Getting around El Salvador: transport and apps

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.