El Salvador's 14 departments
Where to live or buy land in El Salvador: what each department is like, who it suits, little-known facts, and what's for sale there today.
Ahuachapán
Ahuachapán is El Salvador's far west, on the Guatemalan border: cool coffee towns like Ataco and Apaneca on the Ruta de las Flores, the country's largest forest at El Imposible, and a quiet mangrove coast at Barra de Santiago.
Cabañas
Cabañas is El Salvador's least populated department: quiet, mostly rural cattle country between the Lempa reservoirs and the Honduran border, with Ilobasco's clay craft and Sensuntepeque as its capital.
Chalatenango
Chalatenango is El Salvador's mountain north, on the Honduran border: pine forests around La Palma and San Ignacio, the country's highest point, and the huge Cerrón Grande lake to the south.
Cuscatlán
Cuscatlán is a small department just east of San Salvador: Cojutepeque on the Pan-American Highway, colonial Suchitoto above Lake Suchitlán, and fast-growing towns on the capital's edge.
La Libertad
La Libertad runs from the capital's western suburbs, like Santa Tecla and Antiguo Cuscatlán, down to the Surf City beaches.
14 listings
La Paz
La Paz is where the country's only international airport sits, with Costa del Sol's 15 km of beach and a huge mangrove estuary to the south.
2 listings
La Unión
La Unión is El Salvador's far east, on the Gulf of Fonseca it shares with Honduras and Nicaragua: black-sand beaches, gulf islands, a busy port and a new airport due in 2027.
Morazán
Morazán is El Salvador's far northeast: cool mountain towns like Perquín along the Ruta de la Paz, coffee on Cacahuatique, and a hot, low south around San Francisco Gotera.
San Miguel
San Miguel is the capital of El Salvador's east: a big, hot commercial city under the active Chaparrastique volcano, with the El Cuco and Las Flores beaches to the south and coffee hills to the north.
San Salvador
San Salvador is the country's busiest department: 1.56 million people, more than a quarter of all Salvadorans, around the capital city.
3 listings
San Vicente
San Vicente sits in the middle of the country under the twin peaks of the Chichontepec volcano, with coffee on its slopes, cane and cattle below, and the Lempa River to the east.
2 listings
Santa Ana
Santa Ana is El Salvador's west-side hub: the country's second-largest city, Lake Coatepeque, the Santa Ana volcano, and Maya ruins at Chalchuapa, stretching north to the dry Metapán hills and the Montecristo cloud forest.
1 listing
Sonsonate
Sonsonate runs from the cool coffee towns of the Ruta de las Flores, like Juayúa and Nahuizalco, down past the Izalco volcano to the country's main port at Acajutla and the reefs of Los Cóbanos.
1 listing
Usulután
Usulután has two faces: Jiquilisco Bay, the country's largest mangrove forest, with islands and the long El Espino beach, and cool coffee towns like Alegría, Berlín and Santiago de María in the hills.
2 listings