welcome to el salvador
welcome to el salvador the land of volcanoes absolutely stunning natural beauty and pupusas
i'm really excited to show you this beautiful country but needs a little bit of preps as
usual this is my ultimate travel guide for el salvador let's get exploring
el salvador is an easy visa category country and most likely you're not
just coming to el salvador you're also going to neighboring countries
you don't need special visas just for el salvador especially if you're
north american or you're south american or you're european i honestly haven't looked
at other countries but i don't think getting a visa for el salvador is very difficult the
entry process is also quite easy you're given custom forms and i mean i just breezed
through the airport the immigration officers customs everyone was really nice and friendly
el salvador is part of ca4 countries which is nicaragua honduras guatemala and el salvador and
if you get a visa i believe for one of them you can visit all four countries for 90 days in total
which is not 90 days for each country but like 90 days in all for one visit for all four countries
which is really really convenient isn't it
there is only one airport in the country that's probably you will land or if you're coming by road
there's land borders but the airport is not close to the city of san salvador so it will take you
a little bit of time and about 30 40 dollars to get there roads here are surprisingly really good
some of the best in central america apparently so if you like to drive and you're a good driver
that is literally the best option hiring the car is also the cheaper option public
transport unfortunately is pretty much unusable for two reasons number one safety because
everyone i asked locally uh like vehemently sort of discourage me to use public transport
because you could be robbed at any point and they don't care how many people are around
so it could turn into like a very dangerous situation really quickly so i unfortunately
couldn't get on a chicken bus which are these colorful buses that they have here in el salvador
the second reason is no one really knows the timings the routes the schedules are not written
anywhere so you need like local knowledge unfortunately to use those so yeah i also got
discouraged for that so i'm not a good driver but um if you are going to do that i would recommend
checking if the your rental includes the gas or not and if you are like me and you're getting
car with a driver or tours you also again need to check if it's a car with a driver whether that
includes gas or not but on average it's going to cost you around 80 to 100 dollars a day for a car
with the driver it's not cheap so hiring the car is the best option when it comes to el salvador
you can use uber in pretty much every big city and it's a pretty reliable source i haven't
come across any other apps so for taxi uber's really good here also make sure you choose cash
because the taxi drivers will cancel on you if it's a long trip and you're paying by card
this is the currency of el salvador now you might recognize this as the currency of
united states of america and that's correct el salvador abolished their own currency and they use
us dollars as a currency i'm gonna talk about bitcoin in a little bit so um everything's
charged paid for in u.s dollars no one uses the old currency i haven't seen it anywhere
apart from maybe in a museum somewhere okay how expensive is el salvador and surprisingly
el salvador is actually quite expensive i wasn't expecting that at all but on an average day if you
want to have a good day you will need about 70 to 80 and if you're hiring your own car
yeah that's a bit more than that even and if you're going with tours on an average the tours if
it's a group tour starts from 40 to 50 dollars which is a lot more than a lot of other developing
countries but that's how it is an average a meal would cost to you in a normal restaurant about
10ish dollars if you're going to a more fancy place 25 to 50 dollars okay so that's about how
expensive el salvador is let's move on to the banks there's a lot of banks here a lot and you
can withdraw money from there but i've used three uh bank pro americo atlantida and um hipotecario
sario potacario i don't remember which one is the correct pronunciation but these are the banks that
didn't charge me any transaction fees there's a lot of atms everywhere and it's not difficult to
withdraw money in terms of card payments they're also very common and contactless payments are also
very very common here and there's no transaction fees of any kind or any minimum limits so you can
easily use your card here like my bank allows me to do unlimited international transactions
worldwide without any fees and i'm taking full advantage of that now let's talk about bitcoin
el salvador is the only country as of now 2021 which accepted bitcoin as its legal tender
so if you want to spend bitcoin here i have some good and bad news there are machines here
where you can buy bitcoin but in practice it's actually not so easy to use bitcoin here and i'm
not sure what the infrastructure is like here but i haven't really tried using it because like most
people i haven't got my head around it i've seen b machines where you can buy bitcoins and there are
places where you can pay with bitcoin but on like generally in the country um the infrastructure is
not there and it is the people are also not ready for bitcoin here yet unfortunately so
my experience with bitcoin i wanted to learn here a bit more but everyone who i asked they do don't
really know much either so if you want to come and spend here um i would recommend not relying on it
as the only source of payment here other than that i think you're free to experiment with that
should you get a guide when you come to el salvador honestly you don't need it um i
mean the country obviously has history and you can read about it online but there's nothing
like in such in-depth detail that you require like a constant guide around you
most of the times it's kind of like a shared car service then a proper like guide thing
when you do these things in here so in san salvador i found a really nice guy called juan from
mira mundo tour who is the best when it comes to showing around and also price wise as well
in santa ana i basically just hired people through the hotel and that's usually the
easiest way to deal with it so if you're driving on your own you don't need a guide in salvador
el salvador has come a long way from the days when there were like 50 60 100 murders a day
and there were gangs and rivalries and shootings and it was just a very unsafe place for traveling
i say that because in the last 10 years it has improved a lot i'm not saying it's a place like
you know in europe where you would just go and have a good time but it has become much
much much better and i read a lot about how it's very unsafe and there's like murders every day
and honestly that was not a good thing i did a little bit of disservice to myself because i got a
bit paranoid which is not a good thing so there are a few things you can do to limit your exposure
