Which Central American country does not have a coast on the Caribbean Sea?

El Salvador is the Central American country that does not have a coast on the Caribbean Sea.

El Salvador lies on the Pacific side of the Central American isthmus, with its coastline facing the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Fonseca. Its land neighbors are Guatemala to the west and Honduras to the north and east. Although Nicaragua is close across the Gulf of Fonseca, El Salvador has no Caribbean shoreline.

This makes El Salvador distinctive among the seven commonly recognized Central American countries: Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama. Each of the other six has at least some coastline or coastal territory connected to the Caribbean Sea, while El Salvador faces only the Pacific.

The country is also the smallest mainland nation in Central America, which helps explain why its narrow territory is oriented toward the Pacific. Its volcanic landscape, Pacific beaches, and rivers are geographically separate from the Caribbean basin. A frequent mistake is assuming that every Central American country has two coasts because the region forms a narrow bridge between two oceans.