Laguna Beach Trip Report
Just got back from a week a Laguna Beach Resort in Utila and wanted to put a quick trip report up here for anyone who is thinking about visiting.
Resort:
Laguna Beach Resort
Where:
Utila, Bay Islands, Honduras
Website:
http://www.lagunabeachresort.info/
Resort Rating:
9/10
Dive Rating:
8/10
Photos:
Included in Package:
- 7 Nights Accommodation, dbl. occ
- Charter Flight to Utila
- 3 Meals Daily
- 3 Boat Dives, 1 Dropoff Dive Daily (Sun-Fri, 2 Boat Dives Only on Fri Morning)
- 2 Night Dives Weekly
- Unlimited Shore Diving
Additional Costs:
- Nitrox - $125 / week
- Soda - $2
- Beer - $3 - $4
- Liquor Drinks - $5 - $8
- Large Bottled Water - $2
Getting There and Back
We flew from on Delta from Atlanta into Roatan. Once in Roatan we disembarked the plane (through the rear steps since the Airport since have any stairs that fit our plane) and proceeded inside. Once inside you will take a right and clear Immigration. Directly behind Immigration you will pick up your luggage off the carousel and run in through the X-Ray machine, giving your Customs slip to the person working the machine. You will then head out into the main terminal. From here, you will have to check in with your Charter flight to Utila. In our case, we were booked on Lansha. Their Check in kiosk was one of the small kiosks immediately to the right of the front door, or on the far left of the terminal after coming from Customs. After checking in there, they will take your luggage and you will go through Security back in to the Terminal to wait for your flight. In the terminal there is a small cafe/bar and 2 gift shops.
When we landed in Roatan, our sheet from the resort said to look for someone in a Laguna Beach shirt, however we did not see anyone. There is a company called Roatan Tours (or something like that, they are in blue shirts) that was working inside the terminal. We asked one of them where we should go, and upon telling them we were going to Laguna Beach, they looked us up on their cell, and had all of our information. They then helped us through Customs and get checked in with our charter flight. It is also worth mentioning that the Utila Aggressor and Laguna Beach are operated by the same group, so anyone in an Aggressor Fleet shirt would also be able to help you get to the resort, since the Aggressor and the Resorts pick up boat, leave from the same pier in town.
Once you make it to Utila on your tiny plane, you will be shuttled away by taxi to a pier in town, where you will be picked up by one of the boats from Laguna Beach and taken over to the resort.
Accommodations
All of the Bungalows have A/C, Private Bathroom/Shower, and either 2 Full Beds, or one King Bed. The "Duplex" Rooms have 2 Full Beds, have 2 rooms under the same roof, and share a private dock/pier. The King Cabins have a King Bed, and a Private Dock/Pier. Most of the King Cabins also had a hammock on their dock. The beds were typical hotel style beds, and the pillows were comfortable. Each room had a Raid Citronella Plugin in it, and the maids left a stack of refills for you so that you could change it daily. Rooms also came with a large water jug that you could take to the restaurant and fill up with Fresh Drinking water for your room. It was not recommended to drink the water from the faucet. There were only 4 Usable outlets in our room, 2 in the main room, and 2 in the bathroom. If you have lots of things that need to be plugged in, it is recommended that you bring a small power strip. Plus and voltage are the same as the US.
Resort Amenities
The resort includes a Large Pool (about 5ft deep), Free Wireless Internet (When it works), and Free Kayaking. We used the pool once or twice and it was fairly well kept. The water was cloudier on some days more than others, it just depended on when they put in the chlorine and other chemicals. The internet worked the first 2 days we were there, and while it wasn't blazing fast, it was certainly usable. Our second day at the resort we had a bad storm that evening and the Internet went out. It was out the rest of the week. Internet is only available in the Main House, Dive Shop, and Gift Shop areas. If you are staying in Bungalow A or B, you can pick up a weak signal from the Main House. None of the other rooms have internet. There is a guest computer infront of the Dive Shop Office for guests to use, but the mouse was broken when I was there. I used the computer several times to move photos from my SD Card (it has a multi-card reader built in) to my Flash Drive, since my Laptop was having issues. Alt and Tab are your friends when you have no mouse :-) We never took the Kayaks out.
Dinning
The resort included 3 meals a day. Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner. Breakfast was server at 7am every morning, and generally consisted of an Egg dish, some type of carb(Pancakes/Waffles), and either Bacon or Sausage. There was always Toast, Cereal, and Fresh Fruit. Lunch/Dinner generally consisted of one meat, one or two starches, a soup, salad, rolls, fresh fruit, and a desert. Lunch was server 20-30 minutes after the last boat returned from the morning dives (Typically around 12:30) and Dinner was served at 6:30 or 7 each night. All of the food that I had taste excellent, however, there was not a large variety at any given meal, so if you are a picky eater, this may be a problem. The kitchen staff however was very accommodating, so they may be able to make you something special upon request, but we never asked.
