Are the Caymans, Turks and Caicos and the Virgin Islands getting too expensive? There are a group of Caribbean islands off the east coast of Honduras where the prices are a lot lower, the lifestyle a bit more relaxed and the natural setting every bit as gorgeous.

White, coral "flour" beaches, turquoise, azure and sapphire blue waters and pristine coral reefs grace all the Bay Islands of Honduras but otherwise, the three main islands vary quite a bit. Utila is the flattest, but it is ringed by some of the deepest coral reefs and has the best diving. Roatan has a high rocky spine of uplands, making it the most visually exciting. Guanaja, which Columbus called the Island of Pines, is still well blanketed with trees.

There's great fishing and sailing but diving is the main attraction here. Reefs can be close enough to wade to, but there are also corals walls that plunge down to the depths and hold a variety of coral colonies and soft sponges. The waters teem with colorful fish.An added advantage for Americans is that, unusually for this Spanish-speaking nation, the lingua franca in the Bay Islands is English.