25 Places to Go in 2025 Spotlight: El Salvador

Hike side-by-side with volcanos in El Imposible National Park, or hit the waves in the popular “Surf City.” The Ruta de las Flores provides a cultural immersion through charming towns, art, and coffee farms. Historical sites like the UNESCO World Heritage site Joya de Cerén, the Mayan artifacts at San Andrés Archaeological Park, and the National Museum of Anthropology in San Salvador offer glimpses into the country’s pre-Columbian past.

The country is small and easy to cover on a short trip, plus the US dollar is the national currency, reducing some of the barriers that travelers face in other countries. As we wrote when we named El Salvador as the Matador Network Next Big Destination Award winner: It would have been hard to imagine El Salvador’s current position in the global travel scene a decade ago. Today, it’s harder to imagine missing an opportunity to visit the country.