Guanaja

April 2 2016

Best of Atlantida, Best of Honduras, Best of the Bay Islands, Copan, National Parks, tourism in Honduras Atlantida, Bay Islands, Cangrejal River Valley, Copan, Copan ruinas, Guanaja, La Ceiba, Roatan, Tela, Utila

Honduras Travel, the New Honduras Travel Blog!

La Villa de Soledad B&B is happy to be associated to the new Honduras Travel Blog. This new site, which is the result of over 23 years of traveling around Honduras and being part of the tourism private sector in the country is yet one more effort to change the image of Honduras abroad and educate the potential traveler so that they can feel more secure and at ease when planning a trip and visiting Honduras!

This blog is meant to have a full, regularly updated section about the different destinations in the country, highlighting the different things to do, the unique National Parks to visit, as well as tips about where to stay, where to eat and how to be a better traveler within Honduras and Central America.

Honduras travel will also have regular travel posts, which will make up the blog, and share the experiences of someone who has traveled extensively throughout Central America. If you love Honduras, and feel that potential travelers are not getting a fair image of the country, pitch in, Honduras and the different tourism service entrepreneurs need all the help they can get!

Initially, Honduras Travel is offering information on the three most important and popular destinations in Honduras: Atlantida, with its hubs in the Cangrejal River, La Ceiba and Tela; The Bay Islands, including Guanaja, Roatan and Utila, and Copan, which includes Copan Ruinas and Santa Rosa de Copan. They will be expanding this initial limited information progressively, and are confident that they will soon become “The Travel Blog for Honduras”, with updated travel info on all of Honduras .

We are happy to share this breaking news with you, and invite you to visit the Honduras Travel web page and send Honduras Travel your comments and suggestions, as well as sharing the tips with your friends. They now have a facebook page as well as a twitter (@hondurastravel) account which you can follow. Surely Honduras Travel will become an important tool to market Honduras!

August 6 2015

Best of Atlantida, Best of La Ceiba, Tours in La Ceiba Bay Islands of Honduras, Guanaja, Roatan, Utila

So where is the Cangrejal River: how do I get there? what should I expect?

The Cangrejal River, located just outside the city of La Ceiba on the Caribbean coast of Honduras is often overlooked by tourists as they travel through town on their way to the Bay Islands of Honduras. Most tourists are so hurried by their quest to get “scuba certified” that they don’t even realize that they are next to one of the most beautiful areas for nature and adventure travel in Central America!

The first question: Cangrejal River: how do I get there? Is easy to answer. You need to come to the city of La Ceiba. If you are on your way to the Bay Islands of Utila, Roatan or Guanaja, then you are most surely traveling to the city of La Ceiba! The Cangrejal River flows right through the city, however the area worth visiting is 6 miles upriver from town. I must warn you, the river looks rather unimpressive when you are in town and even as you start to drive up the road towards the tourist area of the Cangrejal River. Do not let this disappoint you, continue your journey, you will be happy you did!

Just two miles up from the CA13 road where you took the detour, you will begin to see the Cangrejal River is its entire splendor. Believe me, it only gets better from here!

The second question: what should you expect? You should expect to find 10 different lodging options in the Cangrejal River, that range from hostel to boutique inns. These are generally next or close to the river, and they are not only affordable, comfortable and unique, they are also strategically located so that you can enjoy a variety of different activities available in the area, that span white water rafting, zip line canopy tours, hiking and or birdwatching, etc.

This being said, if you are on your way to the Bay Islands, do yourself a favor, and take the time to spend a couple of nights at La Villa de Soledad B&B one of the premier boutique inns in the Cangrejal River.

The Cangrejal River: how do I get there, what should I expect??? Now you know the answers to both questions do yourself a favor and check it out, you will be glad you did! One last word of advice: many business people on the Bay Islands try hard to keep their guests there as long as possible, and they may offer some “advice” and recommend you stay away from the mainland for safety reasons. This is a lot of BS and offers no facts or reasons that will hold any ground except for selfish self promoting of their business!

