Best of Honduras

Cangrejal River Valley, home to the Best Hotels in La Ceiba

September 26, 2014

Best of Honduras, Best of La Ceiba, Best of the Bay Islands 0

Looking for a list of things you must do in Roatan? Look no more! Here are my suggestions!

Roatan is the largest of the Bay Islands of Honduras, and has steadily been receiving more tourists over the years. Most of these tourists arrive on cruise ships and therefore really do not have enough time to get around the island and explore the more unique aspects of Roatan. In my humble opinion there are several different things you must do in Roatan, following is my list with suggestions on what you must see and not miss:

The first on the list of things you must do in Roatan is a visit West Bay Beach. West Bay Beach is considered the best beach in Central America, and one of the best beaches in the Caribbean… This is a must place to visit. The downside to West Bay Beach is the fact that it could be overrun by tourists from cruise ships, most of whom actually run to see the beach and take a picture to prove they have been here…

While you are in the West End of the island, you should take advantage and visit the town of West End. This small, beach front community has become the heart of tourism in Roatan. A funky, Key West atmosphere, with nice beach bars, gourmet restaurants, small hotels, bed and breakfasts and inns all come together to offer a unique setting and is definitely one of the things you must do in Roatan. At night, the atmosphere turns into a more bohemian touch, and bar hoping between beach bars can easily become your favorite island activity. If a few cocktails make you hungry, you have dozens of eateries, from gourmet to street side baleadas to choose from. A night visit to West End is definitely on my must to list while in Roatan! As a matter of fact, if you are still trying to decide where you should spend the night in Roatan, think no more, West End is the place to do so!

Next on the list of things you must do in Roatan is a visit to east end of the island. This is the original, authentic Roatan, which has not changed much over the years. There are several small, truly authentic communities in the area, and if you want to see how life was in Roatan before it was discovered as a tourist destination, then visiting one of these communities is a definite must! My favorite community is Calabash Bight, but Jonesville and even Oakridge are worth a visit! These communities are extremely picturesque, and are certainly a window to the past, how a sleepy, colorful, Caribbean community used to be.

As long as we are in the East End of Roatan, we might as well push further east. You will find that the paved road ends in Oakridge, so from there on you will be traveling on a dirt road. The road is accessible throughout the year, even during the rain season, and although you do not need a four wheel drive vehicle, your traveling will slow down significantly because the road will become quite bumpy. Be patient, there are two different reasons to continue down this road… One of them is one of the most secluded of Roatan Resorts, Paya Bay. This hotel offers fantastic views, access to two small private beaches, and great food. If you are looking for hideaway to relax in where no one will find you, where you will enjoy some of the nicest beaches in the Caribbean and where you will be serviced like a king, you should certainly consider Paya Bay Resort!

Past Paya Bay you will come to Camp Bay. While Camp Bay is a small, unimpressive little beachside community, which is not really worth the trip on itself, the Camp Bay Beach is certainly worth your time. If you are looking for a lovely, unspoiled, uncrowded beach, this is where you will find it. Camp Bay Beach is my favorite beach in Roatan, and in my humble opinion, is the best beach in Central America! There is a small beachfront, actually on the water restaurant here called La Sirena. It offers great food in a rustic, very authentic Caribbean atmosphere.

If you are looking for a more jungle like experience, you should consider jumping to the mainland. Even if you cannot spend the night there, you can easily take the morning ferry to La Ceiba, arriving there before 9:00 a.m. and then continue to the Cangrejal River Valley, a lovely are very close to La Ceiba, where you will find a myriad of adventure and nature activities, including white water rafting, horseback riding, hiking, zip line canopy tours, outstanding bird watching, etc. The trip between the ferry terminal and the different businesses in the Cangrejal River Valley will be only 30 minutes, so in the end, your trip from Roatan to the Cangrejal River Valley will give you more than 6 hours on the site to enjoy one or more of your favorite activities. If you do have time to spend some nights here, there are several different hotels that you can enjoy and at least one of them will fit into your budget. For a complete list of hotels in the Cangrejal River Valley, visit www.cangrejalriver.com

Regardless of whether its for a day tour, or for one or several nights, a visit to the Cangrejal River Valley is one of the things you must do while in Roatan!

