The 10 Best Things to Do in El Salvador

Of all the 50 countries I’ve visited – El Salvador is the country that surprised me the most. I wasn’t expecting a whole lot from my visit to the smallest country in Central America. But after spending 3 weeks here, I can honestly say that this country will forever hold a space in my heart!

El Salvador is home to some of the best surf beaches in the world (hello, El Tunco). But besides surfing, there are plenty of epic things to do here to fill your itinerary. We loved climbing the volcanoes in Cerro Verde National Park and releasing baby turtles into the ocean in El Cuco. But the most eye-opening experience for us in El Salvador was completing a night-time bike ride through San Salvador.

I’ve put together this list of 10 MUST-DO things to do in El Salvador. Of course, there are heaps more awesome activities than what I’ve included below, but I only wanted to include the very best.

The BEST Things to Do in El Salvador

1. Go surfing in El Tunco

El Tunco is a tiny beach-side town about an hours drive from the capital San Salvador. It’s predominantly frequented by surfers or yoga instructors. And the main pathway through the town is a sandy trail, not many people wear shoes here. In fact the town is so laid-back it’s horizontal. My kind of vacation destination!

Obviously, if you’ve come to El Salvador to surf, this is the place for you. 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.

There are lots of surf schools for you to choose from. But as I said, the surf can be very intense you have to be careful not to break your board. Yup, this happened to a guy in our hotel and he had to pay quite a lot of money to the surf school as a result.

One of the best tours in this area is this surf tour of El Tunco, El Sunzal and other awesome surf beaches! 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!

2. Do a night bike ride with Ciclistas Urbanos

One of the best things we did during our travels through Central America was a night bike ride through San Salvador. Sure, a night bike ride through the streets of one of the most notoriously dangerous cities in the world sounds pretty intimidating. But, the little local organization who run it –  Ciclistas Urbanos has been doing this for years. And you will feel completely safe. The only thing was worried about during the bike ride was my fitness levels!

Ciclistas Urbanos is 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.

They meet every Thursday night to cycle a different route through the city, and some rides can be as long as 30 km. There was also a police presence for the whole ride, so you’re in safe hands.

To join in this one-in-a-lifetime activity, message them on their Facebook page. And let them know you will be coming along and if you need to rent a bike. The group meets at Parque Cuscatlan at dusk, you collect your bike here.

3. Do a guided tour of San Salvador

San Salvador is consistently labeled as one of the most dangerous cities in the world but for us, we felt nothing but safe the entire time. However, I don’t recommend spending too much time in downtown San Salvador.

Instead, we based ourselves in Colonia Escalon. We stayed at the excellent Hostal Cumbres del Volcan here and highly recommend it. This a safe residential neighborhood about a 15-minute bus ride from downtown and next to the World Trade Center. About a 20-minute walk away is El Paseo, a massive shopping center filled with every store and restaurant you could imagine. Plus it has the most comfortable and well-equipped cinema I’ve ever been to.

If you do wish to explore downtown San Salvador, I recommend doing so on this 3-hour guided tour. That way, you’ll have a local guide with you at all times, and you’ll be transferred from place to place in a private air-conditioned vehicle. On this 3 hour tour you’ll stop at popular sights like Iglesia El Rosario, Catedral Metropolitana, Plaza Libertad, and the National Palace. Tickets for this cost from $40 USD per person.

4. Visit Cerro Verde National Park

About an hour’s bus journey from the city of Santa Ana, you will find three active volcanoes – Santa Ana, Izalco and Cerro Verde. Which together make up Cerro Verde National Park. Hiking up these trails is still considered dangerous due to a spate of robberies on the climb. And so, all volcano hikes are undertaken with a big group and an armed guard. This is the volcano tour we booked and I highly recommend it!

The tour departs from Santa Ana and has great reviews! It’s a full-day tour (around 9 hours long) and costs around $135 USD, which includes a guide, the national park fee, and as I said, pick-up to/from from Santa Ana hotels.

We climbed Volcan Izalco, and it’s pretty tough. First, you climb down 1,300 steps to get to the bottom of the volcano, and 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.

Your best option for exploring Cerro Verde National Park is to stay the night before the hike and the night after in the nearby city of Santa Ana. Luckily, there’s an incredible hostel here (one of the best we stayed at in Central America). Hostal Casa Verde It’s 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.

5. Stay at La Tortuga Verde in El Cuco

La Tortuga Verde is a hostel/ turtle sanctuary in the tiny beachside village of El Cuco. It’s consistently ranked as one of the best hostels in the world by Lonely Planet. It has its own restaurant, a yoga studio, a vegetarian cafe, and a swimming pool, and you can rent surfboards for a minimal fee.

La Tortuga Verde is right on the beach, so it was just a few steps onto the peaceful, rugged beach for a swim. Our private double room here came complete with a patio area and two hammocks was $25 USD a night. It was super-comfortable, spotlessly clean, with a very strong shower. In most other countries this room would cost 4 times that.

During our time here – surfed, sunbathed, swam in the pool, read a lot of books, ate a lot of tacos, and drank a lot of fresh coconut juice. Basically, we recharged our batteries for 5 full days.

