Olas Permanentes

!!Beware !!Please Read!!When I first arrived at las Olas Permanentes It was not pleasant, and gave me an uneasy feeling. No one was around to greet me or check me in. Finally I was helped, although none of the staff speaks any English so the check in process was difficult. Was told I have to wait for the room to still be cleaned. While waiting they do have a restaurant there you can sit, although they allow many dogs to be walking around the area. I noticed that the el Zonte area is lacking any sort of infrastructure and that I would be confined to the hotel. I decided to still stay and give it a chance but just wanted to adjust my stay to three days. They charged a change fee, which was unexpected. After checking in and paying I was told that I would be at their other hotel location, although my booking was for their spot at the beach. Staying optimistic I decided to give it a chance. Finally I arrived at their other hotel, it was no where near the ocean; not even a view of it. The pictures of the place did not match the listing at all and the room I had was very out of date. No one else was even at this hotel except one worker that lived on site. It began to give me a very uneasy feeling and gave me the sense of being trapped considering you are far from any sort of town or store. The worst was yet to come, I closed the bathroom door and immediately 100’s of ants swarmed from a crack in the wall. I grabbed all my belongings and left the room. I called their front desk and their manager could speak some English. They refused me a refund even though I was only in the room for an hour and said they could only give me another room in the same building (that’s infested with ants). I decided to just consider it a loss. Their staff is extremely unprofessional and will not help you in any way what so ever. I highly recommend avoiding this place. Don’t be fooled by their photos they are extremely out of date. I advise staying anywhere else but here.

Beautiful little spot on the beach. It's just right. Not a hostel and not a 5 star, but It's clean, with good food and reasonably priced. Did I mention it's on the beach! it's on the sandy side of El Zonte and we preferred it here. People were surfing on both sides of the river. You can also rent surf boards and there are surf lessons. It was fun to watch them. In the evening some boys were playing beach soccer and it was lovely to watch too. The room was clean and had air conditioning and towels. The restaurant is right on the beach with good food at decent prices. Someone commented below about the 10%. It's an automatic tip put on at all restaurants we went to in El Salvador. (Be thankful it's not 20% like here in Canada!). So you don't have to think about tipping. The beach is amazing and we watched the sun set and the sun rise. People were surfing alraedy at sun rise.

Before booking, I'd read the TripAdvisor reviews and I was unsure about this place. That said, there wasn't a lot of choice in the area as I was only booking a day or so ahead. It's important to appreciate that El Zonte is tiny and essentially little more than a dirt road with a handful of restaurants and hotels. Olas Permanentes is right on the beach front, which is so cool. Being able to have breakfast, beers, dinner watching the amazing sunsets, was so cool and relaxing. From my perspective, it was a very chilled place. The room was decent. Nothing spectacular but clean and decent size, with aircon. The beer was cold, breakfast (included) was good and with a choice, the staff were friendly, and overall, I was very happy. For people to complain that service is slow, and that they forgot a knife or a napkin, is really to forget it's a chilled beachside place on the Pacific cost! Two things that would improve it: One, to have 1 or 2 more veggie dishes on the menu. I had pretty much the same thing for three nights. I could've wondered up the road but, to be honest I was too chilled to bother. The other thing was to add a 10% charge to the overall bill, including the room costs. I didn't challenge this and I probably should have, so it's my fault, but I found that a bit off. I think this has be mentioned here already. Overall though, I would definitely recommend here.

Amazing staff and Paolo is an awesome host. Every time I go to El Zonte I stay here. Beautiful view great food , the free breakfast is so good , I recommend everyone to go for the Pizza and the good vibes🤙 Olas Permanentes 🌊 the apts are top notch