Salvador: Travel Journal of Central America's Smallest Giant

El Salvador is the country nobody ever puts on the list. And that's exactly why you should go.

San Salvador: a capital without a filter

San Salvador doesn't try to please tourists. The city is noisy, dense, alive. My first reflex was to flee to the volcanoes. My second was to come back. The historic center — the Catedral Metropolitana, the Palacio Nacional, the Mercado Central — tells the story of a country that rebuilt itself after a civil war, earthquakes and hurricanes. And keeps going.

The Zona Rosa district in Colonia San Benito concentrates the restaurants and galleries. The MARTE (Museo de Arte de El Salvador) is worth the detour to understand Salvadoran artistic identity. But it was at the Mercado Central that I understood the country: pupusas at 0.25 USD, unlimited coffee, and a contagious energy.

The Ruta de las Flores: El Salvador's highland garden

The Route of the Flowers is the most photogenic stretch of the country — a mountain road between Sonsonate and Ahuachapán crossing five colonial villages perched between 1,000 and 1,500 meters altitude. Juayúa hosts an open-air food festival every weekend. Ataco has its walls covered in street art and its highland cafés. Apaneca, at 1,450 m, is the starting point for hikes to the Laguna Verde and the coffee plantations.

All within 36 km. It's the density that strikes you — in El Salvador, everything is close, everything is concentrated.

The volcanoes: the country's backbone

El Salvador is the land of volcanoes — more than twenty, lined up like a spine from east to west. Santa Ana (Ilamatepec, 2,381 m) is the highest and most spectacular. The crater holds a lake of unreal green, with sulfur fumaroles. A 4h round-trip hike with a mandatory guide (10 USD). I went on a Sunday morning: the trail was full of Salvadoran families.

The Cerro Verde offers a panorama of three volcanoes at once (Santa Ana, Izalco, Lake Coatepeque). The San Salvador volcano (El Boquerón) is 30 minutes from downtown — a 1.5 km wide crater with a mini-volcano inside.

El Tunco and the Pacific coast

El Tunco is El Salvador's best-known surf village — and one of Central America's best spots for intermediate surfers. Consistent waves year-round, warm water, lodging for every budget. The village has kept its bohemian feel despite growing popularity.

Further east, El Zonte is calmer and more authentic. This is where the Bitcoin Beach experiment started in 2019. You can still pay for your coffee in satoshis. Beyond the anecdote, the village is a good base to discover the Salvadoran Pacific coast — black volcanic sand beaches, spectacular sunsets, 2 USD fish tacos.

Suchitoto: the colonial pearl

Suchitoto is El Salvador's colonial town — cobblestones, an 18th-century white church, art galleries, views over Lake Suchitlán. It's also a place of memory of the civil war (1980-1992), with murals and a museum that hide nothing. The town is 1h30 from San Salvador and deserves at least two nights.

Lake Suchitlán is a migratory bird reserve. In season (November-March), hundreds of species can be observed. Boat trips cost 10-20 USD and pass islets where fishing communities live.

For practical information (budget, formalities, transportation), consult our Practical Guide to Salvador. For the day-by-day itinerary, our El Salvador itineraries guide.

Plan your trip Toucan Discovery Dynamics — your trip, your pace.

Have a good trip!