by Lila Hudgins
I planned a trip to El Salvador during Spring Break for Michigan Surf Club. The trip was incredible, and not a person got on the return flight pale and unhappy. The town, which is pretty small but very colorful, is easy to get familiar with in just a couple days. In just a week we had already developed knowledge on our favorite restaurants in town, the cheapest places to rent surfboards, which locals to kick it with, and even where to go for ding repair (we had a small altercation in the water at La Bocana).
Surf
There are two main breaks in town: La Bocana and El Sunzal. El Sunzal is a point break all the way to the right of the beach. It is a softer, more log-friendly wave that is good for intermediate surfers, as the wave isn’t too powerful. The two breaks both have rocky bottoms, and the water can get quite shallow, especially at low tide, so definitely be careful and try to fall as horizontal as possible.
La Bocana is a larger, faster left breaking wave to the left of the town. We surfed this break more often. Our hotel was right in front of it, so we would wake up in the morning and stick our heads out the door to look at the swell. When we were there in February the surf was solid in the mornings, but later in the day the wind tended to pick up and flatten out the waves, so if we wanted to surf we would drive to other breaks.
El Zonte is a break in the town around twenty minutes away. I surfed this break once, and it is a local favorite for the more advanced surfers, because the waves are quick and pretty heavy. Like La Bocana and El Sunzal, it is quite rocky and shallow, which honestly psyched me out quite a bit (paired with the intimidating local talent); but I was able to catch one solid backside right. Also this surf session had the most amazing sunset of the whole week so I was quite content with just being out there.
I didn’t go personally, but a group of us went to surf a break called K59. We heard that usually it is a quite punchy wave with some nice barrels, but the group surfed the break on a not-so-great day so I don’t have a whole lot of personal information on the wave itself.
Lodging
We stayed at a hotel in town called Casa Miramar, and this place was an amazing call. We divided our 7 person group into two, and each rented out a three-bed room, which came out to around $15-20 a night per person. I know the prices increase slightly on the weekends, as this is when the town becomes very busy.
The hotel overlooks La Bocana, so it was really easy to judge how the waves were during the day. There is a pool, a restaurant, and a bar that sells $3 Mojitos (which we took great advantage of). The rooms aren’t anything fancy, but it shouldn’t matter if you are traveling the right way and spending most of your time outside. They do have AC, WiFi, and personal bathrooms. I highly recommend this place, as prices were appealing and the view was beautiful. I will include the WhatsApp number below.**
La Guitarra Hotel also seemed really cool. It is known for having frequent live music. We didn’t stay here, but got to enjoy the music venue on our first night in town with this reggae band called Los Pterodactilos. The music was amazing and we ended up meeting some super cool locals that we hung out with various times the rest of the week. This was high on our list of options, but I wasn’t able to get in contact with the hotel through WhatsApp, and because I was planning the trip for a group of people, wanted a little more assurance that we had a pre booked place to stay.
I know there are a couple other hotels, guesthouses and hostels in town, but I don’t have the scoop on them. There are plenty of signs all over town advertising cheap beds or nicer establishments, so lodging shouldn’t be an issue, as even the nicest places have pretty cheap prices.
We were originally going to stay at Sunzal Point Surf Hostel, which is a hostel with $15 beds, but decided we wanted to stay in El Tunco instead, so we wouldn’t have to make the 15 minute walk home in the dark (even though El Salvador is very secure and we felt safe during our whole stay). This surf hostel is run by our new HOMIE Baltazar, and he provided us with cheap board rentals, and reliable transportation throughout the week. He picked us up from the airport at 1 in the morning, and dropped us off a week later at 11 pm. His surfboard collection is nice, and he was very helpful throughout the week, telling me to text him if we needed anything at all (we switched out boards a couple times and had him drive us to different surf spots and the airport). He was very quick to respond and a good communicator. He gave us the contact of a cheap ding repair shop in town when we dinged one of his boards. He also provides $40 surf lessons for an hour and a half, which comes with the board rentals, photos, and a guarantee that you will stand up on a wave. This is the best deal in town. I will also include his number below.
**most hotels in town do not have a big online presence, so you often have to get in contact with them for bookings through WhatsApp. During the low season and the weekdays there should be plenty of rooms available in town, so we met travelers that hadn’t booked anything beforehand and just scoped out places in town when they got there.
To do
Surf!!
I know I was talking about this above, but El Tunco is a surf destination. To leave without at least attempting would be a crime punishable by a heavy dose of FOMO. There are so many shops in town advertising surf classes and surfboard rentals. There are waves suitable for different levels of ability all along the beach.
Rent scooters!
Or don’t. I tried riding one halfway down the street and then almost ran into the curb. The guy came up to me right afterwards and told me he couldn’t rent to me and I told him I understood. It’s not that easy. But if you have experience huzzah! This is a really cool way to travel to some other spots in the La Libertad area, and the rentals are only $20 a day.
Get a treat.
A treat constitutes as a drink, food or dessert that costs less than $3. Here were our favorite treats in town:
My personal favorite treat was the $1 frozen chocolate covered bananas. Some of them had coconut flakes on them as well.
Jay’s favorite treat was the dollar bean and cheese pupusas we got from an array of little restaurants in town
Ernest’s favorite treat was the El Salvadoran hot cheetos in the purple bag. First subscriber to find the name of the hot cheeto brand wins a free bag paid for by Ernest.
