We have just returned from a fabulous week at the Palma Real resort in Le Ceiba – went for March break 12-19 March. At first, we were a bit apprehensive after reading negative reviews and wondered what we’d let ourselves in for.

My husband, teenage son and I flew with Sky Service – great flight, mannerly flight attendants. Arrived in Le Ceiba to the speediest immigration check-in ever. Marina the Conquest tour rep had the greeting service run so efficiently, that we were in our room within the hour of leaving the airport.

We’d booked a superior room and were pleased with what we got – plenty of room and clean sheets with no bugs in the bathroom like we’d been told to expect. There were two huge closets a lower lever dresser and a night stand so we had plenty space for things. The rooms were cleaned spotlessly everyday, plenty towels, soap etc and bottled water also left. The hairdryer worked perfectly and unlike reports of no hot water one night or no cold water the next night – we had no problems with the water what so ever. The shower head pressure wasn’t as powerful as we are used to but hey …. you are on vacation so it’s only for a week. The safe is a great idea for keeping your passports and jewellery etc – they come free with the room which is a first for us. The maids never “touched” things though so we found that comforting.

The food was good – not like other resorts we have stayed at, basic but nice nonetheless. You never went hungry as there was something for even the most discerning palate. We never found it repetitive, it was always cooked to perfection and the buffet trays were filled quickly. We ate at the buffet each morning for breakfast, lunch and again for dinner only visiting the a la carte restaurant once. I have to say that the fillet mignon we ordered was the best we’d ever had. The la restaurant was in the quieter part of the resort which would suggest why it wasn’t used often. It is WELL worth going though. Plenty fresh fruit and snacks from the snack bar if you had the munchies during the day – chicken wings, nachos, burgers etc.

The wait staff we found to be very helpful and attentive and if they couldn’t understand what we were asking, they’d have someone who spoke English to ask what we wanted. The front desk staff and maids were also very friendly. The bar staff knew what you wanted without asking.

The resort was spotless, well manicured lawns and very attentive gardeners. They did spray each night at 6:00pm and again in the morning but we had no problems at all with what ever it was they sprayed. While the resort was off the beaten track in the middle of nowhere, the beaches allowed you to walk for miles without seeing another soul. The water is like Panama, very rough and not clear but warm and not at all unsafe. There is a huge water park well within walking distance if you decide not to use the beach. Our son loved it. There are tons of loungers by the pool and all along the beach and we never once had a problem getting one. The beach hut that supplies the towels closes at 5:00pm so make sure if you need dry towels to get them before they close for the night.

We took the canopy tour which was awesome flying though the trees after riding up the mountain on a pony. Half way through the tour, we relaxed in the hot springs before heading back down again. The ponies are in a poor state of health which concerned me but given Honduras is a third World County and the tourist market virtually untapped, I guess we have to expect that. If you have the chance, take this trip and also go into Le Ceiba - $10.00 (return) bus ride will take you to the local market and finish up at the mall. Great deals on shoes. Don’t be freaked out when you see security guards outside each store with side arms, it appears to be the norm here. The banks are the same and I’m glad that we took cash and not travelers cheques which we were told were difficult to cash.

Remember and take bug spray with you as we have never witnessed mosquitoes like we did. We also took Imodium but never needed it – none of us or anyone we spoke to had even a rumble in their tummies!!!! Also don’t flush the toilet paper down as their sanitation system can’t cope with it.

All in all, we had a very relaxing time, met some great people so Lou, Carmella, Anne, Wade, Brenda or Tom if you are reading this review – Hi.

Although we enjoyed this trip, they have the potential to make this resort great with the addition of more water sports, more structured activities and maybe introducing another buffet. We would go back again, for sure but I think in a couple of years once they have put the work in to the resort that I truly think it would benefit from.

Back from a trip to Honduras.Sky service flight was perfect as well as Conquest's service. This review is for the Palma Real resort only, not the Caribe section.

Airport: Arrival,no problem here.Departure, the new rep (Marina) has got the departure 'wait in line' times down considerably by doing check-out work ahead.

Resort: I can see why this was rated a 4-star, in many ways it is.Beautiful lobby area, nice rooms, perfect layout around the pool area and beach.

Food: Food is fine, not the huge variety that spoils us at most other 4-stars. Some of the dishes were very tasty and it was interesting to sample Honduran cooking. On Sunday we had lobster tails.Monday the beef dish was the best I have ever tasted anywhere; most dishes were cooked differently every day.No one we talked to got sick.Service at the buffet was good.

Beach: The beach area is perfect, but the water is murky with the wave action, but actually okay when you get in.It's fun to take the kayaks out over the waves in the afternoon.I got some bites on the beach, same as alot of places we've been. Lots of coconut palms.I'll rate the beach a 9 and the water a 4.

Room: Large and kept very clean, but there are a few quirks here. No hot water one day and no cold water to work the toilet most early morning hours. There is a sign that says do not put toilet paper in the toilet.These must be one of the poorer water-saving designs.We used the garbage pail to fill the tank. Laughing the first day about this I said to my wife, we can put up with a few bugs, it gives the resort character,it's so easy to get spoiled.No problems with live bugs.

