In this video, Gabriel Morris discusses the cost of living in El Salvador and whether or not it is safe for tourists to visit the country. With a focus on the prices of accommodation, food, and transportation, Morris breaks down the expenses that travelers may encounter while exploring El Salvador. Despite some higher costs, Morris explains that the unique experience of visiting El Salvador is worth it for adventurous travelers looking to see a different side of Central America. He also delves into the safety situation in the country, highlighting the drastic decrease in the murder rate and the overall positive experience he had during his 12-day trip. By sharing personal insights and observations, Morris aims to provide valuable information for those considering a visit to El Salvador. Whether you are interested in exploring the beaches or immersing yourself in the local culture, this video offers a comprehensive overview of what to expect when traveling to this diverse and evolving country.
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[Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Hey there how’s it how’s it going good afternoon this concludes my 12-day trip through El Salvador it has been a very good trip my first time here I didn’t have high expectations of course El Salvador has had a reputation and not a very good one over the past number of
Decades but things have changed quite a bit I will get to that more in just a second so here is my room that is just a 5minute drive from the airport the only International Airport in El Salvador which is about a 45 minute drive from San Salvador the capital I
Flew into the airport 12 days ago and made a loop going first to San Salvador the largest city and capital of El Salvador and then to Santa Ana the second largest city by population in El Salvador did some uh exploring around there went to the lake quat went to the
Really cool Village of ATO and then took an Uber from there to the coast to La libertad stayed there for two nights and then went to elante Beach and stayed there for the past three nights and then as you saw there at the beginning I caught a uber once again from there to
Here a little more than an hour’s drive for about 30 $3 so a fair price there on the Uber ride and uh I took Uber a lot around the country both within towns and then longer distances several times and uh they were all uh quite reasonably priced now prices in general are a
Little all over the place in El Salvador and I’m not exactly sure why things aren’t less expensive especially hotel rooms $75 for a very basic hotel room that’s like exactly what you would pay at a Motel 6 in like an average town if you weren’t in Hawaii or Miami or you know somewhere
Uh more touristy will be more expensive but for it to be you know American prices same as in the United States when El Salvador is of course a more developing country a different standard of living is a little bit mysterious to me the explanation that somebody offered in
The comments section under one of my videos is that uh basically there’s a big discrepancy between the local prices for things and the uh tourist prices because almost all of their tourism is people coming from the United States so it’s either el Salvadorans who live in
The United States who are uh coming back and they’re bringing US dollars in that case or it’s you know American citizens people from the United States coming here here for vacation and in that case again they’re bringing United States dollars and so they’re used to United States prices and
So that is why a lot of the prices are about the same as the us both the hotels and a lot of the restaurants on the beaches are almost exactly the same as us prices however there is a big discrepancy in that when you find the
Real local prices then they drop down a lot so as I showed in my videos in San Salvador then I went to a local restaurant I had uh I think uh two dishes and two beers and it was like $7 so that is a big difference you
Aren’t going to get even a drink you know for seven bucks or you’d pay like around that for one drink in the US a lot of places so there’s a big uh gap between the local prices what uh Salvadorans are paying what they can afford BAS B on their incomes which of
Course are going to be a lot lower than incomes in the United States versus uh what you pay on the beaches elante aluno and here right near the airport of course locals aren’t going to be going to a uh hotel right near the airport for any particular reason unless they’re
Flying to the US or whatever this is a tourist’s hotel as I showed in previous videos then there was a wide range of hotel prices in including in Santa Anna I paid like $32 $33 for a perfectly uh decent room uh there so um expect to
Kind of pay midrange I would say for things when you come to El Salvador if you want to do it much cheaper on a budget than you can by staying away from the tourist places only eating at the local uh places and if you do go to the
Beach then you can stay in dorms which are like 10 15 bucks a night or something like that and so you can do it on a budget but don’t expect it to be as cheap as neighboring countries for example Guatemala I was watching one of my videos recently now that was from 9
Years ago so the price of that hotel might uh have gone up but I paid $10 for a basic room in Guatemala so 10 bucks is a big difference from $75 $77 so uh that is just the way that it is here for whatever reason the uh situation is changing
