As elsewhere in Central America, the town is built around its parque central, recently remodeled in questionable architectural style, but with a pretty colonial church.
On the north end of the town’s plaza is the Museo Casa K’inich (8 a.m.–noon and 1–5 p.m. Mon.–Sat., free admission), which is an interactive children’s museum on Mayan subjects such as music and the Mayan number system.
Few museums in the Mayan world live up to Copán’s on-site museum, though the Museo Regional de Arqueología (tel. 651-4437, 8 a.m.–noon and 1–4 p.m. daily, $2), on the southwest corner of the plaza, is worth a look. There are exhibits of carved jade, painted pottery, and figurines. The museum’s highlight is the Tumba del Brujo, the tomb of a Mayan shaman said to have died around A.D. 700 and found buried under the Plaza de los Jaguares.