Service: We had no problems,some speak no English, same as many other resorts we've been too.I'll rate service an 8.

Water Park: We were impressed with the size, layout, and landscaping. My teenager loved it.

Bar Area: Drinks were okay, never much of a wait. Hondurans make this resort busier on the weekends, but the Caribe resort is very quiet.The music noise at the bar is not too hard to get away from.Bikes are available to rent near the bar and we felt safe wherever we biked.Mike from Michigan rents these out; 2 bikes for 3 days was $24.Mike had travelled inland Honduras alot and said it was amazing.Snack bar is good and the pigeons will eat the chicken too.

Tours: Instead of booking the Turaser tour, we got the book 'Honduras Tips' and found Wilfred's #,504-373-8620( www.dive-in-caribik.com). We booked a snorkeling trip($50) and a dive($85) for my son. He came and picked us up on the beach, I let him pick which day, to get a smooth crossing.The trip to the Cayos Cochinos takes 45 minutes and if it's too rough in the afternoon(safety)you get to stay there the night free. Wilfred rents rooms with food for $80 a night on this beautiful 3 or 4 acre island's lodge. As we ate a delicious german dish his wife had prepared for us(included); we all agreed, life doesn't get any better than this. This tour made the trip a memorable experience. I rate this tour a 10.

La Cieba city tours are okay($10) with shopping at a mall or downtown.

Taking the tour to the hot springs($25) just down the road, we found ourselves in pools of warm water between waterfalls.Words can't describe what a beautiful spot this is. Beats the long drive to the hotspings in Costa Rica.Tour a 9 1/2. Anyone who took the canopy tour here loved it also.

We went to the classic 'Hotel Canadian' one night for dinner. This is a large U-shaped hotel on the beach, with a large courtyard with 2 nice pools.Food was delicious and reasonable.I would like to have stayed here a day or 2. The owner is a Canadian and will pick-up people at the Palma Real. Don't miss a dinner here, the view and his pet spider monkey.

This is mixed review - our kids (3 & 7) loved their vacation, so we were happy about that. However, there were some aspects of the hotel that make us feel that we would not return.

Flight down from Toronto via SkyService was fine - the gate had a jungle gym - so at 5:30am the kids were running around happy!

Check-in was long, but the staff at the desk were very nice.

Room - very nice - great view of the grounds and the ocean. 2 double beds, lots of storage and good sized washroom. We had towels everyday - we tipped the maid in US dollars and presents. We went down for 2 weeks and on the Monday of our 2nd week that manager left us a bottle of wine, plate of food, a thank you note and the room was decorated with flowers everywhere.

Grounds - beautiful, lush and tropical. Saw some frogs and iguanas.

Buffet restaurant - decent - we always found something we liked (this was not the best food we have had down south, but decent) - lots of fresh fruit. Breakfast is a bit boring, but the omelettes are fab as is the bread.

A la carte restaurant - just okay - our entrées were the last to come out and the children were getting very cranky without food (people who came in after us were served first). Then the entrées for 2 of us was burnt. The service was good, not as friendly as the buffet, but I guess they are trying for a more formal feel. We didn't go back even though we could have gone 3 nights each week. The restaurant is in the other part of the resort - they provided a bus to get there, we had to wait for a bit to get it back again.

Waterpark - kids loved it, not the safest (some of the slides would not pass inspection in Canada - but this isn't Canada). Great for smaller kids - lots of little slides for them. We liked it - lots of shade too, which was good. Only down side was trying to get the shuttle back to the hotel. Lots of people opted to walk (approx 10-15 min) - I waited 1 hr 15 min one day with the 2 kids (was on my own and could not carry my son all the way) - even though they had said that morning that it would be running back and forth every 15 mins. Next day we had to walk, which was very hard carry a small crying boy (he wanted the train) in the hot sun.

Beach - liked it, not white, but didn't bother us, but tons of sand fleas. We were all itching the entire time we were there and for a week afterwards. Mosquitos were also quite bad, mainly biting us on our backs. The lifeguard (Marco - nice man) makes tips by putting lotion on the guests' backs.

Ocean - fun to play in the waves, which we expected (thanks to earlier posts), however, we didn't expect no visibility at all - we love snorkeling or this was disappointing (but not an entire surprise).

Weather was good for the 1st week, but we had a huge tropical storm for the 1st 3 days of our second week. Gray, cold and pouring/overcast for 3 days. The hotel rooms of the first floor all flooded, including the villas on the other side which also had mud in their rooms. This is not (obviously) the hotel's fault, but a warning would have been appreciated - esp for those who's rooms were flooded.

Running water in the room - out of 14 days 2 days we had no water (due to the storm - and had to get water from the pool using our garbage pail to flush the toilet). Of the other days only 2 or 3 did we have cold and hot water, and then only for a very short period of time. Mostly it was only boiling hot water - in the shower, tap and even the toilet We were unable to wash the kids, which was very annoying. They would take our complaint at the front desk and write it in "the" book, but it didn't change. The villas on the other side only had cold water.

