A Weekend in El Salvador

4 0

• Quick stats about this trip:
  • ✈️: 6,746 miles
  • 💳 : 41,040 Chase points
  • 💰: $89.03 per person per day (double occupancy)

This trip started on a very simple premise- cheap and warm. After googling a bit here and there we realized that if we didn’t want to fly all the way to South America or Asia, the cheap part would be best accomplished in Central America (read: not the Caribbean). This made narrowing things down easy, as there are only seven countries in Central America, two of which we’d already visited (Honduras and Panama). Having just a weekend to dedicate to this trip cut out the larger countries in the region, and realizing that El Salvador has a well-established Chabad we settled on that, as that would eliminate the need to bring any food from home, making it for an easy, warm, and cheap destination- what could be better?

Planning hit a snag on two fronts- flights and hotels. At a glance, flights via Avianca can be incredibly cheap with Lifemiles- just 5.7k each way. The issue arises with carrier fees- those were originally quoted at $120/pp round trip, and as we got closer to our travel date, jumped to $177/pp. We priced out Aeroplan and United, and both were more expensive in points, and not cheap enough in fees to sacrifice those extra points. After some back and forth we decided to take the plunge and go for the Avianca flights for 20k points per person, paying a premium of 9k points for flights that fit our schedule better than the cheapest option. At checkout we were bracing for the $177/pp in quoted fees (plus some additional fees, as Avianca is known to spring those suddenly at the last moment), but a pleasant surprise awaited us! Fees were $111 per person! While not an amazing deal for us as we try to book as much on points as possible, it was a nice discount on the originally quoted price. We charged those to my CSR card, which resulted in a full credit as my $300 travel credit had just reset.

The next bump arose when researching hotels- January is high season in El Salvador, and we wanted to be walking distance to Chabad, in the El Tunco area on the coast. 99% of hotels were sold out for our dates, so we were left with just a few options, all very basic (and cheap). We were hoping to use our 2X annual $50 United hotel credits we get with the business credit card, to reduce already cheap accommodations to nearly nothing. Unfortunately for us, the only hotel still available near Chabad for Shabbos, The Cabins, was no longer available via United’s hotel platform. The only place it was still available was via Booking.com, so we quickly booked the last available room for Friday and Saturday night for $191.87- with $77.48 of the $300 CSR credit left, the total came out to $114.39 for two nights. For the preceding Thursday night we booked what we hoped would be a slightly nicer hotel, located a 10 minute drive from Chabad, The Rooftop Hotel Beach. That was available via United hotels for $84.64, which brought the total price to just $34.64 after the $50 credit. Somewhere in all my research I neglected to discover that hot showers are not a given at hotels in El Salvador, but more on that later…

If you’re planning a trip to El Salvador in advance, or in the low season, here are some of the nicer accommodations available near Chabad- those sell out early so don’t tardy…
Mar de Flores Villas
Balancé Yoga & Surf Retreat

With the two biggest reservation headaches out of the way, we proceeded to research Ubers vs car rentals in El Salvador. (Although Chicken Buses are arguably the most popular way to get around, and are cheap, we value our comfort too much to rely on those for transportation…).

Ubers are pretty cheap, but car rentals are even cheaper and gave us the flexibility we needed. Based on our research, driving is safe in and to/from the tourist areas (airport, coast, San Salvador, Ruta de las Flores, Volcanoes park, and several other archaeological areas). We originally booked a vehicle via Budget car rental, and knowing that Third Party Liability is mandatory in El Salvador, we purchased an add-on package from a third party site for a total of $60 for 3 days. On the morning of our trip I received a whatsapp message from Budget that only local Third Party Liability is acceptable, and that it would set us back $16.95/day. That was more than what I had in mind, so I went back to the drawing board and started researching rental options again. I came across Sixt, which includes Third Party Liability included in the base rate, at a rate of $74 for 3 days. The biggest downside I could see to the change was that unlike the other rental counters, Sixt is located off-site, but I was too annoyed with Budget to keep the rental in place, so Sixt it was.

