Accommodations

Perhaps the best budget hotel option in La Esperanza [1] is the centrally located Hotel Urquía (two blocks north of the church). The ground floor rooms are quite dismal, but the newer ones on the second floor are quite decent (US$10.50 s/d).

The rooms at Hotel Venezia (tel. 504/783-1424, US$10.50 s, US$16 d) are rather dingy, encircling a small courtyard. Cramped and depressing single rooms with shared bath go for just US$4, if you’re on your last lempira.

The motel-style Hotel Mina (tel. 504/783-1071, US$21 s/d) is a good deal, with spacious newer rooms that aspire to elegance and smaller, older rooms for five bucks less. Semi-suites with two double beds and a small sitting area are also available for US$37.

On the next block is Gran Hotel La Esperanza (tel. 504/783-0068, luispalencia04 [at] yahoo [dot] com, US$16 s, US$26–42 d), with some worn rooms and other new ones. Perhaps most importantly, Gran Hotel La Esperanza is one of the few places in town where city maps and tourist books are available, for US$1.50 each.

Around the corner and rather more drab, although with wireless Internet, is the four-story Hotel Ipsan Nah (tel. 504/783-2086, hotelipsan-nah [at] yahoo [dot] com, US$21 s, US$26 d). The chicken with choros (a kind of wild mushroom) is popular at the Ipsan Nah’s restaurant. These three hotels can often be full, so be sure to book in advance if you have a preference.

A unique option in town is the Posada Mi Antigua Casa (tel. 504/783-0415, may-aguero [at] yahoo [dot] com, US$21 pp with breakfast, US$18.50 pp without), a bed and breakfast set in a 200-year-old colonial home. The three rooms have large windows, high ceilings, and colonial furniture, and the entire home can be rented (for up to seven people) for US$100 per night. Parking is available.

There are two nice sets of cabins outside of town, popular with weekenders from Tegucigalpa [2]. Cabañas Los Pinos (tel. 504/783-2034, lospinosresort [at] yahoo [dot] com, US$31 s, US$43 d, rooms with cabins US$43 pp) is a quirky, artistic development a couple of kilometers down the road to Siguatepeque [3], with a good if slow restaurant and some children’s play equipment. The rooms have attractive wooden furniture and some have sleeping lofts; there is a bit of forest on the property for wandering in, and hammocks in a gazebo for relaxing. There is also an unheated swimming pool, which, given the cool weather in La Esperanza [1], doesn’t see much use.

Cabañas Bosque del Llano de la Virgen (tel. 504/783-0443, US$47 s/d) has attractive cabins in a countryside setting, each with a full kitchen, dining area, and living room—bring what you want to prepare for breakfast, because there isn’t any restaurant on-site. Visitors can wander through the pine forest or read a book in one of the Adirondack chairs on the cabin porches, and there is children’s play equipment to keep the little ones busy.