I am constantly recommending El Salvador as an off the beaten path destination for families. For that reason, I put together all of the things we did while we were there!
I am that mom who when asked, “want to go to El Salvador with kids?” I say, “Yup!” and figure it out later. Lucky for me, I have another adventurous mom traveler like me who said just that!
There are very few places that do not interest me. I will not list them here, because they are the places that interest 90% of travelers. I am more of a culture junkie, an off-the-beaten-path junkie, a take me to the most foreign place imaginable and I want to figure it all out!
I will not say no to a trip to the USA or France, but what really gets me excited is emerging destinations such as El Salvador.
Living in Vancouver, on Canada’s West Coast, Central America is not a destination that is heavily marketed here. Access is via Toronto or Montreal at best, meaning a long travel day. I was able to fly from Vancouver to Los Angeles and then from Los Angeles to San Salvador, El Salvador, but the connection was crappy. I hope in the future, the flights from Vancouver do a better job of lining up with Central American flights as it is an amazing part of the world!
Adventure for Families in El Salvador
There are several reasons that make El Salvador the perfect place for adventurous families. While the country is small and urban in nature, we still found nature and adventure activities abundant!
For those looking for hiking, El Salvador has two main volcano hikes. For those looking for the beach, there are beaturiful beaches and surfing! There is a vibrant and active culture with lots of locally made products and unique food opportunities. The Salvadorians are friendly and hopeful that their future is bright after a violent past in the region.
Surfing in El Salvador
One of the things that drew us from Canada’s cold west coast to El Salvador was surfing in warm waters! My boys have always loved the water and we have enjoyed warm water all over the world but we haven’t enjoyed warm weather surfing where wet suits are not required.
We heard that surfing lessons were as cheap as USD10 but found a 2 hour private lesson was USD45 which is still much cheaper than anything in Canada. (Yes we have surfing in Canada off our West Coast). Along with Cian, Markus took a private lesson for his first time surfing. While I have been a couple times, I was more interested in watching him get to learn! It was a riot.
Where to Stay for surfing in El Salvador: We chose to stay in nearby El Tunco which is a mecca for advanced surfers. it caters to hostel style accommodation but we booked a private room in a small hotel called Eco Del Mar that only had 4 rooms! It came with breakfast everyday which was the perfect way to start our day. It was convenient for our stay as it included parking and you could walk to everything in El Tunco. However, we had to drive to El Zonte beach for beginner waves and lessons.
Hiking in El Salvador
One of the things on our list of things to do in El Salvador was to hike up the Santa Ana Volcano. There is an entrance fee for the hike and apparently you need a guide (we believe this is to support tourism and ensure the trail is kept in good condition). We booked a private guide in advance. There are group guides you can also take, but they wait until the group is full before they leave.
The Santa Ana volcano hike is something you want to be doing in the early morning as it gets hot fast in El Salvador.
On our way down from the volcano, we found a local popsicle seller. While sometimes I wonder whether or not we should try these local types of street food (no one wants to be looking for a bathroom while on vacation) we were hot and thirsty and figured “why not!”
Well, spoiler alert, we were all fine! No issues from the homemade popsicles! (they legit were home made moulds with various flavors – horchata was great for future reference)
Lake Water Sports
A fun surprise was our trip to Lake Coatepeque. Karilyn and Cian like to explore as much as possible so a stop at this popular lake was on our itinerary for lunch! Well you know me, I am always looking for the fun stuff and spotted a jet ski rental! For USD30 I was able to take the boys out on the lake! It was a riot, and much cheaper than at home, even though we probably overpaid!
Cafe Albania
Cafe Albania has become famous on tiktik because it has one of El Salvador’s popular rainbow slides! It also has fun aerial courses like bike riding on tight ropes and a maze that we got stuck in for over 30 minutes (I don’t recommend the maze lol) but everything else there was great!
El Salvador Hot Springs
A good way to relax after hiking and surfing is to enjoy some time at the Hot Springs. We chose to do this on our last day before heading back to the airport. It cost USD10 for adults and USD5 for kids. For the price it was great value and was not busy at all. Part of the entrance fee included rejuvenating mud and saunas!
Food Scene in El Salvador
Tipico Breakfast
For those not familiar with central America, El Salvador serves a desayuno típico (typical breakfast with eggs, beans, plantain and cheese) everywhere. Some of the places we stayed also had an alternative such as pancakes.
