Highlights of Honduras: Copan, Cloud Forests & the Caribbean Reef

Today you explore Copan, the most artistic of all the great Maya cities, with an expert guide. You wander the Great Plaza among a forest of towering carved stelae, portraits of Copan's kings rendered in astonishing three-dimensional detail, and stand before the Hieroglyphic Stairway, whose sixty-three steps carry the longest Maya inscription ever found. You climb temple-pyramids and explore the Acropolis, where tunnels reveal earlier structures buried within, and watch scarlet macaws, reintroduced to the valley, flash red and gold overhead. The superb sculpture museum shelters a full-size, full-colour replica of the buried Rosalila temple. In the afternoon you might visit the Macaw Mountain bird park or a nearby coffee finca, deepening your sense of this rich valley before returning to town.

This morning you leave Copan and journey east through the western highlands towards Lake Yojoa, Honduras's largest natural lake. The scenic drive winds through pine-clad mountains, Lenca villages and patchwork farmland, with a stop en route to break the journey and take in the countryside. By afternoon you reach the lake, cradled between two national parks and often wreathed in soft mist, and check into a lakeside lodge. The setting is beautifully tranquil, all still water, green mountains and birdsong. You might take an evening stroll, sample the region's famous craft beer and lakeside fried fish, or simply relax on a terrace watching herons and kingfishers work the shallows as the light fades over the water and the mountains behind.

After an early breakfast you explore Lake Yojoa, one of Central America's premier birdwatching sites, with over four hundred species recorded on its shores. A gentle boat trip glides you across the water among floating vegetation alive with herons, jacanas and kingfishers, and a short walk in the surrounding forest may reward you with toucans, motmots and trogons. You might also visit the nearby Pulhapanzak waterfall, a thundering cascade in the jungle. Later you continue north and east to the Caribbean lowlands, reaching the rainforest of Pico Bonito near La Ceiba by late afternoon. Your ecolodge sits on the forest edge, and as night falls the jungle comes alive with frogs and insects. Dinner is served at the lodge, deep in the humming green heart of the rainforest.

Today is devoted to the rainforest of Pico Bonito National Park, a wall of green rising steeply behind the coast. With a naturalist guide you walk forest trails beneath a towering canopy, learning to spot birds, butterflies, leafcutter ants and perhaps howler monkeys and agoutis, and pausing at viewpoints over the jungle-clad mountains. Trails lead to crystalline river pools and waterfalls where you can cool off in the clear water. The park is famed for its birdlife, and dawn and dusk bring a chorus of calls from the surrounding forest. You might also visit a butterfly garden or take a guided river float, all at an unhurried pace. Back at the lodge you relax amid the sounds of the forest before another dinner beneath the trees.

This morning you enjoy a last taste of the rainforest before transferring to nearby La Ceiba, the lively capital of the Caribbean coast, for your short flight to Roatan, the largest of the Bay Islands. The flight is a treat in itself, the reef and turquoise shallows unfolding beneath you as you cross to the island. On arrival you are met and driven to your hotel at West Bay or West End, the palm-fringed western tip of Roatan, where warm Caribbean waters lap white sand just steps away. The rest of the day is yours to settle in, swim in the sea, snorkel straight off the beach among shoals of fish, and watch your first glorious island sunset over the water.

Today the Mesoamerican Reef is yours to enjoy, and few places make it so easy. The world's second-longest barrier reef runs just offshore, its coral gardens beginning only metres from the beach, so you can snorkel or dive among turtles, rays, parrotfish and dazzling corals with barely a boat ride. If you are new to diving, Roatan is one of the best-value places on earth to learn, and a resort dive or discovery course can be arranged; certified divers have dozens of superb sites to choose from, from gentle reefs to dramatic walls. Snorkellers are equally spoilt, with vibrant reef alive with fish close to shore. Between the water, you relax on the white sand of West Bay, one of the Caribbean's most beautiful beaches.

A full, flexible day to enjoy Roatan at your own pace. You might dive or snorkel more of the reef, take a boat trip to quiet coves and snorkelling spots, or join an excursion to a mangrove channel or the island's east end. Ashore, there are options to visit an iguana farm, kayak, paddleboard, zipline through coastal forest, or simply laze on West Bay beach with a book and a fresh coconut. West End, a short stroll or water-taxi away, offers a string of relaxed beachfront restaurants and bars for long lunches of Caribbean seafood and sunset drinks. Whether you fill the day with activity or do gloriously little, the warm sea, white sand and easy island rhythm make it a joy from morning to evening.

Another free day in paradise to savour the best of island life. Perhaps this is the morning for one more dive or a snorkelling trip to a favourite reef, followed by an afternoon of pure relaxation on the beach. You could take a catamaran sailing trip along the coast, visit a local Garifuna community to learn about the island's Afro-Caribbean heritage, or explore the mangroves by kayak. Food lovers can seek out beachfront shacks serving fresh fish, conch soup and coconut bread, while sunset invites a final leisurely drink by the sea. Days on Roatan slip by easily, filled with warmth, colour and the gentle sound of the waves, the perfect unwinding after the ruins, forests and rivers of the Honduran mainland.

After a final morning on the island, a last swim in the warm Caribbean or a leisurely breakfast overlooking the sea, you are transferred to Roatan's airport for your flight to the mainland and onward international departure. You leave having experienced the extraordinary variety of Honduras in a single seamless journey, from the carved stelae and scarlet macaws of Copan and the misty, bird-filled shores of Lake Yojoa to the thundering waterfalls of Pico Bonito and the coral gardens and white sand of Roatan. It is a country of warmth, surprise and beauty, still gloriously uncrowded, and one that lingers long in the memory. Our team is on hand to make your departure smooth and relaxed.