September 23, 2014

Best of Central America, Best of Honduras, Best of La Ceiba 0

When traveling, there is always a need to feel at home, or even better, to feel you are an honored guest at a good friends home. This is where the term guest house comes from, and it is certainly something than any traveler cherishes to feel. There are always many hotels and inns to choose from in today’s modern world, so finding the best guest house is always a chore in itself, and an important one at that! Finding the right spot to stay in will make your visit to a city much more pleasant, finding the wrong one can turn into a nightmare! With this in mind, which is the best guest house in La Ceiba?

There are not many guest houses in La Ceiba, and those that do exist are mostly out of town. Your best bet is the Cangrejal River Valley, where you will find several different options. For a complete list of options in this area, check out www.cangrejalriver.com, here you will find a variety of options with different prices. Evidently, if you are looking for the best guest house in La Ceiba, you will want a true home feeling, where you have access to the house, but at the same time have the privacy of your room. You will certainly want to find that you can communicate with your hosts and innkeepers in your own language, English, however you would also love to be able to see how daily life goes about for a family in this part of the World, so it would be preferable that the family is local, but bilingual, that they can serve you a local meal, with the cleanliness and hygiene you would expect back home, and who can help you arrange for local activities, both through a local tour operator or on your own, depending on what you are looking for.

In my opinion, another important factor to be the best guest house in La Ceiba, you need to be able to offer your client outstanding local information. Information not only on a local level but also on a national, level, how to get around, where to stay, what are the must visit attractions in the other cities and regions in the country, and what you should look out for and completely avoid!

Finally, the best guest house in La Ceiba should definitely have great, hi speed, free wifi. After all, you are traveling, but you do need to keep up on your things, with your family, and most important, be able to continue planning your trip! At La Villa de Soledad, we work hard to be the best guest house in La Ceiba! Come and relax in nature, have the vacation of your lifetime and feel like an honored guest at La Villa de Soledad B&B.

September 14, 2014

Best of Central America, Best of Honduras, Best of the Bay Islands 0

Enjoying nature appeals to all of us, however, the concept of “roughing it out” in nature is not really appealing to most of us. This makes for an unusual concept: comfortable, boutique jungle eco lodge. Is such a thing actually possible? Not only is it possible, it is actually a trend! And a trend that Honduras has jumped on for some time now!

Honduras offers some of the best natural areas in Central America, not only are they extensive and easily accessible, they are best of all, not overrun by tourists, such as you will certainly find in other Central American countries. While there are many different National Parks and protected areas in Honduras that offer accommodations, the largest concentration of them can be found in the Cangrejal River Valley, a relatively small area with over 10 lodges located in a privileged area, www.cangrejalriver.com. Of these 10 lodges, at least two are certainly boutique jungle eco lodge accommodations! Las Cascadas Eco Lodge offers lovely, luxury accommodations with an all inclusive package, www.lascascadaslodge.com; and La Villa de Soledad offers 4 comfortable, individually appointed rooms with original paintings by local artists, certified wood furniture, and best of all, the hospitality of innkeepers that live on the premises and know Honduras inside and out, providing great helpful tips about travels in Honduras. www.lavilladesoledad.com.

La Villa de Soledad’s slogan is “Relax in Nature”, and this fits perfectly well to this lovely boutique jungle eco lodge! Easy, walking access to trails in two national parks, world class white water rafting within a short walk from the lodge to the put it, incredibly diverse bird watching from the comfort of a hammock in our porch overlooking the tropical jungle; all blend seamlessly with our comfortable rooms, inviting hammocks and friendly Honduran hospitality.

Best of all is the close proximity with the World famous Bay Islands of Honduras, providing for the perfect combination between a unique jungle experience and some fantastic Caribbean Island experience. Is this not a truly unique opportunity for some unforgettable vacations?

Enjoy the best affordable boutique jungle eco lodge in La Ceiba: La Villa de Soledad, and then discover the best kept secret in the Caribbean: the Bay Islands of Honduras!

September 10, 2014

Best of Central America, Best of Honduras 0

There are a variety of options for eco tours in Honduras, without doubt on par with Costa Rica as an Eco destination; however, due to the lower awareness about eco tours in Honduras, it is not as popular as Costa Rica. This does not in any way mean that the quality of the experience in Honduras is less, as a matter of fact, one of the true ways of measuring an eco tour experience is whether or not you were able to interact with nature in an intimate way, and this is truly hard to achieve in a destination that is overrun by tourists, such as happens in Costa Rica!

