Volcan de San Vicente - just one of the sights tourists can look forward to in El Salvador.

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EL SALVADOR -- Back in fall 2006 when Gatineau's Dina Aswar was looking for a quick and easy southern getaway, her travel agent suggested El Salvador.

El Salvador? Her initial reaction was typical of many. Is it safe? Aren't people shooting at each other there?

Not any more, Aswar was assured. She decided to take a chance.

Little did she know not only would her decision lead to one of the best holiday experiences of her life, but would also lead to marriage to Colombian dancer Luis Chaverra, a performer at the Royal DeCameron Salinitas Resort, 90 minutes from the airport outside capital city San Salvador.

Ever since her first visit, Aswar has been alternating between home in Gatineau and the DeCameron, where she works part-time.

Not everyone's vacation to Central America's smallest country is going to turn out to be as life-altering as hers, but DeCameron guest services manager Carolina Diaz guarantees a good time will be had by all who, like Aswar, take a chance on something new.

Diaz readily admits the biggest obstacle the two-year-old resort -- the only major all-inclusive operation in the country -- has to overcome while El Salvador's fledgling tourism industry makes a name for itself is the perception the country is an unsafe destination.

While it can indeed be risky in some areas of San Salvador and other parts of the country -- and, yes, the DeCameron is patrolled 24/7 by armed guards -- citizens are not randomly shooting at each other as many living abroad continue to believe.

Not so long ago there was a vicious civil war, but in 1992 a lasting peace accord was signed, ending 12 years of armed conflict.

There has never been an incident involving DeCameron guests, Diaz stresses, either on the lush Pacific Coast grounds, or on daily sightseeing buses accompanied by armed tourist police which travel as far as neighbouring Honduras and Guatemala and include visits to Mayan ruins, a coffee plantation and outdoor markets where belly dancers entertain 'turistas'.

Like Aswar before us, my sister Julie and I recently decided to take a chance on El Salvador, booking an Air Transat all inclusive holiday package out of Toronto for about $1,200 per person for one week, not including getting to Pearson International.

We wound up at the DeCameron on New Year's Eve, celebrated with one of the most intense, in-you-face fireworks displays I've ever had the pleasure of seeing.

Neither one of us ended up with a Colombian dancer other than in passing fragmented conversation, an outcome we blame in part on the fact we were escorting six teenagers.

When it comes to all-inclusive holidaying, I'm a novice. With the DeCameron's fine and abundant food and drinks, helpful staff, comfortable rooms, scenic grounds, inviting pools, sauna, whirlpool, massage huts, entertainment and plentiful activities including outdoor Spanish lessons, cycling and tennis, for a while I thought I had discovered heaven on Earth.

More experienced travellers agreed it was as good as it gets for this type of facility. As a new destination, they felt the tourism industry here seems to be trying very hard to make a favourable impression.

"It's certainly one of the cleanest resorts I've ever been to," said Lana Barnes, a Hawkesbury real estate broker on her first trip to El Salvador.

Not only is Diaz on hand catering to customers' requirements, but Transat Holidays has a supervisor on the ground at the DeCameron -- the ever-helpful Linda Letourneau of Quebec -- making sure any glitches are quickly smoothed out.

That only makes sense because Air Transat is now providing the bulk of the DeCameron's guests, running one Airbus a week out of both Toronto and Montreal.

Along with holidaying Central Americans, at any give time Canadians occupy many of the 552 rooms in the rapidly expanding resort.