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Travel guide: Honduras
Set your sights on travel in Honduras this year.
By Yuki Hayashi
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Roatan
This larger Bay Island is hot. Claudia Schiffer has a mansion here, and other celebs sightings abound. Besides the pristine azure water and bountiful reef system, Roatan has plenty of lush, verdant hills and killer views (and killer roads to go with them: pack some Gravol for those drives!), making it a developer's dream. Accordingly, this is where you'll find the moneyed class's retreats as well as higher end resorts. Utila it's not.
For romantic dinners on restaurants built over the water, try Eagle Rays Bar & Grill, in the restaurant district of the West End. Fresh seafood such as a grilled young snapper with jalapenos, plus a couple of local Port Royal beer, come in under $15 per person. Think, pounding surf (or maybe that was just the outer bands of Hurricane Dean, which just missed us when I was there in August. Note: hurricane season is July through November), warm rain falling on the roof above you, and flickering hurricane lanterns lighting up the deck. Couldn't be more romantic if a location scout for a rom-com had handpicked it.
Stroll down the road after dinner to hit one of the souvenir stands. Locally produced Lenca pottery (graphic black and white patterns perfect for the urban loft), Honduran coffee beans, inexpensive hammocks and ubiquitous shell necklaces are all things you can bring home. (Though everything is cheaper in Utila.)
The Mayan Princess Resort on West Bay Beach (from $165 per night for a one-bedroom suite) has a great white sand beach and fantastic diving is but a few minutes away by flipper. You can rent snorkel equipment (or scuba gear) at the Mayan Divers shop. Swim out less than 25 metres from shore to get at pristine reefs filled with Technicolor fish in their glory. What the resort lacks in quirk, it more than makes up for in amenities: air conditioning, room service (nothing beats a bowl of coconut-milk-infused spicy conch chowder followed by a whole grilled snapper and fried plantains after a sunset swim), the dive shop and beautifully landscaped lagoon pool. Hummingbirds nosedive around the lush blossoms lining the stone walkways of the resort, and exotic butterflies flutter past. The condo lodgings include full or partial kitchens, so you can prepare your own meals if you're staying for the long haul.
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