The only thing left to do was reserve Shabbos meals at Chabad- this was easily managed via their website.

Departure day arrived, and after stuffing some frozen milks into our carry-on backpack we were headed to JFK, to park at our usual free street parking spot near the Lefferts Blvd Airtrain. Having gotten used to traveling via Terminal 5, where there’s a long walk from the airtrain station to the terminal, it was a pleasure to head to Terminal 4 instead, where the airtrain stops just outside the terminal. After a quick dash through TSA Precheck, we headed to the Sapphire lounge. The lines snaked into the corridor, so we opted for the nearby Centurion lounge instead. While we were granted entry immediately, it was packed as well, and we did not particularly enjoy. After some time we noticed that the Sapphire lounge line had cleared, so we headed in to check it out. They offered us a kosher snack basket (basic items like pretzels, granola bars, and nuts), and after stuffing some items into our bag we headed to our gate.

Avianca is a low budget carrier, and their cheapest mileage redemption tickets are basic economy, which includes a personal item, but not a carry-on. The personal items dimensions are generous, so our regular backpacks fit the bill, but we were sure they would stop us to measure them for the fun of it. Interestingly enough they could not be bothered, and we were waved onto the plane. As soon as we took our seats we noticed that the row behind us was empty, while our row had another passenger in it- we inquired with the flight attendant and she gladly had us switch to the empty row- nice! The plane had no entertainment screens, but they did offer entertainment on mobile via a local wifi network.

After a few minutes of fiddling in our seats the pilot announced that a maintenance issue had been discovered, and the flight would be delayed by 20 minutes- no biggie, right? Well not for us… Sixt closed at 10PM, and we were now scheduled to land at 9:45PM. I couldn’t possibly go back to Budget now that I had made it very clear that their $16.95/day fee was not for me, could I? I quickly Whatsapped Sixt with our updated arrival time, but before a response could be forthcoming the plane took off, and all connection with the world below was lost for the next 5 hours.

As soon as we landed my phone pinged with a few missed messages from Sixt, with the gist of it being that we should call once we were on the ground. The person answering the phone didn’t seem to be too bothered by our late arrival, and asked us to call again once we were past immigration. Based on our research we were expecting long lines, but that was not the case, and we were through in less than 10 minutes (I also saw mention on various blogs of a $12 entry fee, but we were not charged that). At this point we called Sixt again (it was now 10:07PM), and they instructed us to wait outside the terminal, and someone would come by to pick us up “shortly”. The area was an absolute chicken market- it seemed as though the whole of El Salvador had come to the airport to pick up a loved one- entire families from grandparents to newborns were spilling out of vans to seemingly pick up a single passenger. The chaos was both fascinating and slightly disorienting after a 5 hour flight. After a full 15 minutes of waiting the Sixt shuttle finally arrived, and we were taken to their location just a 5 minute drive away. The guy manning the desk was incredibly relaxed (and slow moving), and apparently had forgotten that official closing hours were at 10PM- he mentioned charging us a late fee, but then waived it because we were “basically on time” (it was now 10:30PM)- who were we to argue? We climbed into the Hyundai Grand i10 (priced at $6.47/day- the rest of the bill came down to Third Party Liability and various taxes/fees), and headed toward the beach towns of La Libertad.

A word about our experience of the Salvadorans- they are the nicest, happiest people, and were always friendly and eager to help. At no point during this trip did we feel unsafe or uncomfortable. While we did hear on several occasions muttered words about the dictator, Bukele, the overall feeling seems to be that he’s done enough good for the country as a whole, to turn a blind eye to his controlling techniques for the time being.

