Getting to Honduras by air
Possibilities to get to Honduras by air from the US or Europe ar still fairly limited (5/2000).
From the US, you have these options:
- TACA has direct daily flights to San Pedro Sula from New Orleans and Miami. These flights are fairly expensive (count on 500 to 600 US$ for a return ticket). Their plane was pretty new, and service on board was excellent. However, they sometimes dare to cancel flights of they don't have enough passengers (happened the day before I flew with them).
- TACA also has flights from San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington and New York via San Salvador to san Pedro once a day.
- They also have a daily flight to Roatan via Belize City. When we came back from Roatan to San Pedro, the flight to Belize was canceled because of a strike at La Ceiba airport. In short, take into account some kind of delay when planning your trip.
- American Airlines has a daily flight from Miami
- Continental has a daily flight from Houston
From Europe, it's fairly simple. Iberia has 1 flight a day via Madrid with a stop in Miami. Otherwise you can of course also fly with American or Continental. Price is usually a bit more expensive then a similar flight to Guatemala city.
Exit tax seams to increase all the time and is now set at 25 US$.
Transportation
Domestic flights
Airports Honduras has 4 main airports, with some smaller ones next to that:
- Tegucigalpa
- San Pedro Sula
- La Ceiba
- Roatan: has a good airport, big planes can land here
The smaller ones are Trujillo, Utila and Guanaja. Tela has a small airport, but there are no commercial flights available there.
Airport tax for domestic flights is 10 L (5/2000).
Airlines There are 4 domestic airlines:
-
Taca has international flights and works together with
Islena.
Taca has a website, but it doesn't have any schedules or prices.
-
Sosa Airlines and
Rollins air only have domestic flights. If somebody knows their website address, please tell me. Rollins air have an e-mail address at
rollinsair@psinet.hn Apparently Taca/Islena tries to get a monopoly, so when we were there they had really good deals for flights all over the country. F.i. we only paid 13 US$ for a single trip from La Ceiba to Roatan (normal price is a bit more then 20 US$).
Schedules and prices (5/2000)
AbbreviationsSAP = San Pedro
LCE = La Ceiba
GJA = Guanaja
TJI = Trujillo
RTB = Roatan
Islena airlines
| Flight |
departures |
prices (5/00) |
| SAP - LCE |
8 am; 2 pm |
389 L |
| LCE - SAP |
7 am; 1 pm |
389 L |
| SAP - RTB |
4.10 pm |
867 L (promotion 535 L) |
| SAP - LCE |
4.20 pm |
470 L |
| LCE - RTB |
9; 10; 12 am; 2; 3.30 pm |
307 L (promotion 196 L) |
| RTB - LCE |
9.40; 10.40; 12.30 am; 2.40; 4.10 pm |
same price |
| LCE - GJA |
10 am; 4 pm |
381 L (promotion 282 L) |
| GJA - LCE |
6 and 11 am |
same price |
Rollins air
| LCE - RTB |
6; 9.30; 12 am; 3.30 pm |
307 L |
| LCE - Utila |
4.30 pm |
256 L |
| LCE - GJA |
9.30 am; 3.30 am |
389 L |
| LCE - Palacios |
6.30 am |
|
| LCE - Tegucigalpa |
7 am; 1 pm |
538 L |
| LCE - Grand Cayman |
9 am on monday and friday |
|
| LCE - TJI |
6.30 am |
|
Sosa Airlines
| SAP - LCE |
8.15 am ; 2.15 pm |
389 L |
| LCE - RTB |
6; 9; 12.30 am; 4 pm |
|
Most of the domestic flights are with small propeller planes for about 30 to 40 passengers. Don’t expect the domestic flights to be right on time. Delays of 30 to 60 minutes are acceptable. Flights are sometimes also cancelled (this happened when we were there because of a strike at La Ceiba airport).
The consequence of the small planes is that your luggage will not always be on your flight, because it might be too heavy loaded already. Apparently this happens frequently on the La Ceiba-Roatan flight, and it also happened to us. Nobody made a real fuss about this, and they did bring our luggage to our hotel afterwards. I still advise you to get a "luggage miscarriage form", but they will be very reluctant to give you one. So when we got back, we specifically checked the luggage room to see our luggage was there (my international flight left only 35 minutes after my arrival in San Pedro). Another option is to take it with you as hand luggage. They will probably take it from you when you board the plane, but at least you’re sure it will arrive with you.
