recent experiences in San Salvador or Managua?
 

Have never been to either country and was thinking of visiting one or both next month, with San Salvador my first choice. If anyone has been to either city recently, I'm interested in your feedback. (Feel safe? Any Covid mask or other rules still in effect?) Not looking to do anything exotic. Just a few days in a nice hotel and a city tour. Thanks.

Are you married to this idea? First of all, you can do a lot better in both countries than their capital cities. San Salvador is not a very safe place. Managua is just ghastly. Neither has much of visitor interest at all. Truth be told, I wouldn't visit either country right now. El Salvador is plagued by gang violence. Nicaragua is receding into dictatorship. I wouldn't go to either place until their situations improve. That's me.

I'm not married to the idea, no, but there are some cheap flights and the crime rate in El Salvador supposedly has plummeted since they did the mass gang lock-ups.

I've never heard Managua described as "ghastly" before. It's really that bad?

Managua is this ugly, sprawling monstrosity of a city. Its downtown was destroyed in the 1972 earthquake and was never rebuilt. There's nothing that holds the city together. Walking is next to impossible, and it's beastly hot. Really, there's nothing of visitor interest there. If you decide to go to Nicaragua, head to colonial Granada instead.

As the poster above mentions, Managua's post-quake development and sprawl does make it an oddball in latin america. I found it safer and more orderly than other central american cities. I generally agree there's not much to do or see in the city, it's not built for walking, and it's hot. Taxis are strange too, as I recall. But, you can drink some local beers, see how Nicaraguans live in a personality cult country, admire the goofy "trees of life" things, check the box that you've been there. If you're geologically inclined, there's an active volcano south of the city, you can look down and see molten rock, and there are some crater lakes through the city. Definitely visit Granada.

I've been to San Salvador dozens of times for business, never saw anything worth making an effort to go see. I guess there's a colonial sector downtown with the requisite churches and such. Same deal if you want to check the box.

The Intercontinental Hotels in both capitals are two of my favorites.

The Masaya volcano (definitely cool) is more easily reached from Granada than Managua. I think that's one more reason to base yourself in the former rather than the latter.

It's almost the end of January. What did you decide to do? :)

Had some work travel pop up, so I'm in Mexico for the next few weeks. No easy flights to either country from the city I'm in, so probably won't be visiting either on this trip.

Ah, okay. I was curious. I stand by my advice that neither Nicaragua nor El Salvador is a good place to visit these days.

I was in El Salvador last year. It's probably better to visit now than it has been in a long time. For now a lot of the gangs are in jail. Business people are upbeat and optimistic that good times are ahead for the travel industry. Not to say that it's without danger. It's probably now about average safety compared to other Latin American destinations. Of course things could go bad in a hurry if there's some change of leadership and the gangs are all let out of jail. Just have to stay tuned.