4.5 Ultimate Days in El Salvador

If you’re looking for a country to visit for a long weekend, El Salvador is the perfect country to do so! I was able to sightsee and do a good amount of activities during my 4.5 days there! I went to El Salvador during Memorial Day weekend on Volaris airlines for $214.22 from New York City to San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador. This long weekend trip was completely jampacked. I didn’t even get to sleep on the first day after my overnight flight so it may not be for the fainthearted looking for a relaxing time 😉 But El Salvador is so compact and small with a reliable bus system and Uber that goes everywhere which allowed it to be very budget friendly!

Day 0 – Thursday, May 23, 2024

I logged off from work at 5PM to do some last minute packing. Then I head off to JFK Airport at 8PM by subway to catch my Volaris flight at 2:19AM with only my backpack as a personal item. This flight is truly a steal, this may be the cheapest international roundtrip flight I’ve ever bought!

Day 1: Airport > San Salvador > Santa Ana > Tazumal (Chalchupa) > Santa Ana

When my flight arrived around 5AM…obviously, I didn’t get any sleep. I paid the $12 migration fee at immigration and then exited out of the terminal. El Salvador uses the US dollar and as a US citizen, this couldn’t have made things more convenient! No need to worry about currency exchange losses and leftover cash before leaving.

Most important item I need before I leave the airport is a SIM card. There is no SIM card booth inside the airport. When you exit, walk to your left and there are a few shops. It’s surprisingly busy at 6AM.

Go to the Tiendita booth right next to the Nostalgia restaurant and they have a Claro sim card. I got the cheapest one with 7GB data for $15 and it lasts for 30 days.

You can wait until you get to the city to get the SIM card and it could be cheaper…but I like to hit the ground running without getting lost and be connected ASAP!

After I got my SIM card, I exited out of the airport and walked on the pathway that leads to the parking lot. You have to walk across the parking lot to get to the road where you can catch a local microbus #132. The bus ride is 60 cents and takes about 1.5 hours to get to the center. Make sure you have get some coins or $1 bill for change. You can also take an Uber for $10 and it’ll arrive in an hour if you want to be comfortable.

Since I caught this bus very early in the morning, it also made a couple of stops to pick up people going to work. I arrived to the center at 7:30AM and was dropped off right here. If you also want to catch the same bus to head back to the airport from the city center, you can go to the parking spot right here.

I walked around the city center for a bit and went inside the church. Since I’m returning to San Salvador on my last day, I’ll leave the rest of the sightseeing of the capital until then. I went to grab breakfast at a restaurant called blank. I tried 2 shrimp pupusas and horchata for $. The man greeting me at the restaurant was also very friendly and tried to tell me which bus to catch to go to the Terminal Oriente. Unfortunately I didn’t see a 3T bus passing by and just took an uber moto for $4 to go to the terminal. If anyone has any tips on which bus to go to Terminal Oriente from the center, please comment below 🙂

At the terminal, I paid $1.00 to take a bus to Santa Ana. Santa Ana is a good city to base oneself in to see the other highlights nearby like Tazumal, Lake Coatepque, and Santa Ana volcano. The bus stayed for a few minutes before heading out of the terminal. It took 1.5 hours to reach Santa Ana. I recommend getting off the moment it reaches near the terminal/center. I didn’t get off until it kept going further left out of Santa Ana and then had to take an uber to get back to the center.

My uber dropped me off at Rick’s Hostel at noon. I checked in and took a shower and even rested on my bed for half hour. I still had half a day left for sightseeing and then took the bus #000 at 2PM heading westward to Tazumal. Tazumal is an archeological site at Chalchuapa, which is a small town nearby Santa Ana.

I got off at the block closest to Tazumal and walked for a few more minutes before arriving to the entrance. The entry fee for foreigners is $5. It really doesn’t take long to look around Tazumal. You basically just walk around the pyramid and it takes about half hour. There is a step where you can go up and see from the top. Tikal in Flores, Guatemala is much more impressive. I buy some souvenirs from the shops in front of Tazumal.

I take a walk to the Casa Blanca Archaeological Site. You can take a shortcut to it by walking through the market. I thought I wouldn’t have enough time to see Casa Blanca at 430PM because closing time is 5PM. They stayed opened longer for me and won’t close until you leave.

I’m so glad I went here! The sights are spread out here so there is a bit of walking around to see the archelogical sights. Even if you’re alone, it’s safe inside. I ended up meeting another travelling while walking around!

