Digital Nomad in El Tunco, El Salvador: A Complete Guide

You heard it here first people… El Tunco is about to blow up.

Part of me wants to keep this little surf haven all to myself, while the other part of me wants to shout it from the roof tops!

Is El Salvador good for digital nomads?

El Salvador is a hidden gem, but I know it wont be for long. El Salvador is becoming an increasingly popular destination for digital nomads, offering a combination of affordable living costs, decent internet access, and beautiful natural scenery.

Known for its beautiful beaches, surfing spots, and eco-tourism destinations, making El Salvador a great place to combine work and play. Additionally, the country uses the US dollar as its currency, making it easy for foreigners to navigate finances without needing to exchange currencies.

I especially feel in love with the little town of El Tunco, located on El Salvador’s west coast (which I guess is their only coast lol). I love a good beach town. Its really where I feel most at home of all the places we travel to.

The vibes here are impeccable. Our original intention was to stay 1 week, its such a small town wont we get bored? Almost a month later, we had to be dragged out.

El Tunco is a very tiny town – like there only three main streets tiny. Because of this, you see a lot of the same people over and over again, and they start to recognize you as well. Its crazy how even being here for a short time, made me feel like I was part of the community.

You become friends with the bartender at the place you go a several times a week; you make friends with fellow surfers you meet on the streets and in the water; you make friends with waitresses and hotel employees.

Everyone in this town welcomes you and makes you feel like you belong as well.

As I write this post, I realize we didn’t “do” much. My day-to-day schedule as a digital nomad in El Tunco consisted exclusively of surfing, work, pupusas, sunsets, and drinking lots of Supremas.

Being in a place that allows you to slow down and live a more simple life is priceless.

What is Surf City?

‘Surf City’ is a development along El Salvador’s coastline from La Libertad north to El Zonte, including San Blas, El Tunco, El Sunzal, and everything in between.

Salvadorian president, Nayib Bukele, is hoping this tourist project will attract the masses to its beautiful beaches, and even better surf spots. And its already paying off.

El Salvador was selected to host the 2021 (rescheduled from 2020) ISA World surfing games, a stepping stone to the Tokyo Olympics! And 2023 has many more world surfing events on the calendar.

Driving through Surf City today, you can tell a major makeover is in progress. There is a ton of construction in La Libertad, all along the main highway, and in El Tunco. It’s obvious a lot of effort is being made to make this the ultimate surf and tourist destination.

In La Libertad, large buildings with thatched roofs and an amusement park are being constructed near the pier. Boardwalks and walking paths are being poured, along with new and improved infrastructure bringing in new restaurants and shopping areas.

Its all very exciting and I can’t wait to return in a few years to see the finished product.

A Digital Nomad’s Guide to El Tunco, El Salvador

Best Way to Get to El Tunco

El Tunco is a very small beach town, so how do you get here? Here are several options:

1. Fly into San Salvador and take a shuttle from the airport to El Tunco. San Salvador is a pretty large airport and has many flights paths throughout Central America, as well as many US cities. The country recently completed an expansion to the international airport, making it much easier for tourists to visit.

2. From Leon, Nicaragua you can catch a 3am shuttle to El Tunco, which takes about 10-12 hours including crossing both the Honduras and El Salvador borders (~$50 per person). Crossing into Honduras is super quick; they are very efficient and professional. Entering El Salvador is much more loosey-goosey; they didn’t even stamp our passports.

3. Or if you’re starting from the North in Antigua, there is a shuttle From Guatemala to El Tunco; this trip is about 6 hours and costs around $40.  

There are several shuttle companies running routes between countries; our go-to’s were Gekko Explorer and Roneey Shuttle.

Is there a Digital Nomad visa for El Salvador?

No visa is required for entry into El Salvador as long as you stay less than 90 days. A ‘tourist card’ will be issued to you upon arrival at the airport by immigration officials for $12, but by traveling overland you can avoid this fee.

If you know you want to stay longer than 90 days, you can apply in advance for a multiple-entry visa at an El Salvador embassy or consulate in your country.

El Salvador is also part of an agreement with Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala known as the CA-4 Group. This agreement allows you to travel freely between these four countries during the 90 days tourist visa period.

Many people go on ‘visa runs’ in which they leave the CA-4 countries, to Mexico or Costa Rica for example, and reenter the region which starts the 90 days over again.