Back to where we left off: Driving in El Salvador requires a lot of patience. During the day nearly every road is packed with construction crews buzzing about (it looks like the subset of the population that’s not in prison is employed in construction), while at night there are absolutely no street lights, which makes for slow going. As a general rule, it takes 2 minutes per mile to navigate in El Salvador (assuming you don’t hit any heavy traffic jams), so a 20 mile drive will take 40 minutes. While lanes open, close, and reroute randomly on roadways, drivers are not aggressive- there’s no honking or yelling. Another tough aspect, especially at night on the road from the airport to La Libertad/El Tunco, are the speed bumps. There are rarely any posted signs that they exist, so we found ourselves suddenly bumping painfully over them, with no visibility or prior warning. We found the mix of cars on roads interesting, with both modern vehicles and beat up old jalopies seen throughout.

After 40 minutes of driving, as we got closer to La Libertad, we came across the first gas station, well lit and modern with a full service convenience shop. We purchased some water to tide us over til the following morning- El Salvador has two official currencies- USD and Bitcoin, so no currency exchange was necessary. As we exited the gas station to continue the final mile of our drive to our lodgings for the night, the road conditions deteriorated suddenly, with no advance warning of a construction zone (there had been cones on the roadside for nearly the entire duration of our drive, with no signs of construction, while the part that was under construction, had no cones, barriers, or signs indicating it as such). We found ourselves on a dirt road with huge ditches on all sides- after driving two blocks several locals stopped us and were kind enough to advise us to retrace our steps, as the next block was entirely impassable.

A good hour after having set out from the car rental lot, we finally pulled up to the address on our GPS for The Rooftop Hotel Beach. Everything was dark, and there was no indication of hotels in the area- just large gated properties with no signage. We proceeded to the one that seemed to most closely correlate to the sought after dot on our map- after traipsing through the dark property we found a small lighted room, seemingly a kitchen by the smells emanating, with an employee present. After several minutes of hand gesturing, broken Spanish, and Google Translate, we were able to ascertain that this was not our hotel, and that we were looking for the one next door (which from the outside didn’t look like one either). We headed over next door, and thankfully met two employees still monitoring the front desk. There seemed to be some confusion as to the validity of our reservation, and they were clearly not expecting us. After showing them our booking confirmation, and after several calls on their end to management, we were assigned the Two-Story Wooden Cabin- at first we were happy with the “upgrade” from our Deluxe Triple room, but we soon realized it was anything but. In researching the Rooftop Hotel I had noticed that the reviews largely described the hotel prior to October 2025, before it had gone through extensive renovations in Nov/Dec 2025. Armed with that knowledge, and focusing exclusively on the reviews post renovation, this hotel was an amazing deal (excepting the fact that I had failed to notice that hot water is not a given at hotels in El Salvador)- located on a beautiful beach, with clean and comfortable rooms. As soon as we entered the cabin (separate from the main buildings where all other rooms are located), I realized that this was the one room that had not yet been renovated. It wasn’t dirty, but it was by no means new and fresh. The toilet was old, and as we quickly learned, there was no hot water- too tired to put up a fuss at that point, we quickly fell asleep with the sound of the waves crashing ashore.

Friday morning we awoke bright and early to the sun streaming in through the windows.

After a slow davening and coffee/tea on the beach, we headed to the nearby Super Selectos supermarket, to stock up on water, fruits, and whatever hechshered products we could find. The supermarket is located in a large modern mall, with several American brand restaurant chains. We did not find many American brands outside of Pringles and Lays, but we did find smoked salmon with the MK Mexico hechsher in the freezer section. We then headed to nearby El Tunco, where Chabad is located, to get some breakfast to go, as we wanted to spend some time exploring. The food was delicious, plentiful, and cheap, and made for an incredibly convenient trip. Rabbi Yudi Brod and his wife Mushka are incredible- their energy and happiness lifted our trip from amazing to downright incredible.

Armed with breakfast, we headed to Central El Salvador, to the Joya de Cerén archaeological park. We had originally planned on visiting the Tazumel archaeological park, which seemed more interesting to us, but due to a 30 minute construction slowdown on the way we switched our plans to Joya de Cerén, which is closer to El Tunco. On our drive over we had the unfortunate experience of witnessing a motorbike driver get sliced by a trailer in the oncoming lane (El Salvador has a ton of motorbikes and trailers- bikes are understandable, but the number of trailers on the road was interesting. I’ve never seen anything like it other than on US interstates)- we were worried that this would cause slowdowns on our drive home too, which we could not afford with Shabbos on the way, but thankfully it was all cleaned up and flowing smoothly on our return.