Our second flight from Roatan to San Pedro was a real sensation. The plane only had 15 seats, and we were right behind the 2 pilots and had a great view on everything.
Boat
There is a ferryboat service from La Ceiba to the Bay Islands. The trip doesn’t take too long and costs about 7 US$ for a single trip from La Ceiba to Roatan.
This is the schedule of the Galaxy II:
- La Ceiba - Utila: 9.30 am
- Utila - La Ceiba: 10.30 am
- La Ceiba - Roatan: 3 pm
- Roatan - La Ceiba: 7 am
Bus
Public buses You can almost get everywhere by public bus, it’ll just take some time and patience. I’m not exaggarating if I say that most buses have an average speed of 40 km/hour, and they stop every 1 km. Even if the bus says "diretto", this merely means the bus will get you to your destination without having to change buses, NOT that it will do so without stops. In fact, bus stations are very rare in Honduras, and this means that the bus stops everywhere along the way to pick up or drop off passengers. Picking up one passenger, and dropping off another 300 metres further is not an exception.
Also, the buses are not very comfortable, especially not if your 186 cm tall like me. AC buses like in Mexico or Guatemala are only available from San Pedro to Tegucigalpa. Probably this will gradually change.
For detailed schedules, have a look at the pages of the different destinations.
Tourist buses In a lot of tourist buses, you’ll be able to take a tourist shuttle. They are much faster and more comfortable (usually Japanese AC minibuses) . However, I don’t really advise to count on this too heavily, because:
- During low season they usually don’t drive because of lack of passengers
- Their prices are also calculated on a minimum capacity of 3 or 4 passengers
- They are of course way more expensive then the regular public buses.
Both in Copan and Tela you can find these minibuses.
Taxi
We often took the taxi, since they’re usually very cheap. The price and the system they use differs from town to town. Beware that taxis in Honduras are not much more then wrecks !! Be careful when you close the door, or it may fall off....
In San Pedro, you usually pay about 30 L (2 US$) for a trip within the city. A trip to El Progreso will cost 200 L (13 US$). This price is regardless of the number of passengers.
In Tela and La Ceiba you’ll pay 8 L per person during the day, and 10 L per person during the night (5/2000).
In Roatan, you’ll pay much more, and you’ll have to discuss prices, usually 20 L per person for a short trip. The airport to West End costs 10 US$. Public minibuses cost 10 L per person for a short trip.
Renting a car
You can also rent a car, there a different options. A smaller car will usually cost around 40 to 50 US$.
We rented a car for 2 days on Roatan (Roatan rental in West End). Here are some tips:
1) Inspect the car, because they're certainly not brand new. Our car lacked some things like
- windshieldwipers didn't work
- front seat of driver stood loose, can be unhandy when you drive up or down a hill
2) Insurance was not included, but apparently they didn't really care at Roatan rentals.
3) Make sure whether tax is included or not
4) You can go to 1 firm and ask for a price, chances are that the other one (on Roatan) will give you a better price especially in low season.
5) When renting for more then 1 day, you should ask for things like:
- lower price
- hotel delivery
- airport drop off
Here are some websites of rent-a-car agencies:
- Toyota rent-a-car: they have offices in Tegucigalpa, San Pedro, La ceiba and Roatan. You'll find a list of prices on
this site.
-
Budget has a small not so usefull site. You'll find a list of their cars, but no prices. Reservations are possible.
Bikes and motorbikes It is possible to rent bikes and motorbikes on several places, but they don’t come cheap.
In Roatan a bike costs 9 US$ for the day (good quality), in Tela they cost 59 L per day.
A motorbike in Roatan costs 29 US$ and up for the day at Captain Van's rentals (West end). They have a
small website, but there are no prices.
Go to General info 2
Article Comments:
| 08/10/2006 |
| angela (1) |
|
Are there any flights from San Pedro Sula, HN to Belize City Belize?
|