So, you will ask, if nature is truly so abundant in Honduras, which are the best destinations for eco tours in Honduras? There are 3 distinct areas for World Class eco tours in Honduras: Lake Yojoa, Tela and La Ceiba. Lake Yojoa, located in the about eighty kilometers outside of San Pedro Sula on the road towards Tegucigalpa, is bordered by two different National Parks: Montana de Santa Barbara and Cerro Azul Meambar. The latter one has some pretty good infrastructure, including a visitor’s center, a variety of trails and even a full service eco lodge. Known as Panacam, Parque Nacional Cerro Azul Meambar can be visited year round in vehicle, because the road up to the visitors center is well maintained. Best of all is the fact that there are several different lodging options in the area, including several hotels around the lake. There are outstanding birdwatching options in the area, and D&D Brewery, in the vicinity of the Los Naranjos Village offers the best bird watching guides in the area. Eco tour options include a visit to the eco archaeological site of Los Naranjos, as well tours of the largest natural lake in Honduras, Lake Yojoa. A great spot to spend the night in the area is the D&D Brewery (www.ddbrewery.com) as well as Honduyate (www.honduyate.com). For more information on Panacam Lodge visit www.panacamlodge.com.

The second option mentioned is the coastal city of Tela. Tela boasts three incredible protected areas that provide for great eco tours in Honduras. The Parque Nacional Jeannette Kawas, known better as Punta Sal offers a unique jungle experience mixed with lovely white sand Caribbean like beaches, talk about a perfect combination eco tour in Honduras! In addition the Lancetilla Botanical Gardens, originally an experimental botanical garden that was created by the United Fruit Company in the hay day of Honduras as a Banana Republic, offers outstanding trails, an interesting chapter of the old Banana Republic days in Honduras and some of the best bird watching in Central America! Lancetilla has to be one of the best destinations for eco tours in Honduras. Last but not least is Punta Izopo National Park, a coastal marine area with estuaries, mangrove canals and teeming with wildlife, including monkeys, alligators, and hundreds of birds. Although there are several tour operators in Tela, if you want the best eco tours in Honduras, within the Bay of Tela area, you should arrange for the tour with Garifuna Tours (www.garifunatours.com) They are the pioneers of eco tours in Honduras!

Finally, you have the option of La Ceiba, considered the eco tourism capital of Honduras! Here you have many options with the most diverse variety of eco tours in Honduras. The crown jewel to eco tours in Honduras is the Cangrejal River Valley, (www.cangrejalriver.com) here you can choose from white water rafting in the pristine Rio Cangrejal setting, as it tumbles down towards the Caribbean tucked away between two National Parks, Pico Bonito and Nombre de Dios. Zip line canopy tours, hiking in trails within the National Parks, rappelling down waterfalls, are just a few of the many options available in the area! Nearby you can visit hot springs that are in the jungle, pristine Caribbean islands at Cayos Cochinos Marine Monument, or paddle through the canals at the Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge. With so many options, it is no wonder that La Ceiba is known as the Eco tourism capital of Honduras; it certainly offers more options for eco tours in Honduras that any other spot in the country, as a matter of fact, it is probably the best eco tour destination in Central America! For more information on eco tours in Honduras, visit www.lamoskitia.hn or www.omegatours.info both are reliable and responsible tour operators that are specialized in eco tours in Honduras!

September 9, 2014

Best of Honduras 0

If you are looking for the perfect tour combination in Honduras, allow me to propose a combination of the Bay Islands, either Utila, Roatan or Guanaja, combined with the Cangrejal River Valley. The Bay Islands offers both outstanding diving in the Meso American Barrier Reef and the unique Caribbean village atmosphere of a British Antillean colony. Although the Bay Islands are part of Honduras, and the official language of the country is Spanish, the Bay Islanders have long held on to their British Heritage, and to this day, prefer the use of English as their household language. Their culture is quite different from that of Mainland Honduras, and to this day, they refer to those from mainland Honduras as “them Spaniards”. Visiting the Bay Islands of Honduras spoils most English speaking tourists, who find it truly enchanting that the locals speak their language; however you should be advised that they speak an “Island English” that will require a bit of an effort to understand!

The Bay Islands are part of a perfect tour combination in Honduras, they offer diving, Caribbean beaches, the advantage of an English speaking community and to top it off, there are now direct, nonstop flights from the USA to Roatan, the largest of the Bay Islands. This makes it really easy to get to! Delta, American, United and Avianca all offer service, that is not daily, but does operate on a regularly scheduled basis from gateways in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Miami. You should take note that despite the fact that the islands are very near to each other getting from one to the other is not necessarily easy! It has however become easier to travel from Roatan to Utila and viceversa using the services of a couple of a small, local airline, Island Air (www.islandairhonduras.com). Who offer on demand service between the islands and mainland Honduras, particularly La Ceiba and San Pedro Sula.

