San Salvador Department · El Salvador
Where to stay in San Salvador
San Salvador is a city in San Salvador Department, El Salvador, home to about 331,000 people. This guide covers 1 hotel in San Salvador.
- Places to stay in this guide
- 1
- Nearest airport
- ILS8 km · Ilopango International Airport
- Currency
- USDUnited States dollar
- Time zone
- America/El Salvador
- Language
- Spanish
About
About San Salvador
San Salvador is the capital and largest city of El Salvador and of its eponymous department. It is the country's largest agglomeration, serving as the country's political, cultural, educational and financial center.
San Salvador lies in the "Valle de las Hamacas" (literally "Valley of the hammocks", as it was called by the Pipil, due to its intense earthquake activity) at the foot of the San Salvador volcano. It covers an area of 600 km² and is home to nearly 2 million people. It is home to one-third of El Salvador's population and one-half of the country's wealth. The downtown area is filled with shops and modern buildings, but unfortunately earthquakes have damaged or destroyed many of the city's historic buildings.
Wikipedia and Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Things to do
What to see and do in San Salvador
See
San Salvador has wide avenues and boulevards, including the two widest boulevards in Central America: Boulevard de los Proceres and Boulevard de los Heroes. Other important boulevards include Alameda Roosevelt, Paseo General Escalon, Av. Jerusalem, Boulevard Constitucion and Av. Juan Pablo Segundo. San Salvador has many beautiful monuments, some of them dating back to the early 20th century, while others are more modern. Some of the most important monuments include the National Palace, Plaza Gerardo Barrios, Plaza Morazan, Water Clock, Monument to the Sea, Atlacatl Monument and the Proceres Monuments (it has 10 monuments).
- Metropolitan Cathedral Of San Salvador
- National Palace
- Monument to the Divine Savior of the World
- Monument of Memory and Truth
- Rosario Church
- Dr. David J. Guzmán National Museum
- Museum of Art of El Salvador
- Monseñor Romero Center
- Railway Museum and Theme Park
- Cinemark
- Multicinema
- Cinepolis
Do
San Salvador has many theatres, including the beautiful Teatro Presidente (near Zona Rosa), where the symphony regularly performs expensive and inexpensive concerts, and the Teatro Nacional (downtown), which has been restored to its full splendor. Here you can step back and experience the grandeur once reserved for the city's elite in the early 1900s.
- National Theatre of El Salvador
- Teatro Presidente
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Where to stay
Places to stay in San Salvador
1 place to stay from the chains this guide covers, each linked to its own website.
| Place to stay |
|---|
| Barceló San Salvador hotel |
Schematic: the city centre in orange, each place to stay as a dot, distance rings in kilometres.
When to go
The best time to visit San Salvador
San Salvador has no month that is both mild and dry by the measure used here. March is the warmest month, with average highs of 34 °C; September is the wettest, with about 331 mm of rain.
Comfortable means average daytime high between 18 °C and 29 °C and under 80 mm of rain in the month. Averages for 1991–2020 over the surrounding area, a grid square about 50 km across, so a coast or a nearby mountain can make the town itself warmer or cooler. Data: CRU TS v4.10, Climatic Research Unit, University of East Anglia (Open Database License).
Getting there
Getting to San Salvador: airports and arrival
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Ilopango International Airport (ILS), about 7.7 km from the city centre in a straight line; El Salvador International Airport Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (SAL, 32 km) is also within reach.
Getting around
If driving, rental car agencies include Budget, Alamo, and Hertz. Buses and taxis also provide good ways of getting around. Negotiating the cost of your taxi, Before you step in, is common practice and expected. Carry small denominations of money and have exact change for your taxi fare. If you do not have exact change, taxi drivers will try to convince you to make the change a tip instead. Distances between sights make walking an unpopular option, as does the street layout in the city; San Salvador is not a square city but has long avenues that are straight and streets that are not.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
ILS · Ilopango International Airport
SAL · El Salvador International Airport Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez
Local knowledge
Eating, drinking and staying safe in San Salvador
Eat
The restaurant scene in San Salvador is influenced by many different cultures. Food options include Italian, Korean, Japanese, Thai, French, Chilean, American, Peruvian, Mexican, Spanish, Middle Eastern, German, Chinese, Argentinian and others. Local food options include Tipicos Margot where one can purchase the famous Salvadoran Pupusas. Perhaps the biggest indictment against the quality of the San Salvador restaurant scene however is the sheer number of chain restaurants referenced in this article. When you are in El Salvador you won't have to worry about finding a place to eat, there is food everywhere you go.
Drink
San Salvador is well-known for its nightlife. Clubs and bars can be found in the Zona Rosa, Basilea Mall, La Terraza (Sheraton Hotel), Las Terrazas (Multiplaza Mall), Boulevard de Los Heroes, Temptation Plaza, and the bars and restaurants area in La Gran Via (mall and night lifestyle center). These places have many bars, discos, restaurants, DJ centers and boutiques. Visit the laidback bohemian bars (university crowd) around Calle San Antonio Abad to meet interesting locals or head to the Zona Rosa/Multiplaza Mall area to dance the night away with the city's style-conscious upper class youth.
Stay safe
San Salvador has had a history of violence. San Salvador was considered the most dangerous city in the world in 1992. Today, El Salvador has made tremendous progress combatting crime with a hard-line approach to the gang crisis. The current homicide rate sits at one of the lowest in the Americas at 2.4 per 100,000. At one point it had some of the highest homicide rates in the world, and it was an epicenter of the gang crisis, along with Guatemala and Honduras. Still some precautions should be observed and common sense should prevail.
Wikivoyage contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0; excerpted.
Questions
San Salvador: questions travellers ask
When is the best time to visit San Salvador?
San Salvador has no month that is both mild and dry by the measure used here. March is the warmest month, with average highs of 34 °C; September is the wettest, with about 331 mm of rain.
Which airport is closest to San Salvador?
The nearest airport with scheduled flights is Ilopango International Airport (ILS), about 7.7 km from the city centre in a straight line; El Salvador International Airport Saint Óscar Arnulfo Romero y Galdámez (SAL, 32 km) is also within reach.
What currency is used in San Salvador?
United States dollar (USD).
Nearby
Destinations near San Salvador
Sources: city facts from Wikidata and Wikipedia; airports from OurAirports; climate from CRU TS v4.10 (University of East Anglia Climatic Research Unit), 1991–2020 monthly means, 0.5° grid; places to stay, guest scores and amenities from each operator's own public pages. How this guide is made.