INTRODUCTION

Why San Salvador? Exactly. As a P4P destination, I imagine El Salvador will probably fall near the bottom of the list of most travelers that have been there. As a sight-seeing destination, San Salvador does not have much to offer either. On the positive side, there are a reasonable number of establishments that cater to the P4P gentleman. Unfortunately, the quality of appearance and service falls behind relative to many other Latin America countries.

QUICK FACTS

PASSPORT/VISA: Passports must be valid for at least 6 months after date of departure. Visas are not required for the US, Canada, Australia and most EU countries.

AIRPORT FEES: One web guide I consulted and American Airlines both stated that the entry fee for US citizens was $100 for the life of the passport, but when I arrived I was issued a 90 day Tourist Card for $10 US, correctly identified by a different web guide. Departure tax of approximately $22 US.

ELECTRICITY: El Salvador uses 110 volts AC at 60 Hz with standard two-pront US-style outlets. Convertors and plug adaptors should not be necessary, although it might be a good idea to carry a 3-prong to 2-prong adaptor if you have any 3 prong electronics.

WEATHER: The climate in San Salvador is relatively consistent throughout the year, ranging from a low of 61F-86F in January to 66F-90F in April. The rainy season runs May-October with an average of 8-12 inches of rain.

CURRENCY: El Salvador uses the US Dollar.

LODGING

I personally only stayed at Hotel Novo which I can confirm is a pleasant place to stay, is guest-friendly, and provided a reasonable rate of $57 after taxes for a standard room. I included photos of my room and outside under the link. They have a website at http://www.novoapart-hotel.com/inpag.htm with online reservations, but I didn't receive a response in a timely manner so I called their toll-free reservation line at 1-888-703-5327. The first time I called there was only a Spanish speaker available, so I called back at a later time to speak with a lady that spoke English. Airport transfer to-from was only $7.

The Hotel Real InterContinental has a better location directly across from a large mall, in walking distance to a popular nightlife area, is also guest-friendly, and is supposedly a nicer hotel. Their website is http://www.icsansalvador.gruporeal.com/ according to some price-checking I did they have rooms starting at about $80. If I return to San Salvador, I'll probably check this hotel out for at least a couple days.

A third hotel I did a bare amount of research on was Hotel Oporto. It's directly across the street from Novo and supposedly offers less expensive rates. I walked in one day and couldn't find an office, so I just took a look around and left.

All three hotels are identified on the San Salvador Map.

Of course there are many other hotel options, but I've read that many of the nicer ones may have problems with guests. Novo and InterContinental seemed to be the most popular among hobbyists.

ARRIVAL

Tourist cards are issued directly at the immigration counters, so have your $10 ready with your passport. After picking up luggage and passing through customs, you'll exit the building to see a mess of people waiting with drivers holding signs randomly intersperced among the crowd. If you arrange your transportation in advance with your hotel, it's less expensive ($7 if staying at Novo). I did so but couldn't find my driver after our flight arrived over 1 hour late. I should have called but instead took a taxi for $18.

The taxi stopped at a private gas station that looked more like a residence shortly after leaving the airport. The appearance of the place had me on a mild alert as the view from the road was blocked and there were lots of male locals/drivers around. I'm not sure if this is standard or not, but you may experience this if you take a taxi from the airport.

Airport to city is about 30-45 minutes, not including a gas pitstop.

GETTING AROUND

There's no metro and I never figured out the bus system, generally the bus system in Latin American countries is complex and not well documented anywhere online or even locally. Bus transportation also often gets a bad rap due to pickpocketers. I walked a lot, but this is probably more risky than many travelers would feel comfortable with, particularly at night. You'll quickly understand when you see all the guards carrying shotguns standing outside of many businesses.

This leaves you with taxis. I didn't find good taxi rate information anywhere online, so this is based solely on my experience. You may want to consult the San Salvador Map to get a feeling of approximate rates for distance. The cabs are not metereed, so you'll need to agree on a rate beforehand. Basically I was quoted and paid about $4 US from Novo to Lips or Fresh Kiss (Green01 to Blue08 or Blue11) and $3 from Novo to the Metrocenter area (ie Green01 to Blue04/Cocktails & Dreams). If you enlist an unmarked private taxi like the ones in front of Novo, you'll probably more likely to get better prices. I never negotiated here, so you might want to try dropping these rates by a dollar and see if they'll bite.

One of the private cab drivers is a gentleman named Tato. He drives a white car and can generally found in front of the Novo during the day. He has a reputation of knowing all the hobbyist establishments. He does seem to know where almost everything is located (he didn't know Illusions or another place I read about called Peluqueria Berli) but I found he didn't really know about many more places than I knew about from my research.

I'd recommend picking up at least a couple business cards from cab drivers. The streets empty early and cab drivers can be difficult to find later in the evening. If you're at an establishment, they can usually call one for you.

P4P ESTABLISHMENTS

I've listed these in order of recommendation with only some brief comments. For more details, try clicking on the links to the corresponding topics.

Most if not all places listed are closed on Sunday. Fortunately I didn't spend a Sunday here. For Sunday action, it's highly recommended that you get some phone numbers and cross your fingers.

Most have a cover charge of $2-$6 (avg $3) to enter and include your first drink. Most places should offer takeout, but I only got the price at Caprichos.

