.

TravelTips24 : Honduras : Caribbean Honduras : Bay Islands : Utila

Utila

Utila [1] is the smallest of the three major islands in the Bay Islands group in the west Caribbean Sea off the northern coast of Honduras.

Travel to Utila & Visa Requirements

Getting to Utila is a simple process from many gateway cities. Direct flights to both San Pedro Sula and Roatan are now available from Houston, Atlanta and Miami. From either Roatan or San Pedro Sula a simple Honduran airline flight (either SOSA or Atlantic) gets you to Utila. If you make it to La Ceiba, right on the coast of Honduras, you can take a ferry over. Its about an hour ride. The Ferry runs twice daily. Once in the morning and once in the evening. TACA, Delta, American and Continental all service Honduras.

Utila attractions and sightseeing

Utila is consistently ranked among the best diving destinations in the Caribbean. Utila certifies more new divers than any other location in the Caribbean and arguably around the world. Historically, diving on Utila has been startlingly inexpensive, hence its reputation as a backpacker resort. Nevertheless, the diving remains spectacular and the holy grail of diving: the Whale Shark, is reliably found in Utila.

Moreover, Utila is legendary for its macro creatures. Utila rewards the diver that perfects their buoyancy and is willing to slow down and spend time to find the hidden little creatures of the reef.

Utila city tours

  • Diving Utila boasts the cheapest Open Water courses in the Caribbean, price is currently $229.00 for PADI Open Water, Advanced Open Water, or Rescue Course. The price is standard across the island. This does not include the required $3 a day reef tax. [2]

Utila souvenirs & shopping

One needs to understand that islands are isolated and thus gasoline is sparse, Euro and other currency (except US dollar) unchangeable to Lempiras, and credit cards are not always taken.

Utila (as of July 2006) now has a working ATM machine.

Funkytown Library (located at the main road at the Reef Cinema) offers a wide range of great books for sale, exchange and rent. Feed your head.

Utila Restaurants: cheap, moderate and expensive

The food has a wide variety of fruit, seafood meals, pasta, vegetarian and breakfast fitting for a king with fresh and full-bodied coffee.

Check out Dave's' . The chef from the States offers great BBQ with an incredible choice of sauces for a small budget. Just ask around, no way to miss it. Open every day except Sundays and Mondays.

Not to be missed is RJ's located across from Alton's Dive Center furthest from the pier. The BBQ is great and the "Ruminade"(home-made lemonade with local rum) is just what you need after a long day of diving. Only open Friday, Sunday, and Wednesday.

Utila nightlife, bars, clubs & pubs

  • la piccola, main road. The best italian home made food on the island! edit
  • There is no shortfall in entertainment with the consistent danceable music of Coco Locos, the bar on a dock, and the open-air feel of Treetanic Bar, perched up on a tree.
  • Bundu Café offers free movie nights and live music Jam on Thursdays
  • If you want to dance the night away, it is the Bar in the Bush on wednesdays.

Local divers can be found recounting stories of Whale Sharks at Tranquilla next to Colo Loco

Utila cheap and luxurious hotels, youth hostels & lodging

  • slumberland, slumberlandutila.com(left from the dock after chepes beach), [3]. www.slumberlandutila.com, private villas on the water the best views of the bay. great accommodations, privacy and close to the reef150.  edit

Places to stay are plenty, and cheap.

  • Captain Morgans, [4]. Rents small houses (some out on islands) for about $5/person. Captain Morgan is a true pirate and his office is right by the ferry terminal.

Cope

Lots of lotion-based insect repellent is required to deter these ravenous Sand Flies. Baby oil also works a treat for ridding yourself of Sand Flies!

Contact

Its distance and isolation raises prices for high tech luxuries in particular Internet Services ($4-$10 an hour) and international calls.

This page was last edited at 01:25, on 13 November 2008 by Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel. Based on work by Peter Fitzgerald, Todd VerBeek and Colin Jensen, Wikitravel user(s) Cacahuate, InterLangBot and Nzpcmad, Anonymous user(s) of Wikitravel and others.

Content on this page is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 1.0 license