Set your sights on travel in Honduras this year.
Click here for your chance to win a Heys luggage set!
If you missed out on Prague in the early 90s, Thailand in the mid 90s, or Machu Pichu in the early aughts, be the first in your crowd to set your sights on Honduras in 2008. Here's why: it's gorgeous, unspoiled, and just about to explode. The sexy Brits are already there, as are the über moneyed celebs -- Cameron Diaz, Sean Combs and Claudia Schiffer are frequent visitors (Schiffer, in fact, owns property there). This Central American country has both a mainland with extensive coastline on the Caribbean Sea, as well as numerous islands in the Caribbean. The Bay Island chain includes both Roatan and Utila, both of which are on the radar of travel cogniscenti and dive lovers internationally.
Best part? You don't need to be a trust fund babe to enjoy the splendour of its numerous small islands, or the Edenic wild of its rainforest. When I went in the off-season (hurricane season, actually), it cost $1,000 return from Toronto via Continental Airlines -- it's cheaper in the high season -- and hotels range from under-$20 per night for modest dive-center lodgings on the happening island of Utila to $180 US per night at the ultra-luxe Lodge At Pico Bonito in La Ceiba, on the mainland's coast.
Want a sea, sun and sand vacation minus the madding crowds and Sandals resorts? Honduras is your place. Here's where to hit, and why.
Utila
Utila is the smallest of the three main Bay Islands, and the town of East Harbour is generally known as "Utila." The pace is slow and the vibe is young and relaxed.
Utila is also home to some of the world's best diving, and, as a result, plenty of fit young expats (particularly Brits) and visitors. Be sure to go to the Underwater Vision Dive Center for its weekly booze cruise. Forget the stilted office parties conjured up by the phrase booze cruise. Imagine a tiny tugboat filled with comp bevies, a couple dozen young dive lovers and a soul-stirring sunset instead. Back on dry land, a passable barbecue dinner is paired with more drinks and smokin' hot dinner convo with scores of twentysomething divers. Yeah, some couples, but guess what: the night I was there, single hotties outnumbered women by far.
Check out all of ELLE Canada's sunny travel destinations with these guides!
