10 Reasons to Visit El Salvador (Updated for 2024)

In the below blog post you’ll find out why El Salvador is one of my favorite destinations ever, including 10 spectacular reasons to visit El Salvador.

Have you ever gone somewhere and for some inexplicable reason it just completely captures your heart and for years after, you still find yourself thinking of and yearning for that place? Well, that place for me is El Salvador.

The ‘underdog’ of travel in Central America – the tiny country with a massive heart. I will admit that I was nervous to travel to El Salvador. After all, the newspapers and news channels tell us it’s a very dangerous place. And yes, sure, El Salvador has a very real gang problem. It has a very sad and harrowing civil war past.

But there’s so much more to this gem of a country than what you have read in a newspaper. Imagine witnessing the best sunset of your life, catching waves in some of the world’s best surf beaches, meeting the friendliest and warmest locals, imagine spending your days surfing some of the best surf in the world. Now, imagine yourself in El Salvador.

What’s El Salvador Best Known For? 

Also known as the “land of volcanoes” because it is home to 20 volcanoes, with the most popular being Santa Ana, Izalco, and Cerro Verde, located near Santa Ana. This is the guided volcano tour we booked, and I highly recommend it! It’s a full-day tour (around 9 hours long) and costs around $75 USD, which includes a guide, the national park fee, and pick-up from Santa Ana.

El Salvador is also well known for its surfing, with El Tunco, El Sunzal, and La Libertad having the best waves. In fact, surfers come from all over the world to experience the longest and most perfect waves in all of Central America. The best time to surf in El Salvador is between May to October. 

Why Do Tourists Visit El Salvador?

For the smallest country in Central America, there sure are a lot of things to do in El Salvador. From surfing in El Tunco to watching baby turtles hatch on El Cuco beach to climbing an active volcano – there’s an activity for every type of traveler in El Salvador. It’s also more off-the-beaten-track than its neighboring countries (El Salvador receives about 1.5 million tourists annually), meaning you can have an authentic travel experience here. 

Here are 10 reasons to visit El Salvador. I’ve honestly spent days thinking about how I should write this blog post because I really want to do justice for this beautiful country. It deserves a place on your bucket list more than anywhere I’ve ever been.

10 Top Reasons to Visit El Salvador

So, here we go 10 reasons to visit El Salvador (in no particular order) –

1. To witness the best sunset of your life

Honestly the best sunset you could ever imagine, beyond instagram-worthy. We witnessed this marvel in El Cuco while walking back to our hostel. The whole beach turned this magnificent burnt orange. I didn’t want it to end. Here’s a photo in all it’s unfiltered glory.

Some other top sunset-watching spots in El Salvador include Cerro Verde National Park and the Gran Zona Rosa neighborhood in San Salvador.

2. El Salvador is cheap!

Once you fork out the big bucks for the flights (honestly, from Europe it can be difficult to get a reasonable flight into San Salvador) it’s cheap as chips once you touch ground in El Salvador. A nights accommodation for two people in a small hotel will cost you approximately $20 USD, a meal can be as little as $2 USD provided you eat where the locals eat and buses from one town to the next can cost less than $1 USD.

I recommend allowing around $50 USD per day per person in El Salvador (that’s including accommodation!)

3. El Salvador is a surfers paradise

Most tourists come to El Salvador to surf & most base themselves in the little surfing town of El Tunco about an hours drive from San Salvador, with its black sandy beach, quirky little hostels and juice bars.

El Tunco has some of the best surfing conditions in the world. It’s home to some of the best surf breaks in Central America, and to me (a complete novice), surfing here looked pretty scary. The waves were huge when we visited in February! My top tip for surfing here is to respect the local surfers, don’t hog the waves and be friendly and polite.

Check out this surf tour of El Tunco, El Sunzal, and other awesome surf beaches in the area! It’s a private tour, which means you’ll have a knowledgeable local guide for you. It visits La Libertad, El Tunco, and El Sunzal beaches. Pick up and drop off is included from all San Salvador hotels and at $85 USD per person – I reckon it’s a very good deal!

Book this full-day surf tour here!

During our travels, we spent hours sitting on the beach in El Tunco, a Pilsener in hand (the local beer), watching some very talented surfers vying for attention. Of course, we had a go ourselves, but we didn’t fare too well on our own. Luckily, if you’re a beginner like us, there are lots of surfing schools along the beach.

4. To meet the friendly locals

Salvadorans were our favorite people on our entire 16-country trip, and we met some amazingly cool locals, so that’s saying a lot. Salvadorans are warm, real, and incredibly grateful that tourists are still visiting their homes. They’re even friendly enough to let you hold their fully loaded pistol (as you can see my husband doing in the photo below).

5. To stay at the best hostel we’ve ever stayed at

In the rustic town of Santa Ana in the North of El Salvador is a hostel. A hostel by the name of Casa Verde, run by the super-friendly Carlos. Casa Verde is honestly the best hostel we ever stayed at. Spotlessly clean, with a swimming pool, a rooftop terrace, a big kitchen (with lots of free spices, freshly ground coffee, etc.), and an air-conditioned TV room loaded with every movie imaginable. And if you can’t be bothered going out to a restaurant, Carlos will order take-out for you and serve it to you while you’re enjoying a movie on his massive TV.

Book a room at Casa Verde here! 

