BACKGROUND: 94 dives & Adv Open Water cert prior to arrival, now a Rescue Diver.

Did a bunch of research before choosing UDC on Utila. Hands down the best choice I could have made, both for ease of logistics, as well as quality of education and staff here.

COURSES: Did my Rescue Diver course here. There are plenty of "rubber stamp" courses if that's your thing, but if you want instructors that are truly dedicated to your safety and education, and willing to stay on station to ensure you feel comfortable and confident in the water, this is your place. The Rescue course is "recreational", but by definition, it involves more training and should be more rigorous. I am incredibly thankful that this shop takes their courses seriously and give enough repetition and time to ensure you learn the material. THIS is what you want to see in a dive shop. OF NOTE, if you are interested in doing a Rescue Diver course, you need to go into it with the right positive attitude, not with a "just get it over with" mentality. The goal is to be confident in saving lives in and under the water, beyond looking at pretty fish and swimming. =)

INSTRUCTORS: Aly, my head instructor, was clearly one of the best assets this shop has on their staff. A wonderful teacher with clear, confident instructions, who was able to manage her team of divemasters and 3 students on the boat in flawless execution. She was incredibly friendly, receptive to input, and a professional throughout the course. While the course is clearly covering a lot of material, she was able to make it fun and enjoyable for all, and was an all around pleasure to learn from. Her assistant instructor, Hanna, and her 3 DMs, Kevin, Angelina, and Ane Katrine, were fantastic to work with during the rescue course, were confident and dedicated to their roles, and were specific and encouraging with any repetitions that needed to be completed. Hats off to the entire staff team.

LODGING: Mango Inn is a great place to stay, included if you're taking a course here. Clean with daily housekeeping services, and the pool is now functional (was under construction when I was there). Affordable. Dining facilities are a bit on the expensive side, but they have 2 for 1 pizzas on Tuesdays. Short 10 minute walk to the dive shop through town.

MISC: Bring sunscreen, bring bug spray (lots of sandfly bites). Can exchange USD for Honduran Lempira at the electrical company for a good exchange rate and no fees. Regular US electricity adapters OK. Most places have wifi and TMobile from the US also has roaming service on island. Ferries leave on time b/w Roatan and Utila, don't be late. UDC as a dive shop is fantastic, but their gear is looking a bit more worn down and could either do with replacement, refurbishing, or upgrades. Staff and facilities are otherwise clean, well maintained, and easily accessible.

Go get your dive training here at UDC. If they're "full", go to Alton's. If Alton's is full, come back another week.

I am a dive center owner in Philadelphia. My wife and one of our instructors decided it was time to go a little deeper so we signed up through UDC and stayed at the Mango Inn for our week of diving. If you know about trimix it means we will do dives up to 300 feet breathing a helium mixture. This is a very serious class. Our instructor was Scott Peaker who not only knew everything about technical diving but he made the class fun and interesting and kept us safe. Scott would do classroom sessions, dive planning and our dives with us and we would head home while he blended and filled our our tanks for the next day. He worked very hard and as shop owner I know it is hard to find employees like this. Scott and Andy also answered all of my emails (I ask a lot of questions) so we were well informed about what we needed to bring and what was expected. This was our 4th time diving in Utila but our first time at UDC and I highly recommend the operation and if you have a chance to train with Scott go for it!

I completed my Open Water here, it's a great place to learn to dive. Everyone is super friendly, I was in a large class of 8 but there were 3 instructors and 3 dive masters with us all the time. The accommodation is also great. This was a awesome experience and I'll be coming back next year.