Long waves shape into perfect curls along the shore of El Salvador’s Pacific coast. Surfers sit on their boards, waiting to catch a ride. The jewel of this surfing mecca is El Tunco. With three popular surf breaks just off its rocky shore, El Tunco is one of El Salvador’s most treasured surfing towns.
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Even though we don’t surf, we still wanted to check out this popular part of the country. We travelled south of the country’s capital, San Salvador, to a 25 km long section of the coast that is almost completely composed of surfable waves. The government has recently dubbed this popular coast as ‘Surf City’ to increase tourism to El Salvador’s coastal towns and it seems to be working. A lot of funding is going in to making these towns more visitor friendly such a boardwalks, roads, hotels, restaurants and other infrastructure.
The 25 km stretch of coast we visited is highlighted by the blue box in the map below.
El Tunco
What used to be a sleepy village, El Tunco has become the most popular tourist destination in the entire country. The thing that is drawing the crowds is its surf. As we walked along the newly built malecón, big waves were continuously forming in the water. Even before one wave crashes, another one is building right behind. In the picture below you can see how quickly and continuously these waves come.
As they break, we can hear the tumbling of rocks on the beach. This is not a sandy beach destination favoured by sun worshippers. It is unapologetically a surfing destination. Beyond the rocky beach we could see dozens of people, sitting on surf boards, waiting for their turn to ride the perfect wave.
Note – With a strong undertow, the beach is not safe for swimming either. It is listed as a red flag beach so there are no lifeguards on duty.
A few surfers have been quietly visiting El Salvador’s coast for years but recently word has gotten out and its popularity has dramatically increased. Needless to say the majority of tourists who visit Surf City are surfers. In fact, we were there a few days before an ISO Junior World Championships competition was taking place. There were a lot of international athletes in town and in the water, sporting their county’s jersey.
El Tunco received its name for the unusual volcanic rock feature sitting in the water, just off shore. El Tunco translates in English to ‘The Pig’. From certain angles, the feature looks like a pig lying on its back with its feet up in the air. It’s a unique feature and looks even nicer at sunset when the sky behind it glows red, orange and even purple.
On the other side of the malecón are a few beach bars. During the day they were very quiet and we wondered how they stayed in business. At night however, strobe lights and loud dance music enticed partiers and the dance bars quickly filled up. On weekends it gets busier when San Salvador’s young elites come to El Tunco to party. There are a lot of heavily armed police in the area to protect visitors to this important tourist town. During the day, they stand in the shade with a watchful eye. At night they frisk party goers for weapons as they enter the dance bars.
In addition to the surf, the town of El Tunco has been touted as a backpackers hangout. Compared to other places in El Savador though, El Tunco is quite expensive for backpackers. The high prices don’t mean the rooms are nicer or the food is better. Businesses are charging what the international surfing market can bare; so far it’s working for them.
The town only has two streets that run perpendicular to each other and a couple of small pedestrian streets connecting them. Along these streets you can find many restaurants, cafes, hostels and hostals (inns) as well beach wear shops and of course many, many surf shops.
The town however, seems to be still in an awkward growing stage. It feels as if its not quite sure how to pull off its new popularity. While it is much different from typical El Salvadorian towns with who have shanty homes and litter-strewn streets, El Tunco didn’t endear itself to us. There are a few cute areas with street art and cute cafes, but mostly the narrow walkways were lined by hotel privacy walls or corrugated metal walls around construction sites. Although you can’t tell from our pictures, it felt a bit claustrophobic rather than hippy and relaxed as we had read.
At least a dozen beaches fill in the long coast on either side on El Tunco, each with their own personality. Most are even less developed than El Tunco. Since we are not surfers, instead of spending our days on the waves we visited a few different towns and their beaches to better understand this region.
El Sunzal
El Sunzal is popular because it has a consistent surf everyday of the year. It is this surf that first attracted the attention of American surfers in the 1960s.
The only thing separating El Sunzal from El Tuncal is a small tidal river called Rio El Tunco. In fact, these two beaches are almost the only two that you can walk between in the stretch of coast.
While El Tunco is covered in river rocks, Sunzal has fine, black sand. The sand colour and large rock formations are the result of centuries of volcanic eruptions in El Salvador. In this small country there are over 100 volcanoes. We will take you to some of them upcoming posts.
The waves are a bit gentler in this section of El Sunzal Beach and swimming is even possible.
After crossing another tidal river called El Sunzal River, we found another long, black sand beach. The far border of this part of El Sunzal Beach is marked by tall rugged cliffs. Below them is a small cave that can be explored at low tide. There are more caves on the other side of El Tunco Beach as well but, apparently you can only visit them during the lowest low tides.