Animation staff - probably the worst I have seen. We are not the types that need/want to be entertained by animation staff all day and night - we would rather be left alone for the most part - but if you tell people a schedule everyday of your activities it would be nice if followed through. In fact, we barely saw them - they held aqua-fitness once (guys had to take over from the girls would obviously had no desire to be doing the class). They were very much into volleyball, often to exclusion of some of the guests who wanted to play. We have seen better shows - the guys are really trying the girls didn't really seem to be enjoying being there. During the storm I expected the staff to try and get people involved in games, events, etc., but only found them feeding themselves at the snack bar, ignoring the guests. (for comparison - the animation staff at Akumal Beach Resort, Mexico made our vacation altogether an incredible experience and we were sad to say good bye). The New Years Eve party was fairly disorganized at the beginning, but eventually started with the Garfuna - a group of descendants from the African slaves, who dance to drum beats - really incredible dancing!

Canopy Tour - loved it, took my 7 yr old daughter and we both had a great time, would highly recommend the tour - Denrick was great, excellent English, really interesting to chat with about the people, tourism, etc.

Snorkeling Tour (Cayos) - not recommended, 6 hrs with only 2 hrs of snorkeling, the other time you look some very poor people on a small island while the tour tries to sell you lunch (despite it only being a 1/2 day tour).

This is a positive review.

My wife and I just got home from a week at the Palma Real Resort in LaCieba.

The hotel was everything that it was advertised to be. There we no surprises or disappointments. The rooms were clean and the food was better than Cuba. We paid a total of $1570.00 (taxes in) for 2 of us and we were very happy with it.

BEACH
The beach is pretty good but it is more like Puerto Plata in that the waves stir up the sand so the water is a little cloudy. Some people got stung by Jelly fish so we just stayed in the pools (very nice)

Activities
The animation team was always present although some people did complain that some of the activities didn’t happen when advertised. Apparently the nightly shows weren’t very good (we didn’t go)

Food
The food was not too bad at all (better than Cuba) my only complaint is that there were no bananas for the first few days. I don’t think I lost weight so the food must have been OK.

Rooms
The room was a standard room with 2 beds, a table and 2 chairs, TV and dresser. The bathrooms are tiny but there was definitely enough hot water. The rooms were cleaned everyday and nothing was “misplaced” so that is good.

Just a note of caution/clarification…The resort is divided into 2 sections, the main section is where the upgraded and superior (ocean view) rooms are. The main buffet is also on this side of the resort. The other section is where the villas, ”standard” rooms, theater and al la carte restaurant are located. This section of the resort is very quiet and if you want to escape other people’s children then save your money and get the “standard” rooms on the quiet side.

Excursions
This is where the resort shines the best. Every person we talked to that went on any trip absolutely loved it. I heard no complaints. My wife and I went on the Canopy/Hot springs tour and it was awesome. Zipping through the jungle treetops was the coolest and then to soak in the hot springs at the end was awesome. Best $45pp that we ever spent.

We went into town a couple of times, the first time we took a public bus (50 cents each) and found out what up close and personal really means. We walked around the mall a bit and then headed to the open market downtown (fun). We had lunch at a street side restaurant (lunch 4 four with a couple of drinks each = $25.00 with tip)

We then go educated to a local “tour guide” that will pick you up at the hotel and take you around town for 3-4 hours for a cost of $32.00 USD. His name is Hector and you can email him before you go hadilsonkas@hotmail.com . He speaks English and is fair and trustworthy. You may want to keep his card handy and hire him to pick you up on the day you leave and take you to the airport. The reason is that when we arrived it took quite a while to get through immigration at the airport (1 hour +) and we didn’t want to repeat that process on the way out. What a good call that was. We had Hector pick us up at the hotel at 7:30 and the busses were scheduled to leave at 8 am. My wife and I arrived at the airport and checked in, reserved our seats on the plane, paid our exit taxes, had a cappuccino and sat comfortably as the entire planeload from the resort filed in to the airport and waited for more than 3 hours as their luggage was inspected, then the lone ticket agent filled out their tickets in triplicate by hand. The plane finally left almost 2 hours late. Best $30.00 I ever spent.

Positive review, would recommend to anyone

We just got back from a 2 week stay at the Palma Real Resortin La Ceiba Honduras. (Jan 11 to 25th, 2006). We are a family of 4 (5 and 7 year old kids).

