Danli

Danlí sits in the tobacco valleys of El Paraíso and is where much of Honduran cigar production happens, in factories that roll for their own brands and for export houses. Several take visitors through the sequence: curing barns, fermentation, sorting by leaf, rolling at the bench and the boxing room. The town itself is ordinary Honduran market town, and its other claim is the Festival del Maíz in August, several days of parades and food built around corn.

What you actually see

• The cigar factories - curing, fermenting, rolling and boxing, followed end to end.
• The rolling benches - torcedores working by hand at speed, the part everyone watches.
• The tobacco fields - the valleys around town under shade cloth and drying barns.
• The corn festival - the August Festival del Maiz, the town's biggest event.

When to go

November to April is the driest. The tobacco harvest runs roughly January to March, when the barns are full. Factory visits are arranged in advance; most do not take walk-ins.

Honest expectations

Factories are working businesses and access is by arrangement, not right. Photography inside is sometimes restricted. Buying at the factory is possible but export limits on tobacco apply at your destination.

Nearby

Yuscaran is west on the road back to the capital, and the Nicaraguan border is southeast.