El Salvador Bicycle Touring Costs

I only had 2 weeks to get from Antigua (Guatemala) to Roatán (Honduras). I didn’t want to miss El Salvador so I had to squeeze it into a very tight schedule and travel much faster than what we normally do. Also, I did this section on my own (Amanda took the bus to Roatán) so the lodging costs were much more expensive as I didn’t have anyone to share the cost of the rooms with. You can check the route I followed here. The costs are PER PERSON and travelling SOLO this time.

I entered the country through the small and quiet border town of La Hachadura to continue cycling on a flat pavement all the way to the little town of Los Cobanos, on the pacific coast. Then, it was time to head inland and cycle north to the Lake Coatepeque. The surroudings of this lake were beautiful and the road was quite pleasant to cycle (little traffic, good views) but it was this area in El Salvador were I didn’t feel safe at all. Nothing bad happened, but I felt like it was better to pass it fast. I got a few bad looks from locals at every town I passed though on this road.From there, I decided to go back to the main road and make a big detour to visit Suchitoto. After a night spent in this beautiful colonial town, I started to climb towards La Palma where I spent my last night before crossing the border to Honduras.

Five days are not enough to properly visit a country, but I didn’t enjoy my time in El Salvador much. The beauty of the countryside was ok, lodging was expensive and I didn’t feel safe enough to camp. Coming from Guatemala what I did enjoy were the flat roads I was cycling on most of the time. The big climb to La Palma seemed nothing compared to the crazy-steep roads I had dealt with a few weeks before.

* Costs in american dollars (USD)

ON THE BIKE

Total Spent: 76.90 USD

Average spent per day: 15.38 USD

Traveling solo is obviously more expensive than traveling as a couple. Most of the accommodations didn’t have single options so I had to pay for the whole room. In terms of food, I cooked most of my meals, specially dinners. For lunch, I stopped at every pupuseria to taste the national dish of El Salvador: pupusas (flour tortillas filled with cheese, meat, frijoles or a combination of all that!)

LODGING

I did not camp in El Salvador at all. I felt safer in the big towns and on the main highways so I didn’t take many of the little roads I had in mind before I entered the country. I did get some offers to stay with some locals but either it was too early in the day, or the house was totally out of my way. It was a shame because I would have stayed with them anyway if I wouldn’t have only 2 weeks to get to Roatán.