Santa Ana Volcano — Attraction in Departamento de Santa Ana

El Salvador 🇸🇻 2023

This hike was not easy. People saying its easy aren't thinking of elderly people or those who aren't gladiators. We both struggled and we are both in decent shape. We saw people get injured and pass out. So if you can't walk up 20ish flights of stairs without dying......this may be difficult but doable. But don't let these showoffs fool you into thinking its easy.

Rent a walking stick for 50 cents Trust me it'll make it easier.

Bring plenty of water. Or bring cash there are 2 stores on the hike you can buy water.

Bring food, snacks, or fruit. You'll need the energy.

Lady sells fruit on the 2nd stop during the hike.

BRING CASH. You'll need at least $9 to do this but bring more for water and snacks. $3 for the guides and $6 to get in. This is separate from the fee to actually get into the parking lot, which was per person and cheap.

Wear good hiking shoes. We saw 2 people sprain or twist their ankles.

Long athletic pants and a rain jacket. It gets cold at the top. Plus it rained.

You start off the hike with a very long downward staircase like descend. This is important because you will end with a huge uphill climb. So pace yourself.

Towards the end you'll come across large rocks similar to taking 3 steps at a time on a normal staircase so don't wear jeans. Wear pants that are stretchy.

If it's a cloudy day you won't see anything at the top. Looks like purgatory. We weren't lucky. If the weather says cloudy i would skip this. Not worth it. Try another day that's clear skies.

Took our group 5.5 hours total.

Again this is no joke. It's definitely doable but take this seriously and come prepared.

Telling people this is easy is a complete disservice.

Oh and the pupusas in the parking lot for 75 cents were fantastic! Try the...

Get a private guide if available. Unfortunately it was only a group tour when we arrived (around 8:20am). I guess it’s first come first serve unless you make some arrangements ahead of time. Our group was pretty crowded, different physical abilities. Crying kids. It’s not an easy hike btw. I have no idea why would people bring their kids there. Some steps are pretty high even for the adults! We had to stop all the time to wait for the slower part of the group, until we got divided into two groups (faster and slower) at the entrance to the Nat’l park. Hike itself consists out of two parts:

1. From the main parking lot to the Nat’l park entrance -downhill on the way to the volcano ~1-1.5km/30-45 min
2. Natn’l park entrance to the top of the volcano - uphill on the way to the volcano 2.8km/1.5h

You can skip the first part since there is a paved road right to the park. We did not know about it, so we hiked both parts on the way up, but took a “taxi” (local person with a car, I guess they are always available) on the way back from the park entrance/exit to the main parking lot.

You do need a guide to go to the volcano, but on the way back we just left and went alone (we did let our guide know though).

To drive directly to the Nat’l park entrance put this in your gps: “Oficina de Medio Ambiente, El Salvador” They have a small kiosk where you can get water and some snacks. Restrooms are pretty dirty and no water in sinks (it was a water barrel instead)

Main parking lot: “Cerro Verde car park” Clean restrooms, restaurant with a nice view & decent breakfast, and multiple food/souvenir vendors.

Fees (for foreigners): $5/person, not per car, parking fee at the main parking lot $6/person for a group guide $3/person Nat’l park...

Feels like a scam.

We got the 248 bus from Santa Ana at 7:40am, it was mostly full of tourists and cost only $0.70, and it's supposed to take you to the entrance. But they dropped us at a private car park and told us to get out. We had to pay $0.50 just to walk through the car park, shouted at by an angry man who treated us like cattle as we paid.

Then we were greeted by a guide who told us to pay $4 each. I believe locals pay much less than this. There were NO locals around, just the tourists from the bus. We got wristbands after paying then walked through a forested path to the ACTUAL entrance to the park and volcano, where there are toilets and official guides and lots of locals.

We believe we were scammed to take the back entrance and be taken advantage of by several more people.

I don't think you need a guide either, we saw lots of people, including locals without one. Luckily, entrance fee is only $3 still.

The volcano is nice and an easy hike, but is ruined by people taking advantage of tourists and charging more for the same service (which is nothing, the guide speaks only Spanish and only tells you at the start the rules and how far you will walk, we had no other interaction with them apart from that).

I think if you come here as a tourist, try to avoid going in through the unofficial car park. Continue along the road in the bus to the main entrance, there you can join a guide group with locals for less, or choose no guide if you wish. Good luck.

If you want to do it this tourist cattle way, make sure you have exact change, as nobody seems to have any change here...

The return bus...