Villa:
We stayed in a villa... we weren't sure what to expect as regards to size... but it was huge!!! My husband quickly measured it to be around 27' by 30'. There are 2 bedrooms (one with 2 double beds, other 1 king size bed) a kitchen (full size fridge, very convenient, stove, microwave) with a counter and 3 stools, a dining area (nice big glass table and comfortable chairs), a living room (wicker furniture is the norm in the villa) with 2 love seats and glass coffee table, nice size bathroom (which connects to master bedroom and to general hallway, convenient if you're 2 couples and don't want to run into each other before showers...) and, here is the best part... a washer and dryer!!! You have to understand that when you travel with young kids, its always great to have that! Actually, during the 2 weeks, i used the washing machine maybe 3 times, but the dryer was used almost every day... you get home from the beach, just dump in your towels (if you didn't take the time to exchange them) and wet bathing suits... take off to supper or whatever, and when you come back... everything is dry... just wonderful. Of course, the maid uses the w/d every day to wash your towels, so I would empty dryer of them and fold them and then use dryer... really not a problem, took at most 5 minutes to do.You also have a nice terrace with 4 chairs and glass table. Floors are all ceramic. There is a TV in living room, and in each of the bedrooms. (English channels: HBO, TNT, ESPN, CNN, FOX Mystery and another movie channel, all rest in Spanish). The only disadvantage to being in a villa is that it is further away from beach, restaurant... but the 5 minutes walk is sure worth the trouble.

Food:
We ate very well at restaurants. There is one buffet style and one a la carte restaurant (which is opened 3 times a week). At the a la carte restaurant, the food was very good. You have a choice of 4 meals (usually one seafood, one pasta, one beef and one chicken) with a salad and soup (which was excellent each time) plus a choice of deserts which are presented to you on a platter. We stayed 2 weeks and were pleasantly surprised when the choices on menu were different every time. The buffet restaurant was also good. There was lots of variety... supper and lunch buffets were similar, but always with different choices... you always had a soup, salad bar (quite a good selection) veggies (usually 3 choices like beans and carrots, cauliflower au gratin, broccoli, usually a choice of potatoes (the fried sweet potatoes were great)), rice (white, mushroom, chicken fried, seafood... the variety changed all the time), 1 pasta choice, and 3 meat choices (fish, beef, pork, chicken...) and each meal there was a person cooking up something special on the grill (burritos, fajitas, crab, spaghetti... usually a mexican dish, but always different). There is always trays of fresh fruit (mostly pineapple, canteloup and water melon) and trays of deserts (which were very good actually). Breakfast buffet was always the same, but lots of choices : pancakes, scrambled eggs, refried beans, french toast, bacon, sausages, croissants, bread (which you could toast yourself in machine, but didn't work so well), hot cross buns, trays of fresh fruit, cheese, cold cuts and you could have eggs done any way at grill... they made a very good omelet.

Beach:
We are beach people, so we spent many hours at the beach. If you're early enough, you can get a little hut so you can have a little shade, but there are quite a few palm trees along so shade is always available if that is what you wish. The water is wavy. We had brought our boogie boards so we had a ball. Some days water had debris in it but most days it was fine. The debris happened after an especially windy day. But that still didn't stop us from going in the ocean every day. Beach was kept clean, and every day people picked up litter and leaves. There is a volleyball court which is used every day... Kayaks are available, but they have no life jackets. Since our kids find the calm waters of Cuba and Jamaica very boring, they just loved the waves in Honduras!!

Water Park:
As advertised, there is a water park on the resort. We were told that it was free for kids and 5$ U.S. per adult, but they never charged us a penny. The park is opened Friday Sat. and Sunday. It's really great for young kids, but the bigger kids will get bored. There is one big slide with tubes which gives quite an adrenaline rush... but the rest is mostly kiddie slides. One interesting note is that you have to go find someone to start up the water in slides... if you don't they let you go without water running down slides. My husband went to the administration office and asked them to start up water... after many gestures (they don't speak any English), they finally understood and started them all up.

Excursions:
There are a few excursions available. We tried the Hot Springs Spa. We totally loved it. There is a short horseback ride to top (about 10 minutes) on some pretty skinny horses... kids loved that. Springs were amazing... 4 levels. You can also load on some mud then wash off.... I recommend that. The canopy is on same site... we didn't go because we thought kids were too small to go on, but then they told us they could have gone. What they do is attach a guide to them (or attach them to a guide!!). We regretted not having done that, it looked like lots of fun. The cost was 75$ for the 4 of us (they didn't charge for my 5 year old), it would have been 20$/person additional for canopy. Since site is a half hour walk from resort, you could save money (about 15$/person) if you walk or even take a taxi there (we found out too late about that trick).

We also did the Cayos Cochinos visit. This one cost 175$ for the 4 of us. You leave at 8 a.m. directly from the beach and take a 45 minute boat ride to reach the islands. Little tip... don't sit in back of boat, you can't see a thing because of splashes and we had to but towels in front of kids cos water was stinging eyes. (You'd think some of the adults in front of boat would have offered to switch seats on return trip... but i guess the age of chivalry is over, we got even more soaked on way back). They let you off on an island which has white sand... beautiful palm trees... and gorgeous turquoise water. It's really paradise. They give you some scuba equipment (not the best) and you can swim out and see beautiful fish and 'Nemo' like scenes. They pick you up 2 hours later and bring you to an inhabited tiny island where children run out to greet you and try to sell you necklaces and shells. Fish or lobster is offered. (you have to order in advance). We had the fish, and it was the best I've ever eaten. I was told it was red snapper. They serve the fish with some rice with beans, which was also delicious. 4 meals (we ordered 2 fish, but they split them and served them of 4 plates with tons of rice) and 1 coca cola (we had brought water from hotel) cost us under 10$. The lobster was 18$, but served without any tools to eat it, so people who ordered that had lots of trouble.