The second half to the perfect tour combination in Honduras lies on the mainland, close to the City of La Ceiba, you will find the Cangrejal River Valley. This area is one of the crown jewels of tourism in Honduras, and offers magnificent adventure activities, such as white water rafting and kayaking, zip line canopy tours and an activity that tour operators call “River Hiking” which consists of walking, hiking, climbing and swimming the river traversing the rough terrain and huge house size boulders of the Cangrejal River. Outstanding hiking can also be found for those interested in nature, with a network of trails into both Pico Bonito and Nombre de Dios National Parks, both part of the Honduran National Park System that protects the tropical rain forests of the Caribbean Coast of Honduras. The Parks are within the rugged Nombre de Dios mountains, that reach up to 8,000 feet of altitude at Pico Bonito, the third highest peak in Honduras and the highest peak on the Atlantic coast between Newfoundland and the Sierra Nevada on the coast of Colombia in South America!

Thus, the perfect tour combination in Honduras offers diving, Caribbean culture, idyllic white sand beaches on one side and adventure, tropical rain forest teeming with birds, wild white water rivers that offer the true sense of remote, barely accessible jungle where you will experience the thrill of interacting with nature. There are several lovely small, unique eco lodge accommodations in the Cangrejal River Valley, with something special for every taste and budget. Best of all, is the proximity between these two destinations. If you are in Utila, it will take you a short one hour ferry trip to La Ceiba and then an even shorter 30 minute trip to the Cangrejal River Valley. This means that you do not have to spend a fortune or travel for an entire day, losing time of your precious vacation time to enjoy a perfect tour combination in Honduras!

If you chose the Island or Roatan, the ferry trip is just under 2 hours, and the time between the ferry and the
Cangrejal River Valley is the same half hour as that from Utila. Finally, if you chose Guanaja, there is no regularly scheduled ferry between Guanaja and La Ceiba, so you will have to fly to La Ceiba, a short 30 minute flight, and then take a 40 minute transfer from La Ceiba’s international airport to the Cangrejal River Valley. So know you are aware of the perfect tour combination in Honduras, when planning your next trip to this lovely Central American country, make sure you arrange for the perfect match and visit both, the Bay Islands of Honduras and the Cangrejal River Valley. The end result will be a fantastic vacation with memories that you will cherish for a lifetime! Two completely different environments, each with its own unique character make the perfect tour combination in Honduras!

September 1, 2014

Best of Honduras 0

There are times when you just must have some time for yourself and that special significant other… you need a hideaway where no one will bother you, and yet where you will be able to be in touch with the world, to follow up on your business, keep in touch with your family if you get the urge to do so… Finding these unique places to hideaway is difficult, because others who have found them do not want to let the word out… If everyone else learns about them, they will no longer be a hideaway! So are there perfect hideaways in Honduras?

One of the best kept secrets for perfect hideaways in Honduras is La Villa de Soledad B&B. This lovely boutique bed and breakfast is located on the Cangrejal River Valley, very close to La Ceiba, yet in a remote like location that is out of everyone’s way. Just perfect to escape to for either a short one or two day hideaway as well as for a week long escape from reality to recharge your batteries and renovate your soul. La Villa de Soledad is located within two National Parks in Honduras, Nombre de Dios and Pico Bonito National Parks. It offers World Class white water rafting and outstanding trails for hiking into the tropical rain forest. If what you want to do is relax, they have several different inviting hammocks to choose from, starting with one in the porch just outside your room!

Of course, you are here to hideaway and have some time for yourself, but that does not mean you want to be completely out of touch from the world, so despite the fact that you are in a relatively remote location, you want to, need to, be in touch with the World, which means that high speed internet would not be a luxury, but rather a necessity! No problem, La Villa de Soledad offers complimentary high speed internet service, that is available both in your room as well as in the public areas! This means that you can relax in a jungle like setting, enjoy the soothing sounds of nature, listen to the Cangrejal River rushing towards the Caribbean Sea, have outstanding, gourmet like food and wonderful cocktails and still be in touch with the world when you want to be! So now you know of the perfect hideaway in Honduras! Come and hide away at La Villa de Soledad B&B, and give your soul the chance to relax and prepare for your next challenge!