Planning Stage

We ordered all the travel guides that we could find. The three that we used most extensively are:

1. Central America Handbook (Honduras chapter)
2. Moon Handbook on Honduras (by Chris Humphrey)
3. Fodor's Central America book (Honduras chapter)

All of the above have new 2006 editions that were not available before our departure. Another book that turned out to be helpful is Honduras Tips, distributed all over Honduras for free. It is most updated in terms of prices, accommodations, etc. You can get one in advance for $14.95 from the Honduran official website Hondurasweb.com.

In hindsight, the Central America Handbook was the best. It was pretty up-to-date, and covered many more of the areas we traveled in. It was also more suitable for a car-driving trip (whereas the Moon handbook was oriented towards walking/bus-taking and was somewhat outdated).

Tip: reduce your load by taking only the Honduras chapters rather than the entire books.

Several websites were helpful for planning the route, selecting accommodations, and in logistics (such as locations of ATMs -- they are pretty rare!)

1. SidewalkMystic.com
2. A website on Santa Rosa De Copan and the area, by an American expat who lives there (and owns a nice pizzeria called Pizza Pizza)
3. The indispensable TripAdvisor - we scanned the resort and hotel opinions meticulously to choose the place to stay in the island of Roatan. There is also an interesting forum.

Our plan was to spend 4 weeks in Honduras: the first 2 weeks traveling in Western Honduras by rental car, then 2 weeks on the beach in the Bay Islands. We booked accommodations for the first night in advance, as well as for the 2-week stay in Roatan.

Flights: From DCA (our preferred airport in the DC area) to Tegucigalpa via Miami, and back with American Airlines. The connections were a bit tight, and we ended up running through the endless Miami airport (which is under renovations in various parts) to make it in time. On the way to Tegucigalpa we made it right in time. On the way back, we also had to go through immigration, collect our baggage and clear customs before continuing to run to the connecting flight. But we made it! Alternatives are to fly to San Pedro Sula, and other airlines are Taca, United, and Continental. Or, you can fly directly to Roatan, for example with Delta Air Lines. Flying into Tegucigalpa was convenient for our route.

We also liked Tegucigalpa from the day we spent there at the end. However, there are two drawbacks to flying into/from TGU: First, the airport has a short runway, which means that the landing is a bit drastic. I kept a bag in sight. Second, the traffic to/from the airport to the city is quite unbelievable. On our way to the airport it took us nearly 45 minutes to reach a point just a few streets away from the hotel... So extra time should be factored in for the trip. We hired a car through Avis. They seem to be the international company with the most locations in Honduras. We reserved an ordinary Mazda, but were extremely lucky to get upgraded to a 4x4 high-clearance Mitsubishi Nativa. This turned out to be a savior, as many roads required the full moment of the 4x4 as well as the high-clearance. One last preparation was ordering a good map. The one we used was a 1:750,000 map by International Travel Maps in Canada.