April 10 2015

Best of Honduras, Best of La Ceiba, Best of the Bay Islands Bay Islands, Guanaja, La Ceiba, Roatan, Utila

La Ceiba, located on the mainland of Honduras, is the natural hub for the Bay Islands.

If you are looking to travel to the Bay Islands of Honduras, chances are that you will be traveling through the city of La Ceiba. With a population of approximately 250,000 souls, La Ceiba is the fifth largest city in Honduras, but actually, the third most important! La Ceiba developed and grew around the operations of the Standard Fruit Company, owned by Dole, and quickly became an important agricultural and economic hub in the Caribbean Coast of Honduras. Because of its geographical location, La Ceiba is the natural hub for the Bay Islands.

The Bay Islands of Honduras are a small archipelago in the Western Caribbean that offers the perfect setting for vacations. Regardless of whether you are looking for diving, beaches, or both, the Bay Islands of Honduras are a true paradise. There are three main inhabited islands: Roatan, Utila and Guanaja, and all of them can be easily reached from La Ceiba. There are two daily ferry departures between La Ceiba and Roatan and La Ceiba and Utila. In addition, the airport in La Ceiba is the perfect to catch a short flight to any of the three islands, with departures being multiple throughout the day.

La Ceiba is however, much more that the perfect hub for the Bay Islands of Honduras. On its own, La Ceiba offers the best and most complete array of adventure and nature activities that will satisfy any traveler looking for a bit of the above. Activities ranging from World Class white water rafting to zip line canopy tours and waterfall descents and canyoning are all available within the Cangrejal River Valley, a unique spot just 5 miles from downtown La Ceiba. Hiking through trails in the tropical rainforests of Pico Bonito and Nombre de Dios National Parks are also readily available from this same area. Bird watching can be enjoyed from the comfort of a hammock in your verandah at La Villa de Soledad B&B.

So when planning your visit to the Bay Islands of Honduras, make sure that you remember that La Ceiba is the hub for the Bay Islands, and that there is a lot more to La Ceiba that just being a perfect hub for the Bay Islands!

Not to be forgotten, another great option that you have from La Ceiba is the fact that you can launch your expedition to the unique Moskito Coast region, located east of La Ceiba towards the border with Nicaragua from here. This area is home to the Rio Platano Biosphere Reserve, one of the two UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Honduras.

December 29 2014

Best of La Ceiba, garifuna, National Parks, Tours in La Ceiba Garifuna, Guanaja

Presenting La Ceiba Honduras Eco Tours, the perfect Eco destination in Central America!

There are few places on earth where you can find a wider array of nature related activities than La Ceiba Honduras. La Ceiba Honduras Eco tours options include hiking in a tropical rain forest and snorkeling in some of the most pristine coral reefs in the World. You can also choose between World Class white water rafting or waterfall descents by use of rappelling techniques. Birders will be absolutely stunned at the huge number of tropical birds that can be easily seen in the area.

Canoeing or kayaking through lagoons with mysterious mangrove canals where both howler and white faced monkeys can be found and easily spotted is another option. La Ceiba Honduras Eco tours even includes the option for horseback riding through remote communities and jungle trails or some mountain biking through back roads and mountain trails.

With over 8 protected areas within the department of Atlantida, and four of them within a few minutes of La Ceiba, the options for eco tours in La Ceiba are practically endless. The key to enjoying the most from available La Ceiba Honduras eco tours is where you stay. Obviously, you will want an eco resort that is close to most of the options available. The best option is to decide on staying within the Cangrejal River Valley, a lovely area that is located just between two different National Parks, Pico Bonito National Park and Nombre de Dios National Park.

The area is so spectacular, that several bloggers have written wonders about it. Shivya Nath, the winner of the indiblogger awards in 2013 wrote about her brief visit to Honduras how she was impressed with the beauty and safety of the Cangrejal River Valley Area: http://the-shooting-star.com/2014/11/20/honduras-we-travel-to-realize-everyone-is-wrong-about-other-countries Shivya was in Honduras in November 2014, and spent time in both the Cangrejal River Valley and the unique island of Guanaja, truly a gem in the Caribbean.

