map of Central America
Acajutla, El Salvador
We were told by an excursion guide in Costa Rica that El Salvador is both the smallest and most populated country in central America. It’s a small country on the Pacific side of Central America, near but not touching Nicaragua. There are only 2 countries in Central America that don’t have shores on both sides of the continent. Belize is fully on the east side and El Salvador fully on the west. El Salvador shares borders with Guatemala and Honduras. Acajutla is the country’s main seaport. El Salvador’s main exports include coffee, sugar, clothing, and plastics. The official language is Spanish, which is what the majority of people there speak. Some can speak English, but not even all of the ones involved in cruise ship shore excursions could. Knowing some Spanish when visiting there is definitely helpful. El Salvador uses the US dollar as its official currency.
Acajutla cruise port
As with all the Pacific coast of Central America, the climate at Acajutla is continuously hot and humid. Daytime high temperatures are usually in the 32 to 34 °C (89.6 to 93.2 °F) range. The city’s population is over 22,000.
view of the dock in El Salvador from the ship
Acajutla Cruise Port
This is a container port with no direct access for passengers from the ship to shore. We docked out near the end of a long dock next to two gigantic cranes. Options at this port for anyone not going on a shore excursion were take a shuttle to Las Veraneras Beach Club or take a shuttle to downtown Acajutla. Shuttle bus tickets were done in the same manner as tender tickets at tender ports where people went to a lounge to get their tickets and then waited until their number was called. The shuttles were complimentary so it was a matter of time and space rather than money for getting the ride. These were not full-sized busses and had to wait for shore excursion busses to clear off the dock before they could come in. There were a lot of shore excursion busses.
giant crane at the cruise port
The giant cranes cross the entire pier, but they are tall enough that the busses drive right under them in between the rows of many tires on each side of the crane.
between 2 giant cranes
The ship was docked in between two giant cranes.
waiting for the excursion bus to back through the crane
The busses backed in in the morning, but when we came back our bus came through forward and maneuvered itself around on a dock not much wider than the bus is long. That wouldn’t have been possible in the morning when the dock was full of people as well as busses coming, going, or parked on the dock either waiting for passengers or loading them.
tires on the giant crane
Our visit there in 2025 was the Nieuw Amsterdam’s first visit to this port. Several of the people from El Salvador running various aspects of the tour we took said that El Salvador was just starting to have much in the way of tourism. Not a lot of cruise ships go there, especially not from major cruise lines carrying more than a few hundred people.
fish pond at the cacao plantation
Excursions offered at this port included: Ancestral Cacao Plantation & Chocolate Making Workshop; Ancient Delights – a Culinary Mayan Experience; Cerro Verde Volcano National Park and Casa 1800; Easy El Salvador Sightseeing (bus tour only); Mayan El Salvador-Joya de Ceren & San Andres; Nahuizalco Cultural Indigenous Handicraft; and San Salvador; Santa Ana Volcano Hike.
free souvenirs handed out on the shore excursion bus
We went to the cacao plantation. On the way back to the ship the bus crew handed out El Salvador necklaces made from some sort of seed to everyone on the bus. The pictures varied from one necklace to another. They were not all the same. That is the first and only time we have ever been given free souvenirs on a shore excursion. El Salvador is fairly new to the tourist industry and going all out to make a good impression. They don’t get anywhere near the amount of cruise ships as some other destinations yet, but were working to encourage more. Which is nice since there are some places that get too many and want to have less. They may get to that point sometime in the future since the number of ships going there rises each year.
looking down at the dock from the ship
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