This Page was last updated:
01/12/2007
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I try to keep everything as up to date as possible, that partly relies on you emailing me with details of any inaccuracies and good or bad experiences you had here.
Authors Tips gives all those useful bits of info about things like Taxis, Groceries, Internet shops etc.
The Honduran Bay Islands (Las Islas de la Bahia) are comprised of eight islands and more than 60 cays resting on the Bonacca Ridge, which is about 40 miles northeast of the north coast of Honduras. They are beautiful Caribbean islands which still have a lot of old world charm, although development is increasingly becoming apparent. Visiting these islands will leave you with little idea of what Honduras as a country is like, since they suffer from few of the problems seen on the mainland, simply because tourism brings plenty of Dollars to the local economy.
The islands are surrounded by a reef system, which is part of the second largest reef system in the world. At times the reef is only a short swim away from the shoreline. The reef is one of the most species rich waters in the Caribbean in terms of both coral and fish.
Roatan
Roatan is the largest of the Bay Islands it is 50km long and varies in width from 2 to 4 km across. The highest point of Roatan is approximately 900 feet above sea level. The island has varying topography from white sandy beaches, iron shoreline, mangroves, tropical hilltops, lush valleys to reef surrounded waters.
It is the only bay island with an international airport and flights direct from the US and Europe.
People travelling on a budget will want to stay in the West End which consists of a sand road running along the waters edge. All you will find there is dive shops, souvenir shops, bars, restaurants and hotels. Presently there is not even a bank, and anything but the most basic grocery shopping has to be done in Coxen Hole, a 12km/$2 taxi ride away. This is also where all the nightlife is. If you are looking for more upscale accommodation you will find plenty of websites for the various resorts around the island, just remember that if you want a decent selection of restaurants and bars, choose one near West End.
Utila
Utila is much smaller than Roatan 13km long and 5km wide and flat pretty much! There is one town which is about 3 or 4 times bigger than the West End of Roatan. There are NO nice beaches (or at least what I would classify as a beach) at least not compared to Roatan.
Deciding between the two
 | Utila is certainly backpacker central with at least 20 times as many backpackers as Roatan on average. |
| Utila has a feeling of being a young peoples town everyone seems to be in their late teens or early twenties. |
| Roatan has a more laid back/ less energetic feel to it. The average age being closer to 30 than 20. |
| Roatan's West End is quirky beach village, Utila is a classic Central American town by the sea. |
| The biggest complaint i hear about Roatan is the lack of a decent supermarket in West End and the isolation of the All Inclusive resorts giving visitors no opportunity to enjoy the real culture of the island. |
| The majority of people I meet who disliked Utila where disappointed by the fact that they felt like they were in a town more than a Caribbean island. |
Accommodation
| I think you can still find dorm beds in Utila for $3-4 a night, some dive shops give accommodation free with a course, in Roatan the best you will find is $5/night so here it is slightly more expensive. |
| If you are looking for a private room you can get them just as cheaply on Roatan as Utila. However there are much fewer budget places on Roatan so there is less choice and you may have to put more effort into finding a place, in peak season (Christmas, Easter and July-August) the budget places do fill up in Roatan leaving you with nothing cheaper than $30/room and up. |
| The cost of renting an apartment is comparable, once again there are fewer cheap apartments available in Roatan than Utila (remember the West End of Roatan is a quarter of the size of Utila town). |
Groceries and other shopping
| The cost of buying groceries is about 10% more in Roatan than Utila. |
| Most people will have no trouble finding what they need for simple meals in West End. However, the grocery stores in West End are not as good as the ones in Utila Town, you need to go to Coxen Hole to find a really good grocery store in Roatan. |
Bars and Restaurants
| Beer is about 5 Lempira a drink less in Utila than places like the Purple turtle in Roatan. Rum and coke is about 10 Lempira a drink less, but you will have to drink twice as much in Utila because the drinks are smaller and packed with ice! |
