Spanish explorers founded this community in 1667 as San Buena Ventura, but soon after independence the name reverted to Danlí, meaning "water running over sand," the moniker indigenous peoples had once given to the area. (Think "Don Lee" when you pronounce the name of the town.) About 45,000 residents—referred to as Danlidenses—call this workaday community home. At an elevation of 814 meters (2,700 feet), Danlí enjoys the same temperate climate as that of Yuscarán and Tegucigalpa.
Danlí anchors one of Honduras’s two tobacco-growing regions. (The other is Santa Rosa de Copán in the western highlands.) If you appreciate fine cigars, a visit to Danlí will be a must for you. Although the center of town still maintains its colonial charm, there isn’t much to draw you here otherwise. Instead, come for the cigar history: Danlí has managed to parlay one of its best-known products into "cigar tourism," with several of the manufacturers here offering short, informal tours of their facilities.
This is also the town that corn built, with maíz being a mainstay here since pre-Columbian times. (Johnny-come-lately tobacco arrived here only in the 1960s.) Danlí celebrates its favorite crop each year during the Festival Nacional del Maíz the last week of August.
