5 Best Places to Shop in Honduras

The huge downtown market, Mercado Central. is the biggest and most colorful in the country. Pickpockets like the crowds, so be on your guard.

The chaotic Mercado Ex-Cuartel seems to go on forever. Prices here are slightly higher than in the local villages (where most of the crafts come from), but it's a great place to stop for last-minute ceramics, textiles, hammocks, and more.

Just what you’d expect from a city market, with throngs of vendors hawking produce, various home goods, and other inventory. There’s plenty of lively conversation and examination to determine which is the ripest fruit or the best-priced meats, providing many photo opportunities of true local culture.

The rows of stalls at the Mercado Nacional de Artesanías are where you can find handicrafts from all over El Salvador (and some from Guatemala). This is one-stop shopping for ceramics, hammocks, and just about anything else you can imagine. It's open every day except Sunday from 8 to 5.

Only if you're feeling extremely intrepid, you can check out the capital's largest market, the enormous labyrinth of the Mercado San Isidro in the Comayagüela district across the river from downtown. The upside is everything—and we mean everything—is for sale here in quantities large and small. (This is the kind of place where you could buy just one safety pin.)

The big downside is that tales of pickpocketings and purse snatchings are legion, although they are less likely to happen in the market building itself than in the surrounding streets.

If you go—and consider carefully whether you want to—take a taxi to and from and take nothing of value with you.

If you're hell-bent on seeing a local market and are able to spend a half day outside the city, Valle de Ángeles's

is a much safer and calmer experience.