Santa Ana Volcano with Pick-Up from El Tunco and El Zonte

Santa Ana is the highest active volcano in El Salvador, and the walk up goes through tropical forest before the trees give out. What waits at the top is the reason people come: the lagoon inside the crater, and behind it Lake Coatepeque, the Izalco cone and the Pacific, all in view at once on a clear day. The hike is moderately challenging and starts as a group from the visitor centre. A guide is an option here rather than a given, and worth taking: the geology, the vegetation and the ruins of an old village along the trail are things you walk straight past otherwise. Afterwards, Lake Coatepeque, with time to swim and to shower. The pick-up list is what separates this trip from the others on the same mountain. Three points in San Salvador, at La Gran Vía, on the Bulevar del Hipódromo and at Boulevard de los Héroes, and two on the coast, at El Tunco and El Zonte. If you are staying at the surf beaches, you do not have to get yourself to the capital first.