San Salvador City

San Salvador, situated in a valley rimmed by stocky hills and volcanoes, is an energetic, edgy city with a history of rebellion and uprising. It is not really on the tourist map, partly because it does not have the innate grace and beauty of Antigua or the cosmopolitan variety of Panama City, and partly because of its reputation for instability. However it does have an interesting, if crumbly, colonial core, with a number of important and culturally significant buildings you will visit on a guided city tour, including the French Renaissance-style National Theatre, the metropolitan cathedral and central market.

You will be enveloped by the city’s dynamism, with streets choked with traffic, new and upcoming literary cafés, shiny shopping malls and hip bars.  The further north and west you go into leafier residential suburbs the quieter and more relaxed is the atmosphere.