And speaking of Guanaja, I just had breakfast with some folks that produced a local film titled “Una Loca Navidad Catracha” (A crazy Honduran Christmas) They are in the process of producing another film this time about Easter Week that will be filmed in La Ceiba and Guanaja. Looking forwards to seeing how they present the variety of La Ceiba Honduras Eco tours in their film!

November 18 2014

Best of the Bay Islands Amapala, Barbareta, Cangrejal River Valley, Cayos Cochinos, Guanaja, Isla Zacate Grande, islands in honduras, Morat, Roatan, Swan Islands, Utila

Islands in Honduras

Despite being a small country, with only 112,500 square kilometers, there are quite a few islands in Honduras. In fact some islands in Honduras are on the Pacific Ocean and other islands in Honduras are on the Caribbean.

Most of the islands in Honduras are on the Caribbean, with the majority of them being part of the Bay Islands of Honduras archipelago. This set of islands, located just a few miles off the Caribbean Coast of Honduras boasts the largest islands in Honduras. Roatan, Utila, Guanaja, Barbareta, Helene, Morat and a dozens of smaller cays form this unique paradise that offers the Caribbean at its best: unspoiled, affordable, uncrowded. The Hog Cays, located just off the Coast of La Ceiba are considered part of the same archipelago are a national park that consists of two smaller islands in Honduras, as well as a set of Cays. Much further north and east, you will find the Swan Islands, which are also islands in Honduras, however due to the isolated location in the Caribbean, these islands are hard to visit and basically uninhabited except for a Honduran navy outpost there.

The largest of all islands in Honduras is Roatan, which is about 60 Km. long and boasts a population of approximately 60,000 souls. Roatan has its own international airport, with regularly scheduled international flights by American, United and Delta Airlines, as well as by Avianca. The most developed part of Roatan is the Western end of the island, and therefore, my favorite is on the opposite side!

Utila and Guanaja are two lovely smaller islands in Honduras that are also very beautiful. Utila has become famous as one of the most affordable places in the world to get scuba certified, with many different scuba schools fighting for the business.

Guanaja is more exclusive, more expensive and is the only truly mountainous of the three larger Bay Islands of Honduras.

Helene, also known as Saint Helene is actually a part of Roatan, separated from the main island by natural canal and swamp. Although there are a couple of small communities in Helene, it is very sparsely populated and has no services for tourists. Morat is small and inhabited and Barbareta is a true gem that is privately owned by a Texas millionaire who visits it often.

On the Pacific Coast, Honduras has two fairly good sized islands in the Gulf of Fonseca, which Honduras shares with Nicaragua and El Salvador. For more information on Nicaragua, visit www.nicatips.com. The two islands in Honduras that are on the Pacific are Isla del Tigre, also known as Amapala, and Isla Zacate Grande, both are of volcanic origin, although they are considered extinct volcanoes. Zacate Grande has been interconnected with the mainland by a land filled road over swamps, while Amapala is only accessible by water. Amapala was Honduras’ port in the Pacific during the colonial and early republican days, and was once a bustling community, however when the government of Honduras built a new, modern port facility in nearby San Lorenzo, Amapala was left in a time warp. It is only now beginning to wake up to development. IT is certainly worth a visit, but be prepared for a much slower pace of life here! Although it might seem impossible, I have actually visited Roatan and Utila in one week and then travelled overland Honduras to the Pacific coast and visited Amapala within the same week! I am sure you will not find many countries in the world where you can do that without flying from coast to coast!

Most travelers visit the islands in Honduras that are on the Caribbean, and in doing so, usually miss out on a lovely area located on the mainland of Honduras, easily reachable via the ferry boat service that interconnects Roatan and Utila with the mainland via the port of La Ceiba. Just a few minutes away from the port facility, the Cangrejal River Valley offers a unique setting that is the perfect complement to your visit to the Caribbean Islands in Honduras. Set within two national parks, Pico Bonito and Nombre de Dios, and with a unique white water river with crystal clear waters, The Cangrejal River Valley is one of the crown jewels of Honduras that you should not miss! La Villa de Soledad B&B is a great option to enjoy this lovely, magical valley!