El Zonte

El Zonte is one of the most iconic surf destinations in El Salvador.

This small coastal community is located at kilometer 53 of the Litoral highway, in the municipality of Chiltiupán, La Libertad.

The place retains its original bohemian and beachy style, even though its tourist services have expanded.

The area adjacent to the El Zonte river offers numerous hostels, rental houses, hotels and restaurants, as well as surfboard rentals and surf lessons.

Beyond the small estuary, to the west, there are private ranches and several small hotels, where you can also spend the day.

On the eastern end, several higher-quality and more modern hotels and restaurants are concentrated, including a surf training center, the only one of its kind in the world.

El Zonte has several sections for surfing. The most popular is the punta, a rocky formation that breaks to the right, generating a fast, long-line wave, occasionally tubular; it can reach up to 10 feet in height (3.5 meters) and projects onto a small beach that has a sea stack at its eastern end, which should be avoided on days of large swells.

From the punta toward the west there are two other sections: the first is a left-hand wave that forms over the rocky bottom at the river mouth; it is a fast, long, powerful wave.

Then follows a beach break area, whose typical characteristics are speed and steepness, a short line, and tubular sections that crash onto the sandy beach.

El Zonte offers a striking landscape; sea stacks and rock tongues that plunge into the sea frame its boundaries. There are two volcanic black-sand beaches, separated by the river and its small estuary. Meanwhile, interesting caves in the western sector of the beach provide the perfect backdrop for a photograph.

Getting to El Zonte is easy: from San Salvador take the road to Puerto de La Libertad, then join the bypass Camino a Surf City, and upon reaching the Litoral highway, continue westward to kilometer 53, where the signage will indicate that you have arrived.