 demographic, but I would hesitate to paint it with a broad brush as a backpacker crowd. The other guests at Alton's seemed to be young professionals, including two young couples.

The two places in Utila that might be a better fit for a couple's anniversary trip, based on what I read, are the two first options that I considered but ultimately decided against. Both are outside of town, to the west. Utopia Village, by all accounts, is a very luxurious resort from a topside perspective, but they also changed their mind in the middle of my booking process and decided to close the resort for that week, which I did not see as a good sign, so I moved on to my next choice. Utila Cays Diving was unwilling/unable to quote me rates as a single traveler, a problem that would obviously not apply to you and your spouse. They do not have Nitrox, which is important to me to reduce fatigue, but aside from that, Utila is shallow enough that one could probably do without it. They can also arrange lodging in the Utila Cays, which might be closer to the watching the sunset after a day of diving experience that you are looking for. In fact, if I remember correctly, you can even rent your own tiny island in the Cays as lodging. The downside, as far as I could tell, would be that there are fewer dining and drinking options out there.

Thanks for info and opinion. We don’t want or need to clubbing at night, maybe some bars like Sundowners in West End. I will research further.

 

[laurenceh]

So Ironborn.....I gotta ask seeing as I started another tread about diving similar to Roatan. Would Utila work as a 20 year wedding anniversary destination. Something like Roatan in regards to easy, good diving with a proximity to watch a sunset at a local restaurant or bar enjoying cocktails and good food. Every time I enquired about Utila while on Roatan, the general consensus was it was just for 20 something backpackers with not much in way of lodging or restaurants.

If you're looking for Romance and privacy its hard to beat this place on Utila:- www.facebook.com/utilabeach Not close to restaurants per se (need a water taxi) but a cook is available to prepare dinners.

 

[Grateful head]

Looks pretty awesome!!

 

[UtopiaOnUtila]

In a perfect world, I would have gone to an Utila version of CoCo View, which does not exist. The closest approximation seemed to be Utopia Village, which was also the most highly regarded operator on Utila among those divers that write reviews here and on Undercurrent. I contacted them and started the booking process. I was waiting for an invoice to pay for my booking when they suddenly informed me that they would be closing the resort for that week, without explanation. They asked me if I wanted to book a different week, but I declined because I had already booked my flight when they said that they would be sending me an invoice. It did not occur to me that such a highly regarded operator would suddenly change its mind in the middle of the booking process, and I had seized an opportunity for unusually good airfare.

Dear Ironborn. I am the owner of Utopia Village and wanted to apologize to you for your experience trying to book with us. After reading your excellent trip report, I was disappointed to learn about your experience with the bookings process. I followed up with our bookings person and reviewed the email exchange and as a minimum we did a poor job of communicating the reason to you (for first saying there was availability and then coming back a short while later saying we would no longer be open that week). I am happy that you still came to Utila and had a great trip. And your Trip Report is an excellent summary of Utila and the diving here. If you ever decide to come to Utila again, and want to give us another try we will give you a special deal to try to make up in a small way for your first experience, Once again please accept my sincere apologies for a less than stellar first interaction/impression with us.

That is the short answer. Below is some additional context of what happened if you are interested. I provide this only because you indicated the decision to close a week caused you some concern. We are a small dive resort that takes a maximum of 16 guests each week (even though the resort has 40 beds). We are only open between 26-30 weeks a year. We do these two things so we can deliver a very high level of service to our guests and so that ourselves and our team remain fresh and enthusiastic every week with guests. Mid February to Mid May 2019 was a very busy time for us and we had full houses or close to full houses every week. And June was shaping up to be similar. We were scheduled to be closed for 1 week in Mid May to allow us to recharge and also to take care of some routine maintenance activities. And we had a tentative dive group already schedule for the last week of May (the week you were interested in). Because we had that dive group penciled in we had been turning down all other enquiries for that week (assuming it was full with the dive group). When the dive groups plan changed shortly before your enquiry our bookings person assumed the week would become available for other bookings and hence she responded to you that there was great availability for that week. But we (the owners) had decided to close that week too to have a two week break between two very busy periods. We messed up in 3 ways: (1) myself and the bookings person should have been better aligned before we responded to you that we had availability (2) she could have done a better job explaining to you what had happened and why she gave you 2 different answers about availability 6 hours apart (she had checked with us in between if she could accept your booking). Or could have first checked and then got back to you. (3) and lastly if we had known that you had already booked flights for that week based on our indication that there was availability we would have either opened for you to honor our commitment or offered you a discount equal to the costs of changing your flights. But we didn’t hear back from you for a week or so and by that time it was too late. We will try to do better next time.