A pleasant place located 40 mi/65 km northwest of San Salvador, Santa Ana is El Salvador's second-largest city. It's geared to a slower pace than San Salvador.
Santa Ana Volcano towers over the town, and sugarcane and coffee are grown in the surrounding region.
The city has a striking neo-Gothic cathedral, a colonial church and the Teatro de Santa Ana (with an eclectic design that Paul Theroux described as "banana republic Greco-Roman"). This is a good town to take a leisurely stroll in, perhaps stopping at an open-air restaurant for lunch.
Accommodations can be mediocre, but higher-end hotels are adequate.
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