Other excursions were offered, but none were suitable for small kids. (The mayan ruins were interesting to us, but it was very far away, excursion included an over night stay and it was pricey, 175$ per person)

Pools and bars
As I mentioned before, we are beach people, so we didn't spend much, if any, time at pools. I can say that pools seemed very clean, they were lighted at night, had waterfalls, and some had nets for sports. Water was colder than ocean though. One pool had swim up to bar. There was also a pool at villa site.

There is only 1 bar open at a time. The main bar,in between pool and beach and close to snack bar, is open from around 10 to 9, then the bar at theater opened for show times and then the one at discotheque for rest of the night. Drinks were ok, but don't ask for anything outside your common varieties. Barmen were not constant in their drinks so that one time you could get a very strong pina colada and the next you'd think there was no alcohol in it at all. Tip: bring yourself a thermal cup cos their cups are quite small and tend to spill out before you get back to beach. Kids got strawberry slushes and fruit juices with grenadine... they enjoyed very much.

Entertainement
They have a group of entertainers that start up volleyball games, give spanish lessons, give shows, teach dancing, etc... Don't be surprised, they are also the ones giving the massages. The shows were average dance performances, some lip sinc numbers, and a few sketches, which were greatly appreciated by the kids in crowd. The shows tended to resemble one another. One night they do kareoke in disco, but of course, success is depended on participation of crowd. All in all, animation was ok, but you kind of felt that it is a job for them, and you don't feel like they're having much fun. Example: volleyball is at 3 o'clock, a couple of them come to beach, toss the ball around a bit, and if nobody joins up, they take off. And if a game is going... once 4 o'clock hits, they're outta there... they leave the ball though, so guests continue game. Of course, this is not all of the animators, there are a couple who are quite genuine.

This is a very positive review; I recommend this resort to any one.

We came back from a wonderful vacation at the Palma Real Beach Resort in Honduras. (02.21.2005-02.28.2005)

I was reading all the reviews again after coming back, and had a good laugh. We booked through www.itravel2000.ca on Wednesday (4 days before departure) and paid $995.00CAD/pp. We got what we paid for! The resort is very nice, located on the beach, (not white sand, but gray, which makes the water not very clear when the waves come in), but you can still swim! Carla, if you don’t want sand in your swimsuit, you should stay in the pool! Ocean has strong currents, the weather changes many times a day, you can not expect to stay in one spot and float on water… The sand, is darker then Cayo Coco, but much softer and there are beautiful shells and stones tossed out for you to pick.

The food was best I ever had at any of the resorts, we visited (Eldorado Resort and Spa in Mexico, Tryp Cayo Coco in Cuba, Breezes Santa Lucia in Cuba, and the disastrous one last year: Playa Real in La Romana, Dominican Republic – review Joanna- Canada Feb.2004 http://www.debbiesdominicantravel.com/playreal.html )

Before we start complaining about everything, let’s look at our own eating habits at home. It’s funny when someone is upset because the food was “the same” all week. This from people eating pizza 3 times a week.

Here is what to expect: The information was clear and in front of each food, so you knew what it was that you were eating. Start with soup, for lunch and dinner, amazing, hot and tasty, (different each day). They had roasted, cooked, baked potatoes, roasted beef carved hot just the way you liked it, or just cooked in gravy or shredded with veggies. Then chicken, each day different, chicken breast stuffed with cheese, chicken in pineapple glaze, baked, roasted, grilled. Then, there was pork, again cooked in different way each day. Fish! I never had so much fish, and it was very good too! Fruits of the see, as much as you desired, even lobster one night, (quite small, comparing to our local sizes, but in Honduras even cows and horses are smaller, so get over it!)

There was always a selection of veggies, and cold salads, fresh cucumbers, tomatoes, beets, lettuce, white onions (without the smell and bite) green coleslaw, red coleslaw, Greek salad (done the Honduras way) Are you stuffed yet? Don’t forget the sweets and fruit! The dessert bar was always stacked and the variety was impressive. Rice pudding, éclairs, some sweet cake soaked with coconut milk… Weight Watchers, here I come! My husband finished each meal with a huge plate of fruit; yes it was fresh pineapples, watermelon, papaya, mango, cantaloupes, grapes, and red grapefruit. They didn’t have apples and pears, but I don’t think this stuff grows there, you know… And last the cappuccino with cinnamon, yummy!

