🍖 Juayúa Gastronomic Festival: My Honest Review & Tips

Juayúa, the largest main town along the popular Ruta de Las Flores in El Salvador, hosts a gastronomic festival every weekend. Using a clear rating system, I share my honest review of attending it, along with firsthand tips.

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🍀 Lukiih’s Verdict

I recommend catching Juayúa’s Gastronomic Festival if you happen to be exploring Ruta de Las Flores on a weekend. The towns along the route are pretty quiet on the weekdays otherwise.

• The festival makes Juayúa very lively during the day and offers many food options to choose from.
• The experience is affordable, even if you order food, snacks, and drinks from several vendors.
• Minimal preparation is required. You only need to account for the long transportation journey from the nearest city, Santa Ana.

Planning a trip? Here’s what to know about El Salvador.

🏆 Where Does It Rank?

Partaking in Juayúa’s Gastronomic Festival ranks as the #4 experience I had in El Salvador. Here’s how it compares to other things I did on my trip:

	Experience	Location	Overall Rating
1	🌊 7 Waterfalls	Ruta de Las Flores	7.7
2	🌋 Santa Ana Volcano	Santa Ana	7.4
3	🌈 Café Albania	Ruta de Las Flores	6.5
4	🍖 Juayúa Gastronomic Festival	Ruta de Las Flores	6.0
5	🏄‍♀️ El Tunco Surfing Lesson	El Tunco	6.0
6	⚽ Cuscatlán Stadium Soccer Game	San Salvador	5.7
7	📚 National Library of El Salvador	San Salvador	5.4
8	😈 La Puerta del Diablo	San Salvador	5.4
9	🚶‍♀️ Historic Center Walking Tour	San Salvador	5.3
10	🚶‍♀️ Centro Walking Tour	Santa Ana	5.0

My El Salvador itinerary features the above experiences.

✈️ About My Trip

For context on my review, here’s what to know about my trip:

• I finance my trips and don’t receive sponsorship; this review reflects my honest opinions.
• I visited Juayúa in late 2024, but this post has updated 2025 information.
• My El Salvador trip was from late November to early December when it was transitioning from the low, rainy season to the high, dry season.

• Juayúa’s Gastronomic Festival is not a particularly rare event in Latin America. I estimate that hundreds of towns host frequent food-related events since it’s part of the region’s vibrant food culture.
• While all the food and snacks I got were good (or at least interesting to try), it wasn’t super memorable. With a handful of exceptions, many food vendors sell similar things with different combinations (e.g., rice, some protein, potatoes or salad, etc).

• Despite the lack of food diversity overall, the event is fun. There’s live music and the festival is sprawling with three different sections. The main area is dedicated to entrees and drinks, and another area sells snacks and appetizers.
• Even though most vendors sell traditional food and are similar, you’ll occasionally find one offering interesting food or snacks. For example, I ran into a food stall that was selling Taiwanese steamed bao but with typical Salvadorian ingredients (e.g., jalapeños, frijoles, cheese), and the baos were really good!

Juayúa’s Gastronomic Festival has no entrance fee. You can expect to spend between $10 to $20 on food, snacks, and drinks. I spent $15 on a shrimp platter, a horchata drink, a few pastries, a chocobanano dessert, and fried yucca.

See my El Salvador trip expenses.

• No significant skill or experience is necessary to visit Juayúa’s Gastronomic Festival.
• The festival is in the town of Juayúa along the Ruta de Las Flores. The town is a little over an hour from the nearest city, Santa Ana. You can get there by bus (the budget option), Uber, or tour transportation.
• There’s no entrance fee and there’s nothing you need to pack.

For more detailed tips on my experience, check out my trip planner below.

El Salvador Trip Planner 2025

Download my trip planner to make your travel preparation effortless. It features up-to-date travel information and a well-researched itinerary informed by firsthand experience. Each section is customizable so it can be as lightweight or as hyper-organized as you like.

My trip planners are built on Notion, which I use for all my planning. I genuinely love this tool and creating an account is free.