What comes to your mind when you think about El Salvador? Central America? The gateway between Guatemala and Nicaragua? Gangs? Murder rates? Maybe the Bitcoin? That comes to my mind too. But so much more as well! El Salvador means Pupusas, volcanoes (actually just as many as in Nicaragua, the way bigger country)! Beautiful landscapes and super friendly people. So here comes a great 1 week itinerary El Salvador:
We stayed in El Salvador for a week, which was sufficient for what we really wanted to see, however, I can also recommend 7-10 days in order to have more time for the coast and San Salvador! (Yes, you can go to the capital without being murdered!)
Itinerary
El Tunco (1 day) – Ruta de las Flores (2 days) – Santa Ana (3 days)
Day 1 – El Tunco:
El Tunco is a nice little beach town, however, from my perspective not too representative for El Salvador. You still get amazing pupusas and can watch surfers all day long, without getting bored. That is also what we did on our first day, you can just go to the beach front of El Tunco, there you will find tons of surfers. However, if you think of relaxing at the beach or learning how to surf yourself, neighbouring beaches are better, so ask around or search on Google Maps to find them.
Day 2-3 – Ruta de las Flores:
In the morning we made our way to the Ruta de las Flores: It is a route more on the countryside of El Salvador, but depending on the time of the year, you find beautiful flowers, cute little towns and great food. The route consists of several little towns, so just choose one to stay in – we found a great Airbnb in Ataco, so there we went. Find detailed descriptions on how to use public transport further down the post.
Ataco: In Concepcion de Ataco we just walked around a bit in the afternoon, exploring the cafes and the viewpoint, called Mirador La Cruz.
Juajua, Salcoatitan, Apaneca: We did these cities in one day and basically did the same like in Ataco: Walking around, trying local foods and checking out the churches, as every Latin American city (I feel like) has one church at the main square.
Other things to do on the Ruta de las Flores:
- Do a coffee tour, in Ataco there is the one called El Carmen Estate
- Waterfalls in Juajua: Do the Chorros de la calera (recommended with a guide) or a whole day trip to see Las Siete Cascadas
- Buena Vista Gardens Juayua – supposed to be a nice cafe, I think they have many flowers around
- Laguna Las Ninfas – apparently very mystic
- Ziplining around Apaneca
- Food market on the weekend in Juayua
As you see, there is LOTS to do around Ruta de Las Flores, so 2 days where good to explore a little bit, but you can easily stay 3-4 days if you have more time.
Day 4-6 – Santa Ana
We spent the afternoon on Day 4 and the morning of Day 6 in Santa Ana. The city itself is not too exciting, however, look at my food recommendations as you can have really nice food there! And you have to go to the central square to see the white church, I suddenly felt like I was standing in front of the smaller version of Sagrada Familia!
On Day 5 we went for a trip to the Santa Ana volcano. You can go by either bus or taxi. As the bus only goes at (I think) 7.30 am, we decided to share an Uber. The Uber should not cost more than 20$ (the drivers will try to negotiate). We left around 9am, however, the official tour up to the summit leaves around 9.30ish (apparently), so if you want to save some money, and only spend $3 for the tour, I recommend going there early. (The groups, however, get very big and are slow.) We arrived around 10ish, so we had to take a private guide, which was 25$ total. The hike would be easily doable without a guide, however, I am not sure if they will let you hike alone. Entrance fee to the national park is around $9 total, which you pay on 2 different stops.
Overall, the hike is very much worth it, as it takes you about 1/1.30 hours to climb to the summit and around 45min-1hour to go back, with beautiful views along the whole hike.
Food
El Tunco: Esquina los amigos is great for pupusas ($1 each, expensive for El Salvador, but still worth it)
Ruta de las Flores: Generally, just try the street food! A must is the fried Yucca, I would recommend without meat, as the taste is very strong. Also try the corn they sell everywhere!
Concepcion de Ataco:
- Geko`s coffee: Very good coffee and frappuchino.
- Pupuserias: Pupusas everywhere for 0.35$-0.5$ – can highly recommend every place honestly!
Juajuya: We sadly did not visit on the weekend, however, there is usually a food market which is apparently really good!