Pupusa
Pupusa is a staple food in El Salvador as well as their national food. It is a griddle cake made from cornmeal. There are various types, some with cheese, some with garlic, some with meat. It is the kind of thing that you order in multiples and can try several types. I will say, speaking no Spanish made for some interesting ordering, but the google translate image made reading the menu much easier! Make sure you have google translate handy if you, like me, don’t speak Spanish.
We ate cheese pupusa daily and they cost about $1. It means that a meal in El Salvador can be very economical. However, you can find high end seafood restaurants that have westner prices to go along with them. We also found any foreign type of restaurants, such as Italian, were similar prices to in North America! We tried a seafood restaurant on a cliff for the experience, but other than that stuck with local cuisine during our week.
Our first pupusa was in Oloculita as it is famous for its pupusas. Its location near the airport was convenient but I cannot profess myself as an expert so you will have to stop and try for yourself. I do suggest you try the Horchata while in Oloculita. While we did not drink tap water in El Salvador we had several drinks with ice and never had a problem.
Tacos
Yes you find tacos in El Salvador. We found a charming taco cart that had $1 taco tuesday tacos and started with just 2 but ordered more and more and sat and ate for over an hour. The owner had a cute friendly kitten that the boys loved and we enjoyed chatting to the owner and learning that he had lived in the USA for the past couple decades and only 2 years ago came back to try and run a local business. It was just one example of the hope that we heard from Salvadorians who had had to leave their country for so long.
If you end up in El Tunco, check out Mi Sazon taco truck.
Do you have any questions about El Salvador? Want to read our itinerary? Check out Karilyn’s post here.
Local Craft scene in El Salvador
One of the things you can do in El Salvador with kids is wander into local craftsman who are still practicing their art. There is no need to take tours of book appointments, just stop into local shops and you will be able to see them working. This is something we did in Ataco and enjoyed very much.
Ataco has a local shop full of locally made art, from textiles to wood to jewelry. Stop in at Axul Artesiana while in town.
Practical Information for Traveling to El Salvador with kids
Language
Practice some Spanish: living in Vancouver, I am not exposed to Spanish, AT ALL. It is not like the West Coast of the USA. Most places have ONLY Spanish menus and few places have English speaking staff. I was fortunate to travel with Karilyn and Cian who live in LA and are 600+ day Spanish Duolingo users (I was at day 200 when we went). Karilyn was able to use her Grade 7 Spanish knowledge to converse with the locals while I was only able to pick out a word or two!
To prepare for your trip if you don’t speak Spanish: Download google translate and use the camera feature for menus! After eating pupusas every day, we were able to identify the Spanish words for cheese and garlic and the different meat options! Start using Duolingo now! you never know how useful those fruit and veggie lessons become!
Do not be intimidated by your lack of Spanish. In our first hotel in El Tunco, one of the staff came up to us with her Google Translate ready asking if we wanted our room cleaned, because of course, she was not confident in her English either, having been exposed to very few English opportunities. I was quickly able to reply “no gracias or si gracias” with a big smile, getting a big smile in return. Salvadorians are VERY friendly!
Getting Around
Look up the destinations on google maps and route the driving distances. While some things look very close together on the map, the road required to get there may go a long way out of the way! We found that out when staying in Ataco and hiking the Santa Ana volcano. The distance was short as the crow flies, but the route we had to drive, despite being just 71km took 1 hour and 45 mins.
Currency and Money
The official currency of El Salvador is USD which is nice and easy for Americans (and well pretty easy for us Canadians too). They also accept BitCoin and we were keen to see how that worked, but you had to be a Salvadorian to use the bitcoin ATM style machines we saw in the country.
Have cash available but do not be afraid to ask if they accept credit cards.
Climate and Weather
We visited in February and the weather was hot and humid. The sun was very strong and hot and we all got sunburned, despite our best efforts to cover up and reapply sunscreen. Bring breathable clothing, lots of sunscreen and a hat when you are packing for El Salvador.
May to October is its rainy season and when the country gets almost all of its annual rainfall.
Is El Salvador Safe for Families
While El Salvador has experienced decades of unstable political and social issues with very unsafe gang activity for the every day people, that part of its history is now over. In 2022 the government aggressively targeted the gangs in the country and threw them all in jail. El Salvador is welcoming and we felt very safe everywhere we went. We walked in Ataco after dark, as well as El Tunco and the only concern we had were local dogs (which did not bother us, but its always something I am wary of when I travel).
Lindsay Nieminen hails from Vancouver, Canada and shares her love of travel on this website. She is passionate about showing others that they should not put off traveling the world just because they have children or are single parents. She aims to encourage them to seek out adventure, whether it is at home or abroad by providing information on how just about everywhere can be a destination to explore as a family.