Genuine rainforest experience

Hi everyone,

My girlfriend and I are taking a trip to Honduras, and we'll be there for 13 days, if you count the days we arrive/leave.

We have a pretty good trip planned so far...
- 3 days in Copan (counting the day we arrive)
- 3 days in La Ceiba (counting the day we travel to there)
- 4 days in Roatan

Anyway, it would be a shame to miss out on a true rainforest experience on this trip. We have a couple more days to work with, and we'd like to use one of those to get a really good look at a rain/cloud forest. The gf isn't very 'rustic', haha, so we're not looking to camp out in the forest or anything. Just looking for a good guided trip, preferably not with a big tour group.

Can we do this with a nice day trip based out of any of those 3 places? We get the impression that you can't really venture very far into Pico Bonito to see much, and we're wondering if it would be realistic to take a day trip from Copan to Celaque to check out the cloud forests. Or perhaps our best bet would be to go from Copan to Lake Yojoa and check out the forests at Cerro Azul/Meambar?

Any thoughts? Thanks in advance for any input!

I think if you are going to be in La Ceiba doing a tour from there into Pico Bonita is your best bet. You don't indicate how you are traveling but traveling from Copan to either Celaque or Lake Yojoa will take a fair amount of time. There are several tour groups in the La Ceiba.

La Moskitia Adventuras helped us put together a Mositita Coast trip and we were very pleased with them.

Omega Lodge just outside of LeCebia does treks across the river up to the highest waterfall in Honduras. I stayed with them for several days a few years ago. It was great fun and we only had three including me with two guides in our party for the trek up the hill.

Omega once was just a rustic backpacker spot but they have up graded some of there accommodation. The food was AMAZING!

I was hiking one day, rafting one day and had a kayak out in Cacao Lagoon one day.

2nd the Omega recommendation. The hike to El Bejuco nomadic refers to is amazing; we also enjoyed rafting, horse back riding through mountain villages, and kayaking Cacao Lagoon.

It would be easy to spend more than 2-3 nights in Copán; I've spent more than a month total over the last few years and am sure to head back eventually. If you want a great cultural/birding tour in that area (more forest than jungle) find the contact information in my travelogues for Jorge Barraza.

Roatán offers some excellent hiking in the Carambola Gardens/Reserve in the Sandy Bay area just east of West End - great indigenous jungle with nice views from the top.

We really love Honduras - hope you feel the same and grace us with a travelogue on your return.

Omega Lodge is the way to go. There are a couple of trails around the lodge and a couple that the locals use that can get you in the cloud forest if you don't want to use one of their guides.

i must add to the praises on omega, it was my first rainforest experience and my only regret was not staying longer than two days (even though they tried to convince me otherwise!). its just a gorgeous place to hang period. the thatched roofing over the bars and social areas are great, and as i was there it mostly downpoured - it just added to the atmosphere. the food was incredible and the coffee was hands down the best i've had.

i hadn't rafted before, nor planned too. not realising the potential dangers of it, i was quickly and appropriately brought down a peg during an excellent training session before. by the end of the morning i had saved a couple of lives (ok, i just pulled some people in - no biggie!), jumped a 12m cliff dive into the river and wanted to move on to heavier rapids that afternoon. the instructors are indeed top notch rafters.

the hikes around omega are well worth taking. there are 3 different ones and highly recommended. i was in san pedro sula, roatan and la ceiba but pico bonito is something else. i would recommend staying at least 3-4 days here and doing as much as you can.