My experience hiking Santa Ana Volcano on a guided day trip from my resort in El Salvador. Tour prices, access rules, and pickup options can change, so confirm those details before booking.

At a glance

• How I went: A Viator day trip with pickup at my resort.
• Time on the trail: About 3.5 hours round trip for my group.
• Trail conditions on my visit: The hike felt relatively easy and wasn’t overly technical, but the summit was extremely windy and dusty.
• What I wore: Trail runners; ordinary sneakers would have worked for me.
• What helped most: A face covering and sunglasses for the dust and wind.

How I booked the hike

On this trip I was determined to hike as many volcanos as possible! When we got to El Salvador, there was a slightly farther out hike I was excited to do: Santa Ana and Lake Coatepeque. I found a day trip through Viator that picked up at my resort. I was a little sad to give up a relaxing resort day but those are easier to come by than hiking volcanos!

What to bring

Gear needed: sneakers would be fine for this. I had trail runners on and they were more than sufficient. I took one 40oz water bottle and only drank about half. You definitely want a gaiter to cover your face from the dust and hold your hat on when it gets windy. I was SO thankful for my alpine sunnies for this one – saved my eyes from all the dust for SURE. I didn’t use hiking poles for this but would have been nice, not necessary. Sunscreen and bug spray is always useful.

The trail and summit

It was actually a relatively easy hike, not overly technical terrain. The top of the mountain was still almost 8,000 ft which is always great. Took us right around 3.5 hours to go up and down. Dropped the all trails and Garmin stats below for reference. Not a ton of flora/fauna on this hike. I got to see agave plants, which I would have guessed were aloe. They look very similar.

At the top the winds were absolutely insane. Apparently they get way worse where they close down the top to tourists. We could barely stand there. I had to have someone guard my backpack so it didn’t blow away to get a photo. I also definitely needed to have the guide take my LBD photos because there’s no tripod in the world that was going to stand up to those winds.

Before you book

My tour included pickup from my resort. If you’re comparing tours, confirm the pickup location, total door-to-door time, what’s included in the price, and whether weather can change access to the summit. The 3.5 hours above was our hiking time, not the length of the whole day.

What I’d do again: Bring the face covering and sunglasses. I was glad I chose the hike over another resort day, even with the wind at the top.

Read the full trip: Five Countries in Two Weeks: Central America →