Welcome to my next trip report, a journey I took to a city that for many years held the notorious honor of being the murder the capital of the world. This is a trip report about San Pedro Sula, Honduras.
San Pedro Sula, Honduras Trip Report
By many measures, San Pedro Sula is still a very dangerous city, though it has been edged out by a number of Mexican, US, Venezuelan, and South Africa cities over the last six years and no longer holds the distinction of being world’s most dangerous place. These days, at least statistically, you are more in danger in Milwaukee, Cleveland, Memphis, Detroit, Baltimore, and New Orleans.
This is a “lost” trip report in the sense that I took this trip during the pandemic and never wrote about it. It was a one-day trip and I am not sure why I skipped it at the time, but I want to write about it because I actually had a very nice stay.
United Airlines runs seasonal nonstop service from Los Angeles (LAX) to San Pedro Sula (SAP) and I took advantage by taking a redeye down, spending a day and night there, and then flying back. I generally prefer to visit capital cities and I had also wanted to experience the unique (and dangerous) approach at Toncontín International Airport in Tegucigalpa before all international air traffic moved to Comayagua International Airport, however the schedule and pricing worked out much better to go to San Pedro Sula.
This will be a brief trip report. I landed, went into town, checked into the Hyatt, walked around the city, had dinner, and then flew back early the next morning. Did I need more time? Honestly, not really. And yet I am very glad I went and enjoyed some great food and coffee during my visit.
We will move through this report fairly quickly with the following segments:
- United Airlines 737-800 Business Class To San Pedro Sula And Back
- Photo Essay: San Pedro Sula, Honduras
- Great Coffee In San Pedro Sula
- Great Tacos In San Pedro Sula
- Hyatt Place San Pedro Sula
- Great Coffee In San Pedro Sula Airport (SAP)
Did I feel safe? Well, my Spanish is not great (though I had to use it…not many spoke English), which always complicates matters. Were the streets a bit rough and did I get some strange stares? Yes. But I never heard gunshots nor felt particularly in danger, even when I was walking back from dinner at night through deserted streets after dark.
CONCLUSION
I love visiting new countries, even if just for a day. Thanks for reading my trip report to San Pedro Sula and my goal here is to show that “dangerous murder capitals” are not always how they appear in the news. There is much charm to this second-largest city in Honduras.
Old Orlando is pretty safe.
LOL! I’m laughing.
Yes, I meant Orleans, not Orlando. 😉
Sometimes a fella just feels like being a smart a$$.
As you note, Americans like to catastrophize foreign cities but the murder rate in much less exotic St. Louis, Missouri is almost twice as high as in San Pedro Sula, and if you’ve been to Baltimore, New Orleans, or Oakland you’ve been to more dangerous places. San Pedro Sula is about as dangerous as Chicago, which concededly also isn’t a very confidence inspiring or safe feeling city, but not one that most Americans purposely avoid.
I dont know much about the south American cities, but the US cities named are not dangerous outside of a few neighborhoods. If anybody goes to the downtown areas and feels unsafe then they need to turn off fox news for a while, and bring a pack of diapers.
St Louis is very boring but the downtown is fine
New Orleans is fine in the tourist areas, just don’t be an idiot.
Chicago is fantastic downtown and the north side neighborhoods, and just had a nascar race without incident. If any Bubba nascar fans had issues it would be plastered everywhere.
If you are from out of town and don’t know how to handle yourself just stay where the hotels are and you will be fine in any American city.
I have good friends who live in Glencoe, IL. and I have asked about Chicago safety.
They both said the touristy/business areas of the city are safe, obviously one needs to be aware of the soundings, but they both work in the city itself and both said that they don’t feel unsafe.
Now Glencoe itself is a very nice town and very safe.
@BillyBob, this is a nonsensical response. The average murder rates of these American cities are much higher than in San Pedro Sula. If your observation is that variance between neighborhoods is important, I wouldn’t contest that, but it’s no more or less true in South America than it is in North America.
The fact remains that many US cities are, on average, much more perilous than the supposedly dangerous foreign cities that Americans are scared to go. I would actually say that the statistics understate the danger to the average person in American cities because the violence is so much more randomly distributed and likely to harm innocent people, whereas most violence in Central America occurs mostly – not entirely – among criminal elements involved in the drug trade.
Do you have any clue what it like to live in a large city, or are you regurgitating talking points?
Most city crime is from gangs (drugs), why don’t you excuse that like you do in South America?
US cities are not perilous, what a chickens**t comment
Que bueno que hablas español cuando visitas latinoamerica. Espero hayas probado la sopa de caracol y la baleada.
Mi español es pobre.
Hablo solo Gringo.
Pretty much!
“This is a “lost” trip report in the sense that I took this trip during the pandemic and never wrote about it.”
The pandemic is still going on. True, fewer people are dying daily. The death rate us no longer 1 million a year but now is very roughly 100,000 per year, like 9-11 every week. That is not “pandemic over”.
If that is the measure, then we have an eternal influenza pandemic.
