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If
you have yet to visit Honduras, you're
missing out. Here are seven of so many
reasons why you need to add Honduras to
your bucket list.
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For
the Maya Ruins of Copan
One of Honduras' most visited destinations is
the Maya-ruin city of Copan. This UNESCO World
Heritage site features temples, plazas, and
ceremonial altars, and it's believed to have
once served as an administrative, cultural, and
religious center, reigned over by 16 rulers
between 300 and 900 CE. The closest
international airport serving the Copan Valley
is Honduras' second largest airport, San Pedro
Sula.
For Our Beaches
With more than 430 miles of Caribbean
shoreline, Honduras has its fair share of
idyllic, baby-blue-hued water and white-sand
beaches. And that's only on the mainland's
north shore!
Find sunny serenity at Tela Bay, where
alongside beach resorts, visitors can find
botanical gardens, national parks, and even a
wildlife refuge. A particularly upbeat
atmosphere exists at Puerto Cortes' beach,
especially during July when locals celebrate
carnival season.
On our Caribbean Bay Islands, the most popular
beaches are at West Bay at Roatan, Water Cay
at Utila, West End at Guanaja, and Cayos
Cochinos.
For The Mesoamerican Barrier
Reef
The tail end of the second-largest barrier
reef system in the world is found just off the
coast of Honduras. The Mesoamerican Barrier
Reef System stretches along the Caribbean
Ocean from Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula past
Belize and Guatemala, ending at our Bay
Islands.
The Great Mayan Reef, as the reef system is
also known, comprises 700 miles of colorful
corals and is home to more than 500 species of
fish, as well as marine turtles and sharks.
Because
You Can Visit Via a Shore Excursion
Short on time? Spend a day in Honduras on a
cruise ship's shore excursion. On their Western
Caribbean itineraries, Carnival, Celebrity,
Costa, Norwegian, Oceania, Princess, Regent, and
Royal Caribbean call at Roatan, the biggest of
our Bay Islands. Roatan sits along the barrier
reef system, making it a prime location for
snorkeling and diving adventures. Other maritime
pastimes in Roatan include shipwreck diving,
fishing, and swimming along the warm,
crystal-clear shores.
Landlubbers can sip tropical drinks in the
sleepy-yet-hip town of West End, where both
locals and expats run beachfront inns, little
shops, and restaurants.
Other shore excursions include golfing,
zip-lining, and fishing, white water rafting in
La Ceiba as well as taking village and cultural
tours. The Carambola Botanical Gardens in Sandy
Bay offers a serene setting for native plant
life, while the Gumbalimba Preservation Park
excites with its free-roaming animal preserve.
For Our Endemic Flora and Fauna
One of the best examples of the region's
incredible variety of plants and animals is the
Lancetilla Botanical Garden in Tela. Park
officials claim Lancetilla is the largest
tropical botanical garden in all of Latin
America and second biggest in the world. Its
nearly 4,200 acres include 80 years' worth of
tropical plant specimens and many birds that
have made the garden their home.
For Our Ecotourism
Ecotourism has some devoted champions in
Honduras, providers who seek to protect the land
by responsibly showcasing its natural riches. A
great example of this approach to tourism is the
Lodge at Pico Bonito, located in the
northwestern state of La Ceiba. The luxury
lodge's setting at the base of the Pico Bonito
National Park lends to a feeling of serenity
while also providing easy access to exciting
outdoor adventures throughout the park's
mountains, rivers, and waterfalls.
Home to more than 420 bird species throughout
its 400 acres, the lodge's mainstay is birding.
The lodge has five multilingual birding guides
and a head naturalist on staff; this group of
shepherds helps oversee the conservation of the
adjoining national park's resources.
For Accessibility
Airlines are heeding demand and upping air
service to Honduras. American Airlines has added
a new, once-weekly Roatan route from Dallas
(DFW) and increased its flight frequency from
Miami. That's in addition to the legacy
carrier's nearly two dozen existing flights out
of Miami to Honduras' mainland international
airports in San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa.
Besides American, other major carriers that
service Honduras from the U.S. include Delta,
Spirit, US Airways, United, and others.
In addition to flights into our largest
airports, regional flights are also available to
Guanaja, La Ceiba, Puerto Lempira, La Ceiba and
Utila airports. The small airport in Copan will
be accessible by air soon as well.
Tips &
Resourses
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In-Flight
Snacking
When we fly we always have our own food.
Veggies like celery, carrots, radishes; apples
or cherries; a box of raisins; some sliced
baked chicken; nuts; trail-mix bars; a small
bag of chips; etc. It helps to put it into a
restaurant carry-out box that looks like you
picked it up at the airport! Take an empty
plastic bottle and fill it with water after
security. Keep a plastic fork in the little
box. No sauces or condiments.
A delicious [plane snack] is snap pea crisps
(Harvest Snaps). They are made out of 70
percent green peas with 100 calories and very
low salt! So good and crunchy.
At the
Airport
One important thing learned is that the best
and most knowledgeable agents are usually
assigned to the airline lounges. And they have
a lot of freedom in how much time they can
spend on helping you with your flight
arrangements. Once an agent spent 30 minutes
on a sticky overseas-travel ticketing
challenge, nice. Imagine having that luxury at
the ticket counter! That is one of the
unheralded advantages of membership in the
lounges.
Recheck the available seats at a kiosk upon
arriving at airport. Bulkhead and other prime
seats are sometimes released shortly before
departure time.
Get to the airport early for that early first
flight of the day. TSA seems to understaff and
often open late. Plus they are still having
their morning coffee and chatting with
coworkers much like [at] your office.
Checking
Baggage
It is a good idea to take pictures of your
luggage before handing it off at the airport
or when boarding or disembarking a cruise
ship, so that if it goes missing you have
pictures to show.
One warning; If your flight
includes a plane change and your carry-on had
to be gate checked (when the overhead bins
were full), it may not arrive at your final
destination, so ck with an agent prior to
boarding your second aircraft.
Missed Flights
Try calling the airline while waiting in line
because of a canceled flight. We did that once
and snagged the last open seat on the next
flight. In fact, it opened up while on the
phone.
Like almost everything in life, 'attitude
determines altitude. Sometimes you have to
recognize that you have no control over events
such as a delayed or canceled flight. Just go
with the flow!
Getting
Upgrades
If there are open seats in first class or
business, don't hesitate to ask the flight
attendant. The gate agent is in charge of
collecting for upgrades while the aircraft is
on the ground, but once you're in the air, the
crew owns the plane … and if you're pleasant,
they often have no problem moving you forward.
Just make sure you never ask in front of
customers who have paid for those seats. You'd
be surprised how often people make this
mistake, and when that happens, the answer
always has to be no. A letter from a paying
customer demanding his upgrade payment back
because flight attendant X was giving
nonpayers the same seats for free can cause a
lot of problems for that attendant, so most
won't stick their necks out and risk this/
Staying Safe
You can register with step.state.gov so that
if you get into trouble abroad (like losing a
passport or becoming a victim of crime) the
nearest embassy or consulate will already have
all of your information at hand.
You've all seen how long it takes
to board a plane with all the carry-on items people
are bringing on board these days. The only way to evacuate
quickly [in the event of an emergency] is not to take
anything with you. Rummaging for your things in overhead
bins can waste too much time and slow down the whole
process, putting yourself and others at unnecessary
risk. � If you ever find yourself in such a
situation, move quickly to the exit and down the slide,
but leave everything. Your life or your seatmate's life
is worth more than the value of your purse or your laptop.
Just get out immediately.
10
Hotel Booking Mistakes
You
May Not Know You're Making
