I rarely post and this is my first trip report so bear with me. My dive buddy and I try to do these trips on a shoestring budget so…no resort reviews.
Lodging: Hotel Utila
Dive Shops: Bay Island College of Diving and Utila Dive Center
Lodgings:
My dive buddy and I try to make these trips on a shoestring budget so we checked into the Hotel Utila next door to the Bay Island College of Diving and the Utila Lodge. Our hotel rooms were $12 USD per day and had no hot water or air conditioning. I believe they have A/C rooms but the weather during our stay was pretty mild. On return trips, I wouldn’t stay there again because we learned we could find excellent water front rooms elsewhere for $40 USD or less. Utila Lodge next door was more upscale and had a in-house restaurant. The Utila Lodge rooms looked really nice, but I think they were around $70USD per day.
Dive Shops:
Bay Island College of Diving
BICD is where we originally booked all of our dives. We prepaid for 10 dive each for $200 USD + reef fees. We realized after about 4 dives that we had made a mistake. My reasons for not diving with them again would be:
To be fair to BICD, they seem to be an excellent place to take courses and we were usually the only non-student divers on the boats. The instructors were all knowledgeable and personable and it seemed the students were being well educated. I feel they should have been more up-front about us being with students and not going to the North Side.
Utila Dive Center
After 2 days (6 dives) with BICD, we decided to see if any other shops were going to the North side of the island. Because of recommendations on this board, we walked down to Utila Dive Center to check out their operation. We were greeted with excitement and made to feel like they really appreciated having our business (didn’t feel that way at BICD). We decided to do our morning dives with UDC and finish up our pre-paid dives with BICD in the afternoon.
All I can say is wow! UDC was definitely a great outfit to dive with because:
Food
Realized right away that if you are going to restaurant in Utila (even counter-service), plan on 1.5-2hrs. If you’re in a rush to make a dive, just pick up something at a grocery to eat.
Ate at:
1-5 stars
RJ’s BBQ – 4 stars
Bundu Café – 3 stars
Mango Inn Restaurant (not sure of name) – 4 stars
Munchies – 3 stars
Some ‘alley’ restaurant next to Tranquila bar – 4 stars
Johnny’s sugar cookies between dives – 5 stars
Diving
Overall: No whale sharks, but I really enjoyed the North Side diving in Utila. I guess I shouldn’t complain about the South Side (it beats a muddy lake in central Texas), but most of my diving has been in Cozumel and the south side does not compare. The North side of Utila is just plain awesome diving. I would definitely recommend UDC over BICD (see dive times/sites below). I don’t think BICD dove the north side until our last day on the island.
Dive 1 with BICD – Halliburton wreck. 02/13/2006
Nice wreck dive at around 100ft . Utila Aggressor dropped about 20 divers on it at the same time we dove, so we saw more divers than sea life. I had my computer set on the most conservative setting so I got a deco warning and had to cut the dive short.
Max Depth: 97ft, Dive Time: 28 minutes
Dive 2 with BICD – Black Coral Wall. 02/13/2006
Nice mellow reef dive. Soft coral, sponges, sea fans. Not huge abundance of fish.
Max Depth: 70 ft, Dive Time: 51 minutes
Dive 3 w/BICD – Black Coral Wall 02/13/2006
Second time at Black Coral Wall in the same day. Had to ascend early b/c of student
Max Depth: 65 ft, Dive Time: 46 minutes
Dive 4 w/BICD – Black Coral Wall 02/13/2006
Third time at Black Coral Wall in the same day. Saw large green moray
Max Depth: 63 feet, Dive Time: 49 minutes
Dive 5 w/BICD – Little Bight 02/14/2006
Nice relaxing wall dive. Trumpet fish, filefish, triggers, spotted moray, Blue Tangs, Parrot fish, Gray Angels, Rock Beauty, small ‘snails’ on see fans thought they were nudibranch, but found out from another diver they are not (small white with ‘brownish’ circles all over shell)
Max Depth: 70ft, Dive Time: 51 minutes
Dive 6 w/BICD – Pretty Bush 02/14/2006
About the same as Little Bight. All the south-side dive sites are starting to look the same to me at this point.
Max Depth: 72ft, Dive Time:44 minutes
Dive 7 w/UDC – Maze - 02/15/2006
First dive with UDC and on the North Side and my 50th dive!!! Beautiful dive site. Dropped into an ‘aquarium’ of fish with excellent visibility. Worked our way through large chasm to shoot out the side of the wall at 80ft. Went down to 100ft and cruised across the side of the wall. After a few minutes were met by turtle which my dive buddy swam along with for about 2 minutes. As we watched the turtle ascend he met another turtle and the two of them circled in a silhouette about 50 ft above us. Did slow multi-level ascend and came up over the top of the wall to do our safety stop cruising around the reef. My favorite dive to date.
Max Depth: 100ft, Dive Time: 47 minutes,
Dive 8 w/UDC – Iron Bound
Drove around looking for whale sharks (didn’t see any on this trip). Second dive site was nice, but the surge was strong and my air consumption went out the window fighting it the 1st half of the dive. I finally mellowed out and had a nice relaxing dive. Crabs, shrimp, barracuda.
