San Salvador, El Salvador Travel Guide: Best Things To Do in San Salvador

What's going on everybody, this is Island Hopper TV coming to you from San Salvador, right here in El Salvador. Let's take a look around and see what this place has to offer. Yeah guys, in this travel guide we're actually going to go down to the beaches to Surf City. We're also going to hike up a mountain called El Pinon. We're also going to check out a small town and talk to some of the indigenous people. And they're going to show us what kind of instruments they play. So you've got a lot to look forward to here in San Salvador and across this part of El Salvador. So one of the most popular places to go out here in San Salvador is to the National Theater, Teatro Nacional. So that's right behind me, right here in the city center of the Central Historical Area. So the city of San Salvador actually has 2.4 million people in it. It's actually a big metropolis. The entire country of El Salvador, about 6 million. So some interesting facts about San Salvador. It was founded in 1525, and the elevation up here is around 2,300 feet. uh also something interesting is the currency is the us dollar but also reserve currency is bitcoin the new currency el salvador was the first country in the world to accept uh bitcoin as legal tender so what we're gonna do now is just walk around this palace show you guys some of the architecture of the salvadorian people and the old el salvadorian way and then we'll head back out into the market so now we're gonna go walk around this market here about this market that I just walked through. Some of you may see it as mostly things you don't need, but the prices of the things like masks or whatever you may need, very cheap here. Really good prices. Let me give you an example. A box of 50 masks, $2. So pants for kids or adults even, $7. You're not going to find these prices anywhere else. The Central Historical Area's Liberty Center, as you can see right there, there's commemoration 1811 to 1911. So when you come to the Central Historical Area, you'll notice a lot of churches. This one behind me, Iglesias, is really popular because of those stained glass windows. When the sun's shining in, it radiates onto the ground very beautifully. It's very popular with tourists who visit this area as well as the cathedral. Tons of markets, as you can see, in all directions. There's colorful markets and vendors everywhere. What we're doing now is we're actually going up to Puerto del Diablo, which is a scenic lookout, but it's also like a cave. So we're to go ahead up there and then we'll keep this tour moving to Puerto del Diablo we're actually driving through the market area you can see it's a lot of market so we'll cruise through this and then we'll get on the road and head up to the mountain where the scenic lookout is so here we are at El Diablo this is a scenic lookout but it's also a cave they're currently renovating the area but we did hike up there to the top to see what the views look like obviously we see the lakes and some really interesting volcanoes that hopefully never go off anytime soon it feels like you can see all of El Salvador if you look to the west you can see the ocean you look this way you can see one of many volcanoes the only thing you can't really see from out here is San Salvador and just in case you're wondering it took about 25 minutes to get up there and maybe 15 minutes to get back down obviously the hard part going up the side of the mountain here so now we're going to go to Boomalos which is right here for some El Salvadorian cuisine and a great view overlooking San Salvador we got some pupusa you can see I got chicharrón and chorizo right here and uh we're gonna really dive in and enjoy this real El Salvadorian cuisine we got some uh El Salvadorian candy this is alberato it's like a popcorn uh candy corn kind of deal this is like a gummy candy called enance so we're just 25 minutes outside of San Salvador in a town called Ponchimilco we're going to show you guys around this historical village right here what that man was doing there was he was using one musical instrument to mimic over 20 different bird callings it was quite impressive we were getting a very interesting historical background on the history of the region from this man if you guys get a chance if you're in the area definitely stop by and see him What we're going to do now is head down to the beach out here towards Surf City. It's a scenic route you go through all this beautiful canyon ravine and then you show up there right along the coast. El Salvador is really one of the most underrated places I've ever been. I don't think you get much publicity about El Salvador but it's up and coming for sure. There are several beach towns that make up the area or region known as Surf City which is popular with surfers the beaches aren't necessarily that refined sand but the waves and the surf out here is really some of the best you'll find on this side of Central America now the area we're in is called Playa El Tunco or also known as El Sunzal another area that people like to go is La Libertad so like i said there's so many beach towns here you really need to kind of town hop to find which one works for you but this is like the north western side of El Salvador if you go to the southwestern side that's where they're building the Bitcoin City just walking around here you get the vibe of what's going on right you know it's kind of like a hostile backpacker community for surfers. People come out right around sunset and they just start riding waves also early in the morning and they're building a bunch of new roads and highways to get out here so in the next 10 years I do expect a lot of growth in this particular region in San Salvador's beach community but this is really part of El Salvador. It's about 30 minutes away from San Salvador. en la mar give you guys some aerial guys say we get some fresh coconut right here on the side of the road. Let's do it. Now we're going to head back up towards San Salvador. Like I said, it takes about 30 minutes, maybe 45 minutes depending on traffic. But then we arrive in one of the more popular areas for tourists. The area we actually stayed was called La Libertad. That's a neighborhood out here. There's also Santa Ana, Santa Tecla, Antiguo Costa Calan, there's many other places along this area here, but this is pretty much the best area to stay in San Salvador if you want to be in the area where they have modern facilities and shopping, you know, nice restaurants. But if you want more of that colonial feel, go stay downtown or head down to the beach, which is probably my preferred place when I want to come relax, right?