Considered the most beautiful city in the Maya world, Copán is an enormous archaeological complex that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. It is famed for its sculptures, approximately 25,000 of which have been found so far. A new museum at the ruins is dedicated to displaying Copán's artistic works. Copán is also famed for its hieroglyphic staircase, which climbs more than 80 feet to the top of a temple. Only about seventy percent of the hieroglyphs, the longest inscribed text ever found at a Maya site, has been deciphered. In the grassy esplanade of the Great Plaza stands a forest of richly carved stelae, depictions of Copán ruler 18-Rabbit in the guise of various gods. The ceremonial ballcourt, with its markers shaped like macaw heads, is another impressive architectural feature of the site. At the entrance to the ruins can be found a visitor's center with a bookstore, as well as a cafeteria, the Sculpture Museum and a shop with native Honduran crafts. Excellent local guides can be hired at the visitor's center. They have received training from some of the world's leading archaeologists, epigraphers and anthropologists and have a vast store of accurate, timely and fascinating information about the archaeological site, where scientists are still conducting investigations. The guides speak Spanish, English, Italian, French and German.

You'll find plenty of other activities around the ruins that are fun for the whole family. You can explore the valley on horseback, visiting tobacco plantations and climbing up to see the Sapos sculptures, shaped like frogs, on a nearby mountain. You can float down the river on inner tubes, visit a natural Hot Springs and coffee plantations, or do some birdwatching. Two hundred and sixty bird species have been identified in the area around the ruins.

In the town of Copán Ruinas, you can visit the archaeology museum, shop for souvenirs or visit a stone carver's workshop, where replicas of Copán's famed stelae and sculptures are laboriously carved in the same local stone quarried by the Maya. You can also study Spanish in a school that offers "total immersion," with one teacher per student and lodging with a local family. There is a fine selection of hotels around Copán, in every price range, including the only hotel in Central America to make the Conde Nast Gold List of the 500 best hotels in the world.