Breakfast menu was limited to same items each morning, but scrambled or cooked eggs were available, fried toast with jam, pancakes, ham, cheese, fried cheese, white cheese (like softer version of feta and not as salty) was plentiful. Then different kinds of bread, darker, grainy, lighter, and croissants and cinnamon buns were available. Butter was not like Crisco! I checked especially, because I skip butter and margarine during my meals. It was normal, prepackaged stuff like you would get at Swiss Chalet. Then there was the grill serving omelets done to perfection and cooked the way you like them. Fresh fried eggs, (if you try to communicate, the cook understands quite well, English is often limited, but that’s more fun!) You do get what you asked for and counting to 3 in Spanish is not difficult, besides, you can always use your hands and fingers. Your omelet “put-ins” were: green peppers, hot peppers, tomatoes, ham, onions, and cheese. And egg yolks were bright, dark yellow, the way they should be!

Lunch menu was very similar to the dinner menu, in addition you also had a local specialties cooked right in front of you. There was also pasta available daily, but not from the fresh past “bar” like in many other resorts.

Domestic drinks, banana, strawberry, pinacolada cocktails, clear colorful, very sweet cocktails of all sorts, and rivers of light, ice cold beer. Also soft-drinks on tap, including some European variety. White and red wine available through the day, form both the buffet and bar.

If you got the munchies between the meals, the snack bar was available to serve you. The fries were thin and quite soggy; the chicken wings were supper, almost the same as KFC. Also fried tortilla chips with refried beans and cheese, hot dogs, soft bread sandwiches, hamburgers, and fresh fruit and veggies.

Rooms were cleaned daily,ours was 420 located on the second floor in the building closest to the buffet restaurant, nice ocean view, resort spread out in front of you, you could hear the disco a t night, but that was not a big deal. (one night it was very load, but they turned the music down) The décor was very nice, air in working order and quiet. After reading Carla’s review I was afraid of the tiny bugs, took Gaffer’s tape with us and Raid. The bugs were not a problem, there were some of them on the bathroom counter, but otherwise it was not a big deal. The only problem that we had was a smelly bathroom in the morning, but we took an air freshener with us, so that was solved. Plenty of hot water, (sometimes too hot) but also manageable. Never any shortage of fresh white, thick, fluffy towels. They provide soap, shampoo in a wall dispenser, small comb, shower cup, and Kleenexes. Water was available, delivered to your room in factory sealed bottles, and in the corridors from the water coolers.

If you are the adventurous type and like to see places on your travels, I recommend a trip to the Islands, 45 minutes from the resort. Try and book on your own, with a company from outside the resort, (we paid $30.00US /pp and not $45.00US /pp at the resort) and had only 5 of us on the boat plus two guides, instead if 16 +2… If you suffer from sea sickness, skip this or take a plane. When we got to the island (17 in total!) we went snorkeling in crystal waters with white sandy beaches! Large sea shells, huge starfish. Amazing! Then a quick stop at the island where local people live; cold beer, conversation using hands and feet, some Spanish and some English, different way of life.

The other excursion that we took was the hot spa trip. This we booked through the hotel at $25.00 /pp. Small bus (more like a minivan), took us to the location by the main road about 2-3km from the resort. There were the horses. Small and skinny, walking slowly up the hill, pulled by a barefoot child. The trip to the actual “spa” location took about 8-10 minutes. The walk down to the water was steep (not for older travelers) the water, clear and hot. It was quite difficult to get in, especially if you had sunburn. You can use some of the white mud from the bucket on your skin, then into the hot water again. After an hour or so of relaxing on patio chairs, with a can of cold beer ($2.00 each) we headed up the walkway, huffing and puffing… then the horses took us down the road to the main farm area. Before we left the bus, the driver asked how much time we need, not knowing how far we have to travel by horses we asked that he pick us up at 5PM. Well we were done at 4.00 and asked the guide to contact the hotel, to pick us up earlier. We were waiting around, standing for 45 minutes (there is nowhere to sit, unless you want to sit on a wet towel on grass) shooing away tiny bugs that were biting and stinging all of us. (Don’t forget your bug spray) Finally a small pick up truck with no rear barrier, showed up, and we were told that the bus was not available, but we can travel on this pick up truck. 9 of us including a 12yo were stuffed in the back and off we went. The driver seamed to forget that he had such loaded cargo area, and took off with impressive speed. That was not something I would like to do again.

Other people traveled to Le Ceiba by bus, came back disappointed. It was much better to pay $20.00 on a taxi, and spend a day driving around, you could see much more, and learn a lot as well.

Walking trip to the mountains was also quite nice (I was told) if you can handle 1.5-2.0 hours of hiking each way in the rainforest.

Before you spend all your money, put aside $30.00/pp for the departure tax.

If you considering this resort, go for it! Ours was a good vacation, we were sorry to leave. (Last year in LaRomana we could not wait to go home!)

If you’re looking for a small-scale resort, off the beaten tourist path, this is certainly an option. With only 161 rooms, the Palma Real Beach Resort offers many of the amenities of larger resorts yet maintains the friendly personal touch the larger resorts lack. Having visited Cuba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Bahamas and Mexico, we were able to compare this resort with others.

