Guides ·Itineraries

Landing at Palmerola and getting checked in

Palmerola International Airport (XPL), outside Comayagua, is the closest gateway and sits roughly 25 kilometres from La Paz. A private taxi from the terminal to a La Paz hotel runs about $25 to $30 and takes 25 to 35 minutes, dropping onto the CA-5 highway and turning off past Lejamani. The cheap version is a taxi or shuttle into Comayagua for around $8 to $10, then a rapidito minibus to La Paz for well under a dollar. Rapiditos leave whenever they fill, roughly every 15 minutes from mid-morning, and the ride is about 20 minutes.

Book a room near the Parque Central so you can walk to everything for two days. La Paz is a working departmental capital, not a resort town, so inventory is small hotels and guesthouses rather than chains, and rates cluster between $22 and $45 a night for a private room with fan or air conditioning, Wi-Fi and, usually, a locked parking patio. Nearly everywhere takes cash first and cards reluctantly. Ask for a room off the main street: buses start moving before 5am and the horns carry.

Afternoon one: the Parque Central grid on foot

Drop your bag and give the centre ninety minutes. The Parque Central is the anchor, with the parish church on one side and the municipal and departmental offices around it; benches fill from about 4pm when the heat drops and the shoeshine stands and shaved-ice carts set up. From there, walk the market blocks: produce, dry goods, plastic buckets, stacks of red beans, and stalls selling Marcala coffee by the pound for roughly $4 to $6. Vendors are used to being asked what things are. Most of the market winds down by 5pm, so go before then.

Then take the ten-minute walk or short taxi ride to Parque Soberania, the town green space locals use for evening laps, kids on bikes and weekend football. It is a good place to understand the shape of the valley: the Comayagua plain opening north-east toward the highway, pine ridges climbing south-west toward Marcala and the Lenca highlands you will visit tomorrow. Bring water, wear shoes you can walk hills in, and expect to be the only foreign visitor there, which is exactly the point of a stay in La Paz.

Evening one: baleadas, and where to actually eat

Dinner in La Paz is street-level and cheap. A baleada, the flour tortilla folded over refried beans, crumbly cheese and cream, costs about $1 to $1.50 plain and $2.50 to $3.50 with scrambled egg, avocado or grilled beef. Comedores around the market and along the roads leading off the Parque Central serve a plato tipico of grilled meat, rice, beans, tajadas of fried plantain and a scoop of chismol salad for $4 to $6. Fried chicken counters and pupusa griddles run until about 9pm on weeknights and later on Friday and Saturday.

Finish with coffee. La Paz department is the reason Honduras is taken seriously as a coffee origin, and beans from the Marcala denomination of origin turn up in small cafes here for around $1 to $2 a cup, which is a bargain given the same lots go into export bags. If your hotel has a terrace, buy a pound of whole bean at the market and get it ground for the morning. Do not plan a late night on day one; the day-two departure to the mountains works best if you are on a bus by 7am.

Day two, option A: Marcala and the coffee mountains

The best single day out of La Paz is Marcala, about 70 kilometres south-west on a mountain road. Direct buses leave the La Paz terminal area through the morning; the fare is roughly $3 to $4 and the ride takes two to two and a half hours depending on road works and how many aldeas the driver stops in. Sit on the right for the valley views. Marcala sits near 1,300 metres, is noticeably cooler than La Paz, and is the centre of the Cafe Marcala protected designation of origin, the first in Honduras.

In town, walk the small central park, buy roasted coffee straight from cooperative shops for about $5 to $8 a pound, and eat lunch for under $5. If you want the countryside, hire a mototaxi or arrange a driver for around $25 to $35 for the afternoon and go out to the Estanzuela valley for the waterfall and the ridge that holds Cueva del Gigante. Catch a bus back to La Paz by 3.30pm at the latest; the last reliable departures are mid-afternoon and the road is not one to drive after dark.

Day two, option B: Comayagua in half a day

If mountain roads are not your thing, Comayagua is 12 to 15 kilometres away and reachable by rapidito for under a dollar, every 15 minutes, in about 20 minutes. The colonial centre is compact: the cathedral on the Parque Central holds a Moorish clock brought from Spain and billed as the oldest working clock in the Americas, and the Museo Colonial de Arqueologia and the Caxa Real ruins are within a five-minute walk. Museum entry is a dollar or two. Most sites close for lunch, so aim to arrive by 9am and see the cathedral before 11.30am.

Doing Comayagua as a half day leaves your La Paz afternoon free, which is the argument for it. Come back on the 2pm rapidito, nap, and spend the last hours of light at Parque Soberania or on a hotel terrace with a coffee. If you are flying out the next morning, Comayagua also puts you within ten minutes of Palmerola, so you can scout the airport approach and confirm your taxi price with a driver in person rather than negotiating at 4am.

What 48 hours actually costs

Two nights in a central La Paz room at $30 a night is $60. Add three street or comedor meals a day at $2 to $6 each, roughly $12 daily, plus $2 to $4 on coffee and water. The Marcala return bus is about $7, or $60 to $80 for a hired car and driver door to door if you are two or more people and want the Estanzuela detour. Airport transfers cost $25 to $30 each way privately, or about $10 total using the Comayagua rapidito trick. Two people can do the whole 48 hours comfortably for $200 to $260.

Carry small bills. Rapiditos, mototaxis, market stalls and comedores all want cash, and a large note at a baleada window will stall the queue. ATMs exist in La Paz and are more plentiful in Comayagua; withdraw before you head to Marcala, where card acceptance is thin outside the cooperative shops. Budget an extra $10 to $15 for the unplanned things that make the trip: a pound of coffee to take home, a mototaxi when the rain starts, a second lunch at the market because the first one was too good to skip.

Frequently asked questions

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