Budgeting for a Trip in El Salvador

For longer explanations of my activities and day-to-day, feel free to read through my two blog posts about my days on the trip here for Day 1-2 and here for Day 3-6. 

After looking through my expenses from everyday, I feel really proud of how I spent everyday. As this trip was a last-minute decision, I was hoping to stay under budget, but I also did not want to deprive myself from fun activities. 

Accommodation in El Salvador

San Salvador: My Airbnb was a private room in a backhouse, which included a private entrance and a private bathroom. The area was great, near a lot of shops and street food. I paid $30 per night, fees included. My preferred hotel, which was unavailable in this second trip to El Salvador, goes for $40-50 a night. 

Santa Ana: I paid $13 a night at this Bed and Breakfast. I rented a private room, which included a shared bathroom with the room next to mine, and the host prepared a "desayuno tipico" for me. 

Food in El Salvador

When I was in Santa Ana, breakfast was included in my accommodation. In other days, I would spend around $1.50-$3.00 on breakfast pupusas from a stand or small restaurant. Most of the time, this included orange juice or coffee. 

For lunch, I would opt for a variety of different lunch options, from pupusas (again) or another dish. Most of my meals were about $4-10 for lunch, as most times I opted for a smaller meal like sandwiches, soups, or some other homecooked cafeteria style dish. 

For dinner, I would again try different types of street food or restaurants. At one point I had steak at an restaurant that I regretted visiting, and it costed me $15. Another time, I had some of the best burgers I ever tried, and paid $10 for the burger, fries, and drink. In Santa Ana, there was a night I had a bunch of different small foods from different street food stands to make my "dinner" and paid around $6 for it all. 

I would budget anywhere between $15-25 for meals in El Salvador per day, if you plan to eat out everyday for every meal. 

Transportation

Going from the airport to San Salvador will be your biggest uber/taxi expense, as it costed me $35 each way.

In my blog posts, I mentioned how often I would use the buses and ubers. To travel from one place to another in the city, I would take ubers or uber motos, which costed around $1.50 to $4 (on the night out) each time. I also stayed in a pretty central location in both cities. 

For 2 days, I rented a car, and that costed me $80, all fees included, plus a $100 deposit which I did get back. I do not regret this purchase, as it gave me sooo much flexibility for Ruta de las Flores, as most activities are remote and hard to reach (or impossible to reach) via bus. 

Besides that, I still took buses to go from San Salvador to Santa Ana, or San Salvador the beach, on various days. Those costed anywhere from 75 cents to $1.50. 

If you plan to rent a car, they usually go for $30-50 a day. If you plan to take buses, you should budget around $5 a day, (although most times you will spend even less). On Ubers, not including the $70 I spent (with both tips) for airport ubers, I spent around $4-9 a day. 

My activities/tours

Beach: I did not do any paid activities at the beach, although many people recommend doing a surfing class which costs $35 with instructor and gear included. 

Cascadas Guide: I paid $20 for a private tour, but that included me arriving to the town on my own (which I did on bus) and tipped more for the guide. 

Free Walking Tour: Technically, this was "free" but the guide obviously expects a tip, which I gave $15. I was also alone in the tour, so with a group, you would pay a couple dollars each. 

Coffee Tour: It was $30, and definitely a highlight of my trip as it included coffee tasting! 

Guide for Santa Ana Volcano: $5 for the guide, plus $6 to enter the park 

Going Out: I paid about $10 on drinks at a bar, and then I got to enjoy a free cover because I am a girl. 

Snacks, Coffee: I generally visited speciality coffee shops, which means I paid around $3-4 for my drinks, although coffee in other places would generally be around $1. I would also buy a lot of food to "try" that were not full meals, and these were a few dollars each. 

Paying in El Salvador 

Street Food, bus fares, and anything bought from a small stand will be cash only. Also, I needed cash for most of the activities, as I paid and tipped the guides in cash. Obviously, my ubers within the cities were paid by my card in the app. Most shops and sit down restaurants do accept card as well. When I rented my car, I paid it with my card. I would say I used cash 70% of the time, and card 30% of the time. 

As a solo traveler, I learned a long time ago that you should arrive to any country with about $300 in cash, even if its a country that accepts card in most places. I arrived to El Salvador with $300 in cash, and I had about $70 left over after my 6 days. I also kept cash in various different places, as a safety precaution. I always kept cash on me, and i always kept cash hidden in different places in my room and luggage. Also, before leaving to El Salvador, I went to my local bank and asked if the $300 could be in small bills. I had $200 in 20 dollar bills, and the other $100 was 50 one-dollar bills, and the rest in five-dollar bills. This helped so much because the street food and bus fares required smaller bills, as they will not accept $10+ bills most times.