Dramatically here in El Salvador in many different ways and so perhaps in the future then there will be a you know sort of shaking out of the uh prices if tourism increases then that could actually bring down prices having more people coming more dollars and then uh you know people
Expecting to have lower prices then maybe that will bring down the prices but I don’t know maybe it will make the prices go higher if there’s more demand so who knows but that is the way that it is uh is uh that uh you’re going to pay
A bit more than you would expect for Central America but you’re getting a unique country of seeing experiencing a different place different country different culture compared to the neighboring countries and for me as a you know World traveler it was you know totally worth it to see this country
That I knew very little about that had a not great reputation and to see what uh life was really like here and it was all around good 12 days and no problems never felt unsafe I took local buses went to local Villages talked with lots of people and uh it was
Just you know an allaround positive experience it is definitely as I said a developing country conditions were pretty rough in a lot of places uh but uh you know I’m kind of used to that as a world traveler I’ve seen the similar situation in other countries so don’t
Expect to come to Al Salvador and have it be the same as you know Cancun for example or you know Tulum or Porto Vara or um you know certainly not you know Hawaii or whatever the conditions around the country are you know pretty uh pretty rough but things are changing
Considerably in terms of the safety situation and so that is what I want to talk about next and I’m going to start by showing you something about the crime rates specifically the murder rates so this paragraph captures the massive change over just a few years a total of 154
Murders registered in the country of 6.6 million people amounted to a rate of 2.4 per 100,000 inhabitants down from 495 murders in 2022 so 2023 154 murders throughout the country in 2022 a year earlier 495 so in one year the murder rate dropped by more than 2/3 down to less
Than a third of what it had been just one year earlier but it is even better than that because when bukele the president of El Salvador took power in 2019 elections the poverty stricken Central American country had one of the world’s highest murder rates at 38 per
100,000 inhabitants now here it said in 2023 when it dropped down to 54 murders that represented a 2.4 per 100,000 inhabitants murder rate but in 2019 it was 38 per 100,000 in inhabitants from 38 to 2.4 that is a greater than 90% reduction in the murder rate and you can assume that
Uh crime across the board in general would have dropped you know equivalently as a result of that uh murder rate you know you get the murderers out of the equation and you know they’re probably doing other things as well stealing Etc and so a more than
90% drop in the crime rate is just massive that absolutely changes the equation of what it is like for locals and tourists here in the country now that uh came at a cost because it was a result of a massive Crackdown on the gangs which apparently is you know questionable
According to Human Rights Advocates and organizations saying well they just you know rounded up anyone who might have been vaguely suspected of doing anything and put them all in prison so in the process they got the bad people but they probably got some perfectly good people
As well so you know it is what it is it made a big difference for the country I’m not going to say you know yay yay rah rah when there could be people sitting in prison who are completely innocent and uh you know they just got
Swept up in the the chaos you know association with bad people or who knows what but it worked it did the trick and it has made this country much much safer for everybody who lives here so do I recommend coming to El Salvador yes certainly if you want to experience
Somewhere that uh you know is uh kind of off the radar non-touristy for now and uh you know an interesting unique place it is not Mexico it is not Guatemala it is different then I certainly recommend it it is more for The Adventurous Travelers but if you just want to
Experience the beach scene then as I showed elante Beach uh also called Bitcoin Beach was just perfect it was really one of the uh nicest beach areas that I’ve been to the all-around experience great Beach clean water almost no garbage around there good hotels that were not cheap $77 as I
Showed there but uh good food cool restaurants Good Vibes good atmosphere just kind of the whole package it was better than a lot of places that I’ve been to as far as uh beach destinations go so uh I do recommend it perhaps I will be back and see more of the country
There is much more to see but for now I’m flying out tomorrow 7:30 in the morning very early wake up so the uh room price for $75 at least it includes the uh shuttle to the uh airport so tomorrow 5:00 a.m. shuttle to the airport direct flight back to San Francisco California
$378 it was expensive it was cheaper coming here which is actually one of the reasons that I came here at all was I found that cheap flight to get here direct flight so that is going to do it more coming from somewhere I have no idea where I will be going next a
Go [Applause] Oh
Video “How Expensive is El Salvador & is it Safe For Tourists?” was uploaded on 03/19/2024. Watch all the latest Videos by Gabriel Traveler on Gretopia