Puerto Escondido: Which Beach You Stay On

The surf at Zicatela makes a noise you can hear from the road. It arrives as a flat boom every eight or nine seconds, and if you walk down for a look at seven in the morning there will already be twenty people sitting on the sand watching six people who know what they are doing. Almost nobody is swimming.

That is the first useful thing to know about Puerto Escondido. It is a serious surf town, and the beach that made its name is not a beach you get into. Zicatela's pipeline break is a competition wave. Treat it as a thing to watch at sunset with a drink, which is what most of the town does, and choose another stretch of sand to actually use.

The beaches, honestly

Zicatela — the famous one. Powerful, fast, and for experienced surfers. Walk it, eat on it, photograph it; leave the water to the surfers.

La Punta — the gentler beach break at the southern end, which is where beginners learn and where the long, slow evenings happen.

Carrizalillo — a protected cove with small, playful waves, reached down a staircase. This is the one to point a family at.

Most of what goes wrong on a first trip here is somebody booking a house on the wrong beach for their group. A circle of friends who surf want to be near La Punta. A family with young children want Carrizalillo within reach. A group that wants a pool and quiet wants to be out of town altogether.

Twelve houses, three kinds of stay

We hold twelve published houses on this coast, and they fall into three shapes.

On a surf beach. Villa Niku stands directly on Playa Plataforma, five suites for twelve, with the Pacific in front and the green hills behind. The beach there is a local break rather than a hotel strip, and the house is built facing it: long horizontal lines, deep shade, terraces stepping down so the pool deck and the sunset terrace keep the water in view. A cook and daily housekeeping are included, and an in-house bartender works poolside and on the sunset terrace.

In the Costa Cumana cluster. South of town there is a group of houses around Casa Los Guajes — six bedrooms for twelve, with a modern kitchen where the villa's chef cooks and a service team lays the tables. Alongside it sit several one- and two-bedroom suites and bungalows that can be taken on their own. That makes the cluster unusually flexible: a large group can take the main house and overflow into the bungalows rather than splitting across town.

Away from all of it. Casa U'undu stands alone above the dune at Ventanilla, twenty-five minutes east, on one of the last undeveloped shores on this coast. Three bedrooms, room for eleven. There is no resort next door and no neighbouring rooftop — a garden that runs out into grey-gold sand and a Pacific that arrives loudly. The house goes to one group at a time, so the beach in front belongs to whoever is staying, and most mornings nobody else walks on it. A cook is in the kitchen every day for breakfast, lunch and dinner, cooking Oaxacan market food. It is the right answer for a group that came to be left alone and the wrong one for a group that wants to walk to dinner.

Is there a chef?

At most of the houses we hold on this coast, yes: a chef or cook comes with the stay, which is the main reason a week here is so easy to run. At Casa Los Guajes the rate covers chef and bar service, airport transfers and daily housekeeping, and the same is true if you take one of its suites or bungalows. At Villa Niku and Casa U'undu a cook works the kitchen every day, and at Casa Macaria a chef cooks through the day. The groceries themselves are bought for you and paid separately, and the advisor will set out how that works for the house you choose.

The trip to start with

The boat goes out early, along the coast, for dolphins and turtles, with snorkelling over the reef when the water allows. It is 4.7 from 608 reviews on GetYourGuide — the most reviewed tour we list on this coast — and it works because it is short and it leaves from town.

Everything else the coast does well — the turtle release in the evening, a temazcal, a first surf lesson well away from Zicatela — is on our Puerto Escondido page with what each one involves.

When to come

It is a year-round stay, and we do not write any month off. Tell the advisor your dates and what the week is for, and you will get a straight answer about that week.

Who it suits

A group that wants Mexico rather than a resort coast. Oaxaca's food culture reaches the town, the beaches are working beaches, and the evenings are informal. It suits surfers obviously, but it also suits people who have never surfed and want a week where the day is decided at breakfast.

It suits you less if you want a polished strip with a concierge desk every hundred metres. That is not this coast, and the people who love Puerto Escondido love it for exactly that reason.

How long

Five nights. The flight is the awkward part of the trip, and a short stay spends too much of itself getting there and back. With five you get a beach day, a boat morning, an evening at La Punta and a day where nothing is planned.