4 Best Sights in Western Honduras, Honduras

Coffee lovers should head to Beneficio Maya where they can watch the roasting and grading process. Fresh export-grade coffee is for sale on the premises. The factory is open weekdays 7 to noon and 2 to 5. Take a taxi, as it's difficult to find.

Set in a lovingly restored 1874 building, the Casa de Cultura buzzes with music lessons, theater, ballet, and modern dance, and may well have one of the best children's libraries in Central America. The patio is a pleasant place to relax.

Santa Rosa is one of Honduras's two tobacco-growing regions—Danlí, east of Tegucigalpa is the other. Cigar making still plays a big role in the local economy, and nearly everyone seems to be hard at work rolling them. Some prefer the strong Don Melo or the smoother Santa Rosa, but the pride of the area is the Zino, made by Flor de Copán. A seductively sweet odor engulfs you as you enter the factory. You can watch workers piling tobacco leaves into pilones (bales). The factory offers informal tours in Spanish, weekdays at 10 and 2. A shop just west of Parque Central at Calle Real Centenario 168 sells Flor de Copán's products.

Santa Rosa's pleasant one-block-square central park is slightly elevated above the surrounding streets. The kiosk in the center of the park dates from 1900 and today serves as a community-operated tourist office, open weekdays 9 to 5:30 and Saturday 9 to 1. Stop by and the friendly folks here can tell you all you want to know about the town and the surrounding area. The 1803 Cathedral of Santa Rosa faces the east side of the park.