Orientation

The dividing marker for San Pedro Sula is Avenida Circunvalación, a large boulevard that encircles the downtown area, with Parque Central at its center. Many amenities, like gas stations and restaurants, can be found radiating around the park. The center of town is laid out in a standard grid divided by four quadrants: northeast, southeast, northwest, and southwest. Avenues lead from north to south and streets from east to west. The area on the western side of the Circunvalación, including directly on the street, is where you will find the City Mall, Multiplaza Mall, several top hotels, and nearly all of the best restaurants and nightspots.

Getting Around

Apart from a few of the major hotels, almost every site of interest to the typical traveler sits within the circular Circunvalación and can be reached on foot. Some areas can be dangerous, through, and robberies do occur, so it is best to take taxis, especially during the night.

While the confusing, crowded, and often dangerous public bus system here is of little use to travelers, taxis are cheap and plentiful. A ride anywhere in the center will rarely run over L60.

Getting There

By Plane -- Ramón Villeda Morales International Airport, sometimes just called San Pedro Sula International Airport (SAP), sits 15km (9 1/4 miles) east of the city on the road to La Ceiba. It is the country's busiest airport and offers the most international connections. Continental, American Airlines, Delta, TACA, and Spirit fly here directly from points in the U.S. such as Miami, Houston, Atlanta, New York, Los Angeles, and Fort Lauderdale. Regional airlines serving San Pedro include Isleña Airlines (tel. 504/5252-8322), Aerolíneas Sosa (tel. 504/2550-6545; www.aerolineasosahn.com), and CM Airlines (tel. 504/2668-0068; www.cmairlines.com); these airlines fly to Tegucigalpa, La Ceiba, Roatán, Puerto Lempira, and other Central American destinations such as San Salvador, San José, Guatemala City, and Managua.

A taxi from the airport to the center of town should run about L260 to L300. There's also a Hedman Alas (tel. 504/2553-1361; www.hedmanalas.com) bus terminal at the airport, with buses that run three times a day to Tela and La Ceiba or six times a day to their main hub in downtown San Pedro for connections to Copán or Tegucigalpa.

By Car -- All roads lead to San Pedro. It is the transportation hub of the country and almost always a necessary point of transfer between any two long-distance points. The best highway in the country and one of the best in all of Central America -- CA 5 -- traverses the distance between San Pedro Sula and Tegucigalpa, and passes through Lago de Yojoa, Siguatepeque, and Comayagua along the way. It can be extremely crowded (semi trucks use this road to haul goods from one coast to the other), and accidents can sometimes drag traffic to a screeching halt; yet if things move smoothly, you can make the 241km (150-mile) trip between the coasts in under 4 hours on this road.

If you're coming to San Pedro Sula from Tela, La Ceiba, or elsewhere on the North Coast, take CA 13. If you're driving here from Copán, you have a pretty much straight shot on CA 11 to the town of La Entrada, from where you will continue on CA 4 to downtown.

Most major North American car rental agencies, such as Avis (tel. 504/2668-3164; www.avis.com), Budget (tel. 504/2668-3179; www.budget.hn), Hertz (tel. 504/2668-3156; www.hertz.com), and Thrifty (tel. 504/2668-3154; www.thrifty.com) have counters at the San Pedro airport, as well as offices in town.

By Bus -- For years, there was only talk of a main bus terminal, but when that talk turned to action, few bus companies actually took initiative and moved their terminals there, scattering them across the city. In 2008, after much ado, all bus companies moved into the new terminal outside of town and closed their offices across San Pedro. The city's new station, the Terminal Metropolitana de Autobuses, is 5km (3 miles) south of town, on CA 5 towards Tegucigalpa, a L80 to L100 taxi ride from the center. It's full of restaurants, shops, and tour agencies.

