This year, for the first time, ‘Lonely Planet’ (LP) published a guide exclusively for “Honduras & The Bay Islands” (Lonely Planet Publications, Gary Chandler and Liza Prado, authors). The company, renowned for its thorough and well-researched guide books, felt it was time to give independent and curious travelers an opportunity to discover Honduras on its own merits.

LP previously mentioned Honduras within its Central America guidebook, however considering Honduras’ many unique attractions, including the world’s second largest barrier reef, it was only a matter of time until LP dedicated
a guide solely to Honduras.

There are currently only a handful of guide books specifically written about Honduras, and even LP’s main rival, ‘The Rough Guide,’ has yet to produce anything exclusively on Honduras.

The LP guide, published in January of this year, gives a detailed overview of many of the country’s popular tourist attractions like the Copan Ruins and, as the title suggests, the Bay Islands. Additionally, it also gives attention to some of the lesser-known sites like the quiet towns of Santa Lucia and Yuscaran. An entire chapter is dedicated La Moskitia, for those eco-tourists seeking adventure off the beaten track of higher profile destinations.

That said, it leaves out a couple of the nation’s emerging tourist sites, including San Lorenzo, on which HTW recently wrote an article (see Vol. 2 #41, Saturday, October 27th). Although mentioned in its guide to Central America, this fantastic tourist town on the Pacific coast is only briefly mentioned in their new edition due to the soon-to-be built port in nearby La Union, El Salvador, which is a shame considering what a great tourist spot this could be given the right amount of publicity.

The publication is a great development for Honduran tourism and will help Presidents Zelaya’s aim of stepping up tourism promotion in Honduras. As the LP guide book says, Honduras is often overshadowed by Costa Rica, where aggressive tourism campaigns have paid off.

Yet Honduras in many ways has a beauty, equally impressive and possibly more so than that of Costa Rica, with the added bonus of not being overrun (yet) by tourists. With the publication of the Lonely Planet Guide, a guide to Honduras is now available to a potential 4 million plus tourists a year, through the guide and its well-established website, www.lonelyplanet.com.

LP has maintained the tradition and format of its founders, Maureen and Tony Wheeler, who created the original guide almost 35 years ago. Shortly after their wedding in 1972, the couple crossed Europe and Asia for their honeymoon, something virtually unheard of for a holiday, let alone a honeymoon, in those days.

Once they returned to Sydney, Australia they had all the knowledge required to create their first travel guide, “Across Asia on the Cheap,” which sold for $1.95. Through door-to-door sales in Sydney, they managed to sell all 1,500 copies within just 10 days.

Their reputation grew and “Across Asia on the Cheap” became known as the ‘Hippy Trail’ from London to Australia, giving way to a second guide, “Southeast Asia on a Shoestring.” From that point on, there was no looking back. The LP brand has since grown to around 500 titles, 560 staff members and 360 freelance authors, all working in the name of independent, insightful travel.

Indeed, LP has a loyal following of readers from all over the world. Lizzie Wraith, a student and experienced traveler from the U.K. commented, “I pretty much always buy a Lonely Planet guide for wherever I go traveling, it’s like a bible of all the useful info you could ever need…you know that the hostels or hotels they recommend will be good ones to stay in, usually seem to be pretty up to date and accurate, too. Its pretty useful if the worst happens and you need to know where the nearest doctor is or something like that.

”Verity Robinson, another travel enthusiast mentioned, “I have used a lot of LP books…and they are really useful as they are constantly updated by real travelers just like us, so I always have up-to-date information that’s really relevant.”

However, as with many companies around the world today, it is the internet that has transformed the Lonely Planet. The company first launched their website in 1994 and it has grown in popularity over the years.

In particular, their forum “Thorn Tree,” a place for exchanging travel advice from one traveler to the next, has received excellent reviews. As the Guardian, UK, mentions, “Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree… [is] one of the best places to seek out advice on a wide range of traveling issues.”

This was also one of the big attractions for BBC Worldwide, who recently acquired 75% of the company, aiming to expand the LP website. The BBC plans to eventually make all of the guidebooks available online, which will enable the guides to be continually amended and inevitably, be more current.

This will help the many travelers who find that things have changed since their guidebook was published. As one such couple who have been using the new LP guide to Honduras, Sarah and Dave complained, “Yes, we’ve got said publication and have some views - mostly that once an accommodation is in print…the price doubles!!”

The plans to further develop the LP internet site along with additional promotion will no doubt benefit the Honduran tourism industry. With the access of the Honduras guide online and the recently printed guidebook, you can be sure that Lonely Planet fans and readers are sure to follow anytime soon, and with Honduras’ developing tourist trade and great location, it is certain to be a winning combination.