After Casa Blanca, I explored around Chalchuapa and we walked to a lake nearby. It’s a nice hidden lake for locals to hang out. We looked for a minute then headed on walking to the town center.

While Chalchuapa isn’t necessarily a tourist highlight, it was nice to check out the local vibe. I don’t think I would’ve explored here if I wasn’t with someone. We didn’t stay for long and made our way back to Santa Ana by catching the same bus at 6PM. Whew, glad we weren’t stranded…as that’s usually my concern with getting back to town before the last bus.

When we arrived back to Santa Ana, we walked around trying to look for a restaurant that would suit both of us. We had dinner at Pupuseria Rosarita…you might think it’s a stretch, but it was literally the bus pupusas I had in my life. While most gringos recommend going to Pupuseria etc, I recommend walking further out of the center and going here instead. There were a lot of locals eating there and they had so many options for pupusas. And the curtido was so good too as they had the onion and cabbage options.

After dinner, we walked back to the center to check out the evening vibe of the center. At this point I was quite tired and went back to my hostel. I had an hour to relax before joining the bar crawl. So basically I’m surviving on adrenaline and beer at this point.

During the bar crawl, we went to 3 different locations. The first one was a secret bar, second bar was blank, then the 3rd one was a club with Latin music. I stayed at the club until midnight and then called it quits as I had to get up really early tomorrow to go to Santa Ana volcano. There was one local man that was really annoying and persistently kept asking stupid questions to get my number. He kept doing it with our group of foreigners so I was glad to be out of there.

Day 2: Santa Ana volcano > Lake Coatepeque > Santa Ana

I got up at 6AM to prepare my trip to Santa Ana volcano even though I had about 5 hours of sleep. The bus departing to Santa Ana volcano leaves at 740AM so you have to get to La Vencedora terminal in Santa Ana before then and wait there. You’ll see many other backpackers waiting there as well.

I got onto bus #209 for 70 cents and it took about 2 hours to arrive to the volcano entrance even though it wasn’t that far. The bus had a few stops along the way.

If you happen to oversleep and miss the 740AM bus, I think you can catch another bus. The other traveller that I met managed to catch a bus even when he overslept!

At the entrance, there are guides waiting and you have to join a group to go up the volcano. The entry fee is $5 and the guide is $5. The hike takes about 1.5 hours. If you are moderately fit, you should be able to hike the trail without issue but it is tiring to go up. It’s not a leisurely stroll.

When we reached the top, there were some men selling popsicles. The lake at the crater is bright green and best seen when it’s not cloudy. It had a slightly sulfurous smell like rotting eggs. After 10-15 minutes up there taking pictures, the guide called us to start heading back down in time for the 1PM bus to go back to Santa Ana, otherwise you’d have to wait for the 4PM bus. The bus actually arrived at 115PM.

After visiting the volcano, I also wanted to visit Lake Coatepeque. I was worried about how I was going to get there besides using uber. Apparently you can get there from Santa Ana or in El Congo by bus #000. Luckily the group I was with was also planning to go there so I joined them! We got off al El Congo, which a small town near the lake. Someone who spoke Spanish in our group got us a taxi for $10 to split amongst us (so $2 per person) to go to Captain Morgan’s at the lake.

Entry to Captain Morgan was $5 and it included a beer drink. We hung out there until 5PM relaxing and even got $1 pupusas from the road near the hostel.

There is bus #000 to go back to Santa Ana but I think the last one is at 5PM…you may have to ask about that. We hitchhiked onto a truck carrying a bunch of gas tanks which dropped us at El Congo. It was quite the ride and the tanks were banging and rolling on the dirt road. It was smooth sailing once the truck was on the asphalt road. Then we took a bus back to Santa Ana for 70 cents.

Honestly, if the hassle and cost of going to Lake Coatepeque is too much, you’re not missing out if you can’t go on a short time especially if you seen Lake Atitlan in Guatemala. You kinda see it in the distance while the bus passes by to Santa Ana volcano. But if you do have a chance to go, I recommend it as it’s a nice lake to unwind! I also don’t think it’s worth the hassle of staying there overnight. It’s better to be based in Santa Ana where it’s convenient as there isn’t anything around the lake.

After a long day, I got back to my hostel around 6PM and rested a bit before heading out for a late dinner. I met up with the travel friend from yesterday and we had dinner at ____. Here is our paradilla for $30!

Day 3: Santa Ana > Juayua > Nahuizalco > Juayua

After staying at Rick’s Hostel for 2 nights, I check out on Sunday morning. My bus to Juayua leaves at 11?? AM so I had an hour left to explore Santa Ana during the daytime. I went to the Santa Ana church to observe Sunday mass.

