Location: Utila
Day 1 - 18 May 2021
Rio Dulce Guatemala
Content: Overview: So, you're looking to head to the Honduran Bay Islands because you heard they are super beautiful and very underrated. Whoever told you that is 100% telling you the truth. Think of crystal clear waters on the carribean coast, the softest sand, private islands to yourself for $3. Need I say more? 😍 So we actually stayed in Honduras for 3 weeks, but I will highlight my favourite places and try to condense it down so if you want to head here for 6 days you can see the best parts! Here's how to get to our favourite island: So, we crossed the border to Honduras from Guatemala, by bus and by boat. In order to make our way here we headed to Rio Dulce, which is very easy to get to from Antigua. For more information about my route in Guatemala, take a look at my 7 days in Guatemala itinerary!
Location: Puerto Barrios
Day 1 - 18 May 2021
Puerto Barrios
Content: Overview: Puerto Barrios is a border town in Guatemala. Within 5 minutes of arriving in Puerto Barrios by boat from Rio Dulce, the taxi driver there managed to organise everything for us, and we arranged a shuttle for the next day to head to the border. From there, he had a friend who would collect us and drive us all the way to La Ceiba (the ferry port town). Puerto Barrios isn't a large town, there isn't much there except for connections to the border, so we only spent a day here to organise everything before heading to Honduras. Cost: There were four of us travelling, so we managed to arrange everything for around £50 each (including covid tests). Time: So, we booked an Airbnb in Puerto Barrios and began our day crossing the border at 6am. Just so you know, we arrived in Utila (our favourite island) at around 6:30pm. But, it was an amazing experience!
Location: La Ceiba
Day 1 - 18 May 2021
La Ceiba
Content: Overview: So once we had crossed the border and got stamped into the country, the drive to La Ceiba was pretty fast. It took around 4 hours from there. There are 2 ferries in the day that head to Utila. One is at around 1pm (double check this one on Google as it's always changing), and the other is 4pm. So if you're organising transport ensure that you are in time for these ferries because central La Ceiba is a slightly dangerous area to be around, especially at night.
Location: Utila
Day 1 - 18 May 2021
Utila
Content: Overview: Finally, we arrived in Utila! So the reason why we chose Utila is because it was supposed to be better for backpackers as opposed to Roatan which is more built up. We decided to go to both because we had the time to see what it was like, and I would definitely recommend Roatan as a day trip, but Utila was definitely a lot more backpacker friendly (hostels not hotels). Cost: the ferry was around £20pp which was quite pricey, but it's worth it, trust me 😊
Location: Utila
Day 2 - 19 May 2021
Paradise Divers
Content: Where to stay on Utila? We decided to stay at Paradise Divers, which was an amazing place for backpackers! Cost: It was very basic accomodation, but it had everything you needed. It was $5 a night per person for a private room for 2 people / $5 a dorm room depending on what spaces they have. Additional info: Utila is one of the world's cheapest places to do a paddy license in! It costs $254 at paradise divers, including 4 days of accomodation, 2 free dives, snorkelling whenever you like and free rides on their boat to random places!
