roatan/utila snorkeling and accomodations

I dived with Alton's in January. It was one of the coolest places I've ever experienced. You can stay with them, or they can find you another place. I would have dived Reef Gliders in Roatan, but the weather in January wasnt so good, so I split for Utila (on Vern's sailboat). I had a bit of trouble finding cheap accom. in Roatan, ended up at Half Moon Resort. $45 and worth it. BUT, in Utila, I got a shack 2 doors up from Altons, for $10 per night.

For flights, Continental has direct flights to Roatan from Houston, Delta from Atlanta, and Easy Sky is starting up from Fort Lauderdale. Otherwise, you can fly to San Pedro Sula and get a domestic flight over (around $100) or go by bus to La Ceiba ($5) and then ferry over ($27) to Roatan or to Utila ($22).
Utila's great for people that want to dive and party. Roatan's got more to offer in terms of other activities (beaches, botanical gardens, zipling, sailing etc), and also has great diving and snorkeling. Roatan's a little pricier, but you can find some cheap places- Chillies in West End, or Roatan Backpackers' Hostel in Sandy Bay. Lots of dive shops around on both islands. In Roatan, Ocean Connections is great, and they'll put you up for a few nights in a hostel if you're doing your course with them.
The weather is very variable in November. Some days beautiful sunshine, others round the clock rain, and sometimes just a good shower at night and sun during the day. When a storm front blows in from the northwest, it's usually a few days of bad weather, and this rules out diving/snorkeling on the north west side, so a lot of the dive boats will move around to the south side, which is calm during those fronts.

Both suggestions above are great.

I would not worry about the weather too much, it is what it is.

Flying into Roatan is great but when I went in May it was $700, from Chicago so I flew into San Pedro Sula for $289 on United/Continental via Houston.

SPS is not worth much, I arrived at 1pm and bought a ticket at the airport to Roatan departing at 330, stopping in La Cieba for 20 minutes or so, had to change planes from a 20 seater to a 10 seater...if you arrive later, you can take the Pullman bus to La Ceiba and stay there a night and then take ferry to Utila and Roatan. In SPS a good place downtown on the plaza is the Gran Sula, about $55 with a pool and free breakfast.

I stayed 4 nights on Roatan, and 4 nights on Utila, and took Verns catamaran between them $55. I liked both, but Roatan to me had easier access, and was closer to the good diving, just minutes by boat to many great dive sites. Roatan is a tad more laid back and less going on, compared to Utila, which everything is mainly condensed on the main drag, a little noisy and too much moto traffic for me. Though Altons and Lighthouse is past all the action and much more peaceful at that end.

In Roatan I stayed in a cottage just outside of town, at Blennys House. I spent 2 days diving, first day a refresher course and 2 dives, then next day 4 dives including a night dive..

On Utila, I stayed at the UDC Mango Inn, and took the 2 day Advanced course, and also had 4 additional dives. You may just want to get your OW and Advanced, and then your pretty much good to go for most your life diving needs. I found all the dive operations very professional and seemed everyone was having a good time and learning everything from great DM's. It is really a good atmosphere on both islands to dive, and NOv you will have fewer people in the class most likely, and more attention, even though UDC was excellent with 12 people in the Advanced class.

Enjoy,
Its all good...

Timoteo, I met "Blenny" hanging at Reef Glider's bar. Love the way she talks, with that British accent - as well as certain aspects (2) of her anatomy.

Thank you for all that great advice - very helpful! The prices of accommodations on both these islands all sound pretty reasonable. How much can i expect to pay for a dive course. I have no experience diving.

thanks again

$300 Open Water
$300 Advanced Diver

This is not ony as cheap as gets in this region of the world, but the classroom is the second longest reef in the world, on beautiful and tropical islands.

All PADI.

One thing nice about UDC in Utila, is they have a hotel/hostel with a swimming pool and also a cafe, above town, which is really peaceful a notch above the majority of the rest. There really is no beach in the main area of Utila...

[http://www.utiladivecenter.com/]

Eddy, when I was there she was under the weather, didnt see her from the time I got the key until I paid at the end...nice woman from what I could gather.

Name's Jenny. Very charming. Never could find her place. She said, down the path through the dive joint just up the road from the Half Moon. Actually, I couldnt find anything up that way.

If you take that foot path from the parking lot about 10 meters, you end up on the road that dead ends from town, it loops around like a hook, the first place on the path/road is a private residence on the point on your left, then you pass a chain across the road,there is the new Cocolobo lodge, then the 2 Blue houses are Blennys, then there are 3 private rentals, then the resort on the end I forget the name, a Italian guy bought it last year and has remodeled most of it, great bar and sunset, live music and low key, tucked behind that, but still on the ocean is last resort with cabinas. All these places are on the ocean, but its mainly reef/rocks, so no sand beach at all, you have to wade out over the rocks to snorkel, then its nice, but dont go to far as then your in the channel between reefs and shore that all the dive boats and local runabouts use, so you need a dive flag to snorkel more than 10 meters past the shore to be safe.

At Half moon there was a floating dock hinged to the shore, otherwise access would be dangerous. There was a little dock anchored a short swim out. Next door was the submarine place. I swam over and listened to that guy's pitch. I would have gone, if I'd been able to find someone to share.

I got lost on those roads up toward the point. I recall a big stone wall overlooking a cliff, like it was for some fancy resort.