Honduras

The town of Copán Ruinas, often simply called Copán, is a beautiful place, paved with cobblestones and lined with white adobe buildings with red-tiled roofs. It's also one of the most charming and traveler-oriented places in Honduras, with a friendly local population, widely spoken English and some great hotels and restaurants. Many people come here just to see the famous nearby Maya ruins, but with plenty of other attractions in the town and nearby, there's reason enough to linger.

La Ceiba is known as Honduras’ good-time town: 'Tegucigalpa thinks, San Pedro Sula works and La Ceiba parties,' so the saying goes. Certainly this port city's buzzing nightlife makes it a mecca for fiesta-hungry Hondurans, though nearly all the action is over the estuary in Barrio La Isla, the city’s zona viva (nightlife district).

Ringed by forested hills in a highland valley, sprawling Tegucigalpa enjoys a relatively fresh, mild climate and a spectacular setting. It's a bustling and dynamic place, but one that many travelers minimize their time in or skip over entirely. This is a shame as Tegus (as all locals call it) is a fascinating place, with some good museums, restaurants and the air of a place on the up. Keep your ear to the ground and you'll discover a dynamic young urban scene led by emerging artists, musicians, DJs and designers.

Honduras' most popular backpacker haunt, little Utila is also one of the cheapest places in the world to learn how to dive. You'll meet people here daily who came to get certified, went home, sold all their stuff and came back on a one-way ticket. Utila's sublime tropical beauty and chilled-out vibe makes it hard to not to entertain that idea yourself at least once.

Spectacular diving and snorkeling draws visitors from around the world to the three Bay Islands (Islas de la Bahía) – Roatán, Utila and Guanaja – located between 15-30 miles (25-50km) off the north coast of Honduras. Their reefs are part of the second-largest barrier reef in the world, and teem with fish, coral, sponges, rays, sea turtles and even whale sharks.

The business and industrial capital of Honduras, San Pedro generates almost two-thirds of the country’s GDP, with thousands employed in giant maquila (clothes-weaving) factories. Since San Pedro's international airport is a main entry point and its bus station a crucial travel hub, you're very likely to pass through.

Roatán is the largest and most developed of the Bay Islands. Long and thin (31 miles (50km) long, but only 1.2 miles (2km) to 2.5 miles (4km) wide), the island is (like neighboring Utila) a diving and snorkeling paradise – virtually its entire coastline is fringed by an astonishingly diverse coral reef teeming with tropical fish. On land, exquisite white-sand beaches like West Bay, a mountainous interior of pine-forested hills and the remote wild east of the island (once a pirate hangout) beg to be explored.

Honduras' heartland of high, cool mountains, wildlife-rich forests and undulating coffee fields isn't on most foreign travelers' itineraries and that's their loss. Those that do come here can expect a genuine welcome and to brush elbows with the colorful Lenca culture, have plenty of chances to warm up in natural hot springs and drink some excellent coffee. The top attraction is easily the impressive Maya ruins of Copán, closely followed by the colonial charm of towns such as Copán Ruinas and Gracias.