Utila
Content: We spent our first day relaxing on the beach, which is only a 15 minute walk from the hostel! It has these amazing little huts where you can bring your own alcohol with some friends and enjoy it in the clear water 😍 this is the public beach here, so it's not as nice as some of the others but it is still incredibly beautiful. You can spend the first day strolling through the town, looking at all the lovely authentic small local clothes shops. The centre is similar to a large market, with stalls lined up for a few miles! Important: The bay Islands on Honduras feel perfectly safe, we had no issues wondering around here because it is so backpacker friendly! On the way to the beach there are so many lovely, quirky breakfast and lunch places that you will see that are reasonably priced! So on the first full day it's perfect to enjoy the Caribbean vibe here! Additional note: you can also join the divers to go and snorkel! One of the days we were here one of the instructors came running in and told us there were dolphins outside! So we jumped on the hostel boat and raced to them, everyone jumped in with snorkels and we swam with a family of 5-6 dolphins who were loving playing with us 😍
Location: Water Cay, Utila
Day 3 - 20 May 2021
Water Cay
Content: Overview: Now, this is where the trip gets more surreal! We discovered that excursion shops on Utila offer the option to go to an island 30mins from Utila called Water Cay. It is a small island where only one family live that upkeep the place, they live in a tiny hut in the corner and the rest of the island is just palm trees, sand and clear waters all around! Price: So there were two options here! The option to just visit the island for the day was around £10pp. There was another option to spend the night at the island, which was around £15pp, with this you get a cooler and snorkelling gear and then transport to and from the island. When you arrive on the island you have to pay an additional $3 to the family that upkeep the place, and then you're all set 😍 We did both as we wanted to go for a couple of hours to see if it would be worth spending a long time there, and it was! So we went back and stayed for almost 24 hours 😍
Location: 24 hours on an Island
Day 4 - 21 May 2021
Water Cay
Content: Overview: After spending 24 hours on the island, we were just totally speechless. After 5pm everyone who was on a day excursion left, and it was just 4 of us left on the island doing the night one. We had the entire island to ourselves. (Scroll to see the drone shot my friend took of us sat on the sand) We saw the most perfect golden hour and sunset. We saw a moonset! We also watched the milky way and the stars were the clearest I have ever seen them. And after sleeping on the sand next to our campfire, we were woken up by the most incredible sunrise. This place was just magical, if you're ever in Honduras, please come to Water Cay for 24 hours 😍✨ We left the island at around 11am, and headed back to paradise divers. If you're up most of the night like we were, we just slept and relaxed for the rest of the day at the beach and on the dock at our hostel. So take day 4 as a relaxed day!
Location: Golf cars in Utila
Day 5 - 22 May 2021
Pumpkin Hill Beach
Content: Overview: After a day of relaxing, the next amazing thing to do is to hire a golf car! We drove around the entire island stopping at lots of beaches along the way. There were so many incredible ones so I would advise waking up early so you have the entire day to explore! Cost: For 4 people and a full day, it was around £8pp.
Chepes Beach
Content: This was also an incredible beach to see because of the shipwreck that is still there. There are so many on the island to explore!
Location: Utila
Day 5 - 22 May 2021
Jasper's Utila Animal Shelter
Content: If you have some free time, another amazing thing to do here is to help the animal shelter. They are desperate for dog walkers to help these dogs get some exercise in the heat! It's completely free, you just turn up and get given either one or two dogs (however many you can hold!) And take them on a walk around the area. When you're done, you bring them back and it's as simple as that! They are all there because they are waiting to be adopted but they are so sweet 🥺
Location: La Ceiba
Day 6 - 23 May 2021
La Ceiba
Content: I would recommend heading to the jungle in La Ceiba next for the last couple of days. It was lovely to see some of mainland Honduras. I would be wary of staying in central La Ceiba, but the jungle regions are absolutely safe 😍 Cost: So you can head back here by ferry again from Utila (another £20pp). The ferry takes around an hour and a half, and it took around 30mins in a taxi to get to our accomodation here.
Jungle River Lodge
Content: We stayed at the Jungle River Lodge and it was absolutely phenomenal 😍 I have never seen views from a hostel as amazing as this! It is in the middle of nowhere, there are only small shops around so definitely bring some tinned foods! But it was incredible to go from seeing so many amazing beaches to then heading to the mainland and seeing a beautiful jungle 😍 Cost: This does change a lot, but we paid $10pp for a dorm room bed! 😊 This was an absolutely beautiful place to end our trip. All in all, Honduras was amazing to be surrounded by nature, whether it be beaches or jungle it felt very personal because we got to experience it without heaps of tourists. An underrated gem for sure and somewhere you must add to your go-to list! 😊