If you’re looking for some big city excitement while you’re in El Salvador, the best place for you to visit is San Miguel. San Miguel is one of El Salvador’s biggest cities and is the major transportation hub for the entire eastern half of the country. You’ll need to be wary of the city centre and the area east of the park—when the city centre shuts down, it will be completely empty and you’ll see no friendly faces to ask for directions to the bus terminal. At night, east of the park is the last place you’ll want to find yourself alone on the street, although you won’t be able to help it since that’s where the bus terminal and all of the hotels are located so just be extra careful. You’ll find plenty of accommodations and restaurants available in San Miguel as well as a good number of bars and nightclubs and a large mall. There are also pay phones—although they are not coin-operated, a laundry service, high speed Internet, a post office, dozens of medical treatment clinics and facilities, cultural centres and a few places to exchange money and use an ATM.

Sightseeing
Other than a small chapel, nestled back into the trees on the nicer west side of the park, there isn’t much to see in San Miguel and you won’t find opportunities to view indigenous culture here.

Getting there
The city is easy to get to from just about anywhere because it serves as the main bus terminal of the area.