Lodge at Pico Bonito

The Lodge at Pico Bonito offers luxury set within the lush green Pico Bonito National Park. The park, near La Ceiba, Honduras, is home to more than 400 species of birds plus jaguars, tapirs, deer, puma and white-faced monkeys. The secluded property offers cottages nestled in the often-misty rainforest. I spent much time in the hammock on my front porch listen to birdsong and watching the light rain that periodically falls drip from leaf to leaf.

I found the owners and staff at the lodge to be charming and welcoming. They were all still on a bit of a high because Michael Douglas, Catharine Zeta-Jones and the children had recently visited. Based on the lodge's extraordinary seclusion and elegance, I can understand why it's attractive to celebrities.

Luckily Honduras offers value pricing so you don’t have to be famous to be able to afford to stay at the lodge. And it offers special accommodations and rates for ecology students and researchers of the rainforest flora and fauna.

Like the best eco-lodges the Lodge at Pico Bonito is well designed for its setting. While standard guest rooms are relatively small (400 square feet), each has a generous front porch with seating and a hammock. Louvered and screened windows and ceiling fans keep the rooms cool under the canopy of the rainforest. Air conditioning is available in the standard plus and superior cabins.

Breakfast, lunch and dinner are provided in the lodge's Honduran-pine lined dining room. Breakfast for two is included in the room rate. The elegant dining room has a wide screened-in porch and comfortable furniture for lounging with a drink from the restaurant's bar. I became partial to the local beer, Salva Vida, there.

While staying at the Lodge at Pico Bonito don't miss its commercial butterfly farm where more than 40 species of tropical butterflies, including the dramatic blue morpho, are bred. Next door is the lodge's iguana farm and serpentarium. I was touched to see the signatures of Catharine Zeta-Jones and the Douglas children, Dylan and Carys, in the serpentarium guest book.

A series of linking trails on the perimeter of the lodge led a friend and me into the rainforest where we climbed to the top of a two-story wooden observation tower to ogle the cloud-shrouded Pico Bonito. Descending into the forest valley we traced the Rio Coloradito and stopped to swim in the clear green pools of the Mermaid Falls. Later along the trail we came across several blue morpho butterflies.

Nearby, the bustling small town of La Ceiba is an authentic Spanish colonial charmer complete with cathedrals, public squares and colorful murals. One of its most notable characteristics is the multiple utility lines overhead. Old defunct lines aren't removed, so the lines have just collected over time.

While staying at the lodge I took an excursion to the Cuero y Salado Wildlife Refuge. My group toured the huge mangrove-fringed refuge estuary in an open boat. While we didn't see some of the species the refuge is famous for, manatees, ocelots, boa constrictors and howler monkeys, we did catch sight plenty of waterfowl and several alligators. (Reviewed 7/2/2009)

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Lodge at Pico Bonito is located: in is the Pico Bonito National Park, a complimentary 30-minute transfer from La Ceiba
AP710, La Ceiba, CP31101 Honduras
Phone: (312) 345-3288; Reservations: (888) 428-0221
Email: reservation@picobonito.com
Web site: Lodge at Pico Bonito