The crash and hum of the ocean is everywhere in El Zonte, a small town on the lush Pacific coast of El Salvador about an hour’s drive from the capital, San Salvador. For years the destination has been a magnet for surfers and backpackers, who come for affordable tranquility and a perfect, rolling right-hand break. Now, as the country enters an era of greater safety and stability under the much-scrutinized, Bitcoin-powered presidency of 43-year-old Nayib Bukele, the beach town is shifting upmarket, luring wellness seekers, digital nomads, and families with its recently opened boutique accommodations and a fresh food scene.
“It’s a little community of like-minded people,” says the Cuban American hotelier Pedro Querejeta, who is married to a Salvadoran and has been visiting the country since 1992. “We’re in it for the long run.” In 2017, Querejeta opened the oceanfront Puro Surf Hotel, which has triangular thatched palapa roofs that collect and recycle rainwater. Last year he added the family-friendly, apartment-style hotel Wave House, which has an ocean-facing infinity pool, an art gallery, and common spaces filled with regionally made textiles and ceramics.
Another stylish new place to stay is Al Suave House, a stunning five-bedroom villa with a dramatic slatted-wood façade, opened last year by the Los Angeles–based entrepreneur and surfer Matt Schapiro. Cincopatasalgato, the forward-thinking Salvadoran architecture firm behind the hotel, created a light-filled mezzanine yoga and meditation space, and a snakelike pool—designed to echo El Zonte River—that winds through the property. The town’s laid-back feel is also on display at the whitewashed Garten Hotel and the more bohemian El Xalli resort, both of which offer experiences like sound baths and dawn yoga sessions.
