Dive Review of Utila Lodge; Bay Islands College of Diving/Stay at Utila Lodge, if on a budget in
Caribbean (General)/Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras

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Utila Lodge; Bay Islands College of Diving/Stay at Utila Lodge, if on a budget: "Diving with the Lodge", Jul, 2023, by Elasmobranch, TX, US ( 2 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 12842 has 1 Helpful vote.
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Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Utila Lodge, is built to accommodate about 16 people at a time and provides all inclusive room, board, and diving. https://utilalodge.com/ The rooms are island nice, rustic on the outside and well furnished inside. The Lodge is built on piling and stands over the shoreline and shallows of the bay and each room has a screened porch that faces west with a hammock and a ceiling fan. If you like the sound of small waves as you go to sleep, ask for a lower level room. You can check in here and never go off the property except to ride a dive boat and get in the water, but you will miss out on the local culture and all of the characters that make up this island if you do. Utila Lodge and the dive operation and school are owned and managed by the Engel family, led by Kisty and her daughter, Rebecca with son Shawn working behind the scenes. Look for Queen Ann in the bar, Ceasar waiting tables, Annie, Daisy, Leslie and Vanessa in the kitchen and Brittania, at the desk. Diving is with Lodge guests or Bay Islands College of Diving students or both. There are three primary boats. All are inboard, single screw, diesel drive vessels. All have emergency equipment, rinse tanks that are dedicated to cameras and computers, and overheads that provide shade to at least 40% of the main deck. Utila Lodge, like most of the dive shop/dive school operations on Utila, has a mix of long term employees that serve as crew, including some divemasters, plus plenty of dive teachers and students. Most of the divemasters are recently certified graduates and divemaster students working with their teachers. The boat captains are island natives, in almost all instances, and are highly skilled, having been on the water since before they could walk. At Utila Lodge, look for these captains: Bootsy, Gringo, Albert. All of these guys are good at finding the sea mounts and making sure the boat drifts to drift divers without any motor involvement. Gringo has blessed me by taking dive site suggestions and is an excellent spotter of dolphins, pilot whales and whale sharks. I have seen him gently manage a boat with mechanical problems and maneuver a vessel that was crippled to a feather touch on the dock in a crosswind. and these divemasters: Marcos, Hanna plus these long term employees who have shown themselves to be better than the general group of dive service workers: Arjen (highly skilled), Vicki Utila sits in an area of prevailing easterly trade winds. A large part of the island in the western part of the land mass, is still undeveloped rain forest, swampland, mangrove mix that the locals call the bush. There is very little current most of the time. Most of the time, the current is east to west. Visibility is mainly good, 80 to 100 feet and more, especially on the north side of the island and on dive sites near the east end of the island, which is upcurrent. Visibility diminishes at sites near the mouth of the harbor and down current, meaning just west, of the mouth of the lower lagoon during outgoing tides. Visibility is also affected by rainwater runoff, with the south side of the island affected more than the more aside due to greater development and population on the south slope of the island. The south side of the island and west end of the island are sheltered most of the time. These are closer to town and to the bay and these dive sites see the most use. The south side dive sites are typically characterized by shallow reef, 5 to 15 feet below the surface of the water, that have a sharp drop off to a sand slope that may star ... Subscribe to get the full story. Active subscribers continue reading here
Websites	Utila Lodge; Bay Islands College of Diving Stay at Utila Lodge, if on a budget
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Bonaire, Honduras, Gulf of Mexico, Florida, Australia, Caymans (each of them), Bahamas
Closest Airport	San Pedro Sula or Roatan	Getting There	Any carrier to San Pedro Sula: From there by CM Airlines to Utila or by arranged driver to La Ceiba and across to Utila on the ferry. OR Any airline to Roatan and from there to Utila by ferry.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy	Seas	calm, choppy, no currents
Water Temp	83-84°F / 28-29°C	Wetsuit Thickness
Water Visibility	75-120 Ft/ 23-37 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	One hour per dive, not consistently enforced, to keep the kitchen on schedule.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	None
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities	N/A
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	I will send the broader report via email and allow you to edit as you see fit. ... Subscribe to get the full story. Active subscribers continue reading here

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Dive Review of Utila Lodge; Bay Islands College of Diving/Stay at Utila Lodge, if on a budget in Caribbean (General)/Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras

Utila Lodge; Bay Islands College of Diving/Stay at Utila Lodge, if on a budget: "Diving with the Lodge", Jul, 2023,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Utila Lodge; Bay Islands College of Diving/Stay at Utila Lodge, if on a budget in
Caribbean (General)/Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras