🇸🇻El Salvador

Two numbers, and the smaller one wins

• El Salvador admits most Western passports for 180 days without a visa, for tourism or business. That is what the entry stamp reflects.
• But El Salvador is in the CA-4 agreement with Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, and those four share one 90-day allowance between them.
• In practice the 90 days is the real limit for anyone moving around Central America, and the 180 on the stamp is what makes people miscount.
• The clock starts at the first CA-4 country you enter and does not restart when you cross into another. The stamp you get at that internal border is not a new entry.
• Leaving the CA-4 area resets it - Belize, Mexico, Costa Rica and Panama are all outside.
• A 30-day extension can be bought before the 90 expire.

At the border

• Your passport must be valid at least 6 months from the day you arrive.
• There is no arrival fee for most nationalities at the airport, though a small tourist card charge appears at some land crossings.
• Cross land borders in the morning. The FCDO warns specifically about the drive to and from the Guatemalan border, and the crossings themselves close or thin out in the evening.

The state of exception, and what it means at the border

• A state of exception has been in force since 2022 and has not been lifted. It gives police expanded powers of detention with reduced legal safeguards.
• Tourists are not the target and are generally unaffected by security operations.
• But the FCDO records that some embassies have struggled to obtain consular access to their detained citizens. Carry your passport or a good copy, and do not treat an identity check as an imposition.

• The US dollar is the currency, which removes the exchange question but not the declaration: cash of USD 10,000 or more must be reported on entry and on exit.
• The allowance is a carton of cigarettes and a couple of litres of spirits per adult, plus a value cap on other goods.
• Archaeological objects may not be exported, which covers the pre-Columbian pieces sold in the markets.
• The CA-4 agreement with Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua covers immigration only; the customs check at each land border still happens.
• Bitcoin's legal-tender status does not change the customs rules - what is declarable is physical cash and bearer instruments.

Care

• Use private clinics. The FCDO describes state hospitals as generally understaffed, underfunded and ill-equipped.
• Some hospitals may be reluctant to treat you until they know you have insurance. Carry proof of cover and the policy number where you can produce it immediately - this is the specific reason it matters here.
• Facilities outside San Salvador are limited.
• Most medical staff speak little English.

Water and food

• There is a risk of contaminated drinking water. Bottled water is inexpensive and everywhere - use it, including for brushing teeth in cheaper accommodation.
• Street food is good and the usual rules apply: busy stalls, hot food, peeled fruit.

Altitude and heat

• Altitude sickness is a risk in parts of the country - the volcano summits and the higher mountain towns.
• The coast is hot and humid year round, and the sun on a black sand beach is fiercer than it looks.

Mosquitoes

• Dengue, Zika and chikungunya are present in the lowlands and the mosquito bites in daylight. Repellent during the day.

Numbers

• 911 for an ambulance, and it is the general emergency number too.

The coast

• El Tunco is the surf village most people go to - small, walkable, black sand, a bar strip, and the best point break in the country next door at Sunzal.
• El Zonte is quieter, prettier, and is where the Bitcoin experiment ran.
• Both are 30 to 40 minutes from the airport, which makes them a legitimate first night.
• El Cuco and Las Flores in the east are for surfers who want fewer people.

Inland

• Suchitoto - the best-preserved colonial town, on a lake, cobbled and quiet.
• Santa Ana - the second city, a spectacular theatre, and the base for the Santa Ana volcano and Lake Coatepeque.
• The Ruta de las Flores - a chain of small mountain towns, cool, with weekend food festivals.

San Salvador

• Stay in Santa Elena or San Benito, which the FCDO names among the safer districts, or near the major malls.
• Soyapango, Ilopango, Mejicanos, San Martin and San Marcos are the districts that saw the heaviest security operations and are not places to book a room.
• Many visitors skip the capital entirely given the airport's location.

Practical

• Avoid walking alone, particularly on remote trails - that is the FCDO's phrasing and it applies to volcano paths as much as to streets.
• The volcanoes are climbed with a guide and, on Santa Ana, with a ranger escort at set times.

The local SIM

• Tigo, Claro, Movistar and Digicel all operate, and prepaid data is cheap.
• El Salvador is small and densely populated, so coverage is good almost everywhere you would go - San Salvador, the surf coast at El Tunco and El Zonte, the Ruta de las Flores, Suchitoto.
• Registration needs the passport.

An eSIM instead

• Have data before you leave the airport. The FCDO tells you to pre-book taxis rather than take an unofficial one, and that needs a connection.
• The airport is 50 km from San Salvador, so this is not a problem you can walk away from.

Wi-fi

• San Salvador, the surf towns and the tourist route all have it, and the surf coast in particular has a remote-work crowd and internet to match.
• El Zonte is where the Bitcoin experiment started and still has more connected cafes than a village of its size would otherwise.

Sockets in El Salvador are Type A and B at 115 V, 60 Hz - the American standard.

• American and Canadian plugs fit straight in, and 115 V behaves exactly as 120 V does for any appliance.
• European, British and Australian plugs need an adapter, and European 230 V-only appliances will not work regardless.
• Unearthed two-slot sockets are common in older buildings.
• Surge protection is worth having for anything expensive: the supply is stable in San Salvador and less so outside it.
• Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua use the same sockets at 110 to 120 V, so a trip through Central America needs no second adapter - until Belize, which adds British Type G.

The basics

• Plugs are the American flat two-pin, type A and B, at 115 V, the same as the United States.
• The currency is the US dollar - see the money section.
• Spanish is the language and English is limited, including in hospitals. This is less of an English-speaking country than its neighbours' tourist trade might lead you to expect.
• UTC-6 all year. Dialling code +503, eight-digit numbers, no area codes.

Scale

• El Salvador is about the size of Wales and is the only Central American country with no Caribbean coast. Everything is close.
• You can surf in the morning and be at a volcano crater lake by lunch, which is genuinely why people like it here.

Climate

• Dry season November to April, wet May to October with heavy afternoon rain.
• The coast is hot all year; the mountain towns on the Ruta de las Flores are cool enough to want a jacket at night.
• Surf is good year round and biggest in the wet season.

Conventions

• Pupusas are the national dish and are eaten with the hands, with curtido on top. Pupuserias are everywhere and cost very little.
• Carry ID. Checks are routine under the state of exception.
• Sunday is family day at the beach and the lakes, and everything is busier.
• People are notably friendly to visitors - the tourism economy is new and welcome here in a way that it is not in more visited neighbours.

The currency is the US dollar

• El Salvador dollarised in 2001 and the US dollar is the currency. The colon is history.
• Prices are in dollars, cash machines dispense dollars, and there is nothing to exchange if you arrive from the United States.
• Small notes matter. Twenties are hard to break outside the cities, and a fifty is often refused outright.
• Worn or torn notes may be rejected, which is a habit of dollarised economies generally.

Bitcoin: what actually happened

• Bitcoin was made legal tender in 2021 and merchants were legally required to accept it. That is the version in every guide from those years.
• Decreto 199, in January 2025, reformed that away as a condition of the IMF's 1.4 billion dollar programme. Acceptance is now voluntary, and only in wholly private transactions; the articles obliging the state to take it were repealed and taxes are payable only in US dollars.
• Read carefully, the law still uses the words "curso legal" - legal tender - which is why you will find flat contradictions online about whether it was abolished. What changed, and what matters to you, is that no business has to accept it and the government will not.
• In practice it was never widely used - by 2024 the large majority of Salvadorans were not transacting in it at all.
• You may still see Bitcoin signs, particularly in El Zonte where the experiment began. Paying that way is a choice, not a requirement, and it is not the way to buy a bus ticket.

Cards and cash

• Cards work in San Salvador, the malls, hotels and the surf towns.
• Cash rules elsewhere, and in markets and on buses everywhere.
• Use cash machines inside banks or malls during the day. The FCDO records isolated robberies of tourists, and a street-facing machine at night is the classic setting.
• Santa Elena, San Benito and the main malls are the safer parts of the capital for this and everything else.

Tipping

• 10% is often already on the bill. If not, 10% is normal.
• Surf instructors, guides and drivers are tipped in small dollar notes.

In San Salvador

• Uber works and is cheap, and is the default for visitors.
• Do not hail a taxi in the street. Radio-dispatched or hotel-arranged only.
• The safer parts of the capital are Santa Elena, San Benito and the main malls, which is where most visitor accommodation and restaurants are.
• Walking around the historic centre in daylight is fine and is now genuinely pleasant - the plazas were restored and are busy - but it is not a place to wander after dark.

