The captain cuts the catamaran’s engine a few hundred meters off Half Moon Bay, right as the color drains out of the sky, and that’s the moment couples staying in West End actually book the boat for. Romance in the Bay Islands has very little to do with candlelit menus and almost everything to do with getting away from other people, on a set of islands small enough that “away” is still a short boat ride.

The best sightseeing in Tegucigalpa costs nothing but a pair of comfortable shoes and a start time before 9am, while the sun is still low enough to make the walk pleasant instead of punishing. The route, stop by stop Start at Plaza Morazan, the 1883 bronze equestrian statue of General Francisco Morazan at its center. On the plaza’s east side stands the Catedral de San Miguel Arcangel, built between 1765 and 1786; the twin bell towers and the gilded altarpiece carved by Vicente Galvez cost nothing to admire, and the door is usually open in the morning.

A snorkel boat off West End will point out sea turtles without a second thought, but ask the same captain about the “monkey and sloth hangout” up the road and the answer gets vaguer. That gap between the wildlife trip everyone recommends and the one it stays quiet about is the entire story of animal activities in the Bay Islands. The credible encounters start on Útila. The Whale Shark and Oceanic Research Center (WSORC ) runs boat surveys along the island’s north drop-off, tracking whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) rather than staging photo-ops with them.