Kiss Fresh: ~10am-7pm. $24+ Best price/quantity/#ladies combination.
Cocktails & Dreams: 8pm-2am. $30+ Tiny ST room. All prostitutes & not as crowded as Lips.
Lips: 12pm-2am. ~$100+ Best lineup, but many sharks & not all prostitutes. No ST, before/after shift only. Expensive.
Capricho: ~7pm-2am. $30+/$70 takeout Dive with small lineup. Good price/quality combination.
Illusions: ?-2am. $??? Some attractive dancers, but not sure of P4P options here.
La Oficina: ~10am-4am? $40+ Fewer ladies but decent looking.
Special Touch/Uno Sol: ~10am-2am. $40+ More ladies but lower quality on my visit.
Connections: ~7pm-2am. $31 Dive with mostly old and/or overweight, at least 1 attractive lady.
Okoles: ~10am-7pm. $20+. Mostly overweight, but some cute faces.
Birds Next: ~12pm-2am. $30+ Poor lineup on day and evening visits.
Tequila Show: ?-2am. $? Poor lineup on one weekend evening visit.
Divas: ?-2am. $? Poor lineup on one weekend evening visit.

There are some other places that I didn't review but others have mentioned. I can't confirm any comments about these places, but you may want to check regardless. Full List of San Salvador Bars/Clubs

Strategy: Start strong, for daytime visit Kiss Fresh first, for evening Cocktails & Dreams. Use these as baselines for the quality of ladies you are looking for. Lips will have some better looking ladies, but may be a challenge with no takeout option and not all of the ladies are prostitues. Still, visit Lips early on and try to do some phone number mining. Shift change at Lips is 8pm, so you can only arrange dayshift dates after 8pm and nightshift dates before 6pm. Cocktails & Dreams might also be a good candidate for phone mining since good daytime options are few.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a big quality dropoff for establishments below Capricho when really none of them are that great. Since you started strong, you can always return to the better places if you don't like what you've found further down the list.

Additional Notes: Kiss Fresh has a nice open lounge area with many couches and a wide bar, so if you want more time to decide, just let them know and they'll leave you alone. La Oficina and Special Touch/El Sol do not have good lounge areas, so it feels more high pressure for you to decide on one of them.

DEPARTURE

The airport was an absolute mess when I arrived. Passengers were queued in a very long line just to get in the doors. Fortunately I was able to go straight in after identifying myself as a Platinum AA flyer to the door guard. If you don't have this kind of status through your airline, then arriving 2-3 hours prior to departure may be necessary.

I paid my $22 departure tax directly at the AA counter when picking up my ticket. Afterwards you'll need to head upstairs for departing flights. There will be a long line for the security check with another unruly mess of people milling around and getting in the way. As you approach the front of the line you'll see that the line moves more slowly because of the last minutes hugs, kisses, and goodbyes given to family and friends just before having their tickets checked to enter the secure area.

After getting through this security line, the rest is the standard immigration, carry-on check, flight, arrival at your home country airport.

CONCLUSION

As stating at the beginning and illustrated by this guide, San Salvador is not a place you'll want to visit specifically for P4P, but the scene is reasonably well-established if you find yourself here for any other reason.

Wow, GREAT report! Lots of good details!

Thanks for the effort!

Vlad, thanks for the great details. I did't realize some of the upper end clubs were that expensive. I'm curious as to whether the good lineups can match what you can find in Panama, San Jose or Colombia. IMO, the Salvadorean gals do not seem as attractive in general as their sisters in the neighboring countries.

Good job on the report as always.

Vladimir wrote: ¨La Oficina and Special Touch/El Sol do not have good lounge areas, so it feels more high pressure for you to decide on one of them.¨

I guess La Oficina interior has changed from 2 yrs ago. There were 3 salas de espera when I visited.

El Sol did feel cramped on the 1st flr. I found a tiny lounge room upstair where I took my time to converse with candidates & select.

Good report Vladimir.

Just came back from a three trip to San Salvador. Was their looking to invest in some cheap property - possible vacation crib where I would be close to all regions of Central America. The P4P scene is just OK but nothing to brag about. Met a older chica (im guessing mid 30's) in Capricho near Nova. Great attitude and personality - gave me BBBJ & CFS for $40. She Wanted to go back to my hotel room for a second round, but I declined and gave her a nice tip. Other girls in this establishment where not so good looking.

Next day, my El Salvadorian American friend who I was with, hooked me up with an 19 year old absolute angel (9.5). She was from a local town outside of San Salvador. I ended up banging her three times during my visit. Not sure if she was a pro or not. My friend never really made it clear. Anyhow, the whole time I was with her, she never asked me for money, but just wanted me to buy her a new cell phone and a bathing suite. Small price to pay for being with such an angel. I took here shopping and hung out with her for most of my visit. In total, I probally ended up paying $200 for two full days with her. (this includes food, shopping, taxi, etc.) It was hard for me to leave her and return back home to my mean old hag. (damn I wish I was single).

From what I can tell, the P4P scene isn't all that in El Salvador, but If you can speak spanish and not scared to flirt with non-pros, you can find yourself a young doll in El Salvador. Believe me, I'm practicing my Spanish every night now!!