If you’re looking for an affordable international trip, then El Salvador is the place to go. This country popped up on my bingo cards at the end of 2022. I was on TikTok looking up inexpensive international trips out of the country, and El Salvador seemed like the place to go. I immediately started planning and was shocked at how cheap everything was. So, let’s get into my El Salvador 5 day itinerary.
Flights: Flights leaving out of Philadelphia International Airport were as cheap as $260 roundtrip on American Airlines. Of course, these flights included layovers, but it was worth it. One of my friends was leaving out of Ronald Reagan International Airport, so to keep everyone together, my sisters and I took a $10 one-way Amtrak to Washington DC at 1am. This got us to the airport at 4:50am, which was perfect for our flight leaving at 8:14am. We were scheduled to arrive in El Salvador at 2pm.
Accommodation: Then, came trying to figure out if we wanted to stay at a hotel, Airbnb, or a villa. At the beginning stages of planning, there were about seven people that were interested, so a cute villa seemed appropriate, but you know how planning trips goes. It ended up being four of us, so we opted out of the villa and searched for an Airbnb instead. For five days, the total cost of the places we found were no more than $650 total. Yes $650 total. We found a condo located in San Salvador for $91/night from February 5-10. The place had three bedrooms, two bathrooms, 3 balconies, where we had beautiful views of the city, a washer and dryer, roof access, and security outside the condo. The place was in the perfect location too. We were nearby restaurants, bars, the mall, supermarkets, banks, literally EVERYTHING. The pictures of the Airbnb did it no justice at all because the place really was beautiful, almost too good to be true. The host, Monica was also very responsive.
Drivers: Unless you plan on driving or Ubering (yes they have Uber in El Salvador), it’s best to find a driver. A friend sent me one driver and then I found another company through a recommendation on TikTok. I ended up contacting the driver I found on TikTok, whose name is Normand. Just like with any driver, you send over your flight details and they will arrange for transportation from the airport to your stay. He also sent over a word doc that detailed his prices, what were included in the prices and excursions recommended by their distance from each other. Normand charged $30-$60 from the airport to your stay (which usually is about an hour away if you’re staying in the city) and $100/day. We already had in mind that we would use him for some of the days and not every day. We actually ended up with one of Normand’s drivers named Carlos, who unfortunately did not speak English (or so he said lol). Carlos ended up being a great driver despite the language barriers.
Day 1: Since we literally spent the entire day traveling, our first day was very relaxed. We stopped to get pupusas on our way to our Airbnb, which is a staple food in El Salvador. I believe we got a total of 7 pupusas which came to $12. We also went grocery shopping at a market that was about 6 minutes from our place. We grabbed the essentials: water, milk, eggs, bread, bacon, fruit, (foods we could make breakfast with) and some snacks, which came to about $100.
Day 2: This was our excursions day. Keep in mind that ALL of the excursions are far depending on where you’re staying. Each one was about an hour away from where we were, so we scheduled each one early in the day. The first stop was Café Albania, where you can find the rainbow slide, big swing, zip-line, bicycle, the wing swing and the maze. There is a $10 entry fee and each activity ranges from $1-$13. They do offer a $40 day pass, that gives you access to all of the excursions, which I think is pretty worth it. They also have a cute restaurant attached, which offered good finger foods, cheap drinks and shots. From there, we went to Santa Teresa Hot Springs. There is a $10 entry fee, which gives you access to all of the pools, the restaurant, and the mud baths. We were most excited for the mud baths. They were $14 per person, and after your mud massage, you sat in the sauna for about 10 minutes before rinsing off in the pool.
Day 3: This was the day we decided to tour Downtown El Salvador. Since the city was about 10 minutes from us, instead of using our driver, we got an uber for $3. Downtown was definitely an experience. There are street vendors, stores, restaurants and a lot of historic sites. I must say, aside from the beautiful scenery, it was a little chaotic, as you can only imagine from four Black women traveling in a Central America. Of course, there were a lot of stares, a lot of people asking to take pictures of us, a lot of people just randomly taking pictures, and men approaching us. I would advise having your driver with you during that time, just to ease the pressure.
I found this cute coffee café on TikTok called Café Fulanos, that offered smoothies, pastries, and coffee. The iced chai was probably one of the best iced chai I’ve ever tasted in my life. The place was cozy and also played good music. One thing people recommended on TikTok was to get the names and contact information of your Uber drivers, just in case you wanted to use them again. We had our same driver from earlier pick us up, take us home and pick us up again for dinner later that night.
We had dinner at Brutto, this cute place that offers both brunch and dinner including international food and a sushi bar. Yall, they also had espresso martinis too! I ordered the Paella Concolon, which both servers kept insisting that it was a very intense dish, and everyone else ordered the Branzino, Salmon TartTare, and the Brutto Dragon sushi. Everything was good and well worth the price (which also was not bad).
Day 4: This day was our most intense day. We planned to hike to Tamanique Waterfalls first and then Nawi Beach House afterwards. Nawi does require reservations, and they also offer day passes for $20, or you can get their tripass for $75 which includes groups of 4 or more. We also booked a day bed for $100, which totaled to $175. Now the hike is about 30-40 minutes to and from the waterfalls, but it is SO WORTH IT. You are able to stop by little markets on the trail to grab snacks, water, juices or beers (yes beers). When I say the views were unbelievable, especially the waterfalls. By the time I got to Nawi, I was exhausted, but the place was so relaxing. They have an infinity pool. cabanas, a hammock right above the bar and a restaurant. We made it to Nawi right in time to see the sunset. Again, the views were unbelievable. The food was too!
Day 5: Technically this was our last day, because our flight back home was at 1am Saturday. We decided to visit the Gallerias Escolon, and omg the mall was pretty. It has a lot of stores we have back here including: Pandora, Puma, Tommy Hilfiger, and a few stores I never heard of. We stopped in this one store, Stradivarius, that kind of reminded me of Zara. I bought a cute little wallet and some jewelry, but I honestly wanted to walk out with much more.
We ended the night getting food and drinks at Cerveceria Las 20, which turns into a night club. They have $1.50 tacos and cheap, but good drinks. They also played some good music.
Overall, El Salvador has a special place in my heart. This is a trip I wanted to do since my birthday in 2023, and I am so happy I got to experience it with my girlies. One thing I was really proud of myself for doing, was trying to speak Spanish. I spent all of 2023 relearning Spanish on Duolingo, which definitely prepared me to some extent once there. I will dedicate this year to becoming more fluent, so that the next time I visit El Salvador, the language barrier won’t be so big.
-5 Day Itinerary part 1: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3VVdUqrxjZ/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