and make this visit for yourself very safe so after dark things are a big no-no especially if
you're traveling on your own i i mean i'm also not a nightlife person i don't really go bars
clubs but that really saved me right here but if you are going for something like that make local
friends go with them they're very friendly people and i mean they're really approachable it's really
easy to make local friends especially if you're staying through airbnb that's a good um thing to do
going on chicken buses i know it's a big money saver but i was told i was dissuaded
again and again and again by the locals not to get on those because you could be robbed
stay in the more upscale areas i know they might be a bit more expensive and go with
like downtown etc in san salvador with locals that's the best way to to travel um if you step
into dangerous areas yeah that could be a little bit of a problem it could be really dangerous
so check with someone local before you step into an area or just go with locals they know
what they're doing or where you're going i would also recommend driving on your own
but if you do that not after dark and it would be good if you have other people with you
generally honestly i've not felt like unsafe here at a point where i felt like i should not
have come here because of my own paranoia more than anything else so if you're coming here
take a few of these precautionary steps come with your friends if you that makes you feel more safe
but do come to el salvador this country does definitely does deserve a visit and you should
definitely not cancel it on the basis of safety alone so el salvador is moderately safe to visit
so which sim card should you buy when you come to el salvador i got claro because that was
recommended and also it has the most extensive network coverage throughout the country so i
would recommend getting that it's worked pretty well and it's also quite cheap i think it cost me
about 10 for the two weeks that i spent here and i almost didn't run out of data the whole time in
terms of internet it's generally pretty good here the speed is good and wi-fi is generally available
pretty much everywhere every cafe every restaurant that i went to they had good wi-fi so if you're
working remotely yeah el salvador is a pretty good location for that as well so um but a friend of
mine told me that it's also good with tigo so you can get either claro or tigo it's entirely
up to you you can also buy the sim cards at the airport and they should be registered to your name
let's talk about the people of el salvador now most of the people who live in the developing
world are really nice and el salvadorians are no exception it is the smiles the the welcoming
attitude that is really really refreshing and i mean if you're coming from europe or north america
it actually feels extra nice and everyone tries to make you feel welcome they you know even if they
don't know the language they will try their best to help you um i'm really thankful for
everyone who showed me around um hugo christina sal david everyone and everyone i came across
has been super super nice i have not come across anyone who was horrible to me so people el salvador
a massive thank you and if you're coming here do expect them to be really nice and sweet
and this is one of the residents who's sleeping but he was extra sweet as well
so the language here in el salvador is very firmly spanish and you need some basic level of spanish
to get by especially if you like you know going around like eating street food and all so duolingo
was really helpful i just got on and i understand a little bit which makes life easy and i would
recommend doing the same to you most of the people speak english here are related to the us
or to north america generally canada u.s so yeah um and they are the ones who work in tourism so
download spanish on your google or apple translate apps it's really going to help you i promise
so what's the best time to come to el salvador the best time is to come between late november
and march and this is the time when it's dry season and the rainy season is finished so
everything is nice and green and it's all very lush and you get really good temperature for
that amazing tan that you want right so it's also a good time to go to the beach so yeah
late november to march is the perfect time to come to el salvador
how many days for el salvador yes it looks like a small country on the map but there's quite a
lot on offer here and if you want a good wholesome salvadorian experience i would recommend no less
than five days i'm doing two weeks here and before moving to guatemala and i'm doing it a little slow
you know but i still know there are places i could have done more so five days is an absolute minimum
a week is generally an optimal amount any more than that is up to you but do keep in mind if
you're coming from europe it takes a little bit of time to to adjust your body clock so
i factored that in and that's why i'm spending a bit longer here so yeah five days minimum
you cannot drink tap water here you have to buy
bottled water or there's a lot of places where you can use the filters so people have filters
installed for example my airbnb has that so i can just you know drink water from that
it's especially good because there's a lot of plastic pollution problem here
i've seen bottles everywhere so if you're if you're going out you're using plastic bottles
please make sure one you get the big ones and two you don't leave them around once you're back
they use the usr australian style plugs here these ones so come prepared for that
it's quite heartbreaking to see so much trash on the beaches and a lot of places especially plastic
and that was like one of the things i didn't like in el salvador so i really hope if you're coming
here you take care of the environment you're in and if anyone from el salvador is listening
please please please you have a very beautiful country take care of it
google maps does not work very well in el salvador i would recommend using waze if
you're going to travel or if you're just going around i think for walking around google is fine
when you come to el salvador make sure you do bring some insect repellent especially if
you're going to places that haven't take like any place with vegetation because i
didn't use it despite having it and look what has happened to me these bites
are not fun and i've been scratching myself crazy the whole time oh
if you're here in summer like me that is from late november to march
make sure you wake up early to take full advantage of the daylight because the sun goes down by 5
30ish and then it's dark by six o'clock so you don't want to waste your day lying in
bed with like a beautiful day outside and amazing views of el salvador wake up early
if you're coming here in summer like me or to be honest most seasons here make sure to bring a hat
sunglasses and plenty of sunscreen and don't forget insect repellent all really important
guys this is brown boy travels let me know what you think of the video
in the comment section if i've missed something please let me know also give me some suggestions
about your country i will see you in the next video until then you have an amazing day ahead