Tegucigalpa’s Colonial Center: With its busy parque central, colonial churches, and fine museums tracing Honduras’s artistic and political history, a stroll through Tegucigalpa’s center is obligatory for anyone passing through town.

Valle de Ángeles: This colonial town, set in cool pine forests about the capital, makes a perfect day trip to have a good meal in one of the several restaurants, shop for handicrafts, or just take a stroll.

La Parque Nacional Tigra: Energetic nature-lovers can hike around a network of well-maintained trails through a mountaintop cloud forest and stop off on the way to visit the deserted mining town of El Rosario.

Yuscarán: This classic Honduran colonial mining town, complete with a whitewashed catedral and cobblestoned streets, is built on the side of a hill honeycombed with old mines and topped with a cloud-forest reserve.

Danlí: If you’re passing through on the way to Nicaragua, Danlí deserves a look to check out one of the several cigar factories in and around town, or come for the Festival de Maíz, to watch a rodeo show and try corn in seemingly infinite incarnations.

Isla del Tigre and Amapala: In the Golfo de Fonseca, Isla del Tigre and its only town seem trapped in some sort of time warp and make an unusual sort of beach trip.

Parque Nacional La Botija: Tucked into a remote corner of Honduras, right up against the Nicaraguan border in the mountains above Choluteca, is the infrequently visited, dry tropical forest of La Botija, known for its plentiful wildlife, including white-faced monkeys.