I catch my bus to Juayua at the terminal. The bus ride takes 1.5 hours to Juayua. I check into my lodging and go to the Food Festival right in the center of Juayua. Juayua is a small town to base is the start of Rutas de Flores. Rutas de Flores consist of Juayua, Ataco, Ahuachupa, etc.

At the food festival, there were many stalls selling grilled meats. I got this for $3 which consisted of fried pork, smashed, yuca, cabbage, and an ensalada drink for $1. I also tried this fried corn snack for $1? There was also live music at the square.

I tried walking to the waterfall around 4PM but didn’t feel so comfortable going there alone so late. To be honest, nothing would’ve happened since everyone needs a guide to go inside. Anyway I saved it for tomorrow to do.

Besides the food festival in Juayua on weekends, there is also a night market in Nahuizalco. Nahuizalco is another small town nearby with an indigenous population. I was going to catch bus #??? at this corner to go there but we got a group in my hostel to go and paid $20 for a truck to bring us there roundtrip (so $5 per person).

I definitely recommend going to the night market! It’s way bigger than the one in Juayua with many food options and things being sold. It’s a lively event for the evening to go. Here’s the $2 hot dog I got. If you go alone at night, you can order an uber from there to return from what my hostel host has said.

The crowd started to die down at 10PM so we headed back to Juayua.

Day 4: Juayua > Apaneca > Ataco > ____ > Juayua (Visiting Chorros de la Calera waterfall and Exploring Rutas de Flores)

To explore the Rutas de Flores, I rented a motorbike for $20 from ____ . My hostel called them and let them know I was coming to rent a bike. You can also go directly to them and rent from them. I recommend renting a bike because the bus comes infrequently and you can explore the towns at your own pace and leave anytime.

Before I left Juayua, I went to Chorros de la Calera. Many people from my hostel also did the 7 Waterfalls which includes Chorros de la Calera but I had no interest climbing and spending 3+ hours there. Chorros de la Calera had 3 waterfalls you could see and was nearby. It would take 1 to 1.5 hours there.

I don’t recommend biking to the waterfall on the dirt path if you’re a newbie on a bike…I had trouble getting the bike uphill to the parking lot. But if you’re confident on the bike, then you’ll be okay. You can just walk on the dirt road for 15 minutes to the parking lot and a guide will appear. He said $20 but he agreed $10 to lead me to the waterfalls. I recommend taking the guide for peace of mind and not to get lost on the path and to go early in the day as a precaution even though it felt safe.

After the waterfall, I went to Apaneca. It took 20 minutes on my bike. You can park your bike anywhere in the towns. I had lunch at the food court in the center. My meal was $3 and horchata was $1.

Then I also went to the maze. Entry was $5 and you can walk through it and figure out your way to the center. There are many other activities at the maze like . Here are the prices. If I had more time, I would’ve liked to do the ziplining.

You can get a view of the labyrinth from their cafe.

Then I make my way to Ataco. In Ataco, I went up to the viewpoint. You have to climb the stairs and walk through a dirt path. When I was up there, I was the only one. It feels safe but I’m just pointing out that you may be alone as a safety precaution.

In the center, there is the famous mural. There are more shops selling souvenir items.

I wanted to continue biking to Ahuachapan but it was getting late so I headed my way back to Juayua. I also stopped by ___ town. The town square was under construction and there is a big tree. You can skip since it’s not a big deal.

Day 5: Juayua > San Salvador > Airport

I check out of my hostel at 6AM to catch a bus to go back to San Salvador. There is a 730am bus to Santa Ana and from Santa Ana you can take the bus back to San Salvador.

There was already a bus to Sonsonate parked so I took that bus instead to Sonsonate. In Sonsonate there is the bus terminal to San Salvador. I paid $1.00 for the bus going back to San Salvador.

It was 9AM in San Salvador so I had a few hours left to explore before going to the airport at 1PM.

Here are a list of highlights to do in the center:

Library

Market

Church

You can also take a uber moto if you’d like to see some sights further away from the center and explore the city.

I tried Pollo Campestre, El Salvador’s home grown fried chicken!

I took the bus back to the aiport: here is the terminal for it.

And just like that, my 5 days in El Salvador was over! It really couldn’t be a better time to visit El Salvador than now with the new president El Salvador. The country feels safe and stable. And the locals are so friendly and receptive to visitors. There is an air of excitement and locals don’t feel jaded to tourism.

Accomodation review: