Set your sights on travel in Honduras this year.
Try the Cabins at Nightland, at the Jade Seahorse (from $69 per night) for a boho experience like no other. Eight colourful and crazily decorated cabins (picture thrift shop décor meets Anna Sui on acid, and you get my drift) house guests, while the compound's Treetanic treehouse bar and raised walkways are a hot nightspot. Complimentary purified water and a windfall of ripe mangoes falling onto your porch for you to eat more than make up for the lack of room service and distinctly economy feel of the "amenities."
Try Munchies Café on Main Street for a cheap 'n' fresh tuna filet sandwich for under $2 US. Their porch is the perfect casual perch to watch locals, expats and visitors stroll, ATV, golf cart or moped by.
La Ceiba
A short flight or ferry ride from Roatan to mainland Honduras brings you to La Ceiba. This coastal city is home to Pico Bonito, a mountain smack in the middle of a rainforested national park. Adjacent to the park is The Lodge At Pico Bonito (from $180 per night) a luxury eco-resort with its own extensive rainforest property. Hike its extensive trails (pack lots of bug spray), or visit its onsite butterfly conservatory. Walking through the orange, cacao or banana groves, feel free to grab a fruit to nibble -- it's all organic here, baby. Besides a beautiful Balinese-meets-island-Colonial decorating style, all dark teak, clean lines, white linen and freshly cut exotic blooms, you'll find a romantic, high-ceilinged dining lounge and a yummy menu. The chocolate and coffee spiced beef puts a local spin on haute cuisine, as did a fiery chipotle-glazed pork chop.
Must do's at the resort: 1/ kicking back on your private porch hammock with the latest issue of Elle Canada, 2/ getting a massage in the candlelit, gauze-draped cabana by the pool, and 3/ donning your bikini to jump off a boulder into the emerald green Mermaid Falls, a half-hour hike from the resort into the rainforest, 4/ drawing the plantation shutters, turning on the ceiling fans and making love in the middle of the afternoon in your very private eco-chic cabin.
Cayos Cochinos
The Hog Islands, as they are known, are an archipelago of 13 doll-size islands 18-nautical miles off La Ceiba, and are accessible only by a rocky, 45-minute, wave-tossed speedboat ride (beware if you have a tendency to get seasick). But they're absolutely gorgeous, and protected as a Marine Biological Reserve due to their rich coral reefs, which form part if the Meso-American Barrier Reef system, the second largest in the world. Some islands are uninhabited, while others are home to the indigenous Garifuna villagers. On the island-village of Chachahuate (population 200), they play a part in the eco-tourist economy by selling handmade jewelry to visitors, and by preparing fresh seafood lunches (grilled yellowtail snapper, fried plantains, rice and beans) for you to devour after a grueling morning of snorkeling, sunning, or gathering seashells on the wave-tossed shores of a nearby deserted island. Multi-island Cayos Cochinos day trips organized by Turaser Honduras ($50 US per person, snorkel rental included, plus $7 US for a fish lunch) will give you a glimpse of the Carribbean that few tourists get to see.