Between towns

• Private coach companies run the intercity routes and are what the FCDO recommends over the public buses.
• The public chicken buses are cheap, colourful and slow, and they are also where the FCDO's concern sits.
• Shuttles for tourists run the standard circuit - airport, El Tunco, Suchitoto, Ruta de las Flores, Santa Ana - and are booked through hostels.

Driving

• Roads are better than the regional average and distances are short.
• The Guatemalan border road needs particular care - the FCDO notes criminals target vehicles with Salvadoran plates - and should be driven in daylight.
• Volcano and crater roads are steep and unlit.

Worth having

• Uber - the recommended alternative to a street taxi, and cheap.
• Offline maps. Coverage is good but the mountain roads are not always where the map thinks.

What you can ignore

• The Chivo Bitcoin wallet. Every guide written between 2021 and 2024 tells you to install it. Decreto 199 made acceptance voluntary in January 2025, taxes are payable only in dollars, and the government is unwinding its involvement in the wallet. You do not need it, and almost nobody uses it.
• A currency converter. El Salvador uses the US dollar. There is nothing to convert if you are coming from the United States, and one number to remember if you are not.

Free roads, a well-maintained network, and very short distances.

• Roads are free and among the better maintained in Central America; the coastal highway and the Ruta de las Flores are both easy drives.
• The country is 270 km across. San Salvador to the beaches at El Tunco is under an hour, to the Guatemalan border two.
• The alcohol limit is zero.
• Police checkpoints are routine and documents are checked; hire papers should stay in the car.
• Night driving on rural roads is still avoided by residents, mainly for road rather than security reasons now.
• Fuel stations are frequent on the main routes and take cards in the cities, cash in the villages.

Both halves of the story

• Security in El Salvador has improved considerably, with significant reductions in crime. The country that was once quoted as having the world's highest murder rate is now one people travel through comfortably. That is real.
• The mechanism was a state of exception declared in 2022, still in force, which gives police expanded powers to detain with reduced legal safeguards.
• The FCDO records that some embassies have struggled to get consular access to their citizens. That is the part worth knowing before you go, and it is why the ordinary advice about carrying identification is not a formality here.
• Tourists are not the target and are not usually affected by security operations.

Practical precautions

• Isolated attacks on tourists do happen, including robbery and violent assault. The improvement is dramatic but not total.
• Do not walk alone, especially on remote trails or in unfamiliar areas.
• Use only radio-dispatched, pre-booked or hotel taxis. The FCDO notes a small remaining kidnapping risk with unofficial ones.
• Private coaches, not public buses, for intercity travel.
• Cross the Guatemalan border in the morning and take particular care driving on that route.

The law

• Gang membership was designated terrorism in 2022 and penalties are severe.
• Drug penalties are severe for use as well as trafficking, and the FCDO describes the prisons as overcrowded and violent.
• Carry ID. Identity checks happen and are routine.

Nature

• The volcanoes need a guide. Santa Ana is climbed with a ranger escort at fixed departure times.
• The Pacific surf is powerful and the beaches have rip currents; El Salvador's breaks are world class precisely because the water is not gentle.
• Earthquakes happen - this is an active volcanic zone.

The numbers

• 911 is the single emergency number and reaches all services. Operators speak Spanish.
• POLITUR is the tourist police, present in the main visitor areas, and reachable through 911.

If you are detained

• Ask for your embassy immediately and keep asking. Under the state of exception, detention can last far longer than it would normally, with fewer safeguards, and the FCDO records that some embassies have struggled to obtain consular access.
• Carry your passport or a good copy, and the embassy's number saved offline.
• Do not argue at the roadside. Comply, and make the consular call the priority.

If something else goes wrong

• Contact your insurer immediately if you are referred for treatment - private hospitals may want confirmation of cover before they proceed.
• Report crime to the police and get the report for the insurance claim.
• Lost passport: report to the police, then your embassy in San Salvador.

Natural hazards

• Earthquakes and volcanic activity are real here. Hotels have drills and the advice is the standard one.
• Rip currents on the Pacific beaches take strong swimmers. Swim where others swim.