Maya Vista Hotel & Restaurant

The rooms at Maya Vista sit at different levels, none sharing a floor, reached by zigzagging staircases that thread between patios, terraces and a rooftop bar. The hotel is built up through the trees on a hill above Tela, on Honduras's Caribbean coast, and every one of its nine rooms and apartments keeps a private balcony facing the sea. Air conditioning, cable TV and Wi-Fi are standard. Glass doors in several rooms frame the water directly from the bed. Downstairs, an open-deck restaurant serves seafood and pasta with a Canadian and Honduran hand, a legacy of the hotel's two Canadian owners, Daniel and Pierre, who run the place personally and speak English, Spanish and French. The kitchen works from a small original pool one floor below, where guests can also lounge in hammocks on a shaded patio. Above it all, a rooftop bar catches a full 360-degree sweep of Tela Bay and the hills behind it, open Tuesday to Sunday into the evening for sunset drinks and, later, a clear run of stars. It is a short walk from the centre of Tela and about two blocks from the beach. Private parking, laundry and a massage room round out the practicalities, and day trips to Punta Sal, Punta Izopo and the Lancetilla Botanical Garden can be arranged straight from reception.