I’ve seen a couple sites claiming there is a new ‘digital nomad visa’ for El Salvador allowing you to stay in the country up to 2 years. However I haven’t found any official information or websites to substantiate these claims. For now, I think it’s just a rumor or wishful thinking.

Learn more about which Central American countries have digital nomad visas.

Getting Around Surf City

El Tunco proper is basically made up of 3 streets making a triangle, so you can obviously walk everywhere. To hop around Surf City, there are many buses that run up and down the main ‘highway’.

The one that stops in El Tunco is blue bus 80, and costs a quarter. The buses have some designated stops, but will also stop wherever you want along the route. Our favorite bus 80 runs from La Libertad past El Zonte; I’m actually not sure how far it goes since we always got off at El Tunco.

If you decide to stay in an Airbnb, you will probably need to get familiar with the bus system. We stayed in San Blas for a week, and took the bus to El Tunco every day for our surf lessons. It was quick, easy, and kind of fun riding in the pimped-out school buses. They pass by every 20 minutes, give or take.

Unfortunately, the buses stop running before 6pm, so if you eat dinner or party in El Tunco, you’ll need to find another way home (there aren’t many taxi’s either).

Uber is also available in Surf City. However, in my experience it was hit or miss whether there were any drivers. If you can catch one, its a great deal – only a few dollars to get from El Tunco to La Libertad. But I wouldn’t completely rely on it because you never know if you’ll find a driver or end up stranded. We got pretty good at the bus system and only took an Uber a couple times to get groceries.

Where to Live In El Tunco as a Digital Nomad

This part is surprisingly tricky, and El Tunco’s only con in my opinion. Its easy to assume everything in Central America will be cheap, but that’s not necessarily true. We found that out the hard way staying in El Tunco.

Hotels and Hostels

It is very confusing booking accommodations in El Tunco because none of the hostels and hotels are on the same travel sites. Some are exclusively on Expedia, others on Booking, a few others on Priceline, and some you can only book via their site… you have to check 5 different places.

My strategy was to just look around on Google maps at the different options. When you find one that interests you, click on it and Google can tell you the best way to book.

I heard many people say they were not planning to book anything ahead of time, but just show up and walk around. “That’s how it works in El Tunco”… but I don’t think I agree. At least when we were there, most of the hotels and hostels were totally booked.

I’m not an 18 year old backpacker. I’m a grown adult with a career and I like to be comfortable; so begging for a place to stay anywhere that has a vacancy doesn’t appeal to me.

And I definitely don’t want to end up staying in a tent someone pitches next to their hostel just to have a place to sleep (which happened to one of my friends – I would literally die).

There are a ton of hotels and hostels in El Tunco, all with a similar vibe. So don’t be discouraged if the ‘cool spots’ are booked. Or if you want to really splurge, there are a couple luxury resorts as well.

An important thing to keep in mind, as a digital nomad in El Tunco I would recommend looking for accommodations with an area you can work from and good WIFI, as there aren’t many internet cafes or coworking spaces in town.

Hostels

Word on the street was that these were the “cool” hostels, but we’ll never know because they were always booked solid. Hostels in El Tunco aren’t exactly a budget option either, and at least from the outside I couldn’t figure out what made them so appealing.

You may end up in a grungy dorm room paying the same as a private room at another hotel. Check out all your options before committing.

Papaya Lodge

Tunco Lodge

Kali Hostal

Hotels

Hotel Mopelia (where we stayed)

Hotel La Guitarra

Aloha Bocana

Santorini Lodge (where we stayed)

Boca Olas ($$$)

Hotel Roca Sunzal ($$$)

Airbnb

Because of El Tunco’s tiny size, there are really no Airbnb’s in the actual town. If you want to stay just outside the town, there are a lot more options, but prices are surprisingly astronomical. If you look a bit farther away it gets a little more reasonable, but still more than I wanted to pay.

We stayed for a week in an Airbnb in San Blas which is about 15 minutes driving down the road from El Tunco.

Pros: it was near a beach you can actually hang out on (El Tunco’s beaches are very rocky), and its very easy to catch the bus (and only 25 cents).

Cons: our accommodation was still pretty expensive despite being far away from everything, the bus stops running at 6pm-ish, and there is no where to eat out, shop, or go out.

Where to Work as a Digital Nomad in El Tunco

WIFI

As a digital nomad in El Tunco, this part might be a drawback. The WIFI is decent. Not great, but also not terrible. It really comes down to your accommodation. The main issue we ran into was the WIFI signal not reaching our room or being very weak, but in the common areas it was usable.

