Malls of Greater San Salvador

- Metrocentro, Multiplaza Panamericana, Centro Comercial Galerias, Torre Futura

Several large and fancy malls have been built all around the city, especially in the West part, District 3, that is the safest and wealthiest part of the city. Multiplaza Panamericana, Metrocentro (largest mall in Central America) and Galerias are the largest ones, and probably the most spectacular.

CENTRAL SAN SALVADOR:

Here you find Metrocentro, the largest shopping mall in Central America, next to the luxury hotel Real Intercontinental and Boulevard de los Heroes, that is one of the main roads of San Salvador. Metrocentro is partly an outdoor mall, was built in 1970 and was the first of six Metrocentros. The mall has 760 stores (!), 88 kiosks, 45 fastfood restaurants, and a cinema complex, Cinemark, with 12 cinemas!

EL ESCALON:

Centro Comercial Galerias is perhaps the best mall I ever visited, it features great architecture with a mix of modern and postmodern and a neo-classic heritage building from 1950 inside, and I found everything I wanted there. Galerias is situated on 4 floors and features 133 stores on 115 000 m² fountains, waterfalls and glass elevators, as well as a train and a merry-go-round for children. The mall was actually built around the old heritage building, called La Casona, that is owned by a Palestinian family, and hosts a Starbucks and other cafés on 3 floors. From the food court on the upper floor, you will not only find almost all wellknown fastfood brands, there are also panoramic glass windows with great views of the city! The Galerias mall opened in 1995, and in 2006 an additional floor was built to accomodate a large branch of the Mexican cinema chain Cinépolis.

World Trade Center San Salvador (WTCSS), built in 2009, is a complex where you not only find office buildling but also an outdoor shopping mall, a plaza, a pound with fountains and restaurants with views over the city. The landmark of the complex is the 20-storey curved green glass highrise Torre Futura. The mall is called Plaza Futura. There is a walkway to the 4-star Crowne Plaza Hotel from the complex.

ANTIGUO CUSCATLAN:

Antiguo Cuscatlan is a wealthy neighbourhood in the West part of the city. Here you find the 104m tall El Pedregal Torre 1, from 2010, that is the tallest building in the country. Next to the highrise is the large, colourful Multiplaza Panamericana mall. Multiplaza is a chain of malls, and the one in San Salvador is the largest one, the first phase opened in 2004. Among the 250 stores and services are Calvin Klein, Adidas, Gap, Victorias secret, the Mexican cinema complex Cinepolis (with 12 theatres) and a large branch of the American department store chain Sears. Like most malls in Central America it is very open, and the architecture is influenced by local buildings.