Sofas and supermarkets in San Salvador

Trip date January 2026 1GBP = 1.32USD April 2026

We stayed in San Salvador way longer than most on the tourist trail, not out of love for the city but necessity. I had gotten pretty sick while visiting the Ruta de las Flores, and it took several weeks plus a visit to the hospital to start to feel remotely human again. In this time we stayed in various neighbourhoods across the city, getting to know the areas we liked and those we really didn't. Unlike most blogs where we explore and do stuff, I really needed recovery time while in the city, so this is mostly a review on how convenient I found various supermarkets - enjoy!

Before we got to know the city we had to get there, a straightforward process, just not very fun when you don't feel well. We started in Juayua with the 249 bus to Sonsonate, a 30-minute ride setting us back $0.50 each. We checked the direction with the driver, as the same bus also goes to Ahuachapan. Thankfully our next bus, the 205 to San Salvador, departed Sonsonate from the same station. We paid $1 each and placed our bags on the seat next to us - bad etiquette but there was nowhere else for them to go. Since the central station in San Salvador was far from our destination, we hopped off at "Estation De Gaudalupe", a road side bus stop with some rather pushy taxi drivers.

Soon enough we had arrived at Zona Rosa, a modern part of the city know for it's upscale dining, trendy feel and relative safety. We hated it. It wasn't just where we had chosen to stay, although our tiny box room wasn't helping matters, we just found it soulless. The streets were clean, the area was peaceful and quiet, but to us it was missing something vital. There was a small yet well stocked supermarket in the area though, handy as I couldn't stomach visiting any of the fancy restaurants. Area: 4/10, Supermarket: 8.6/10 (nice range of ready to eat food).

We moved from Zona Rosa to East Escalon, trading our tiny room for an Airbnb apartment with a view. As we weren't getting out much, we wanted a little bit of luxury at home. There area wasn't home to quite as many fancy restaurants, but there were several malls and large supermarkets - much more convenient for our needs. The roads were busier and people wandered the streets. It wasn't known for being super safe like Zona Rosa, but we'd swap a little security for local feel if it meant the area felt lived in. Area: 8/10 Supermarket(s): 9/10 (Walmart has a lot of things)

The last area we stayed in was Antiguo, which was by far the most residential and, as it was in the hills to the south of the city, had the best views of all. It wasn't very convenient in terms of restaurants, but as we were mainly eating in this wasn't an issue. The particular apartments we stayed in were also a good twenty minute walk to the nearest supermarket which was more of an issue. At least uber works fairly consistently in the city, so we could always fall back on that when we were feeling lazy. Despite the walk to the shops we stayed in this area twice, when we left San Salvador to explore Suchitoto we didn't intend on returning... but a few days of activity quickly showed how unwell I still was so we headed back to the city.

Area: 7.5/10 Supermarket: 8/10 Views: 10/10

While we didn't do much in the city while I was recovering, we still did a little.

First and foremost we headed to Centro Historico, the city's oldest area which has been its place of power since the 16th century. While it has its share of grand buildings from years gone by, the main plaza is home to an impressively modern seven story library. In contrast to the stone of the buildings surrounding it, the library is all glass and steel. It's certainly impressive to look at, but for me, heading to the roof for a birds eye view of the city from their strategically built viewing gallery was truly memorable.

We found my favourite building on Plaza Libertad, just a few blocks away from the National Palace. Iglesia el Rosario is a church unlike any I've seen before. Instead of the colonial, gothic or neoclassical architecture we'd encountered so far in Latin America, the outside of this church had a distinctive 70's housing estate aesthetic, all grey concrete and boxy lines. Inside, the brutalist style of the building was offset by a rainbow of coloured glass panels that replace the brick in one of the building's stepped ceiling. The multicoloured light that streams in through these windows hits glass that's been sunk into the entrance wall of the church, bouncing the light about the space. Despite its unique appearance the church still captured the hushed reverent atmosphere that seems to come with them, although with a much more futuristic sci-fi kick to it.

Another place we really enjoyed was "La puerta de Diablo" (the Devil's gate), although this technically wasn't in the city but 12km to the south. As an Uber was very reasonable for the 30 minute journey ($7.50), we decided that speed was better than saving money in this case. Not all of the walks were open when we visited, but we were allowed to head through the "Devil's gate" to a small cave, where a lazy iguana basked in the sun.

Although we couldn't climb up to the highest viewpoints available, it didn't really make much of a difference as the part of the complex we arrived at already had stunning views over the vast countryside beyond. The sun was beating down during our visit and, after the small amount of exercise we'd managed, we were parched: luckily there was plenty of places to buy overpriced refreshments and spots to chill out in the shade. All in all, it was all a bit more touristy than we had imagined, but it was well worth the effort to visit. To be completely honest... there was one more viewpoint that was open to visit but (using my ongoing illness as an excuse to chicken out of climbing the steep and precarious steps) I sent Ben up alone. With signal less reliable on site, we paid $0.30 each and hopped on the bus bound for Centro - the journey was far less comfortable but at least it wasn't expensive.

So apart from visiting a rather rundown hospital in the aptly named "Doctores" district of the city, that was it for San Salvador. There was a few slow walks around the areas we were staying, (trying not to become too sedentary while I was slowly recovering from my stomach infection) but it was mostly vegging out on assorted sofas and eating VERY plain food.