It is oppressively hot in this part of the country. By 9 am temperatures were well into the 30s C. The strong sun also heats up the black sand until it is scorching hot and impossible to walk on with bare feet. Even the little grains of sand that got between our flipflops and feet made it feel as if our skin was on fire.
There are a few tourist hotels and beach bars along the section of El Sunzal Beach as well, but they are a little more rugged.
El Zonte
Eleven kilometers west of El Tunco is the much less touristy town of El Zonte. Rustic beach bars line the side of its black sand beach. At the far end a tall cliff protects the houses on top from the fierce waves below.
We walked through the small village to reach its second beach. The town is a strange mix of rustic houses and hotels with thatched roofs and a couple of high end luxury resorts.
The beach on the other side of El Zonte River is also a long, muddy black sand beach. It has a good surf break, but surprisingly not nearly as many surfers make the trek over to it. When we were there the tide was coming in and the waves were building up, but we only saw a couple of surfers getting lessons.
Puerto de La Libertad
The largest city in this region is Puerto de La Libertad, commonly called La Libertad. The biggest draw is its busy fish market which is stocked everyday by local fishermen.
There is a lot of new development around the recently Chinese built port including a malecón which passes by modern kiosks and small restaurants. On the other side of the boardwalk is a small amusement park that was very popular in the cooler evening air.
From the malecón we could see a few people playing in the ocean in the city’s long, muddy beach on either side of the port.
An older malecón continues to travel around the bay toward Playa Punta Roca. This point has a well-known surf break, and there were a few surfers in the water, but not as many as El Tunco. Along this older malecón are less modern kiosks serving food and drinks.
Travel Tips for El Tunco and Surf City
- ATMs – There are ATMs in El Tunco and La Libertad, but as far as we know there are none in the other villages. The only grocery stores are in La Libertad. The other towns and villages have small shops that sell mostly junk food.
- Safety in Surf City – El Tunco and area have been quite safe for tourists for a few years with very low crime rates. Recent government crackdowns on gang violence have made the entire country a lot safer. Even with this decrease in crime, always use safe practices such as not carrying a lot of cash or expensive jewelry or walking alone at night when travelling in El Salvador.
- When to visit El Tunco – There are two seasons, summer and rainy. Both apparently have great surf, but in the rainy season the swells are very high. We were there in April; the hottest part of summer. April to August is the peak season for surfing. Summer or Dry Season is November to April. Rainy Season or Winter is May to October.
Where to stay in Surf City
Compared to other towns in El Salvador, expect to pay a lot more for lower quality hotels in this area. The most popular town to stay in is El Tunco. Although it is still very rustic, it has the largest choice of hotels and apartments as well as restaurants and bars. Everything is within walking distance so there is no bad location.
There are a few hotels in El Sunzal and it is within walking distance to El Tunco’s restaurants and nightlife, so would also be a good choice. El Zonte has either very basic or very high-end accommodations and eateries. La Libertad also has hotels and restaurants, but there isn’t much to do in the city and the beaches are not very nice to make it a beach destination.
Getting to El Tunco and Surf City
If you have a car, it is a fairly easy drive to reach El Tunco from San Salvador. There is not a lot of parking so make sure your hotel has a parking lot.
El Tunco is easy to reach by bus from a few different parts of El Salvador. From San Salvador, there is a mini-bus stop just out side of Terminal De Occidente. Bus 102A ($2.25) is air-conditioned and travels as far as El Zonte. From the same stop you could take Bus 102. It is more frequent, but is a non air-conditioned chicken bus that only goes as far as La Libertad. From there you can catch another chicken bus to the other towns.
From Santa Ana it’s more complicated, but it is possible to reach by bus. You can find the information on the route here.
From Rutas de las Flores, make your way to Sonsonate where buses travel to and from La Libertad where you can then catch a chicken bus to El Tunco or one of the other beaches.
Note – You can bring your luggage on the chicken buses, but you may have to pay an additional fee. It seems to be driver dependent if you are charged or not.
From Antigua, Guatemala there is an overnight tourist shuttle to El Tunco. You can buy them from any agency and most hostels in town, including Tropicana Hostel in Antigua.
Getting around Surf City
To get between the beaches, chicken bus 80 frequently travels up and down the coast between La Libertad and La Perla, and will stop at all of the towns in between including El Tunco, El Sunzo and El Zonte. If you’re travelling a shorter distance you can likely flag down any chicken bus that passes by. Just confirm your destination with the driver.
If you’ re not a surfer plan to only spend a couple of days in El Tunco and the Surf City region as there is not a lot else to do. But we’re glad we visited it to see what the fuss is all about.
To read more of our adventures in El Salvador, click here.
Coming Next – Rutas de las Flores, El Salvador
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