Anything to do in San Pedro Sula?

[MN Lakeman]

My dive buddy & I are flying in to San Pedro Sula from Houston via Continental, arriving 11:30 and departing on TACA 5pm to Roatan. Would it be worth our while to take a taxi f/ the airport into town? If so, 'anything to do or see for a few hours?

 

[DeepBlueResort]

There is a shopping center and a very good market but please do be aware that San Pedro Sula is a central american country do be aware of yourselves stay in the main areas do not venture out at night

 

[Cudabait]

My dive buddy & I are flying in to San Pedro Sula from Houston via Continental, arriving 11:30 and departing on TACA 5pm to Roatan. Would it be worth our while to take a taxi f/ the airport into town? If so, 'anything to do or see for a few hours?

Stay in the airport...take a nap. SP can be a little dangerous. Especially if you look like a tourist.

regards,

 

[GoProHonduras]

My dive buddy & I are flying in to San Pedro Sula from Houston via Continental, arriving 11:30 and departing on TACA 5pm to Roatan. Would it be worth our while to take a taxi f/ the airport into town? If so, 'anything to do or see for a few hours?

I'd recommend the Mega Plaza to burn a few hours, I've done it many times and can still post on these forums.

If it's day time you're generally safe, do these 3 steps;

Take a taxi wherever you go.

Don't walk aimlessley.

Don't flash wealth.

I do exactly the same whether I'm in San Pedro Sula, LA, Miami, London or Barcelona.

It's that simple!

Enjoy because for those that venture out the airport SPS actually has some class!

Andy

 

[parrotheaddiver]

My dive buddy & I are flying in to San Pedro Sula from Houston via Continental, arriving 11:30 and departing on TACA 5pm to Roatan. Would it be worth our while to take a taxi f/ the airport into town? If so, 'anything to do or see for a few hours?

I agree with Cudabait. We had to spend the night in San Pedro de Sula and thats a long story. We were were going to take a cab to our hotel and we met a nice American couple on the plane who live there (his work sent him there) and advised us not to do that. They said they would take us to the hotel it would be safer. The kindness of strangers. They piled us and our dive gear in their Ford Explorer with their two kids and took us to the hotel.

It was kinda scary. Imagine the bad part of any large city. I am sure there are some wonderful places but if you have never been there and do not know the area IMO I would not go wandering around. The airport is out from the main part of the city. Like Cudabait said take a nap. Or bring a book.

 

[MN Lakeman]

My dive buddy & I are flying in to San Pedro Sula from Houston via Continental, arriving 11:30 and departing on TACA 5pm to Roatan. Would it be worth our while to take a taxi f/ the airport into town? If so, 'anything to do or see for a few hours?

Thanks for all your great responses - I think we'll plan on being on the cautious side & remain at the airport (maybe a nice LONG lunch & few :beer_yum: ) Besides, I really don't think we want to lug all our dive gear around town - day OR night.

 

[Dee]

Next time go for a non-stop flight from Houston to Roatan and avoid SPS altogether!

 

[MN Lakeman]

Next time go for a non-stop flight from Houston to Roatan and avoid SPS altogether!

For a zillion reasons I wanted to Dee, but my buddy works weekends (for the airlines) & could only get one weekend off, not to mention his stand-by flying status out of Minneapolis. His experience has shown flying on Tuesdays is his best bet to get on board ('gotta have my dive buddy with! :colgate: ). Direct flights only on Saturdays (bummer). BTW - after reading many posts on TACA, any advise on making sure the check-on's make it f/ SPS to RTN? So far the best advice I've picked up is to pack two "light looking bags" rather than one heavy one, & label RTN & my resort all over the place. My TACA air ticket indicates specifically a one way flight, but I've read again, from other posts, that they will on a whim make other stops?? :shakehead

 

[DiversMom]

I'd recommend the Mega Plaza to burn a few hours, I've done it many times and can still post on these forums.

Andy

Mall MultiPlaza is a much nicer mall - complete with Cinnabon, KFC, Burger King, Pizza Hut, a bilingual bookstore (magazines are available in English here), Camelot Music, Ace hardware, Carrion department store and an American style, stadium seating 5 screen movie theater. It's also across from Sears (which here in Honduras is basically tools, home and garden, auto) Mega Plaza pales in comparison. Excellent restaurants abound in the city. The central park is nice (pretty fountains, a gazebo, across from the cathedral) and patrolled by San Pedro municipal police, many of them are English speaking or can get in touch with an English speaking supervisor.

One thing with the mall - your carry on baggage will have to be left with security at every store you enter. It's something to think about when deciding if you want to go into town.

Taxi fare into town on 16 August (when I returned to Honduras from the US) was $10. So....plan on $20 for the cab fare in to town and back to the airport- that's per cab, not per person.

It's like any other large metro area - be aware of your surroundings andyou'll have little or no problems.

 

[DiversMom]

There are things to do -a few museums, the malls (Multiplaza is the better one IMHO), some nice restaurants, the central plaza is nice (nice fountains, gazebo, cathedral) but it people need to decide if they want to spend $20 on the roundtrip taxi ride into town.

You'll have to check your carry on luggage with virtually every store when you enter the shop. The security guard will take your luggage and give you a claim check.