The most westerly town on the Ecuadorian mainland, Salinas is totally dedicated to tourism with an lavish array of condos, hotels, restaurants, bars, discotecas, water sports facilities and the posh Salinas Yacht Club. Rich guayaquilenos come to Salinas to show off their latest-model cars, play in their speedboats, gamble at the casino and perhaps indulge in a bit of deep-sea fishing. A four-lane highway carries you smoothly through an urban strip into the heart of town, where modern, 15-floor apartments on one side faced an attractive, white-sand beach on the other side of the road.

General information. Salinas doesn’t have a tourist office, but does have useful banks. Filanbanco at Calle 17 and Gallo and Banco del Pacifico at Calle 18 and Gallo.
Pacifictel is on Calle 20 at Gallo.

Places to sleep. Many hotels can be booked solid in the high season, so reserve well in advance at these times. The cheaper hotels sometimes close in the off season. Salinas is not a budget traveler’s port.

Places to eat. Salinas is an excellent place for ceviche.

Entertainment. One eager tour guide told me “On weekends and holidays, the place goes nuts. Anything goes. On weekends the bars are wild, packed, dancing until dawn. The fashion scenes are really hip. Women wear next to nothing in the bars, maybe high heels and a bikini. The guys all act big and bad. And cars are important. People come down in Porsches and Lamborghinis, like in Miami Beach.” So now you know. But in the low season, however, Salinas is really pretty dead.

Things to do. There you can find angling trips for swordfish, tuna and mammoth black marlin. The best times are from September to December.

|Article contributed by Dominic Hamilton|||

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