- Pupusas: Pupuseria Esmeralda and Pupuseria Taqueria Dona Cony (good to know: they usually open at 5pm)
- Pasteleria: Good, but very sweet cakes and biscuits, very typical for Central America
Salcoatitan:
- On the main street, in front of Lacteos Alexis there are usually very lovely women selling the best fried Yucca!
- Telo’s coffee for great coffee!
Apaneca:
- Axul Cafe: High prices, but supposed to be very good, also in Ataco
- El buen gusto: From 2 pm they also have a great variety of Yucca dishes (do not ask me why only from 2pm on hahaha)
Santa Ana:
- You find a lot of Yucca on the main square in front of the white church. There is also a lot of street food, people selling burgers, sandwiches and much more!
- The days we visited, the woman with the fried Yucca was not there for some reason, so we got our Yucca from two different places:
- Mercado Central: Just ask around, literally 5 people helped us to find the woman selling the only fried Yucca on the market for $1.
- Cannot find the name on Google Maps, but it is next to Willys Barber shop 🙂
- Breakfast/Coffee: Santein Cafe: SOOO good, honestly, a must! Banana bread and the frappuchinos are AMAZING. Prices are a little higher but still fair, they also offer breakfast.
- Next to Parque Mendenenz/Calle Libertad Pte: Do not know the name of the restaurant, but you can create your own typical El Salvadorian breakfast by choosing the ingredients as you like!
Accommodation
El Tunco: Do not book online, just go and ask for prices when you are there. Papaya Lodge is a good place to stay, AC-dorms without bunk beds, with breakfast about 15$ per person.
Ruta de las Flores: I can recommend Juayua and Ataco for overnight stays. We went to Ataco, to a very beautiful Airbnb, called Casa Pino, with great utilities. There is space for up to 4 people and costs about $45 a night (off season I think)
Santa Ana: Santa Ana apparently has a couple of hostels, however, we also chose an Airbnb this time. The Airbnb is very safe, in a guarded environment, however, I did not feel like this was really necessary. All utilities to cook, watch Netflix, do laundry and with AC.
Transport
Public transport in El Salvador is super easy. We did not encounter one single awkward situation, not even when passing through and changing buses in San Salvador.
This website is very useful for exact routes/timetables/… : https://centrocoasting.com/
El Tunco-Concepcion de Ataco: Takes about 4 hours, from El Tunco you can just go to the main street, grab a mini van bus for $1.5 to San Salvador, get out at the Estacion Ceiba de Guadalupe, cross streets and wait for the next bus to Sonsonate for 0.9$. Get off there and ask for the location for the bus to Ahuachapan. Take the bus and leave in Ataco.
Concepcion de Ataco-Santa Ana: Take the bus to Ahuachapan, it comes by right on the side of the city. From there take take the bus or minivan directly to Santa Ana.
Santa Ana-El Salvador/San Salvador Airport: From Santa Ana, we had to go to the TUDO Terminal de auto buses first. I do not know if this always is the case, nonetheless, it is easy to go by local bus, just ask them around Parque Colon if they pass TUDO. From there, you can take the bus to San Salvador, get off at Terminal de Buses de Occidente this time and take a cab ($5) to the Terminal de microbuses al aeropuerto (all stations can be found in advance on google maps). I recommend taking this one instead of going to Terminall de buses del sur, as the buses can be very crowded, especially on the weekend, and you risk not getting in anymore.
Solo travel
Solo travel in El Salvador is definitely doable, also as a solo woman. I think more than in other countries, you have to consider a couple of things: When we were there, we did not meet any tourists besides in El Tunco. However, we did not go to hostels either, so might be that you can meet other travellers there. And, if you decide to go by yourself, remember: People in El Salvador are super nice, but you will always feel better when speaking the language.
Other places to visit
El Salvador has a lot more to offer. In addition to our itinerary, here is what you could consider doing as well:
- San Salvador
- Suchitoto (cute little city)
- Lago de Caotepeque
- Conchagua Volcano (camping on top to see the sunrise)
- El Zonte (supposed to be a little less touristy than El Tunco)
- AND MANY MORE VOLCANOES
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