Coworking Spaces in El Tunco

There aren’t any true coworking spaces in El Tunco. The closest we found was a little room in Dale Café. You’ll see laptops anywhere there is a decent WIFI signal, whether that’s outside a little coffee shop or in a restaurant.

We spent most of our time working wherever we happened to be staying. Santorini Lodge has a nice, large area outside with tables and chairs, Mopelia’s restaurant was a laptop extravaganza, or in our San Blas Airbnb which was ultra convenient.

If you plan to digital nomad in El Tunco, I would first try to stay somewhere with a place to work, then if you want a change of pace you can venture out in search of WIFI.

What to Eat in El Tunco

One word: pupusas.

The national dish of El Salvador is a pupusa, a thick flatbread made of cornmeal with various fillings from beans to meat to fruit. There are two main Pupusarias in town and I really liked both, although one has just a few options. And you cant beat the price – $1 each. Wash it down with a Suprema, possibly my favorite beer ever.

Compared to most beach towns we’ve been to, El Tunco has an amazing selection of restaurants and cafes. There a multitude of options, serving everything from Asian to American to Italian to Salvadorian. And the quality was great! We were eating out a lot since most of our stay we didn’t have a kitchen, but luckily there were plenty of places to try.

Thankfully, many of the restaurants aren’t too pricey to balance out the higher cost of accommodations.

Here is just some of my favorites:

Breakfast

Dale Café

Aloha Bocana

Day Café

Lunch and Dinner

Any Pupusaria

Equina La Comadre

Bao House

Japanese Sushi and Ramen guy

Mopelia

Vibes

La Guitarra

La Bonita Beach Club

Kako’s

Michela Barco (bar)

Money in El Tunco

El Salvador’s currency is the US dollar. This makes things really easy, especially if you’re from the US. Many stores and restaurants are cash only, some accept credit card as well, but everywhere accepts Bitcoin. Yes, you heard that right.

El Salvador formally made Bitcoin a legal tender in 2021; the first country in the world to do so. You need to transfer your Bitcoin to a special wallet app, then just scan it when you want to pay.

Some restaurants even offer a discount for using Bitcoin. I personally didn’t try it, but it’s really cool to see El Salvador leading the way in crypto adoption.

I think this is might even attract more digital nomads to El Tunco, especially those in tech.

Is El Tunco Safe?

El Tunco is a very fun-loving community and I never once felt remotely unsafe – besides being tossed around like rag doll in the waves.

Even at night the town is lively and well-lit. Of course exercise common sense, as you would anywhere else in the world, but no need to worry or stress when walking around El Tunco.

The US government website lists El Salvador under a “Level 3: Reconsider Travel” travel advisory stating, “Reconsider travel to El Salvador due to crime”. Sometimes I think these warnings are meant to scare people into never leaving their home country.

There are certainly more and less dangerous parts of El Salvador, but if you stick to Surf City you’ll be fine.

Best Time to Visit El Tunco

El Salvador, like the rest of Central America, is in the Tropical Climate meaning there is very little variation between the seasons. The temperature stays between 71˚F to 89˚F for the most part. The most distinctive change in the seasons is ‘wet‘ versus ‘dry‘.

Dry Season

The dry season is November through April. February starts the hottest months of the year, peaking in April. And it feels hottt. The waves during this time are slightly more mellow, and better for intermediate and beginner surfers (but to me the waves still looked huge).

El Salvador does not observe daylight savings time, so half the year it’s Central Time, the other half it’s Mountain Time.

Rainy Season

Starting in May and lasting through October is the rainy season, averaging 18 rainy days a month (10+ inches). With the rain comes 80%+ humidity. But don’t let the rain and humidity get you down, this is the time of year with the best surf. People from all over the world come here to surf and compete. Solid swells can hold 10+ feet.

What to Pack for El Tunco

El Tunco is maybe the most laid back place I’ve ever been in my life. Most people are walking around in swimming suits, no shirts, and no shoes (and no problems). Don’t forget your sunscreen!

Make El Tunco, El Salvador Your Next Digital Nomad Destination

With this knowledge I hope you add El Tunco to your list of nomad destinations! Surf City is a great stop along your route as you explore the rest of Central America.

I hope you love being a digital nomad in El Tunco as much as I did! Drop a comment if you have any more questions!