Entry at Joya de Cerén was $10/pp, plus $1 for parking. We opted not to wait around for a guide, but I’m sure it would have enhanced the experience greatly. Joya de Cerén is a town that was buried under volcanic ash 1500 years ago, and has since been excavated- it’s often referred to as the “Pompeii of the Americas”. While I don’t consider this a must-do in El Salvador, it was a cool experience, and we spent about an hour here.

After a slightly quicker drive back to El Tunco, with the construction crews seemingly retired for the day, we checked into our room at The Cabins. While the rooms are very basic, it was clean, and just a 3 minute walk from Chabad. The place is obviously utilized by many Yidden, and in addition to being Shabbos friendly, with lockboxes for room keys located outside each room, our mini-fridge already had the light taped down… The biggest downside here was the lack of hot water (we now realized that we would not have a hot shower again until we returned home), and the noise that carries in from the road.

After settling into the room, we headed down to the beach, a 5-minute walk from The Cabins. El Tunco is known for great surfing, but the beach itself is hard to navigate, due to large and sharp stones. There is a great boardwalk along the water, with various shops and vendors set up.

After some time on the boardwalk it was back to our hotel to get ready for Shabbos, and then over to the Chabad complex for davening and an incredible Friday night meal. Rabbi Brod mentioned to us that while his crowd is usually more Israeli-based, January is low season for Israelis, and coinciding with one of the Yeshiva Weeks, the crowd was mostly American. There were roughly 50-60 people on Friday night, and the food was top notch. Not just tasteful, but plentiful too- think 20+ dips, loads of salmon, beef, and tons more.

After a button-popping meal we walked around the beach area- the boardwalk itself was too noisy and crowded for our taste, with music from the various clubs blocking out any tranquility, but the streets near the beach, with their small quaint shops, was a lot more to our liking.

Shabbos morning saw a warm davening (Litvaks beware- davening starts at 11AM) followed by a once again delicious meal, with plenty of singing. Having read that sunsets in El Tunco are known to be amazing, we headed down to the beach before the zman to take in the sight. Not having our phones there allowed us to fully immerse in the experience, and it did not disappoint our expectations in the slightest. A truly wowing experience.

Sunday morning, after a quick stop at Chabad to stock up on food for the day, we headed out bright and early for the 1.5 hour drive to the Cerro Verde National Park, in the hopes of climbing the Santa Ana Volcano. The last hiking tour leaves from the entry booth at 11AM on Sundays (I believe on weekdays the last tour is at 10AM)- and since guides are required for this hike, if we missed the last one we’d miss the hike entirely. We pulled up to the designated hiking parking area and paid $3 for parking. There was a young boy standing around in the parking lot renting out hiking sticks (read: branches from nearby trees)- not our thing so we passed. The parking attendant then guided us for 10 minutes on an easily marked yet slightly strenuous trail to the entry booth. Along the way he showed us coffee beans growing along the trail, and had us taste some- interesting!

We had planned on hiring a private guide for $35, as I had read online that the trail is incredibly crowded on Sundays, and a private guide allows you to set more of your own pace, instead of waiting around for a group of 40 others to catch up. At the booth we were informed that the last guide of the day had just set out (it was 10:45AM), and that we could join that group if we ran to catch up- no private guides were available, so we paid the $3/pp shared guide fee, and headed for the trail. As we headed up the trail, we noticed that plenty of hikers were walking independently of organized groups, so we decided that we’d put in enough of an effort to catch up with our guide, and would enjoy the hike at our own pace. In retrospect we were glad that we didn’t pay the $35 for a private guide, as we had a self-guided hike instead for $6, which would have been our ideal choice, had that been an official option.

