Honduras?

You are spending more time traveling than being anywhere. If I were you, I'd look into direct flights from the U.S. (if that's where you are from). If you fly to SPS, I'd catch a flight to Roatan on Islena (most reliable), Atlantic, or Sosa asap. If you make it to Roatan, you're in for some really great diving. Good luck. Mike

you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

as osullivan indicated, the diving in roatan is very good. a suggestion to you would be to consider utila as it's less expensive than roatan. some prefer roatan but having been to both, i prefer utila as it seems more relaxed. utila seems to attract more of the younger backpacker crowd; some like that and some don't. if, in fact, you go to roatan take lots of bug spray as the bugs are vicious.

I know I'm packing a lot into a short period -- I'm trying to mix cost and time and create the best options because we don't make money when we don't work - otherwise I'd gladly take a week or two or even a month.

At $88 round trip for the bus and ferry ($17 each way for the expensive bus and $54 for the ferry........and I wouldn't be opposed to taking a smaller local bus for less, but I'd be OK with the $17 bus, too) vs. $95+ tax each way for the flight (which isn't even available on the dates I'm immediately considering), I don't think a flight will work for me. It looks to me like it'll be $138 more each to fly to Roatan from San Pedro Sula. And I don't particularly mind taking the bus -- rather than looking at it as time lost trekking from one place to another, I look at it as a chance to see a tiny bit of the country we're visiting - even if it is just from the window of the bus. We're not dirt poor -- so cost isn't the only consideration, but we're not looking to blow through more money than we need to because we have plans for a bigger trip in a few months. We just didn't want to waste the opportunity we have with a few days off. And we'd rather go somewhere interesting than go to Vegas. If we had more flexibility, we would plan a bit better. I'm sorry to have such crazy parameters here.

I live in New York State. A flight to SPS will be $266 round trip if I can get it today. By contrast, direct to Roatan for the same dates is $644 -- or basically 2.5 times as much. If there is something I'm missing, I'll be MORE than appreciative to learn about it. I'm still trying to find Atlantic and Sosa on the web.

I'm so excited about the diving in Roatan -- which is why I'm scrambling to figure this out.

Do you have any advice for a cheap beach town after we dive that doesn't take us too far down the coast in the wrong direction (away from SPS)?

Thanks for your advice and help.

Thanks sm145 -- I'll take a look at Utila right now. About how much per night will it cost us to stay there? How is the actual diving there as compared to Roatan? After flying and traveling so far, the diving is one thing I'm not looking to skimp on -- I want to do the best diving possible. Thanks for your help.

wow $266RT to SAP? that's a good deal. i'd snap it up and ask questions later. couldn't give you exact prices for hotels but you'll get more bang for the buck in utila than roatan. my hotel was on the water w/ a little, teeny tiny pier nothing fancy but clean and decent for $20 a night. mind you, this was apr 07 and that was a single. given the worldwide recession we're in, prices couldn't have climbed much if at all. upon arrival, look for a copy of the latest honduras tips magazine as it lists tourist attractions, hotels, buses, etc. i'm assuming the magazine is still free as it was on last year's trip but don't know for sure.

imo all the beach towns from puerto cortes (closest beach town to sps) to trujillo are a little dumpy. having said that, some people love the squalid, sleazy charm of tela and la ceiba but let each individual make up his or her own mind. as you're very limited on time, i'd keep my itinerary limited to one of the bay islands. hope that helps and best of luck.

Thanks. On your advice, we booked the tickets. I kept trying to Priceline them -- but I couldn't get a dime cheaper than the regular price. So we're going from February 13th (arriving the 14th really) to February 18th. So I'm hoping we can catch the afternoon bus to La Ceiba on the 14th and either catch the ferry Sunday night or head to Roatan or Utlia (gonna have to do some more research) and then go from there. We'll dive Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday and get back to San Pedro Sula to fly out Thursday afternoon. A little in/out, but we'll have fun. Looking forward to it......I'm sure I'll have a couple more questions soon. Thanks for the advice so far . . .

forgot to mention that honduras tips is actually online so just google it and it'll come up. they list all the places to see but since you're only going to utila or roatan click that and it'll list hotels and their prices. that should give you a good idea of how much you'll spend on hotels. try to get to your destination before noon that way you can be very picky about the place you want to stay w/o spending a fortune.

don't recall how late your flight gets in, but if you arrive a little late la ceiba is ok to stay in for a night if you miss the ferry. honduras tips gives the departure time, price, etc. of all the ferries. la fuente hotel by the pier was nice, new and reasonably priced (dbl $24) when i was last in ceiba about two years ago but the owner may have raised his prices ...don't know for sure.

you asked about the better diving locale, roatan or utila. well, that's very subjective. some like roatan while others like utila. honestly, it's just personal preference. try one on this trip and the other on the next because i'm sure you'll be back if you're a diving enthusiast. from your posts, it seems like you want to keep your costs down so, based on that, go to utila.

one last thing, try the baleadas which is no big deal but try 'em anyway. they're the honduran version of soft tacos. you'll probably see an expresso americano which is the honduran version of starbucks. if you like coffee, you'll like this place. there are other good smaller coffee chains in honduras that others may like better. this is easier to do on the mainland. as the catrachos (hondurans) say, "buen provecho" (like bon apetitit).