Ian’s favorite treat was the 75 cent Pineapple Fanta from one of the little convenience stores in town.
Deren’s favorite was the spiked Popsicle she got from a little ice cream shop.
Emma’s favorite was the cold coconuts with a straw.
Go out!
El Tunco also has a fun, beachy little nightlife scene. As I said, La Guitarra and this pirate bar often have live music. Thinking about it now, there was not a single day that went by when we were there that there was not live music somewhere in town. I read a lot of things about El Tunco really only turning on during the weekends, but we literally had a potential plan every night. Socializing is easy in this town, and the size definitely helps that. You end up seeing the same faces over and over again, and people are kind and easy to talk to. Life is laid back here, we often entered bars and restaurants barefoot, and holding outside food or drinks.
Go shopping!
I got a mug, shirt and a bottle opener. Ernest got a wooden penis, which was also a bottle opener. There are some really cute shops selling handcrafted jewelry and artesanias in town. The jewelry really is beautiful but I needed to break the habit of buying a new necklace every time there is an option to.
6. Book a tour
We did not do this, but there are multiple ones you can go on. Our homie Baltazar did a couple half-day fishing tours while we were there. There are the Tamanique waterfalls nearby. Volcano hikes. Day trips to La Libertad. I would write more on this if we actually did any of these things but as it turns out we don’t actually have the stamina we thought we did and a lot of our days just consisted of us surfing in the mornings and spending the afternoons in the pool. There are also some caves nearby that are really fun to explore.
Go to the beach for sunset
This was an everyday occurrence for us. At around 6 a large portion of the town gathers on the beach to watch the late afternoon surfers and the brilliant El Salvadoran sunset. I have seen so many incredible sunsets in my life but this sun was a bloody red and the sky a remarkable orange every single day. This is also a good time to socialize as you get a good read on the groups of people staying in town.
Apart from all of those things, we spent a lot of our middays in the hotel pool under the shade. The heat is a lot to handle, and the sun is extremely strong. By the time we were all going back to Ann Arbor I was literally shedding my skin like a lizard due to the sun damage… and I was not the only one. Please do not be like me. Wear more sunscreen than you think you need.
Food
We ate a lot of our meals at pupuserias because the $3 dinners were too wise to pass up. The pupusas, which come with different fillings, are a dollar each at most places in town. They’re quick, cheap, and versatile in the snack-to-meal range. By the last night I was kind of over them but we were very grateful for this cheap and filling option throughout the week.
We allowed ourselves a couple mid-range meals in town, and those were delicious. The cuisine is quite common all throughout Central America, so these consisted of meat or chicken with rice and salad. It was good simple eating to get back to but noticeably a little more expensive than the price for the same meal in Panamá and Nicaragua. Baltazar and I talked about this and he said because of the growing tourism, prices for meals are becoming closer to Costa Rican prices.
One night we decided to spend a little more money and eat at one of the more expensive restaurants on the beach. I was craving seafood but had noticed that it was notably more expensive than the seafood in Panamá. A whole fried snapper in Panamá costs maybe ten bucks, and it was running eighteen in El Tunco. I decided on the second to last night to spend a little more and get seafood pasta. Maybe we just picked a bad place, but the pasta came with about two shrimp and empty crab shells. I was disappointed with the seafood here. Panamá’s is definitely better.
We ate a lot of 'typical' breakfasts, which consisted of eggs, beans, sausage and fried plantains. This was pretty consistently cheap all around and so delicious (the fried plantains made the meal). We paid $6.50 for this in our hotel, and it came with a coffee. The same breakfast was maybe two dollars less somewhere in town but we liked to eat at the overlook of Casa Hotel Miramar and watch the late morning surfers.
Also something interesting to note is the way the prices increase in town over the weekends. Everything goes up, not just the price of our hotel room per night. I regularly bought a caramel iced coffee at this one restaurant during the week for $3.25, on the Friday that we left town, the same coffee cost me around $5. When I pointed out the price of the coffee on the menu to the cash register showing $3.25, he told me that I got it iced and that's why. I was very satisfied with that clarification, as you can imagine. Also my friend Jay bought a coconut and was told it also cost $5 after he started drinking it. During the week the consistent price was $3. I guess this is just a result of the weekend crowd.
As for drinks, there is a Rum Infusion bar in town that has available tasting, or you can buy by the shot. We all went there on our last night to take a shot with Baltazar because it was his birthday, and I was disappointed I hadn’t gone before. I took the coffee infused shot of Rum and it went down so easily and was delicious. The owner, Surfo, also sells his infusions by the bottle so if you have a checked bag you can take some home as a gift.
We were in El Tunco for a week, and we got to know the town very well, including its residents. The community really is quite small: exploring the small business in town and making friends with the locals really made for an incredible Spring Break. I share so many new anecdotes with my friends after this trip, and we have a new handful of people to hit up if and when we decide to make a return trip. Some WhatsApp numbers and socials of the contacts we made are linked below :)
Baltazar (hostel owner/surf lessons/board rentals/tourism and transportation) :
Phone +503 7746 2737
Instagram @eternalsummerelsalvador
Hotel Casa Miramar :
Phone +503 7930 2014
Instagram @hotelcasamiramar
Surf Photographer (Fiesta) :
Instagram @fiestawaterphotos
Surfo’s Rum Tasting:
Instagram @surfoseltunco
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