The first third of the hike is through a forested area, and fully under tree cover. While the trail climbs steadily, the gradient is easy enough. We encountered few people at this stage, and those that we did were all heading down.

The second third of the trail is mostly exposed, and while the breeze was welcome (although depending on which way it’s blowing it also brings a strong sulfur smell with it, which is less than welcome), the sun was blistering (we had of course forgotten the importance of sunscreen, especially at high elevations- don’t underestimate the power of the sun at this angle). At this stage the trail was mostly flat, but since it was dry season the trail was dusty, stinging our eyes. There are incredible views of the nearby Izalco volcano throughout.

The final stage of the hike is fully exposed to the elements, with loose gravel underfoot, and steep. The trail was also very crowded at this point with hikers making their way down, to the point where we had to pause constantly to let others pass- a big downside in our experience.

According to AllTrails the trail is 4.4 miles in length, with an elevation gain of 1,500 feet, and most hikers complete this in about 3 hours. The hike to the peak took us 1.5 hours- while I didn’t need a sweater at any point along the trail, once we were on the fully exposed peak it was freezing, and I bundled up as best I could- the wind was incredibly powerful at the top, and I had a hard time holding on (the peak is at an elevation of 7.8k ft). Thankfully the sulfur smell was less overpowering at the top compared to some points along the trail, due to the strong wind. Since we’d been the last ones allowed up on the trail, and we’d been dodging streams of hikers heading down throughout our climb, the top was nearly empty, and we got to enjoy our time there in peace (although not very peacefully, as I mentioned I could barely keep my balance). After 10 minutes at the top we’d seen our fill of the smoking turquoise sulfur lake located within the crater (the volcano last erupted in 2005), and started our descent.

We caught glimpses on the way of the popular Lake Coatepeque.

Since we were no longer contending with crowds or elevation, we made it down to the entry booth in an hour and five minutes.

After this incredible yet crowded hike, we headed to a nearby overlook (which doubled as a market stall, like everything else in El Salvador) to enjoy lunch with a view of Lake Coatepeque, before heading to the airport, a two hour drive away.

While we did not get a chance to tour San Salvador, we did get a glimpse of the city on our drive.

We noticed on our drive that gas prices are mostly uniform within each region, so we topped off our tank at the gas station closest to the airport (prices are listed in gallons, not liters), and then proceeded to drop off our rental with no hiccups. Within minutes we were in Sixt’s shuttle, headed for the airport. While there was heavy traffic to access the terminal (I guess all of El Salvador had to drop off another cousin at the airport), security took seconds, although we did have to pass through a secondary security checkpoint to access the US-bound gates- oddly enough we had to remove our shoes here, even though that’s no longer a requirement in the US.

The International Concourse we were now in was modern and beautiful, unlike the rest of the airport, and we headed to the Priority Pass lounge until boarding. While we were flying with just the allowed amount of one personal item per person, we did not notice anyone being pulled over for having excess bags, and our bags were not measured or weighed. Lucky for us we were seated in the exit row, which made the flight home slightly palatable. Upon landing at JFK we had a 35 minute wait until we were assigned a gate, because why not?

We had not checked the local forecast at any point during our trip, and were surprised at the 3” of snow covering our car- with no tools (or coats), we used our hands to scoop off the bare minimum needed to see our mirrors- while our fingers froze, the snow felt incredible on our burnt flaming faces.

Here’s a list of some of the sights we did not get to explore on our short trip: Ruta de las Flores (towns, coffee plantations), Tazumal Archeological Site, San Andres Archeological Site, San Salvador City Tour, Coatepeque Lake Activities, Waterfall Hikes, El Salto de Malacatiupán (hot waterfall).

El Salvador was an incredible experience due to the country’s beautiful sights, warm and friendly population, and the wonderful Rabbi and Rebbetizin Brod. I highly recommend spending at least another day or two in the country, to fully experience all the sights this amazing yet small country has to offer.

About Post Author

globetrottinggeek

Visited 45/50 US States Visited 30/63 US National Parks