| Meals, In Utila I would spend an average of 60-100 lps ($3-5) on Lunch, In Roatan 80-140 ($4-7). Dinner tended to cost 80-160lps ($4-8) in Utila on Roatan it tended to be 120-220lps. ($6-11). It is easy to spend much more than this in both places - I'm a poor dive instructor remember! |
| Between November and April, it is cruise ship season in Roatan. During the day there will be loads of fat people wearing white sneakers and white socks. Don't go to the same places as them, you will be ripped off! Taxis will cost more, basically everything goes up in price. Just hang on it goes back down at 6pm! |
| You have to be more selective in Roatan than Utila. There are a few expensive bars in Roatan, they cater to rich tourists on short holidays. If you go into them you will find Roatan very expensive! That doesn't mean that there are not cheaper bars as well. Ask the dive instructors where they drink - trust me they are not rich! |
| Since there are a lot of rich tourists and cruise ship visitors there are often two different prices, one in dollars and one in Lempira. Always get the price in Lempira it will usually be cheaper than the dollar price, an easy way to make people off the cruise ship pay more - they don't understand the local currency! |
| You will also find that if you take time to get to know the bar tenders the prices go down. Backpackers will be recognised and charged accordingly if they hang around on the island for more than a day or two. |
| Always ask the price in bars, what is put up on the price list isn't always the best price! |
| If you drink girly blended drinks like pina colada it is expensive, have a beer or rum and coke - your in the Central America, the best rum in the world is distilled here - Fleur de Cana. |
Diving
| Most important to me is the fact that in Utila the most popular dive sites are a long boat trip from the dive shops. In Roatan they are on average 15 minutes. That means the morning boats in Utila leave at 7.30am in Roatan it is 9am. I much prefer to spend the 1.5 hours from 6.30am to 8am in bed rather than on a boat! It also means you are often taken to less attractive dive sites in the afternoon in Utila to save time and gas. |
| As for prices, It costs exactly the same in to dive or do your courses on both islands. Open water and advanced are $230, Rescue $250, Divemaster $600. |
| I think there is a very different atmosphere between Utila dive shops and Roatan dive shops. In Utila you are very unlikely to be in course of less than 4, the average is 6-8 students. Whilst I wholeheartedly believe that doing the open water course with a few students is beneficial, more than 5 detracts from the experience in my opinion (even with Assistant Instructors helping on the course). As a result of these large classes the instructors seem more detached from their students in Utila than Roatan. Its rare that I won't socialise with my students in Roatan, in Utila there is more of a tendency for the instructors to stick together and form a clique which excludes tourists. Given there are so many more dive instructors and students in Utila this doesn't surprise me, but it is sad that people who visit Utila do not get to see what a great social sport diving can be. |
| Roatan is a bigger island so it has more dive sites, that is geographical fact. |
| The way the currents run in the Bay Islands means you are more likely to see a Whale shark in Utila. |
| You will find the better fish diversity on Roatan especially at Pablos Place and West End Wall. Spooky Channel wall is also good. |
To sum up:
Utila is all concrete where Roatan is all sand and wood, Utila is dusty and hot where Roatan is luscious and green. The most important thing as far as I was concerned was the diving though, and how early in the morning I had to get up. The majority of the good dive sites in Utila are on the north shore, the town is on the south, so every morning the dive boat takes 1-2 hrs to get there. That means you have to be at the dive shop at 7am, which sucks! Roatan dive sites are 15mins away on average which means you don't need arrive until the reasonably civilised hour of 9am, phew! Oh and there is much more deep diving available on Roatan. So that is why I live on Roatan not Utila, (instructors earn more on Utila than Roatan, so it isn't for the money!)
West End Map (click to enlarge)
Roatan is
less than 2 hours flight from Miami
The terminal at Utila airport!
West Bay in Roatan
One of Roatan's resident Turtles
Half Moon Bay - Roatan's West End
The main street of West End, Roatan
The main street of Utila Town
Another great website on the area