Of course, most tourists stay at La Tortuga Verde for their famous turtle-release program. The owner of the resort buys the turtle eggs from local poachers, then incubates the eggs and when they hatch he releases them into the ocean. When you stay here, you may be able to watch this incredible experience. But of course it depends if the eggs have hatched or not.

Another cool thing is that you can pick up trash from the beach out front and be rewarded with a free beer. Yep, simply show your bag full of trash to the bar staff et voila – complimentary beer!

6. Relax at Lago Coatepeque

Lago Coatepeque lies just beneath Cerro Verde National Park – so you could kill two birds with one stone and do both in one day.

This lake is labelled as an up and coming Lake Atitlan by Lonely Planet and by many locals. But for me, it needs a lot of development before it can be considered in the same league as Lake Atitlan. A handful of cheap hotels dot the lake’s edge, but most accommodation is for the preserve of San Salvador’s elite.

For around $5 USD you can relax and enjoy lake access at one of the hotels on the northeast shore. $20 USD and you can rent a boat for a couple of hours. One thing Coatepeque does have on Atitlan, however, is that it’s safe to swim in its waters!

7. Explore the famed Ruta de los Flores

We used the gorgeously colorful village of Juayua (more on that below) as a base to visit the other villages on the Ruta de Los Flores, including Ataco and Apaneca. Ataco, in particular, is worth a visit or even a night or two’s stay – excellent coffee shops (serving only local coffee beans) surround the town square. Everywhere you look provides an epic panorama of the surrounding coffee fields. A local ‘chicken’ bus serves all the villages on the Ruta de Los Flores, and a one-way trip costs as little as 50c.

This full day tour brings you to all the best towns and sights on the Ruta de los Flores, we loved it and highly recommend it to all travelers who love the convenience of a guided tour. It’s a private tour which means that you’ll have the undivided attention of your tour guide. It visits the indiginous village of Nahuizalco, the Santa Teresa Hot Springs and cute town of Ataco. It costs from $125 USD per person.

8. Spend time in Juayua

I touched on it above but we really loved our few days in Juayua. This picturesque little town on the famed Ruta de Los Flores, full of cobbled streets, white-washed churches, and Spanish-colonial-looking buildings. Don’t be fooled by it’s size, Juayua is a bustling town during the day, filled with day-tripping tourists and visiting rural locals.

Every Sunday, a unique and crowd-pleasing Food Festival is held in the town’s Parque Central. Serving everything from fried iguana and guinea pig to the more traditional pupusa’s. Live music fills the streets, and the locals dance until the sun goes down.

Our favorite restaurant in El Salvador is located here – Restaurante R&R which serves up yummy BBQ-style meats and more.

In Juayua, we stayed at Hotel Juayua and we loved our time there. It’s got a lovely garden, an outdoor pool and epic mountain views. Our room was cozy and decorated in a traditional-style and their breakfast every morning was awesome. We can’t recommend it enough!

9. Visit Cascadas de Tamanique Waterfalls

The Cascadas de Tamanique Waterfalls are a short distance (around 16 km) from the surf town of El Tunco, and during our stay there, we did a guided tour to this stunning waterfall and were so glad we did. It’s so picturesque here – the waterfalls (there are 4 of them here) are surrounded by lush vegetation and rugged rocks. And the water in the pools below is an eye-catching emerald-green color. You can even swim in the pools below the falls.

The Tamanique Waterfalls are situated on private property, so the best way to get to the falls is on a guided tour like this afternoon tour from El Tunco. It’s the one we did, and we loved it – our guide was so knowledgeable about the area and the flora and fauna here. It’s a stress-free way to explore these stunning falls as it includes return transport from El Tunco and your entrance fee. It costs from $35 USD per person.

10. Wander through Mayan Ruins

The Mayan Ruins in El Salvador are less-visited than their counterparts in neighboring countries like Mexico and Guatemala – but that only adds to their appeal. As they’re less-crowded and if you visit at the right time you may have the ruins completely to yourself!

San Andres is a former regional capital city was once home to a population of around 12,000 people at its peak. Many of the ruins have yet to be excavated fully here. But the most impressive structures at San Andres include the Acropolis complex and La Campana, the tallest pyramid in the complex which unfortunately can only be seen from a distance. The grounds here are a popular spot with locals at the weekend – with many arriving with a picnic.

The country’s most impressive pre-Columbian ruins is Tazumal, which is located around 80 km from San Salvador. What’s left of this former powerful Mayan city is a low-key complex with an impressive ceremonial pyramid- it looks a little similar to the mighty Teotihuacan in Mexico and a pelota court.

One of the most highly recommended tours from San Salvador is this Mayan archaeological tour to San Andrès, Tazumal, and Casa Blanca (the best Mayan sites in El Salvador!) It’s a full day tour and costs around $95 USD per person.

The Best Time to 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.

How Many Days Do You Need in El Salvador?

I recommend spending a minimum of 2 weeks in El Salvador. That way, you’ll have enough time to relax (or go surfing) on epic beaches like El Tunco, go hiking up a volcano in Cerro Verde National Park, and explore the country’s capital city, San Salvador. With two weeks in El Salvador, you should also have enough time to go off the beaten path a little and watch turtles hatching on El Cuco Beach and explore the colorful towns along the Ruta de los Flores!

Thanks for Reading!

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! 

Last Updated on December 12, 2024 by snaphappytravel