One afternoon we grilled out at the pool bar by the pool for lunch. The pool bar is normally closed, so this was a treat. On Friday evening we also had a Beach BBQ at the pool bar.
Dive Facilities
The dive facilities are very well kept and all of the rental gear was well maintained. There are fresh water showers and drying racks on the dock next to the boats, as well as a Gear and separate Camera rinse tank for each dive boat. The gear locker is immediately next to the dock, and no more than 30ft from the boats. Nobody had any issues with gear being lost or stolen. All of my Nitrox fills for the week were 32%. They use a membrane system for their Nitrox, so I occasionally got a 31.9% or a 32.1%, but it was almost always exact. Tanks were always filled to 3000psi.
Dive Boats
Boats were standard Newton dive boats. We were on the Showtime, witch has the platform on top, but the other three boats were only one level. Dive platform was very wide and easy to jump off from, and the latter was easy to get back on board.
Dive Staff
All of the dive was excellent and very knowledgeable. Some of the staff was fairly new, and some of the staff has been at the resort for several years. All of the briefings that we received at the resort were accurate and very informative. All of the staff was eager to help in any way that they could. At the beginning of the week you were asked to place all of your gear in your dive locker, and before every dive, the dive masters on your boat would setup your gear for you. At the end of the day, they would then break it down, wash it, and store it. During the week you only had to worry about your Fins/Mask/Wetsuit, everything else was taken care of.
Diving
The Diving was excellent. The Haliburton Wreck and the Black Coral Wall were two of my favorite sites. The dives were guided, with one DM leading, and one DM following, however you were not required to follow them, and if you decided to lag behind, go deeper, or stay shallower, they had no problems with that. They were primarily in the water to point stuff out for the group and to make sure everyone was safe. The DM's stayed in the water for 40-45mins each dive, and asked that you came back to the boat with 500psi. In general we stuck with the group, but we did stray off on a few dives. Navigation was very easy (its a wall, you go down and come back) so we never lost anybody. The water temp was a steady 82F all week. The water was a little choppy most afternoons due to a series of rain storms, but it wasnt too bad. Viz was 60-100ft all week, depending on the site.
Dropoff / Shore Dives
The dropoff / shore dive are at the same site. The site starts directly in front of the Beach house at the resort, and the proceeds towards the Channel. It is a wall dive that drops to around 65-70ft. When you start approaching the channel, there are some bottles/jugs attached to a rope signaling for you to head up the wall into the shallows. Once back on top of the wall, you turn Due North and swim in to shore. It is a fairly long shore, in about 6ft of water. The one day that we did the dropoff dive, it was a 45min dive, with approximately 10mins of it being the swim in to shore.
We never did the site as a shore dive, but our understanding was that you told the shop you wanted to do a dive and they would take Tanks over to the shore entry point for you. You would then go over, gear up, walk off the pier, and swim out to the buoy. Once at the buoy you would drop down on to the wall and continue on. In either case, at the end of the dive, you exited at the pier, left your tanks/weights there, and took your gear back to your gear locker.
The dive itself was nothing spectacular, but it was still a nice dive. My only complaint about the Dropoff dive is that of the 5 days you have the chance to do the dropoff dive, Our boat was only allowed to do it once. One two of the days we were told we could not do it because there was a night dive, and 5 dives a day would be too many, one the other two days, we were told it was too rough. In all 4 cases we were told we could not do the Dropoff dive, the other boat was permitted to do it. I found this highly annoying, but it is the only complaint I have for the week.
Tipping
Tipping is 100% at your discretion, but envelopes are provided at the end of the week for tips, and any instructions written on the envelopes are followed. You can also hand your tips directly to the staff. There were 4 areas that they asked you leave tips for. Boat Crew (DM's & Captain), Barstaff, Resort Staff (Housekeeping, Kitchen, Maintenance, Security, Etc..), Office Staff (Dive Manager, Activity Manager).
Utila Town
If you wanted to go to town, you could let the office know and they would arrange for a small boat to take you in to town and come back and pick you up later. The town is very small (one road) and doesn't have much to do or see, so if you do not make it in to town, you havent missed anything. There is one gift shop, a few small grocery stores, a bank, and about 7 bazillion DM/Instructor schools. We pretty much decided that Utila is where DM's come from. If you do make it in to town, the Jade Seahorse is worth taking a walk through, it is a very interesting place.
On Friday, a large group of us went in to town and walked around for a little bit. We were in town for about 3 hours, and spent 2 of them drinking at Tranquilla Bar next to Parrot Dive Center. Most of the resorts Dive staff was there as well, and our boat back to the resort picked us up at the end of their dock.
Conlcusion
All in all, we really enjoyed our trip to Utila and to Laguna Beach Resort. If I return to Utila, I will stay at Laguna Beach resort, and h4ly suggest anyone who is considering Utila, consider this resort. I am sure there are some things that I left out, so if anyone has any questions, feel free to ask or send me a PM.