Split the trip between coast and volcanoes, under an hour apart. La Libertad is the surf base, with Punta Roca below town and El Tunco and El Zonte just west. Santa Ana sits under the Ilamatepec crater with Lake Coatepeque below, and the Ruta de las Flores runs south through Juayúa and Concepción de Ataco. San Salvador has the museums and Romero's tomb, and Suchitoto is an easy overnight. With ten days, go east to Perquín and La Unión.
1 El Salvador city guide
Fun fact
Joya de Cerén, north-west of San Salvador, is the only ordinary farming village in the Maya world to survive. The Loma Caldera eruption buried it in ash around AD 600, sealing houses, fields and a meal on the fire. UNESCO listed it in 1993, the country's only World Heritage site.
Stereotypes, sorted out
The realityVisitor numbers say otherwise: 3.9 million foreign arrivals in 2024, and homicides down steeply since 2015. The caveat is the state of exception in force since March 2022, which suspends some constitutional guarantees and is criticised for mass arbitrary detention. Read your government's advice.
The realityIt is the one Central American country you can see from a single base. The coast is under an hour from the capital, Santa Ana and the flower route under two, Suchitoto about ninety minutes. Only the far east needs a second bed. Backpackers rush it because the bus route makes that easy.
The realityEl Salvador swapped the colón for the dollar in 2001, which ends the exchange question and leaves local prices alone. Comedores, pupuserías, buses and small hotels are priced for local wages, and the country is cheaper than Costa Rica or Panama. Bring small bills.
The realityIt is mostly dark volcanic sand, rock and cobble, and that is what makes the surf. Punta Roca is a long right-hander over rock, with a World Surf League tour event every year since 2021. The sandy stretch is the Costa del Sol east of the capital. Shore breaks are heavy in places.
The realityA pupusa is a thick corn or rice cake with the filling worked into the dough before it hits the griddle. Cheese, beans and chicharrón are the standard three, revuelta is all of them, and loroco with cheese is the one to try. A 2005 decree made it the national dish.
How to get it right
- Pupuserías are an evening habit. Many open late afternoon and cook to order, so a queue is a good sign and a wait of fifteen minutes is normal.
- Curtido and salsa arrive with the pupusas and are not extra. Take the curtido with your fingers or the spoon in the jar, and eat the pupusa with your hands.
- Buses stop where people are, not only at marked stops. Say your destination as you board, keep small coins ready, and be aware that most services wind down well before dark.
- Óscar Romero is not a tourist attraction to locals. The cathedral crypt and the chapel where he was shot are places people still come to pray, so keep your voice down and your camera low.
- Ask before photographing anyone, especially in the flower-route towns, where the murals draw a lot of lenses and the residents live behind them.
- The greeting is unhurried. Buenos días before the question, not after it, in a shop, a bus office or a police checkpoint alike.
Famous Salvadoran faces
Óscar Romero
Salarrué
Claudia Lars
Prudencia Ayala
Manlio Argueta
Alberto Masferrer
Álvaro Torres
Bryan Pérez
Jorge "Mágico" González
Roque Dalton
Fernando Llort
Consuelo Suncín de Saint-Exupéry
Julia Díaz
Camilo Minero
Mauricio Cienfuegos
José Matías Delgado
Nayib Bukele
Must-try Salvadoran food
Sopa de pata
Cow's foot and tripe simmered with corn, plantain and yuca. A thick weekend soup.
Mariscada
The coast's big shared dish, a creamy soup of shrimp, crab and fish.
Quesadilla salvadoreña
Not the Mexican dish. A dense sweet cheese loaf topped with sesame, eaten with coffee.
Pupusa revuelta
Cheese, refried beans and chicharrón in one griddled corn cake. The default order.
Pupusa de queso con loroco
Cheese and loroco, a vine flower bud that tastes faintly of artichoke. Found only here.
Curtido
Lightly fermented cabbage, carrot and onion with oregano and vinegar. Free with pupusas.
Tamales de elote
Fresh corn steamed in its husk, sweeter and softer than a Mexican tamal, with cream.
Yuca frita con chicharrón
Fried cassava under fried pork and curtido, sold at markets and fairs.
Pan con pollo
A crusty roll of slow-cooked chicken, salad and a thin spiced sauce. Evening street food.
Riguas
Corn pancake grilled in banana leaf, sold on the flower route with cream or beans.
Cóctel de conchas
Black mangrove cockles served raw with lime, onion and chilli. Order it at the market.
Empanadas de plátano
Ripe plantain wrapped round milk custard or beans, fried and rolled in sugar.
Atol de elote
Warm, thick drink of fresh corn, milk and cinnamon, ladled from a pot at markets.
Horchata de morro
Toasted morro seeds with cacao and spices, darker and nuttier than Mexican horchata.
Salvadoran coffee
Bourbon and pacas from the Apaneca and Santa Ana ridges, picked November to February.
