Roam Sweet Roam

El Salvador is a beautiful country with friendly people. My brother and I recently had a couple of days there on our way to Central America, so we took advantage of our time and saw as many sites as we could. If you have a layover in El Salvador, it will probably be in San Salvador. To be honest, there aren’t a lot of things to see in the capital, but there are enough that it’s definitely worth spending a day or two exploring.

What To Know Beforehand

Tourism is still a growing industry in San Salvador, so it can be a little more difficult to find information online before you arrive. Here are a few things I wish I would have known before I went:

• Don’t count on the buses. I’ve taken buses in other Latin American countries with no incident, but the ones in El Salvador were much harder to navigate. The bus stops are not labeled, and most are just random street corners that look completely unassuming. I had to ask the locals to direct me to the bus stop because I couldn’t tell where it was. I asked the bus driver to help us disembark at the correct stop, but even he wasn’t sure which stop it was, so we ended up getting lost and just taking an Uber back to our hostel!
• Be careful. When we were walking in San Salvador, I didn’t feel unsafe at all (and I’m super white so I don’t blend in with the locals at all)! Despite that, we had multiple, well-meaning local people who kept telling us to be careful because a lot of times gringos get robbed by people in gangs. I’m not sure if they were being overly cautious, or if we just had good luck in not getting into sketchy situations, but it’s still worth being safe rather than sorry!
• The official currency is the USD. I was very confused when I first got to El Salvador and everything was in US dollars. It turns out that’s the official currency! It’s not a big deal, but I wish I would have known before I went.
• Learn some Spanish. Since tourism isn’t as popular in El Salvador as it is in other Latin American countries, most people do not speak English, so knowing Spanish is very helpful.

Things to Do

Even though San Salvador is by no means a hub of interesting things to do (even a few locals told me that!), there are still several cool things to do.

• Plaza Futura. This is the unofficial expat hangout of El Salvador, so it’s pretty upscale and a great place to grab a (pretty pricey) bite to eat. It also has a cool view of the city at night and there is awesome security, so you don’t have to worry about being unsafe after dark.
• The Metropolitan Cathedral. This is the biggest cathedral in all of San Salvador. It was closed the day we went, but it’s a hub of activity. There was a huge market in the streets surrounding it that we got lost in a couple of times and some cool local dances. There’s also some nice plazas around and some old churches that are very nice.
• Plaza Volcán. There’s a national park just a few minutes from San Salvador, and this plaza is in the national park. It offers a great view of the city and there’s tons of restaurants that are nice to just lounge at while admiring the awesome views.
• Santa Tecla. This is a small suburb of San Salvador that has a ton of activity in it. There’s a huge market and some cool parks and plazas. We spent a couple hours exploring and it was cool to get a taste of the local life.
• Malls. We didn’t get a chance to go to a mall while we were in San Salvador, but they’re supposed to be really nice and a local man told us that all the American tourists go to the malls to hang out, so if you have some leftover time, they’d be cool to check out!

Even though there are a lot of important things to learn about El Salvador, I think the most important thing is to just go and visit. There can be a lot of negative news about this country, and there are a lot of misconceptions about it in the US. I’m so glad that we got a couple of days to explore, because the people we met were so nice and we got to see some cool things that other countries don’t have to offer. It’s definitely worth the visit if you ever find the time to go!