Border crossing: Guatemala to El Salvador
Unfortunately, our 90-day visa for the CA-4 countries (Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua) was ticking faster than we liked and it was time to move on from Guatemala. Though our next long-term stay would be in Nicaragua, we weren't thrilled about the 17 hour ride from Antigua, Guatemala to León, Nicaragua in a day, especially since it meant driving through Guatemala before dawn (there have been numerous incidents of highway robbery). Looking at our options, it seemed like the best way to break up the drive was an overnight stay somewhere in El Salvador. People had given high remarks for the sunsets and surfing along the coast, so we settled on spending a night in El Tunco.
Like most of the backpacking circuit in Latin America, just about every destination is serviced by public bus and private shuttle. The public buses will often involve a few transfers with no set schedule, but they will get you there for a few dollars. The private shuttles usually offer door-to-door service but come with a pretty big price tag. Since we had a pretty horrible memory of being held up in Honduras a few years back, and since parts of El Salvador are gang-controlled and dangerous, we ended up forking over the money for the shuttle. Depending on how much time, patience, money, and courage you have, here is a guide to get you from Antigua, Guatemala to El Tunco, El Salvador using the public buses or a private shuttle.
Public bus or private shuttle?
Public option: Go to the bus station behind the local market in Antigua (off Poniente). Ask around for the bus to Escuintla. Hop on this bus for Q8 ($1.15 USD) per person. The ride should take about 1.5 hours. Once you get off the bus in Escuintla, ask for the bus to la frontera. Get on this bus for Q45 ($6.40 USD) per person. The ride should be about 2-3 hours. The bus will drop you off at Guatemalan immigration. Make sure you get stamped out of Guatemala. There is no stamp into El Salvador, so just walk across the bridge (or take a tuk-tuk) to the bus station. You are now in El Salvador!
Once at the bus station, you'll need to take a bus to Sonsonate, which costs $1 USD (El Salvador's currency is the dollar) and takes about 2 hours. You'll then need to take another bus from Sonsonate to La Libertad, called bus 287. There are only two buses a day, one at 5:50 am and another at 3:30 pm. This ride costs $1.50 USD and takes about 2.5 hours. From La Libertad, take another bus to El Tunco, which is about a 20 minute ride and costs less than $1 USD.
Total cost: $11.05 USD per person
Total time: About 9-10 hours. Depending on when you arrive in Sonsonate, you may have to stay the night there if you miss the 3:30 pm bus.
Private shuttle: Like most backpacking hot spots, Antigua is filled with hostels and tour agencies offering shuttle service to just about anywhere you can imagine in southern Mexico, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua (Tica Bus goes all the way to Costa Rica and Panama, too). Since every company we went to charged $25 USD per person to get from Antigua to El Tunco, we just needed to decide at what time we wanted to leave Antigua. Nearly every shuttle leaves Antigua in the wee hours of the morning, anywhere between 2 and 4 am. The only one that left at a more reasonable time was Bigfoot Hostel, which departs at 8 am. Since we were a little weary of driving through Guatemala in the dark, plus the fact that we'd get some more sleep and arrive in El Tunco around 1 pm, we settled on going with Bigfoot. The cost was Q190 ($27 USD) per person.
Total cost: $27 USD per person
Total time: 5 hours
While we certainly weren't thrilled to pay so much for the shuttle, especially given the short distance, we were glad we arrived in El Tunco in one day and at a reasonable hour to make the most of our time there.
Border fees
There is no fee to leave Guatemala and no fee to enter El Salvador.
Avoid future border issues
Make sure you get stamped out of Guatemala to avoid problems entering other Central American countries or returning to Guatemala in the future. You do not get a stamp entering El Salvador. In fact, the El Salvador border was the easiest border crossing we've ever done. We just passed our passports up to the front window. Immigration officials counted the passports and never even looked in the van to see who was in there and gave them back to the driver in a stack.