Luxury Hotels

Full-service, top-class hotels are few and far between in most of Honduras, found only in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro Sula, Copán, and the Bay Islands. In the capital and in San Pedro, well-heeled travelers have plenty of options to choose from, including Marriott, Clarion, Camino Real, and others, as well as a couple of small, high-quality boutique hotels like Portal del Ángel in Tegucigalpa. Rates run anywhere from US$100 to US$1,300 for the finest suites. Rack rates are usually quite a bit higher than corporate rates, which are often available to ordinary travelers on request. Also, it’s worth noting that many luxury hotels have weekend deals sometimes half the normal price, as many of the hotels’ usual clients are businesspeople coming through during the week. Some of the more down-at-the-heels luxury spots, like the Honduras Maya in Tegucigalpa or the Gran Hotel Sula in San Pedro Sula, frequently offer their smaller rooms at a considerable discount if you ask.

Dive Resorts

Some of the finest accommodations in Honduras are to be found in these often supremely tasteful and blissfully relaxed resorts on the Bay Islands. Most offer weeklong packages including three meals a day, two boat dives a day, and unlimited shore diving for US$1,000–1,800 per person. Rooms are often freestanding cabañas set next to the ocean to catch the sea breeze, making air-conditioning happily unnecessary. As these resorts are eager to attract repeat vacationers, service is frequently extremely attentive. There are several resorts on Roatán, Utila, and Guanaja, and one on the Cayos Cochinos.

Beach Resorts

Although they’ve been talking about it for years, the north coast of Honduras facing the Caribbean Sea has yet to realize its promise as a tourist mecca. Very few high-end resorts are to be found on the north coast, though this will soon change as the Los Micos project west of Tela becomes a reality. The only currently existing large beach resorts in Honduras are the Palma Real Beach Resort, a luxury beach resort 20-odd kilometers east of La Ceiba, and La Ensenada resort near Tela.

Ecolodges

La Ceiba has become the location of choice for ecolodges in Honduras, and it’s not hard to see why. In few places is a large city with excellent transport connections so close to several very fine natural areas, in particular the jungle-clad Pico Bonito National Park and the Río Cangrejal. The Lodge at Pico Bonito is the best-known ecolodge, but there are many others, at all price points. Rustic ecolodges have also been established on the coast of the Mosquitia near Brus Laguna, owned and operated by community cooperatives.

© Chris Humphrey and Amy E. Robertson from Moon Honduras, 5th Edition