Hello Steve,
My wife and I just returned from Utila and a wonderful dive trip with Laguna Beach Resort. After reading all the posts concerning safety in Honduras and the surrounding areas, I am pleased to report that we had or saw no trouble anywhere, especially in Utila. LBR will have you picked up at the airstrip (notice I didn't say airport, there is none) and will take you to the Utila dock to board a boat to take the 2-3 minute ride to LBR. It is very secluded and luxurious. They will pamper you beyond belief. Accommodations are great and right on the water, dining is three excellant meals a day buffet style(if you go hungry it is your fault), boats are 41' Newtons with lots of room, Dive operation is one of the best I have seen in the 8 years we have been diving, Diving itself is surpurb, Staff is outstanding. Now I am trying to figure out why we left, O yea, work to make more money to return.
Our boat(Island Time) had two groups on board, a group of 7 traveling/diving together and 3-4 in our group depending on the day. Each group went with it's own divemaster dove their own dive plan. LBR assigns you to the same boat, divemaster, group each day. This is very nice. Dives are 2 morning and 1 afternoon with additional night dives on Monday and Thursday. Thers is great shore diving and if you desire you can take extra tanks on the afternoon dive and they will drop you off LBR's shore to dive back in. Like I said "You will be pampered". LBR takes care of your BC/reg setup each day, you take care of rest of gear. They have a really nice washing and drying area to hang all gear right at the dive shop.
We went into Utila town on our last day before leaving. It is larger than I expected, however it is one main road with lots of people. Most all speak english and they are very friendly. We felt safe every where we ventured. Be sure to go downtown and look for the TreeTanic Bar/Jade Seahorse. The bar is like nothing you have EVER seen, very unique.
We met lots of nice people at LBR, made some good dive friends, ate entirely too much, drank all we wanted, took lots of U/W pics and relaxed for 8 wonderful days.
As for the travel, like most going to Honduras, we were concerned about our safety. From our experience, we had no troubles at all. Utila is very safe, and on our return trip through San Pedro Sula we had a 5 hour layover so our travel agent( Lisa @ Island Dreams)booked us a guided tour of the town. Our guide was very good, and we never felt in any kind of danger. San Pedro Sula is a large city with very beautiful and interesting sights.
So, go, enjoy the diving, take insect repellant(DEET), check into taking antimalerial drugs(reccommended by CDC and DAN, we took Chloroquine once a week, 2weeks before, week of trip and 4 weeks after return), relax at LBR and Utila and give a report on your return.
Burt