The hotel was formerly owned and operated by the Barcelo chain but is now owned by the Group Palma Real (www.grupopalmareal.com). Although built about 4 years ago, the hotel only recently opened its doors to Canadians. We were only the second group of Canadians to stay there.

Upon arrival we were greeted by the animateurs with a welcoming drink. A nice touch but check-in itself was a slow painful process. There were only two clerks at the front desk; not enough to handle the check-in of a large group of people. Upon check in we received only one room key, making things difficult for a family of four that wanted to go in separate directions. The doors were wooden and the keys were actual metal keys, not the magnetic cards that many hotels in North America now have.

The hotel itself consists of a series of buildings connected by a covered walkway. Each building only has two floors but does not have elevators making it difficult for the elderly or the disabled. The tiled stairs and hallways, although covered, had the appearance of having glass windows, but held none, making them slippery when it rained.

The rooms were comfortable and nicely decorated but lacked a small refrigerator found in most 4 star resorts. Although concrete walls divided the rooms, you could still hear someone cough in the room next door. The rooms were cleaned daily but we were always short of towels. The maids would take the dirty towels away in the morning and we would still not have any in the evening. We’d have to call a couple of times before they were brought up to us. Plumbing in the room was also bad. When it rained the toilets would back up. Not something you would expect from a relatively new hotel. The worst part about the rooms was that small insects that got into everything from clothing to purses to sealed boxes infested them.

The resort had two restaurants and a snack bar. The main restaurant served buffet style meals during limited times with a limited selection of food. Breakfast was adequate but menu items were repeated everyday. Bacon was not one of the items on the menu. Salad items and deserts seemed to be repeated every day or every other day. Even the fresh fruit selection was limited to cantaloupe, watermelon and sometimes pineapple. There was the usual assortment of fish, meat, chicken, cooked vegetables (the frozen type) and rice. They even had lobster and crab once. The soup was the tastiest of all. The bar in the main restaurant only served beer, wine, soft drinks on tap, coffee and chamomile tea. If you wanted a mixed drink you had to get it at the bar in the building that housed the disco and snack bar across the courtyard.

The a la carte restaurant was not really a restaurant. It was a makeshift restaurant on the covered stage in the building that housed the snack bar and disco. Food was warmed in the snack bar and served to you at your table. The menu itself was limited to two or three items you would have found at the buffet restaurant – only served to you. The a la carte restaurant was open only two nights a week.

The snack bar served nachos and cheese, refried beans, chicken wings & hot dogs. They also served hamburgers or chicken burgers that were precooked and warmed, with a slice of processed cheese on top, in a sandwich grill. You would end up with a luke-warm burger with cheese that was not melted. They also served a small assortment of fruit – again cantaloupe, watermelon and pineapple. By the end of the week you were tired of the food.

The main bar served mixed drinks. They specialized in certain drinks but if you requested a certain drink they were not familiar with, they would look it up in their book and attempt to make it for you.

The two pools were nice and clean, but we didn’t get much of a chance to use it as it rained most of the time we were there. December apparently is their rainy season.

The beach was nice with adequate shade and beach chairs. The sand is not the white sand we had hoped for. The ocean was rough and churned up a lot of the sand from the bottom. When you went swimming, it would get inside your swimsuit – not a comfortable feeling. We spent a lot of time just sitting in the comfortable hammocks tied to the trees, chatting with friends.

The disco played mostly local music and was not crowded. The evening entertainment was offered at a theatre at the sister property. You had to take a short tram ride to get there and the tram ran every few minutes. The entertainment itself was OK with a different show each night.

The waterpark next to the hotel was great and never crowded, but only open two or three days a week. The rest of the week it was closed for maintenance.

The resort is far from being a four start resort as published in some tour books. It certainly has potential but it needs quite a bit of work. We spent New Year’s eve 2004 here and we were not impressed at all. I hope you will find my review helpful in making your decision.

Resort layout and grouns, 6/10
§ The resort is very pretty, ocean front with the mountain behind.
§ It’s a series of 2 story houses that are all semi attached.
§ Pretty well every room had a view of the ocean which was only steps away from any of the houses.
§ The restaurant is big with a very high thatched roof. I didn't really like the chairs and tables. They were made from some kind of animal skin and didn't seem very clean.
§ It’s apparently only 3-4 years old however the buildings seemed more like 8-10 years old. In many spots the roof was coming apart. Shoddy workmanship was apparent throughout the entire resort.

Location, 0/10
§ The resort is an hour away from La Ceiba. It's literally in the middle of nowhere.
§ You cannot walk to a little town or try a restaurant close by or go shopping for cool souvenirs close to the resort.
§ You have two options to get out of the resort: take a cab which you can typically negotiate a price (typically around $15-20 US) or arrange for a ride from the tour company in the resort for $5 per person one way. Regardless, you will need to wait anywhere from 20 to 45 minutes for someone to come to pick you up. Then it's a 40-45 minute drive into town. The whole ordeal can be quite tiring.

