10 Best Hotels in La Mosquitia, Honduras

Comfortable single, double, and triple rooms have private baths, and for the best seafood in town you need only stumble downstairs, but the rooms have no air-conditioning and noise from the restaurant can travel at night.

While it's not as nice as other places farther from town in the surrounding countryside, this is the best in-town option and is comfortable enough. It's the perfect place to stay for an early flight out of the airport the next day. Owner Jose Osvaldo Cruz can help with travel tips on the area.

Unlike the other hotels in Puerto Lempira, this hotel is found further in town and away from the lagoon, giving it a quieter and safer atmosphere. Simple accommodations include single, double, and triple rooms with air-conditioning and private baths. Guests can charge the hotel bill to Visa cards at the gift shop downstairs.

This wooden fishing lodge offers the most complete service in Palacios. Twelve rooms can convert to singles or doubles and have private bathrooms, TVs, and fans. The hotel has a small restaurant that serves traditional and international cuisine, plus a bar and meeting center. Guests can also arrange three-to six-day trips into La Mosquitía, or opt for an all-inclusive package at $395/person that covers transportation from La Ceiba, two nights, three meals a day, bilingual tour guides, and activity fees.

Air-conditioned rooms with WiFi, plus a front desk that takes Visa cards, make this lagoon-front hotel the most modern lodging option in town. Single, double, and triple rooms with private baths are available, and guests can opt for 24-hour a/c or save a few hundred lempiras and use it only at night (or, save even more cash and stick with just the fan). Rooms are fairly quiet at night, as the hotel is a short walk from town center. A small restaurant serves seafood and traditional Honduran dishes.

Doña Ana Marmol runs the 15-room Hotel Río Tinto, one of the better bargain options in Palacios, which has a tiny cafeteria and rooms with private bathrooms that cost L150 per night.

Situated on the lagoon, the hotel has single and double rooms with either air-conditioning units or fans. Its convenient central location and nearby Laku Payaska restaurant can make for noisy nights during busy weekends, however.

A short walk out of central Belén and over a worn plank bridge leads to owner Mario Miller's three palm-thatched cabins. The small restaurant here dishes out traditional meals by request and serves Caribbean favorites like lobster and shrimp. Somewhat cramped cabins have beds for a total of 12 guests and large screened walls with views of the grounds. In the rooms, gauzy mosquito nets hang above the beds, and the communal bathroom features the same contemporary fixtures as in Raista Ecolodge. La Ruta Moskitia's guided tours out of Belén all take off from the cabins.

Eight newly remodeled cabins sit on stilts near the banks of the lagoon. Doña Elma, matriarch of the tourism-pioneering Bodden family, runs the lodge with her daughter Melissa. Upon request, they can cook up tasty and bountiful breakfasts and dinners served in the downstairs dining area, or call to arrange transportation and tours. Spacious rooms, built from wood planks and thatched palm roofs, each have a double and single bed (mosquito netting included), plus access to a wraparound porch facing the water. Candles and purified water are also provided. Communal bathrooms adjoining the lodge have cold-water showers, flushing toilets, and sinks with mirrors; these are perhaps the most modern accommodations in the area. A generator provides electricity only to the kitchen and family house, so bring a flashlight for after sunset.

If Brus Laguna is secluded, then these three waterfront cabins are as far away as it gets. Stilted houses with large breezy patios overlook a placid river with swimming holes and the grassy horizon of surrounding pine savanna. Each room has four single beds, screened walls, candles, purified water, and mosquito netting; and shared bathrooms feature modern fixtures. A separate comedor dishes up breakfast, lunch, and dinner upon request. Macoy and Dorcas Wood operate the cabins and can arrange for transportation from the boat landing in Brus Laguna.