San Salvador Airport
Lasting Impressions....
"Wow, El Salvador International Airport is the biggest, modern and beautiful airport of all Central America." (Finn Taylor)
"We needed permission to spend the night, and the guards needed to check us out." (Tobias)
Good times
by John
"The international airport in El Salvador is a wonderful airport (as far as central american standards go) for just about anything: shopping, eating, coffee, and sleeping. I have not actually slept overnight, but I have napped away quite a few hours. There are lots of banked chairs and they are fairly comfortable. A nice quiet place to go is at the extreme south end of the airport, a big hall, but rarely busy, and you can find a nice corner with a great view to curl up and sleep."
Not a bad place, but not great either
by Tobias
"My wife and I recently spent the night in San Salvador International Airport. The airport completely closed at 8pm. Right before the airport closed down, everyone who was spending the night (there were 14 of us) had to meet at one gate. We needed permission to spend the night, and the guards needed to check us out, apparently. We were then restricted to that one gate area, which was not air conditioned (other parts of the airport were), until about 6:30am, when my wife asked if we could move out of the area, and we were given permission. Because of the heat (nearly 85 degrees) and uncomfortable benches, sleep was mostly impossible. I felt very safe-several guards were always on duty in the gate area, on a rotating shift, but it was altogether not a very pleasant experience, and if you can avoid spending the night in the San Salvador airport, you should. "
Um, you may want to rethink sleeping in this place
by aplusboy
Let me be clear I did not sleep here. I had an hour layover on TACA Air going to San Jose, Costa Rica. But I do want to relate my experience there. After landing I picked up my luggage and went through immigration. No problem. I went to the my gate area to wait for my flight. There was a uniformed (I guess) and armed security guy walking around with a very large bloodhound. The dog was sniffing bags and belongings (I guess for drugs)while being led by the security person. When he got to me he stopped and spoke to me in Spanish. I told him "no hablo Espanol". In very broken English he asked where I was going and if I had money. WTF? I told him San Jose and yes I had money. I wasn't sure if that was a good response but I felt a bit terrorized by what was going on. He starred at me for about 5 minutes without saying a word. Then he left. I wondered if he would be coming back but I never saw him again. I boarded my plane about 15 minutes later and was glad to be out of there. I really liked flying on TACA. They have newer planes, really nice crew and half decent food included in the ticket price. But I doubt I will ever fly them again since it seems to be a hub airport for them. I really don't want to ever be in San Salvador airport again!
Airport Guide
Here is some information that we've picked out of from your reviews. Be sure to read the reviews on the next page for the most up-to-date info:
- lots of gates
- comfortable temperatures
- overnight sleepers are restricted to one gate area in an non-air-conditioned section of the airport
