Central America Tourist Attractions

Central America tourist attractions include the Great Blue Hole in Belize, Poás Volcano in Costa Rica, the colonial city of Granada in Nicaragua, Panama Canal cruise, and Copán Maya ruins in Honduras.

Great Blue Hole in Belize is an underwater sinkhole just off the coast, made famous by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who called it one of the top 10 scuba diving sites in the world.

The place has gained fame for its beautiful crystal clear waters, and the species of marine life you may see on a dive, including giant groupers, nurse sharks, and various types of reef sharks.

The sinkhole, at over 984 ft (300 meters) across and 410 ft (125 meters) deep, it is the world’s largest feature of its kind, and part of the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System, which is listed as a World Heritage site by UNESCO.

More specifically, the Great Blue Hole natural wonder is part of the Lighthouse Reef System, located approximately 60 miles off the mainland out of Belize City, an easy day trip away.

Central America tourist attractions also include the Poás Volcano in Costa Rica, which is one of the most famous natural sights in Costa Rica, which as a country is famous for its nature and the many natural wonders in the country.

Poás is an active volcano in central part of Costa Rica, and there are famous crater lakes on top of it.

What has made the volcano especially popular, is that you can get all the way to the edge of the main crater, with, for example, a guided tour that leaves from San Jose, and there are marked trails that will take you to see the two additional, inactive craters.

The main attraction, the main crater is 950 feet (289 m) deep and from its edges, you can often see small geyser and lava eruptions.

Keep in mind that the park is frequently closed to visitors because of sulfuric gas emissions, so check in advance from the tour operator if the park is open.

Of the Central America tourist attractions, the colonial city of Granada in Nicaragua is the oldest colonial city in the country and the entire Western Hemisphere.

The city has gained a place as a popular tourist destination due to the idyllic colored colonial buildings and its fascinating colonial history since 1524.

The city is often called "Great Sultan of the Great Lake", being located at the northwestern shores of Lake Cocibolca, the world's twentieth largest lake.

The main highlight of the city are the finest colonial-era architecture in the country, the 6 beautiful main churches, and a boat tour to the nearby Isletas, for which boats leave from the marina at Puerto Asese.

As one of the most popular Central America tourist attractions, a Panama Canal cruise and visit is a visit to a ship canal that joins the Caribbean Sea and the Pacific ocean. The crossing of the Canal can be made on vessels from small private yachts up to large commercial cruise liners.

The Canal was build under American effort between the years of 1904–1914, with president Roosevelt appointing George Washington Goethals as the Chief Engineer of the Panama Canal construction project.

The history of the Canal is documented in two museum that you can visit, the Canal Museum at Casco Antiguo, and a second museum is at the Miraflores Locks.

Of these two, the Casco Antiguo location is more comprehensive in its scope, with the Miraflores museum (which has a great restaurant on top of the building for scenic viewing of the Canal traffic) providing a more technical approach to the Canal's history.

To do a guided cruise on the Canal, you can do either a partial crossing, which takes around four hours, or a complete crossing of Panama Canal, which typically takes around eight hours.

Copán Maya ruins in Honduras are remains of the Maya civilization that had one of the major centers in Copán over a thousand years ago, and today the location is one of the major Central America tourist attractions.

Most travelers to the area use the nearby city with the same name, Copan Ruinas, as a base, as it provides a range of hotels and other tourist facilities.

In terms of size, the ruins are smaller than the Tikal Mayan ruins in Guatemala or the Teotihuacan Mayan ruins in Mexico, but Copán has more Mayan period sculpture than any other Pre-Columbian city in Central America.

The highlights of the ruins include carved sculptures depicting ancient Mayan rulers, the well preserved hieroglyphs which include the famous hieryoglyphic stairway, and the Mayan museum, which has a reconstructed Mayan temple and artifacts.