7 Places to visit in Honduras. Let’s do a coffee tour.

Are you searching for “places to visit in Honduras”? Are you a coffee lover like me, who likes to go and see what does coffee beans grow on and where it comes from? Luckily the pandemic time is over and is easier to travel around, abroad too.

Anyways being in the country and having the right connections, I booked a visit to a coffee farm, high in the mountains. They produce coffee that is viewed as specialty coffee.

Oh yes, if you click on any link and as a result, you buy from them, I may get a little commission. However, this will not make your products any more expensive, but on the contrary, cheaper as they don’t need to spend so much money on advertising.

But first, where is Honduras?

• Honduras is a country in Central America, situated between Guatemala and Belize in the North/Northeast, the Caribbean sea in the North, El Salvador in the South and Nicaragua to the East. There is also a short coastline to the Pacific Ocean.
• The capital of Honduras is called “Tegucigalpa”, or “Teguc” as we often say here.
• The nature around here is very beautiful and tropic. The population is just under 10 millions
• The language is Spanish, and in some areas they can speak English. So better bring the dictionary

Honduras cities

There are not really many BIG cities here. In addition to the capital Tegucigalpa, there are San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba, just to mention a few Honduras cities. You will find smaller cities like La Entrada and El Progresso. There are plenty nice villages from up in the mountain to down on the beach too.

Is it safe to travel to Honduras?

You may wonder if it is safe to travel to Honduras, and in Honduras. There are crime here, and we are sometimes amazed what can happen in daylight. But there are plenty armed police around, and neighborhoods to stay away from.

My recommendations are to follow directions and not be naïve. You should travel only at daytime, but that is as much to see the ugly pits in the road too. If you go by bus, use the bigger ones with less stops and security check. If you hire a car, ask what areas to stay away from and don’t only follow a GPS but look up the map too.

Don’t be afraid to come. There are so many nice places to visit here, and things to do in Honduras!

You can find more info about Honduras here.

Now, are you ready for some of the best places to visit in Honduras?

Best Places to visit in Honduras. Making arrangements.

What does it take to do a coffee tour in Honduras? Given you are already here, not that much really. On the other hand, there are so many producing coffee. And everyone wants you to go visit their place. (And I like to visit all their places too).

What do you need?

• a professional coffee farmer. I found one in San Sebastián
• a good car
• a photographer
• GPS, you don’t want to get lost in the mountains
• patience, this will take a while

Funny, on the map, it’s like 45 km from here, but looking on the map, you realize it NOT a 30-minute ride. Take a look at the road marked up with yellow. Now, imagine it’s not really great. Then you see the road we are planning to take. Some parts were like, is this a road or a dry river. But with a nice car, we climbed the hills and made it to the targeted farm. It took us a little more than two hours.

7 of the best places to visit in Honduras

There are several nice places in Honduras that deserves a visit. Here is a short list:

1. The bay islands ranks high. I have lived on Guanaja for 4 years. It’s so beautiful and peaceful. The island is surrounded by reefs that protect the beach and involves so much life and colors. You can go diving or snorkeling, and you almost every time see sharks and/or eagle rays together with loads of corals. There is also a nice hike to a waterfall I would really recommend. You can also visit Roatan, a more developed island where we have been on several occasions. But that means more tourists too. So, if you like beach and the sea, the islands are absolutly some of the best places in Honduras to visit.
2. Close to Gracias, Lempira, they claim to have the highest zip-line in all of Central America. Been there, done that, and will go again. Super fun.
3. Copan Ruinas. If you like history or not, the ruins are a great place to do your lunch. You are welcomed by the beautiful macaw, the big, red parrots. It’s a big park and well-taken-care-of ruins. Would you like to play football here back in the days? The winners would be sacrificed to their gods.  
4. Celaque National Park. (A bit up in the left corner at the map above.) From the entrance of the park just outside of Gracias, Lempira, around 1000 meters altitude, you can find many nice trails. If you are brave, you do the 2-day trip and can end up at the highest point in Honduras called “Cerro Las Minas.” The trail is called “The trail to the sky!” The view up here is awesome, I have been here myself. It is a hard route around 11 km long from the entrance and you are climbing around 2000 meters, ending up at 2849 meter (9347 Feet). Here you can find peace, and old, but green vegetation. You might need a local guide though it’s not required. Read more about it here.
5. Lake (lago, in Spanish) Yojoa and the Waterfall (cascada, in Spanish) at Pulhapanzak. Yes, it can be a mouthful to pronounce. The waterfall is one of the largest in Honduras, and the place is really pretty. You can even have a swim and a guided tour.
6. Coyolito. This is a spot near the Pacific coast, and near the boarder of El Salvador. You can go swimming or plan a day trip to a neighboring country.
7. And, what this article is about, visit a coffee plant. There are so many of them. If you like to read about the coffee from this area you can check out some coffee variety here.

The coffee tour

We got there maybe a little later than expected, but we found it and were happy. Now, we could get out of the car and see where and how the coffee grows. We meet our guide and farmer, Yester, a really nice man. He is proud of his production and showed us gladly around. Now, this is not my first visit to a coffee farm, and I knew it would not be any fruit here yet. But still, it was a beautiful sight.

What are the best place to grow coffee in Honduras?

The best places to grow coffee in Honduras is up in the mountains. And there are several mountainous regions here. Here we are around 1600 (meter) up. (So, not as high as at the highest point on Celaque , Cerro las minas.)