This is how it should be done (hosteliers take note). Also, worth a mention is La Tortuga Verde in El Cuco a turtle sanctuary & hostel –  a double room here costs less than $25 USD and it’s right on the beach, with your own deck area complete with hammocks, an extra-comfy bed and a spacious bathroom with a view of the coconut trees.

6. To climb an active volcano

Want to undertake a very difficult hike up a steep volcano with an armed guard? Then, head to the town of Santa Ana and just outside this town you will find three active volcanoes – Santa Ana, Izalco and Cerro Verde. This hike is still considered dangerous due to a spate of robberies on the climb and so all hikes are undertaken with a big group and an armed guard.

This volcano guided tour departs from Santa Ana and is highly recommended! It is the guided volcano tour we did, and I highly recommend it! It’s a full-day tour (around 9 hours long) and costs around $135 USD, which includes a guide, the national park fee, and pick-up from Santa Ana.

Book the same guided volcano tour that we did here!

We climbed Izalco and it’s pretty tough – first you climb down 1,300 steps to get to the bottom of the volcano then it’s a tiring hour long hike up an almost vertical slope. But it’s all worth it once you get to the top. On the south-side of the summit you can still see lava flowing down into the Pacific Ocean and steam vents are still active up top (you have to be careful where you sit as some rocks are still deadly hot).

7. Because pupusas = yum

A traditional Salvadoran dish made of a thick handmade corn tortilla and usually filled with cheese, some meat & refried beans. It is served with curtido (a lightly fermented cabbage relish) – sounds horrible but I promise it isn’t. And it’s so cheap, usually 30 cent for one. Our favorite place for pupusas was a little roadside stall in El Tunco that was run by nuns.

8. To night bike ride through the streets of San Salvador

This was one of the best things we did in El Salvador. No scrap that. This was one of the best things we did in Central America. Sure, a night bike ride through the streets of one of the most notoriously dangerous cities in the world sounds life-defying. The little local organisation who runs it –  Ciclistas Urbanos has been doing this for years, it’s more of a cycling group for locals than a tour, in fact I think we were the only tourists that night but they welcomed us with open arms regardless.

Ciclistas Urbanos meets every Thursday night to cycle a different route through the city, and some rides can be as long as 30km. There was also a police presence for the whole ride, so you’re in safe hands. We met so many fantastic locals that night, one even cycled beside me the whole time because he could see I was struggling and he even drove us back to our hostel after because my ‘legs didn’t work like they used to before’.

Other fantastic tours in San Salvador include this 3-hour guided tour city tour and this Mayan archaeological tour to San Andrès, Tazumal, and Casa Blanca (the best Mayan sites in El Salvador!) 

9. To experience somewhere off the beaten track

Because don’t follow the crowd and only backpack through Southeast Asia. Literally, every travel blogger has been to Southeast Asia; many even live there now. I adore Southeast Asia because it is a truly beautiful slice of the world, but it’s starting to get overrun by backpackers.

So, If you’re looking to experience somewhere that not many people have been to, that will garner a “wow you’ve been there” from most people you meet, then visit El Salvador. El Salvador has enough tourist infrastructure to make you feel comfortable, but then, at the same time, it’s not at all ready for tourists, and that’s kind of scary, fun, and exhilarating.

10. To get an authentic travel experience

Not having too many tourists in a country is good in a lot of ways, but mainly because it makes for a more local and unique experience. Leisure travel through El Salvador is still very uncommon; most tourists we meet are either there on business or for a short surf holiday. This means that most of the time, you have the palm-tree-lined beaches to yourself.

In El Salvador, there are no queues for that Lonely Planet-recommended restaurant. There are no Contiki tours. And you will usually always nab a room at that hotel you’ve been wanting to stay at.

Is El Salvador Safe? 

El Salvador is safe to visit as long as you’re a smart traveler – i.e. don’t wear flashy jewelery, don’t walk alone at night and don’t get public transport at night. The biggest danger to tourists is pick-pocketing, which mostly occurs on public transport or in big markets or shopping centers. Violent crime too is prevalent in larger cities like San Salvador and it’s mostly gang-on-gang crime (not targeted at tourists). 

Not once did we feel unsafe in El Salvador, and we got public transport everywhere, but we were careful and followed the above tips. 

When Should I Go to El Salvador?

The best months to visit El Salvador weather-wise are between November and April, which is El Salvador’s dry season. Average daily temperatures during the dry season sit at around 73 degrees Fahrenheit (23 degrees Celsius) in the coastal areas, and it’s a couple of degrees colder inland. And there’s very little rainfall during these months.

However, turtle nesting season runs between July and November in El Salvador, so if you’re keen to see this phenomenon, you may want to plan your visit for these months.

Thanks for reading! 

And finally, ‘no place is ever as bad as they tell you it’s going to be’. Be careful, don’t wear lots of expensive jewelry or carry around a glaringly massive camera, and don’t walk away from the main streets in San Salvador. But above all don’t be stupid, if you go looking for trouble it probably will find you. The truth is that 99.9% of the people in El Salvador are brilliant, funny, and incredibly welcoming of tourists. Please don’t let a minority and a distasteful news report turn you off visiting one of the most unique and exciting destinations I’ve ever visited.

Tell me – what did you think of my reasons for visiting El Salvador? Have I managed to convince you to meet El Salvador yet? Of course, I have! Now, when are you going to book your flights?

P.S. you can read more about our adventures through Central America (I’d really love if you did!) including 10 Reasons to visit Guatemala and Things to know before visiting Belize! 

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