Max Depth: 64ft, Dive Time: 56 minutes
Dive 9 w/BICD – Ted’s Point – Night Dive
Didn’t really enjoy the night dive. The visibility was poor and there is a noticeable lack of sea life. I wish Honduras would declare this whole reef system a national park. Again we were grouped with students doing their night dive check outs.
Max Depth: 78 ft, Dive Time: 37 minutes
Dive 10 w/UDC – Duppy Waters
Another great North side UDC dive. Visibility was excellent, tons of fish and coral. Started going over side of wall that dropped to the blue void. Multi-level ending with safety stop cruising around the shallow parts of reef.
Max Depth: 95ft, Dive Time: 60 minutes
Dive 11 w/UDC – Raggedy Cay
Beautiful dive site with tons of fish. Groupers, lobsters, tangs, triggers, angels, puffers, and small ‘purple’ eel
Max Depth: 66 ft, Dive Time: 1hr 11 min.
Dive 12 w/BICD – Jack Neil
Standard south side dive site. Small slopping wall dive with lots of smaller fish.
Max Depth: 66ft, Dive Time: 48 min
Dive 13 w/BICD – Little Bight
Interesting dive because we found 1) Large Green Moray, 2) The largest lobster I’ve seen at Utila (average for Coz), and 3) a seahorse.
Max Depth: 45ft, Dive time: 47 min
Dive 14 w/UDC – CJ’s Drop Off
Last day of diving so the UDC DM’s really took care of us. We did a ‘fin-assisted drift dive’ starting at CJ’s Drop Off and headed east past several other dive sites before being picked up by the captain.
Max Depth: 99ft, Dive Time: 1hr, 3 min
Dive 15 w/UDC – Spotted Bay
Another nice mellow ‘fin-assisted drift dive’. Went in at Spotted Bay and drifted down towards Raggedy Cay. Saw beautiful Sea Turtle just casually swimming past us.
Max Depth: 68 ft, Dive Time: 1 hr: 1 min.
Overall I give Utila a HUGE THUMBS UP. Getting there is a bit of a pain, but I'm sure that's what keeps island what it is. I can only imagine what it will be like in 20 years. While I didn't see whale sharks, I made a point to not come with that expectation so I was not disappointed.
Lodging: Hotel Utila
Dive Shops: Bay Island College of Diving and Utila Dive Center
Lodgings:
My dive buddy and I try to make these trips on a shoestring budget so we checked into the Hotel Utila next door to the Bay Island College of Diving and the Utila Lodge. Our hotel rooms were $12 USD per day and had no hot water or air conditioning. I believe they have A/C rooms but the weather during our stay was pretty mild. On return trips, I wouldn’t stay there again because we learned we could find excellent water front rooms elsewhere for $40 USD or less. Utila Lodge next door was more upscale and had a in-house restaurant. The Utila Lodge rooms looked really nice, but I think they were around $70USD per day.
Dive Shops:
Bay Island College of Diving
BICD is where we originally booked all of our dives. We prepaid for 10 dive each for $200 USD + reef fees. We realized after about 4 dives that we had made a mistake. My reasons for not diving with them again would be:
- My dive buddy and I were not students, but we were continually grouped with students and DMTs on most dives
- We never went to the North Side (even when other shops made the trip). I believe this was because of all the students on the boat.
- We came back to the boat on most dives with over 1000 PSI (AL 80s)
- They seemed to have boat problems on most days.
To be fair to BICD, they seem to be an excellent place to take courses and we were usually the only non-student divers on the boats. The instructors were all knowledgeable and personable and it seemed the students were being well educated. I feel they should have been more up-front about us being with students and not going to the North Side.
Utila Dive Center
After 2 days (6 dives) with BICD, we decided to see if any other shops were going to the North side of the island. Because of recommendations on this board, we walked down to Utila Dive Center to check out their operation. We were greeted with excitement and made to feel like they really appreciated having our business (didn’t feel that way at BICD). We decided to do our morning dives with UDC and finish up our pre-paid dives with BICD in the afternoon.
All I can say is wow! UDC was definitely a great outfit to dive with because:
- They did not group us with students. Their recreational or fun divers are put on separate boats.
- Our DMs were great (Sean and Chico) and were very knowledgable of the dive sites
- The boats were FAST and well maintained.
- The office staff was professional
- We could dive our computers. If someone ran low on gas, they would ascend with a DMT while we continued our dive.
Food
Realized right away that if you are going to restaurant in Utila (even counter-service), plan on 1.5-2hrs. If you’re in a rush to make a dive, just pick up something at a grocery to eat.
Ate at:
1-5 stars
RJ’s BBQ – 4 stars
Bundu Café – 3 stars
Mango Inn Restaurant (not sure of name) – 4 stars
Munchies – 3 stars
Some ‘alley’ restaurant next to Tranquila bar – 4 stars
Johnny’s sugar cookies between dives – 5 stars
Diving
Overall: No whale sharks, but I really enjoyed the North Side diving in Utila. I guess I shouldn’t complain about the South Side (it beats a muddy lake in central Texas), but most of my diving has been in Cozumel and the south side does not compare. The North side of Utila is just plain awesome diving. I would definitely recommend UDC over BICD (see dive times/sites below). I don’t think BICD dove the north side until our last day on the island.
