Sleeping in an Airport? – Don’t Do What I Did in El Salvador

Last Updated: May 9, 2022

I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life. I’ve picked on kids that didn’t deserve it. I’ve gambled more than I can afford to lose. I’ve chosen the wrong girl more than once. I’ve trusted people that have proven they are untrustworthy. You try to learn from these things and hopefully become a better version of yourself.

I’ve also slept in my final destination airport so long that they wouldn’t let me leave when I wanted – and that’s the focus of this story.

It feels like whenever something goes wrong for me travel-wise, there’s an event looming for a work contract that I’m supposed to write about. In this case, I had to write about the Canada vs Honduras World Cup Qualifying Match being played in San Pedro Sula, Honduras.

Here’s a link to my article on that match (spoiler: I made it there eventually)

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My Travel Tip

If you don’t want to read my whole story and just want the travel tip, here it is:

If you are going to sleep in an airport at your final destination, make sure to check when you arrive that you can clear immigration, customs, and exit the airport at the time you want. They might close these services during quiet hours.

Sleeping in an airport isn’t that uncommon – I’ve done it at least 6 times from what I can remember off the top of my head, and I know I’ll do it again.

Sleeping in an airport at your final destination – that’s a bit more rare. Maybe you arrive really late and would rather wait it out until the morning sunlight. Maybe you want to save on a night’s accommodation. Maybe you find airports really comfortable to sleep in and the PA announcements that run like clockwork soothe you right to sleep – okay maybe not.

In my case, I was arriving in the San Salvador International Airport around 8pm and had a 5am bus that morning to San Pedro Sula, Honduras. I didn’t want to leave the airport and check-in at a hotel around 10pm, only to check-out again at 4am. A waste of money on a night’s accommodation in my eyes. I figured what the hell – I’ll stay in the airport when I arrive until about 3:30am and then head out afterwards.

Stay safe when you travel. Here are my 21 travel safety tips.

That in itself, should’ve been no worries.

I made a vital mistake, however. I didn’t clear immigrations when I arrived. I decided to stay on the other side of security by all the gates, restaurants, and bathrooms when I came off the plane. A much nicer area to spend the night I reckoned, and indeed it was.

If I cleared customs straight away, I’d be in a hallway somewhere between baggage claim and the outside doors – a much less comfortable place to spend a sleepless night. That is, assuming they didn’t kick me out of that area.

So I hung around, had some dinner, sipped on a Suprema, and found myself a nice little corner where I could tuck away somewhat comfortably. I was woken up at 1am, stuck my passport in a cardboard box for some guy who said he worked there, but was otherwise unbothered. That man returned with my passport about 20 minutes later – no worries, he seemed trustworthy.

When my alarm woke me from my half-asleep airport fog at 3:15am I thought great, mission accomplished. I’ll make one last visit to the toilets and I’ll be on my way.

I walked back through the terminal, and down the escalator to the immigration area. People were surprised to see me. I had to wake one of the border officers up by knocking on his glass window. He came to, charged me $10 or so to enter El Salvador, directed me to another booth, and went right back to dreaming about pupusas and Bitcoin.

The tiny bit of commotion I had caused had alerted the next officer of my presence. I didn’t have to wake him up but at the same time I’m not sure he knew where he was either. I handed him my passport, and he just kind of stared at me.

“Where are you coming from?” he asked as if an alien had just approached him.

I explained that I arrived the previous night and just stayed in the airport to save a night’s accommodation. He seemed pretty indifferent about my answer and called a few of his compadres over for further inspection.

They spoke with each other for a little while in Spanish too quick for me to understand, and then the leader of this quasi-group turned to me and said slow and clear, “You can’t pass through until 5am. There is no customs officer here until then.”

We had a friendly little back and forth. Me wondering who the hell they were supposed to be then, and them telling me there’s someone else to do the customs job, they were just the immigration guys. They could stamp my passport, no pasa nada, but the customs declaration form had to be dealt with by someone else, and that someone wasn’t coming until 5am.

I told them I had nothing to declare and had a 5am bus to catch to Honduras but it was useless. Rules are rules, even in Central America sometimes. Maybe a little bribe would’ve worked but I’ll never know.

I went back up to the ‘comfortable’ part of the airport and tried to put together a new plan. I was missing my bus, no questions there. The day was January 25^th and the soccer game I had to go to was on the 27^th, many miles away in a different country.

There was a flight from San Salvador to San Pedro Sula in a few hours but it was about $500, not happening. There was no reasonable flight the next day either.

Searching for buses online is very difficult in Central America. Unless it’s an international bus they pretty much just leave when they leave. You can find out at the station when that might be, but on the internet, fat chance.

I was busing international though, El Salvador to Honduras, but even then bus schedules are hard to come by. Tica Bus is about the only reliable and user-friendly online bus operator in Central America. They were who I booked my 5am bus with but they had nothing else going to Honduras until the 28^th – too late.

I found some mention of a possible later bus to Tegucigalpa, Honduras, but that was only hearsay. I figured my best bet was to just show up at the same bus station that my 5am bus left from and see if they could point me in the right direction. I had to get to Honduras that day, yes or yes.

I tiredly stumbled back downstairs to clear customs at 5am and saw the same guys still dozing away in their seats. What I’d give to be able to sleep as easily as they can. They stamped my passport, and I made my way to the infamous customs officer who was now here and on duty.

She was sitting beside the luggage x-ray machines. I went to put my backpacks on the conveyor belt, but she told me that wasn’t necessary and I could just walk on through. Seriously!?

This is what I had to wait 2 hours for. This is what I had to miss my bus for. This is what I might miss the soccer game for! For a woman in a chair to hardly look at me and just wave me by. Incredible.

But you learn from these mistakes. Even after years of travelling, I’m still finding myself in these situations. And whether it makes me a better person or not I guess is up for debate but at the least it makes me a more informed traveler. And if I can use these mistakes to help inform other travelers, I’d consider it a mistake well-made.

So, take my advice, and if you are going to sleep in your final destination airport, either clear customs first or at least make sure that there’ll be someone there to wave you through when the time comes.

It’s not fun shuffling travel plans at 4am after a night tossing and turning rock-hard on the airport floor. No, that’s not right…tossing and turning on the rock-hard airport floor. There we go.

Safe travels and happy adventures. Cheers!

Find out what happens next as I negotiate my way from the airport to the city and discover the glorious world of pupusas.

If you have any questions or want to get more travel ideas, you can find me on Instagram.