Rooms, 2/10
§ Although the rooms are a decent size, they aren’t very clean or well maintained.
§ The room doors are wood and do not seal very well. Our door had several large gaps when it was closed and it certainly attracted bugs to our room. That seemed common with most rooms.
§ The bathroom counter was home to tons of little bugs . I kept all the toiletries stored away and sealed for fear of the bugs.
§ The towels weren’t very clean. Every day we a different color stain on at least one towel. One day I even got a towel with a small hole in it.
§ The bath tub seemed ancient; the faucets were rusty and the tub itself was pretty old and chipped. The toilet also had some rust stains on the bottom.
§ On our last day (after having rained all week) the ceiling of the bathroom started to show pretty serious water damage.

Food, 2/10
§ The butter was like Crisco, the ham was more like spam and most of the food was either undercooked or overcooked.
§ Guaranteed items on the buffet for lunch and dinner: vegetables which always consisted of broccoli, carrots and cauliflower (like the kind you buy frozen) and rice. They usually had a selection of either fish, beef, chicken, turkey, pork and mystery meat. The translations of the food never helped much. The beef was always questionable and usually pretty tough. The chicken and turkey were usually the safest bets.
§ The snack bar is also buffet style and everyday they had a different ‘special’. One day cheeseburger, one day wings, one day tacitos. They always had nachos, cheese, refried beans and french fries. The nachos were actually tortillas that were cut up and deep fried. If the fries were fresh they were decent, if not they were more like cardboard.
§ I rate the food a 2 out of 10 for 2 reasons: the fruit was always really good and for breakfast they had an omelet station (thank goodness!).
§ Breakfast is my favorite meal of the day but this resort was disappointing. No bacon, the pancakes were pretty rubbery, the syrup is actually honey, the cheese is very strange and not tasty at all. Needless to say, I had alot of fried eggs or omelets with plain toast.
§ The A la carte dinner is the same food from the buffet but served to you in small portions.

Service, 1/10
§ Almost everyone that works there tries to ignore you. I found the women were worse than the men. There were actually a couple of men the were quite nice and always helpful which is the only reason I rate the service 1.
§ Trying to get drinks during meals was next to impossible. Pretty well all the guests would just help themselves to drinks and that didn't seem to bother the waiters.

Resort Activities, 0/10
§ The ‘Animators’ were a bunch of young guys and gals that reminded me of Menudo. They try to be entertaining but they cater more to young kids (i.e. 15-20) and typically dress very provactively.
§ The nightly shows are terrible. It’s the same daily animators scantily clad and lip-synching badly to English music and prancing around doing very rehearsed dances.
§ Aside from anything the animators do, which is pretty pathetic stuff, there is nothing to keep you entertained on the actual resort.
§ There’s a Water Jungle next to the resort but it’s closed 2 or 3 times a week for ‘maintenance’. I didn’t actually get to visit it but I heard it’s nice.

Beach, 1/10
§ The beach is unswimable. It’s only good to ride the waves. Even then, you have to be prepared to walk quite a distance back to your spot and with gobs of sand in your swimsuit.
§ Could have been the time of year we went but it was extremely wavy and very unsafe for ANYONE, regardless of swimming ability. It was a chore to just try to stand in one place let alone actually try to swim.
§ We used boogie boards one day and were dragged out along the shore 600+meters away from the resort.
§ One day the green flag was out but it was still extremely wavy and lots of dirt was rolling in with the waves.
§ Aside from the boogie boards, which are very old and beaten up and not guy friendly (because they are rough and will burn your belly), and the kayaks, there are no other watersports available. The resort doesn't have a dock; bigger boats cannot pull up.

Tours, 4/10
§ The resort has an onsite tour company that is decent but overpriced and not very knowledgeable. I would highly recommend contacting Tourist Options: http://www.hondurastouristoptions.com/main_english.htm. They are a small family run operation and very helpful and accomodating. You can contact them before you go and they can call you when you get there.
§ Due to the weather, we didn't get to do alot of tours. Here's the ones we did
§ Kayak tour, Cacao Lagoon - very good. You kayak in some mangroves, see some cool birds and butterflies as well as monkeys.
§ Roatan Island - excellent! We rented scooters and had a great time. West end is the big tourist spot. Coxen Hole was pretty cool to see. The water here is excellent, warm, calm. If you're looking for a good beach this is the spot, definitely not La Ceiba.
§ Cayos Cochinos - excellent! The Garifuna village on one of the keys really blew me away!
§ La Ceiba - nothing great. It's not catered to tourism whatsoever and cabbies don't seem to know where to take tourists. We asked to see some of the city and go shopping. We took two cabs and neither one had any clue where to take us. There's apparently a nice tourist shop called Rainforest but we never actually made it there.

Weather
§ Don’t go in December. In fact, don’t go during the rainy season. It rained every single day we were there. We only had 2 days that the rain stopped long enough for us to enjoy laying on the beach for a couple of hours before it started raining again.