Dive 1 with BICD – Halliburton wreck. 02/13/2006
Nice wreck dive at around 100ft . Utila Aggressor dropped about 20 divers on it at the same time we dove, so we saw more divers than sea life. I had my computer set on the most conservative setting so I got a deco warning and had to cut the dive short.
Max Depth: 97ft, Dive Time: 28 minutes
Dive 2 with BICD – Black Coral Wall. 02/13/2006
Nice mellow reef dive. Soft coral, sponges, sea fans. Not huge abundance of fish.
Max Depth: 70 ft, Dive Time: 51 minutes
Dive 3 w/BICD – Black Coral Wall 02/13/2006
Second time at Black Coral Wall in the same day. Had to ascend early b/c of student
Max Depth: 65 ft, Dive Time: 46 minutes
Dive 4 w/BICD – Black Coral Wall 02/13/2006
Third time at Black Coral Wall in the same day. Saw large green moray
Max Depth: 63 feet, Dive Time: 49 minutes
Dive 5 w/BICD – Little Bight 02/14/2006
Nice relaxing wall dive. Trumpet fish, filefish, triggers, spotted moray, Blue Tangs, Parrot fish, Gray Angels, Rock Beauty, small ‘snails’ on see fans thought they were nudibranch, but found out from another diver they are not (small white with ‘brownish’ circles all over shell)
Max Depth: 70ft, Dive Time: 51 minutes
Dive 6 w/BICD – Pretty Bush 02/14/2006
About the same as Little Bight. All the south-side dive sites are starting to look the same to me at this point.
Max Depth: 72ft, Dive Time:44 minutes
Dive 7 w/UDC – Maze - 02/15/2006
First dive with UDC and on the North Side and my 50th dive!!! Beautiful dive site. Dropped into an ‘aquarium’ of fish with excellent visibility. Worked our way through large chasm to shoot out the side of the wall at 80ft. Went down to 100ft and cruised across the side of the wall. After a few minutes were met by turtle which my dive buddy swam along with for about 2 minutes. As we watched the turtle ascend he met another turtle and the two of them circled in a silhouette about 50 ft above us. Did slow multi-level ascend and came up over the top of the wall to do our safety stop cruising around the reef. My favorite dive to date.
Max Depth: 100ft, Dive Time: 47 minutes,
Dive 8 w/UDC – Iron Bound
Drove around looking for whale sharks (didn’t see any on this trip). Second dive site was nice, but the surge was strong and my air consumption went out the window fighting it the 1st half of the dive. I finally mellowed out and had a nice relaxing dive. Crabs, shrimp, barracuda.
Max Depth: 64ft, Dive Time: 56 minutes
Dive 9 w/BICD – Ted’s Point – Night Dive
Didn’t really enjoy the night dive. The visibility was poor and there is a noticeable lack of sea life. I wish Honduras would declare this whole reef system a national park. Again we were grouped with students doing their night dive check outs.
Max Depth: 78 ft, Dive Time: 37 minutes
Dive 10 w/UDC – Duppy Waters
Another great North side UDC dive. Visibility was excellent, tons of fish and coral. Started going over side of wall that dropped to the blue void. Multi-level ending with safety stop cruising around the shallow parts of reef.
Max Depth: 95ft, Dive Time: 60 minutes
Dive 11 w/UDC – Raggedy Cay
Beautiful dive site with tons of fish. Groupers, lobsters, tangs, triggers, angels, puffers, and small ‘purple’ eel
Max Depth: 66 ft, Dive Time: 1hr 11 min.
Dive 12 w/BICD – Jack Neil
Standard south side dive site. Small slopping wall dive with lots of smaller fish.
Max Depth: 66ft, Dive Time: 48 min
Dive 13 w/BICD – Little Bight
Interesting dive because we found 1) Large Green Moray, 2) The largest lobster I’ve seen at Utila (average for Coz), and 3) a seahorse.
Max Depth: 45ft, Dive time: 47 min
Dive 14 w/UDC – CJ’s Drop Off
Last day of diving so the UDC DM’s really took care of us. We did a ‘fin-assisted drift dive’ starting at CJ’s Drop Off and headed east past several other dive sites before being picked up by the captain.
Max Depth: 99ft, Dive Time: 1hr, 3 min
Dive 15 w/UDC – Spotted Bay
Another nice mellow ‘fin-assisted drift dive’. Went in at Spotted Bay and drifted down towards Raggedy Cay. Saw beautiful Sea Turtle just casually swimming past us.
Max Depth: 68 ft, Dive Time: 1 hr: 1 min.
Overall I give Utila a HUGE THUMBS UP. Getting there is a bit of a pain, but I'm sure that's what keeps island what it is. I can only imagine what it will be like in 20 years. While I didn't see whale sharks, I made a point to not come with that expectation so I was not disappointed.