I have great respect for Matthew and his blog, the best in the world, but that flu pandemic statement is akin to fake news, Trump won the 2020 election, and airline ff program changes are all enhancements.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2023/05/11/us/covid-deaths-us.html
is only one of the many sources that Covid is still a major killer. Flu is not. There is no influenza pandemic. Covid is not “just like the flu”. I know a previously healthy but middle aged man who is in the cemetery due to Covid. I know a 60 year old woman who suffers from long Covid. She is not nutty or weird.
I no longer shelter on place but do travel with precautions, such as evaluating whether a trip is really worthwhile, having N95 masks available, wearing N95 on the plane, limiting indoor dining, and having paxlovid available if traveling in a foreign country with universal health care (which means they are underfunded and restrict expensive medications)(I would use it only on advice of a doctor, though). I want to live to 100. If you needlessly die at age 60, you cheated yourself of 40 years of travel.
I never said COVID and flu were the same.
But how many die from flu each year?
Far less die from influenza than Covid.
In the U.S., August 2022 2.9 thousand influenza versus 11.1 thousand Covid
In the U.S., 1/2023 5.9k influenza versus 14.8k Covid
In the U.S., 2/23/2023, 3.7k influenza versus 8.9k Covid.
Long Covid is seen a lot. Have you heard of Long Influenza? I have not.
Covid is very preventable. Masks, good behavior, vaccination. The vaccination rate for the bivalent shot is less than 20%. That means 80% are burying their heads in the sand or trust ivermectin.
Statistically more likely to die in the first quarter 2023 of Covid than to be murdered.
Statistically more likely to die in the first quarter 2023 of Covid than to commit suicide.
Statistically more likely to die in the first quarter 2023 of Covid than drug overdose.
And more likely to die of Covid than influenza.
Bottom line. Covid pandemic is not over. Many people act as though it were. Very stupid. Very Trumpian. Very AOC-ian. Bipartisan stupidity. Covid precautions are easy.
People who die from Covid are typically in the last days of their life . . . a final opportunistic infection that does in those who are already going to die. Covid is endemic, unavoidable, and part of the human condition, and rational people will ignore it like the de minimus background risk it is, while neurotic people will use it as an excuse for failing to live life to its fullest and an empty rationale for denying that right to others.
So the way you would have it, everyone would walk around with masks forever.
I have a question … doesn’t it ever get exhausting just worrying about this stuff all the time? You seem to still be planning your life around Covid (not eating out inside, not traveling in certain situations, not going into public places without an N95, carrying Paxlovid around with you). Have you assessed your paranoia with a licensed psychiatrist?
This behavior, at this stage, is just OCD and ridiculous, and for you to be on here (a travel blog nonetheless!) suggesting how people *should* behave and justifying such admittedly implicit suggestions with *numbers and facts* is emblematic of the reason why most people in this country (whether they are liberal or conservative, or whatever) roll their eyes when they encounter someone like you in a public setting.
I’m wondering if this is what happens to kids who never get invited to parties growing up: they become insufferable and pedantic nitpickers.
@ Billy Bob. ” the US cities named are not dangerous outside a few neighborhoods. ”
Baltimore had a mass shooting this weekend (28 shot, 2 killed, the majority are minors) in the Brooklyn neighborhood at the Southern end of Baltimore. As noted by the mayor it was just a blip on the news radar. Just one of the 345 mass shootings in the US this year. And even in the gentrified neighborhoods folks plywood the street facing windows thinking it protection from stray gunfire. It is depressing that as a nation we find so much violence acceptable.
Americans are likely to be more at risk for kidnapping and robbery in other countries than the random gun violence in the USA. But that’s only my opinion.
Is that downtown where a tourist or a business traveler would be?
@ Billy Bob
It is an area that is the southern gateway into Baltimore. Fells Point, Little Italy, even federal hill and the stadiums all now have their share of violence and are indeed tourist neighborhoods. Somehow we have become used to this now legacy of danger.
People who die from Covid are typically in the last days of their life . . . a final opportunistic infection that does in those who are already going to die. Covid is endemic, unavoidable, and part of the human condition, and rational people will ignore it like the de minimus background risk it is, while neurotic people will use it as an excuse for failing to live life to its fullest and an empty rationale for denying that right to others.
Hey Mak,
I lost two of my best friends from covid. East & west coast. Both were healthy and no where near the end of their lives. They were not vaccinated. I don’t judge. It was a pandemic.
Missing them each and every day
Anecdotes are not evidence. Moreover, 1) I don’t believe you, and 2) even if true it does nothing to prove that Covid poses a serious danger to the vast majority of people.
So you went to Chicago.
I went to Tegucigalpa back in ’21. My experience was similar to yours in SAP. I had an enjoyable time, never felt unsafe, got a few stares, and don’t really need to go back. I was amazed how efficient Uber was in Tegucigalpa. Everything was cheap. Food was good. Beers were cold.
I used Bolt – worked well.
Didn’t United used to have a nonstop flight from LAX? Did that get cut?
Seasonal. It’s what I took.
Chicago had ???over 70 shootings last weekend with 13 not surviving !!!But it has been going on over 3o years and it it not just in gang areas.it has gone to Michigan ave also…