Hedman Alas (7 and 8 Av., 3 Calle NO; tel. 504/2553-1361) is the best bus line in Honduras and the most useful for tourists who are sticking to the country's main destinations. It has mostly nonstop, first-class service several times per day to the San Pedro airport (L200; 20 min.), Tela (L325; 1 1/2 hr.), La Ceiba (L418; 3 hr.), Copán Ruínas (L456; 3 hr.), Comayagua (L495; 3 1/2 hr.), and Tegucigalpa (L535; 4 1/2 hr.). The company also offers connecting service in Copán to Guatemala City (L1,140) and Antigua, Guatemala (L1,330).

Other companies that travel from San Pedro Sula to Tegucigalpa include Saenz (tel. 504/2553-4969; L456), which has regular and primera clase, nonstop service six times a day to the capital; and Viana (Av. Circunvalación; tel. 504/2556-9261), which offers Clase Oro/Gold Class service to Tegucigalpa (L600), as well as La Ceiba (L342).

To reach Gracias, try Gracianos (tel. 504/2656-1403; L100) at the main terminal, which has departures until 2pm for the 4 1/2-hour ride that passes through Santa Rosa de Copán and La Entrada. To reach Tela, try Tela Express (9 Av. 9 and 10 Calle; tel. 504/2550-8355; L60), with five daily departures. If you're heading to La Ceiba and Trujillo, check out Diana (tel. 504/2441-6460; L150) or Cotuc (tel. 504/2520-1597), which have nine and five daily trips, respectively, from the main terminal.

To reach Managua (L950) or Guatemala City (L1,330), your best choice is TICA (tel. 504/2556-5149), which runs buses daily at 5am from the main terminal. Buses first stop in Tegucigalpa before heading out of the country. For San Salvador, King Quality (tel. 504/2553-4547; www.king-qualityca.com; L874) has a daily service that departs San Pedro Sula at 7am and arrives around 2pm.

Fast Facts

Banks & Currency Exchange -- Banco Atlántida (tel. 504/2558-1580), on Parque Central, exchanges traveler's checks, gives cash advances on credit cards, and has an ATM. There are also ATMs in every mall, most of the large hotels, and some gas stations, and scattered about downtown in 24-hour booths. There's a black-market currency exchange at Parque Central, but rates are no different from the moneychangers in storefronts and at the airport.

Hospitals -- You can contact your embassy for a list of doctors in San Pedro or try Centro Médico Betesda (Av. 11a NO and Calle 11a NO; tel. 504/2516-0900), which is open daily 24 hours for emergencies and has consultations from 9 to 11am and from 3 to 6pm.

Internet and Call Centers -- Within a few blocks of Parque Central are literally a dozen small Internet cafes charging less than L20 per hour. These same cafes also have net phones for international calls and software for downloading digital photos. Alternatively, try the local telephone company Hondutel, at Av. 4a SO and 4a Calle SO, where you can make long-distance calls for a few lempiras a minute. There's also a cybercafe at the airport, but prices are four times as expensive.

Laundry & Dry Cleaning -- There are dozens of small lavanderias that will wash, dry, and fold your clothes in a day for less than L60 per kilo. For fast service, head to Astroclean (Av. 14a SO and Circunvalación), just across from the City Mall.

Newspapers -- The gift shop at Gran Hotel Sula, in Parque Central, stocks day-old (sometimes older) copies of North American newspapers.

Police -- The Tourist Police (Av. 12a NO and Calle 1a O; tel. 504/2550-3472) take calls daily, 24 hours.

Post Office -- The post office is at Av. 3a SO and Calle 9a SO Correos, and is open Monday to Friday 7:30am to 6pm and Saturday 8am to noon. You can send packages from here, but a safer and more efficient way is through DHL (Circunvalación at Brigada No. 105; tel. 504/2550-1000) or FedEx (Calle 17 and Av. 10 SO No. 56).

Visitor Information -- There is a small tourist information center in the tourist police booth beside the Museo Naturaleza.

Water -- While San Pedro Sula may seem like an American suburb at times, you should still stick to bottled water.

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