Location: The Las Hojas Resort is located in Playa Las Hojas, about 20 minutes from the International Airport and about 45 minutes from San Salvador. It is located in a very rural location, with few services or amenities and only a tiny village or two several miles away. Most of the road is well-paved, however the last quarter mile is a well-maintained gravel road to the entrance of the resort from the main road.

Beach: The beach at Las Hojas was several hundred feet wide and was composed of the ubiquitous black/brown volcanic sand you find all over El Salvador. It appeared that the Resort cleaned the beach directly in front, however the remainder of the beach to either side seemed to be reasonably clean and smooth as well. The beach to either side of the resort stretched endlessly and was almost completely deserted of any one else at all. The development along the beach to either side was mostly just individual lots that appeared to only be vacation spots for locals – many without any houses or structures on them. There was a good surf, although it was very strong on one of our days there – so much so that we didn’t go in the surf but a little that day. In front of the Resort there was a small retaining wall with sand behind it where there were about 15 individual palapas with beach chairs, chaises and hammocks.


Rooms: The resort has 26 bungalows ranging from a “Honeymoon” bungalow with a large king-size bed to family bungalows with two bedrooms, a sitting room and a small kitchenette. All of the bungalows have some form of a covered patio with a hammock and one or more seats. The bungalows are constructed of brick walls with terra cotta tile floors, sliding glass windows and a palapa-style peaked roof made of dried palm leaves. All have remote-controlled, modern, wall air-conditioners for each bedroom in the larger units or for the entire unit for the smaller bungalows. The larger bungalows have two bathrooms. The bathrooms have modern, flush toilets, a sink and a tiled shower stall. The shower stalls have a heated shower head unit that works well if you do not turn the water volume up fully. Do NOT touch these while the water is running or you will get a tingly little shock. The beds were modern with firm, comfortable foam-core mattresses with fresh, clean sheets and pillows. Each bungalow had a color TV with satellite service and a small mini-fridge/mini-bar. Both of the bungalows we stayed in were clean, tidy and well-maintained. Because of the nature of the palapa roof, however, some bugs, mostly just a few ants, crawled along the tile floors.

Pools:The resort has 2 pools. One pool is in front of the restaurant and just behind the beach. It is a smallish pool useful more for taking a quick plunge to cool off. It was always clean and cool. The larger pool is located near the bungalows/check-in area on the other side of the beach road. It is quite large with a large dining/bar palapa adjacent. The large pool has a water fall at one end and is surrounded by a number of individual palapas with chairs and hammocks and there is a small, swim-up bar serving the pool. Both pools were nice, clean and pleasant, if nothing particularly special or spectacular.

Check-in: We arrived on a Thursday without reservations and had no problem checking-in. Check-in took about 20 minutes.

Service: Service was generally good with a few rough spots. Most of the staff was friendly and obliging. One time we ordered a coconut drink and it took almost an hour for it to be delivered. After about 45 minutes I left the beach to check on the drink. It turned out that they had run out of fresh coconuts and were getting more. The problem was that no one came to tell us. Had we known, we would simply have ordered something else. Despite this one major service flub and a few other smaller ones, the service was generally good, if not spectacular.

Guests: The guests appeared to be almost exclusively well-heeled Salvadorans. During the two weekdays of our stay, the resort was deserted with only 3 or 4 other guests. We did notice that on Saturday a small group of North American looking visitors came by for lunch at the beach. Other than the lunch party we saw, we were the sole non-Salvadoran guests at the resort. It appears that the resort does most of its business on the weekends, when social members of the resort come either for the day or to stay overnight. Most of the guests appeared to be families with several children, although there were a few couples without children as well.

Grounds: The grounds were generally well-maintained with lighted paths and a modicum of landscaping. The entire resort was surrounded by a concrete block wall with barbed wire on the top. The inside of the compound wall was nicely landscaped with growing vines, etc. The Resort is laid-out in two parts; divided by the small beach road. There is a pedestrian bridge that crosses the road, making moving from either side easy and convenient. The beach-side portion of the resort has the main, open-air restaurant and small conference facility, the small, beach-side pool, a patio with tables and chairs, and the beach and beach-side individual palapas. The main part of the resort on the land side of the beach road has the bungalows, the administration/check-in building, the main pool and poolside bar palapa and parking. One sad note was the group of approximately six or seven cages where various animals were kept on display near the administration building. One cage had small monkeys, two with macaws and parrots, one with foxes, two with rabbits, and two with various lizards. These cages were out in the open-sun where the animals had little shade. I’m no animal rights activist, but it struck me as a bit cruel to keep these animals in the hot sun all day inside fairly small cages.

Cost: We paid $69 per person per day for the weekday night we stayed and $99 per person per day for the two weekend nights we stayed. The price is all-inclusive except for alcoholic beverages.

Food:The food was very average. Breakfast consisted of scrambled eggs or an omlette, black beans or casamiento (beans and rice combined), a little piece of Salvadoran cheese, some cut fruit, dry cereal and milk and yogurt. Breakfast and lunch options included grilled or sautéed seafood, chicken or beef with vegetables, soup, and dessert. On the weekends the food is served in a buffet style, while it is served a la carte on the weekdays because there are few guests.