Acajutla.
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Overview

Acajutla is a small Pacific coast city in Western El Salvador. It is the main port for El Salvador, is a regionally important transportation hub, and is increasingly popular among tourists who come for the mellow vibe of the town and for the beautiful beaches known for calmer waters than most Pacific coast beaches in Central America.

Understand

Acajutla town grew up as the country's main industrial port. It is a deep water port that hosts container ships and petroleum ships serving the city's petroleum refinery. Acajutla is a port of call on some cruise ships going to South America or the Panama Canal.

Nowadays the outlying area of Los Cóbanos - known for its sandy beaches, relatively calm waters, and modest snorkeling and diving (the latter mostly in the dry season) - is a mega-popular place for Salvadoran weekend daytrippers, and is packed with restaurants and lodging, despite being a long way out of town without many other services.

Get in

By bus Chicken bus is the cheapest way to get to Acajutla. From Terminal de Buses de Occidente in San Salvador, first take the route 205 bus to Sonsonate. (Typically 90 minutes, but the route 205 buses that say "Directo" on the windshield will save about 15 minutes off the travel time.)

In Sonsonate, if you're going to Acajutla town center, take the route 252 bus (this bus takes about 30 minutes).

Los Cóbanos is not walking distance from Acajutla town center, and it's unclear whether there are buses directly between Acajutla town and Los Cóbanos.

By car From San Salvador, Acajutla is 95 km west via highway CA-8.

Get around

Taxis are readily available throughout the city and are the most convenient way to get around. There are also pedi-cabs in the downtown area.

Within the Los Cóbanos are (which is far from Acajutla town center, not within walking distance) there is no transit, and most (domestic) tourists have their own vehicle. However, all the beaches are within walking distance of each other if you don't mind a little exercise, either by dirt roads and footpaths or by walking directly along the beach and scrambling over boulders in a few places (better at low tide).

See

Artisanal Fisherman's Wharf. Pier for local fishing boats and while many tourists come for the amazing sunsets and the ocean views, the most popular attraction is a colony of hundreds of raccoons who occupy the crevices of the rocky pier foundation. The raccoons find it to be an excellent place to catch a fresh seafood dinner and they have no real predators so the colony has become quite large. (The best time to see raccoons is around sunset.) Fishermen sell fresh caught fish right off the boat.

Do

Near Acajutla are several volcanoes, nature preserves, coffee plantations, and Mayan archaeological sites.

Snorkeling - Los Cóbanos southeast of Acajutla is basically the only place in El Salvador to snorkel in the ocean, since its fringing reef protects it somewhat from the powerful waves of the Pacific. In fact, this is the only major coral reef on the Pacific coast between Mexico and Costa Rica, though conditions have to be just right for you to see it: Visibility is often bad, and can be almost zero for much of the rainy season (May to October). The coral reef area is mainly off the shore of the "El Privado/La Privada" beach area (not actually private; accessible by foot from along the road leading to Las Veraneras resort, though the gate may be closed to cars - local vendors call this beach access "El Manzanillo"). Scuba diving - during summer months (dry season - November to April) dive boats offer 5-hour trips about 5-10 km offshore to dive in waters up to 30 meters deep. The dive boats can be found at the Artisanal Fisherman's Wharf in Acajutla town. Volcan Izalco - famously known as the Lighthouse of the Pacific because it erupted continuously from 1770 to 1958 with flames and lava flows visible for miles out to sea. The volcano has not erupted since 1966 and today, tour guides will take you on day trips to climb the volcano. The volcano is 34 km from Acajutla. Birdwatching - The Los Cóbanos area includes long stretches of protected marine environments, especially mangroves, and also includes small patches of the region's native dry tropical forest. The birding is decent, though not fantastic. Bocana Las Marios (Playa El Flor) is one of the better spots for both beach and mangrove birds, and has walking trails through the mangroves that locals use to commute between here and the main part of Los Cóbanos.

Think wide sandy beaches with calm waters, though each beach is a bit different and some are rocky and sometimes have steady waves. Due to a fringing reef, these beaches are calmer than most Central American Pacific coast beaches, though so they're not the surfer meccas that the Pacific coast is justly famous for. The Los Cóbanos area south of the port has several popular beaches and a number of comfortable hotels.

Playa Los Cóbanos - Actually several different beaches, all with medium-brown sand, lined with about a hundred restaurants and hotels, popular among Salvadorian daytrippers (mostly shuts down on weekdays and around dark). Decent place to play in the water, but not suitable for actual swimming - shallow with lots of boulders. Almost every beach has public access at least by foot, you just have to find it. This is the place to snorkel, when conditions are right (see the "Do" section above). A small stretch of the beach is closed by law at night to protect nesting sea turtles. Playa El Flor - stretch of beach at the mouth of a mangrove-lined river, with small public access area - just beyond Los Cóbanos (access by separate road from inland, or from Los Cóbanos by footpath. One of the better spots for birding.

Buy

Mercado Municipal. The town's traditional marketplace sells a wide range of fresh fruits and vegetables, meats, household items and seafood (though you can often buy fresher fish by going to the Muelle Artesanal and buying it off the boat).

Eat

Note that if you are staying in the Los Cóbanos area, there is no actual town, and food options are mostly limited to the beach shacks that close soon after dark, and sometimes on weekdays, though there is often some street food along the dirt road running behind the beach restaurants.

La Cueva. Oceanfront restaurant serving fresh seafood. The lobster gratinada is outstanding. Slow service.

Brisas del Mar. Beautiful beachfront restaurant serving traditional Salvadoran style seafood. Good food, but service tends to be slow.

Restaurante Acajutla. Fun, friendly beachside restaurant with decks providing spectacular sunset views. Fresh seafood dinners include fried whole fish, lobster tails in garlic, shrimp tacos and more. Great cocktails! The frozen maracuya, flavored with passion fruit, was excellent.

Sleep

There are several hotels in Acajutla with some on the beaches northwest of town, several near the downtown port area (El Puerto), and a cluster south of the main city in the Los Cóbanos area, which is centered around a cape called Punta Remedios.

Los Cóbanos There are dozens of accommodations of widely varying quality all along this area's sandy beaches (accessed by a separate road from Acajutla town itself - not walking distance), most of which aren't on online hotel aggregators, and many of which aren't even on Google Maps.

Royal Decameron Salinitas. Large corporate-owned all-inclusive resort hotel with huge swimming pools, exercise rooms, spa services, beachfront with beachside lounge chairs and more. Several on-site restaurants serving various international cuisines. Day pass available.

Las Veraneras. Moderate beach resort on the same beach as the Decameron, with somewhat small rooms and occasional problems with maintenance. Good swimming pool with plenty of deck chairs. Friendly service. On-site restaurants.

Hostal Casa Garrobo. Includes an only-moderatedly-dirty plunge pool, and direct access to the beach. Around 5-6pm the wifi is shut off and the gates to the road and the beach are both padlocked (despite various claims that the desk is open until 7pm), but overnight guests are encouraged to clamber around the car gate, and the wall to the beach is easy to climb over. Closed Sunday and Monday nights, unless arranged prior.

Villa Madison Hostal. Clean, comfortable, modern hostel with private rooms, shared kitchen and lounge, and access to garden area with hammocks. Laundry service available.