How To Spend 4 Days in El Salvador
El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America and one of the first to be overlooked, especially with its previous history of being unsafe.
I was surprised to find that the situation had changed quite a bit. Although I spent the time with a friend who was from the area, we both had the opportunity to play tourist and try some of the country’s main attractions which include surfing beaches, waterfalls and volcanos similar to Costa Rica (which is a lot more common as a tourist destination). While there are options to take the bus and other local transportation we opted to use Pacifico Rent A Car for a rental vehicle that allowed us to travel at our own pace.
So, for those planning to rent a car, here is an itinerary example you might follow.
Day 1
Since we had taken an overnight flight, we started our day with a stay at a resort close to the international Airport of El Salvador airport called Estero y Mar. The hotel wasn’t a 5-star Mexico resort by any means, but had a good view of the ocean and a nice set up.
Although it wasn’t an all inclusive, breakfast was part of the price and the property had several pools. Again, if you don’t want a beach day you can skip this activity and start your journey early.
Here was the view off of one of the balconies overlooking the beach.
Day 2
After you are feeling well-rested, you can kick off your second day with a journey to Ruta De Flores. To start you might choose to begin your day with a coffee tour at El Carmen, which is a plantation and resort that offers a couple of great tours for coffee lovers. While I didn’t have a chance to check out the resort for myself, I would recommend this as an alternative to those who might want to skip the beach day.
El Carmen workers roasting the coffee beans.
We ended up doing the Traditional Tour due to a communication error, where they took us around the mills and showed us how the coffee was processed from berry to bean. We also had the opportunity to taste test the coffee, using a spoon to scrape off the grounds and tasting the coffee by the spoonful. The tour was about an hour in length and cost 10 USD. After which we set off to Ruta De Flores.
Day 3
On day 3, you might need to take a short drive to Volcán Santa Ana if you choose to stay in one of the large cities like Santa Tecla. We started this day early beginning our hike of the famous volcano creator at 9:30, and returning at 2:30 five hours later (including a break at the top).
The total pricing for a tourist is $3 at the bottom and another $9 a little ways up on the hike which we paid in cash. This is in additional to a $1 charge for parking. The hike was awesome and there was a local selling popsicles for $1 many of which were local fruit flavours.
Recommendations
The only thing I would say was missing from this trip were visits to local waterfalls. The top recommendation I have is Tamanique. It is worth noting that this waterfall has a steep up and down, so if you aren’t much of a hiker it sounds like this might not be the way to go.
Have you been to El Salvador? If so, what else is missing from the itinerary? Let us know in the comments!
