Located at Km 53, El Zonte is pretty easy to come and go from by bus. Basically will wait on the side of the highway at the entrance to town. There are so many people coming and going from this area that it’s unlikely you will be standing alone. Buses essentially stop running near sunset. If you plan on taking a bus later in the day, always ask a local when the last bus passes.
To San Salvador
Option 1: Take an ordinary bus. Wait on the highway and grab a bus going to La Libertad. In La Libertad (80 or 192 or anything heading to La Libertad). Switch to the 102 (regular) bus. This bus arrives at the Terminal de Occidente. Total cost ~$1.25
Option 2: Get the bus to El Tunco or Sunzal and from there take a nice A/C microbus (102A). The microbus goes between Sunzal and San Salvador and passes El Tunco and La Libertad on the way. In El Tunco, wait on the highway and every 20-30 minutes from 6am until ~7pm the 102A will pass. The cost is $1.50 and takes about 1hr. In San Salvador they leave from the Punto de microbuses ruta 102 and pass the Terminal de Occidente and the Estación Ceiba de Guadalupe** in the San Benito area. The trip takes about 45 minutes.
**The Estación Ceiba de Guadalupe is a great spot to know if you don’t want to head all the way into the Terminal de Occidente to change buses. Basically most of the buses departing from the Terminal de Occidente pass this spot. It is also located very close to the Tica Bus station in San Benito.
From San Salvador
Same as above but in reverse! If you are staying in the San Benito area (ie Tica Bus area) then your best option is to grab a taxi to the Cieba de Guadeloupe and get the 102A. Take it all the way to Tunco or Sunzal and then wait on the highway for the bus to pass heading to El Zonte.
To/from La Libertad (Sunzal, El Tunco)
Take the 192, 192A, 192B if it passes. These buses go between La Libertad and La Perla, Chiltiupan and Teotepeque, respectively and all of them pass El Zonte along the way. Essentially almost every bus that passes gets you to/from La Libertad but ask the driver just to be sure before you get on. From the highway it’s about a 300 meter walk to the beach and hotels. ** note that the 80 only goes between La Libertad and Sunzal so don’t get on this one or you’ll have to switch to the 192 anyway.
To/from Sonsonate
There are two buses per day (287) that go from La Libertad all the way to Sonsonate: 6am and 1:30pm. This bus takes about 30min to get to El Zonte from La Libertad so you can factor in that time, however the bus sometimes leaves early, so it is best to be waiting a bit early. Going the other way, bus 287 leaves Sonsonate for La Libertad at 5:50am and 3:30pm.
Check the Sonsonate page for instructions on how to get to Juayúa, Ataco, Santa Ana or Ahuachapán. If you are continuing on to these places.
To/from Mizata
You can catch the 192 which heads to La Perla and then arrange a taxi the rest of the way (or wait for a another bus). Your best bet to get to here is to take the 287 which runs twice a day to Sonsonate (as described above) as it will go right past Mizata.
To the Airport
Get yourself to La Libertad. Take the 187 that is heading to Comalapa. Let the money guy know you want to get off and switch to the airport bus. From there you will need to get to the spot to stand on the highway headed to the airport. Ask a local to point you in the right direction. From there take the 138 microbus to the Airport. We will be updating this very soon with more detailed information! Have a look at the El Salvador International Airport page for photos and more info.
To El Cuco
Going from El Cuco to El Zonte is a long journey and requires a few bus changes. The awesome duo at Don’t Forget to Move wrote a good blog post about the fastest way to do go from El Tunco . It was confirmed accurate in 2105. We will be testing this route soon to see how it goes.
You can also go back to San Salvador (arriving at the Terminal de Occidente and switching to Terminal de Oriente), then to San Miguel and then down to El Cuco from there.
We also have another route will will test and add more here soon. We will do La Libertad to Zacatecolouca to Usulután to El Dilirio to El Cuco. Yikes!
Study Spanish in El Zonte!
El Zonte has a great new Spanish school with qualified teachers in a beautiful setting. Spanish School El Zonte offers one-on-one classes at an affordable price. A little Spanish goes a long way in El Salvador – classes are highly recommended!
Help your fellow traveller
If you have taken any of the buses on this page, please drop us a comment below about how the trip went, what time you left, how long it took and what it cost. And, definitely let us know if we have anything wrong.
Lets help each other in our travels!
We took another route via the coast today to El Zonte from Juayua. Got the 249 from Juayua to Sonsonate, then platform 19 (same one the twice a day 287 goes from) and got the 261 to La Perla. Locals advised us the next bus would leave at 10.30 and it did. This was a Tuesday. We arrived around 9am from Juayua and no buses left earlier than this (although some 281s did). We got to La Perla around 12.15. We paid $1 each. I think we had bad luck at La Perla as had to wait nearly an hour for a bus, whilst 3 went in other direction. We got the 192, but a local guy in Sonsonate said the 107 was an option too. I think the 192A goes this far too. The 192 cost 50 cents and took about 30 mins. I don’t think it ended up being quicker than going via San Salvador as we waited a long time in Sonsonate bus station, if we’d have known about the 10.30 departure we would have left Juayua later! However it was a pretty chilled route, not busy and 2 of the buses had overhead luggage storage. We didn’t find out if there is any set schedule though unfortunately, however made it in time to enjoy the afternoon in El Zonte. Hope this helps 🙂