Spendings In Central America

We can now summarie our travels, we spent 80 days in Central America visiting every country except for Honduras, we averaged $32 a day per person. This includes every penny of spending from the attraction costs, accommodation, transport, food (our big expense) as well as our flight to Colombia. Costa Rica ended up being the most expensive country, followed by Beliz and Panama. On the other end Mexico and Guatemala were the cheapest with El Salvador and Nicaragua in between. To note, we spent quite a few nights couch surfing and hitchhiking, especially at the beginning, so our spendings might not always be the most accurate.

How much does it cost to travel El Salvador ?

Did you know that since 2001 El Salvador is using the American dollar as its currency?

The currency change made everything a bit pricy. El Salvador was the most expensive country we have visited so far this trip, we saved money where we could and couch-surfed for over a half of the visit. This kept our spendings down as we had bbq most nights instead of eating out. We averaged $22 per person and most of this was entertainment. We had surf classes and climbed a volcano along with boat trips, and some restaurant meals. Groceries prices in the supermarkets are horrendous. We were asked to pay $4 for 2 peppers, where at the outdoor market stand you can get a whole bag of veggies for the same amount.
You can see a massive influence of America in El Salvador – shopping malls, a significant number of fast food chains and even a waltamart supermarket. While driving around the capital we started missing Belize, where all the franchise are banned and all you can see are local comedores (canteens) and food markets.

T I P S

☄we took an air conditioned bus (always bring warm clothes with you as they are freezing!) from San Salvador to Leon for $25 each. Initially, Transporte del Sol said it would cost us $50 pp, but after some negotiating we ended up paying $50 for the two of us – great deal, and it had breakfast, horrible lunch and drinks included.

☄ border crossings to Nicaragua were really slow, we ended up waiting for about 2 hours until our passports went through. You will be asked to pay $3 to enter Honduras and $12 to enter Nicaragua.

☄public transportation (chicken buses) are extremely cheap in El Salvador, ex. 60c for an hour journey.

Fast food jungle & amazing volcanos

We are in San Salvador, a city surrounded by volcanos – el Salvador’s capital inhabiting 2 million people, and known for its sky high crime rates. A real wake up call to how safe Europe feels. It’s one of these places you are warned not to walk around after 6 pm in most of the neighbourhoods. Luckily, thanks to our host Rony we were located in one of the nicest parts of San Salvador.

Beaches of El Salvador

We are in El Salvador! The country known more for its crime rates and tattooed gangs than its incredible coastline and nature. Wanting to explore the Pacific coastline for the first time on our travels, and having spent a long amount of time in land of Guatemala, we headed to el Tunco. A world famous surf town with huge swell and 3 meter waves. Here you don’t need to make it for tournaments, just watch the locals surf these massive waves – they are incredible.