I am told this particular area has a perfect climate for growing coffee with excellent quality. They grow coffee all over around here, also even higher up to around 2200 (meter). This area doesn’t have too much rain in the season they really don’t need it anyways. They also grow under the shade of bigger trees of various kinds. Fruit trees and others.

This is some of what I love with this kind of farming. You don’t need to chop down all other vegetation. They grow in harmony and actually benefit from one another. Here the coffee plant can grown slowly, letting the fruits ripen in it’s own prefect pace. This can give them a more complex, full and sweeter taste note.

Others of the best places to grow coffee in Honduras are:

I have enjoyed coffee from several areas. Worth mention are

• The areas around Copán
• El Paraíso
• Santa Barbara
• Opalaca
• Agalta Tropical
• Montecillos
• Comayagua

What does coffee beans grow on?

Strawberries grow on small plants just above the ground and potatoes grow in the ground. But what does coffee beans grow on?

If you don’t know it already, what coffee beans grow on, is a bush or small trees. Well, coffee plants don’t actually produce coffee beans; they’re just used as a “cover story”.

The beans are hidden inside small fruits. Two beans, or seeds, in one fruit. First, they blossom. I have learned 3 times. They get a beautiful white flower. Since they blossom three times, you can harvest them three times too. The first time around the beginning of December, the last time around March.

The rest of the year the farmers are cleaning and maintain the field, giving fertilizer, preferably organic, planting new trees, and so on.

At the image over you see the small fruits growing. They turn from green to red when they are ripe, and get brown or dark if they are not harvested. You will then see them dry on the plant.

Need more fun fact about coffee?

Yester continues showing us around and tells us about the processes. San Sebastián is a small village where you find around 2500 inhabitants. Most of them have their own coffee plants. I am jealous. And when it’s harvest season, everyone is engaged. Some also hire workers from other places.

A good worker can pick around 40 gallons of berries per day, working 6- 6. Yester tells us he can employ 10 – 20 workers on the busiest days. That’s a lot of coffee there. You find more calculations on the amount of coffee in the article “How many coffee beans per cup“. There we are diving deeper into how they are used.

Or berries, really. Remember they grow inside the fruit meat or pulp. This pulp needs to be removed from around the seeds. This is also an important part of the process and can be done in various ways, not to be cover here. They also need to find a way of selecting the bad fruit from the good, to make sure of the best end-product. The last process is drying the now pure coffee grain. This is a very famous view around here in the season.

“A good worker can pick around 40 gallons of coffee berries per day, working 6- 6”

This is really all they do at this coffee farm before the beans take off out and around in the world. The beans are being sent down from the mountain and to a manufacturer, which does the rest. That’s everything from roasting them to selling them. But the work is not done for the farmer. Now it’s time to clean up the place. All the peeled pulp is in a huge pile. However, another thing that is so great with this kind of farming, is they are re-using everything. The pulp will be poured over the coffee plants as a fertilizer.

Now that you know more about coffee you might wonder: where do coffee originate from?

Of course Yester and his crew sells their coffee beans. Click on the image under to see a manufactory who buys coffee from the some of the best coffee farms in Honduras. Or follow this link to learn more about Honduras coffee and specialty coffee. Here I tell you more about my coffee findings.

Returning home after our coffee tour, and a cowboy

After a good lunch, and a visit to a chili farmer, we returned back home. I wish I could post all the images we took while we were traveling. The mountains and the view of the Honduran landscape are so nice, and you easily forget some of the issues that you find in other parts of the country.

Along the road, you will meet some people, cars, motorcycles, and horses. We saw a variety of flowers and green vegetation.

Here I have made a list of some Hawaiian coffee brands.

Conclusion – the best places to visit in Honduras

I hope you enjoyed the list of the 7 best places to visit in Honduras. You have learnt now, that there are several nice places here, worth a visit. It may have a bit unfriendly reputation. You can however find many nice experiences in the nature here, that you don’t find in other places.

So, if you ever search for “places to visit in Honduras” I can recommend you go to these parts of the country. Or enjoy a coffee tour at another “Finca” at one of the other of the best places to grow coffee in Honduras. Then you can see up close what does coffee beans grow on too.

And if you are still not convinced, or hindered in other ways to come around, at least grab a bag of coffee from Honduras next time you shop coffee!

Oh and a good friend of us here in Honduras has started a Spanish school for kids. If you need Spanish lessons you should check it out!

Visit Honduras and Central America

If you think Central America and/or Honduras sounds fun and interesting, well it is!

You should come and experience it yourself. However, it might be best to travel safely with someone who knows the area.

5-day Honduran Coffee Adventure in Marcala
from: Viator Inc

These guys offer a 5-day trip to Marcala, Honduras. I have been there and tried the coffee from Marcala, and I can really say it’s worth it.

We have traveled around these places in Honduras, and I would recommend more travelers to do the same. You get everything from mountains and volcanos to beautiful beaches.

If you have any suggestions of places to add list of the best places in Honduras to visit, please let me know! Anyways, make sure to sign up for newsletters and/or share a link to my site.

I have shared some of the images here on the site, but you find others in the image gallery. But I have to conclude with the cowboy, proudly presenting himself in front of the camera.

FAQ section

Thank you for joining me on this journey, on finding the best places to visit in Honduras and to see what does coffee beans grow on, Luis and for your photos.