When most people think of the beaches of Mexico, their mind likely conjures up the pristine blue water and white sands of the Mexican Riviera. Or, perhaps the golden beaches of Cabo San Lucas. But there is another, often over looked, region of Mexico that offers spectacular beaches with a fraction of the cost and crowd of those more well known areas. Puerto Escondido is the gem of the Oaxacan coast. Together with the nearby towns of Mazunte and Zipolite, they offer digital nomads a wonderful alternative to the typical beach town.
Getting to Puerto Escondido will either take you a long time, or cost you a pretty peso. There are basically two options for most travelers:
Public transportation is by far the cheapest option for getting to Puerto Escondido. Traveling this way, there are two options.
You can travel directly from Oaxaca City to Puerto Escondido via ADO Bus. It's about $40-50USD for the bus ticket, which is very reasonable. However the caveat is that it will take an extraordinary amount of time to reach Puerto Escondido. That is because the most direct route - south, through the mountainous town of San Jose Pacifico - is primarily a narrow, winding, road that is unfit for the large buses used by ADO. Instead, the bus travels down to Huatulco, and then westward along the coast. This roundabout way takes anywhere from 9-11 hours, making it quite a large trade off of time-for-money. This route can be done as an overnight ride, which may help eat the time cost. Whether or not you'd like to spend your night on a bus is a question only you can answer.
Ah, the tried and true colectivo. If you haven't traveled on one of these yet, getting to Puerto Escondido is be a great way to pop your colectivo cherry. The total trip is about 6hrs, with colectivos following the most direct route to PE. The route passes through the remote mountain village of San Jose del Pacifico. San Jose itself is a great place to stop for the night, and break up the trip down into two 3hr segments. But if you're in a hurry, you can stay on the colectivo all the way down to PE. Its worth mentioning that the road up and into the mountains is narrow and curvy, and its quite likely you'll get motion sickness... unless you stop by a farmacia and grab some dramamine (or its generic Mexican equivalent). Trust me on this one, take the tablet *BEFORE* you get on the colectivo.
If you'd rather skip the long and winding road, your best bet is to book a flight to Puerto Escondido. Flights can be as cheap as $50USD one way from Mexico City, and up to 3x that from other cities. Still fairly reasonable, considering the time you'll save. PE's airport is small, so flight availability may be limited. Book ahead of time when possible to make sure you catch the flight.
Lying significantly southward on the Pacific coast of Mexico, Puerto Escondido's is tropical year round. This means PE's weather is mostly hot and humid year round. However, as in most tropical climates, there is a wet and a dry season to keep note of. The dry season typically runs from November to April and is typically the most popular time for tourists to visit. The wet season follows from May to October, with June and September seeing the most rainfall. That isn't to say Puerto Escondido, should be avoided during the rainy season. The rainy months are known to bring large waves to the coast, making the area ideal for surfers. With general tourism down during the wet season, it can be a great time for digital nomads to visit and take advantage of the lower rates.
Unlike many more established tourist destinations, there is not a defined "hotel zone" in Puerto Escondido. Determining where to stay in Puerto Escondido is more a matter of what you want to do during your stay.
If you're looking to be close to the primary beach, where you can easily find a variety of restaurants and bars, Playa Zicatela is for you. There are plenty of options, from boutique hotels, to comfortable Airbnb's, to choose from. From here, you can easily walk to the beach after work and enjoy watching the surfers with a cold drink in hand.
La Punta is another great option for its proximity to the beach and a wide variety of accommodations.
If you'd like a bit more relaxed atmosphere, staying near Playa Carrizalillo is a great option. Because it is a little further away from most restaurants and shops, having access to a car would make it easier to get around.
Though not particularly attractive, the downtown area does offer the largest amount of hotels and accommodations, along with access to many different restaurants and shopping opportunities, including the Mercado Benito Juarez where you can find local fruit, vegetables, and meats, along with clothing and other regional items.
Though Oaxaca is one of the poorest states in Mexico, Puerto Escondido enjoys a bohemian atmosphere and is an emerging destination for national and international tourists alike. In particular, Puerto Escondido has attracted a great number of surf enthusiasts to its shores. Renowned for it's waves, Playa Zicatela is a major draw for surfers. Beyond surfing, Oaxcan cuisine, including traditional foods like mole (pronounced mo-ley), can easily be found throughout the city. As the city has grown as a tourist destination, Puerto Escondido has begun to gain a reputation for nightlife. While still a far cry from the likes of Tulum or Mexico City, there are still parties to be found along its sandy beaches.
Beaches, beaches, beaches! Do you like beaches? If you're making the trek all the way down to Puerto Escondido, you probably are quite fond of them. Lucky for you, PE has plenty to offer.
The long, sprawling beach known as playa Zicatela is renowned for its mighty waves, enchanting surfers from around the world. If riding the waves isn't your thing, Playa Zicatela is great to simply kick back and watch those brave enough to tempt fate. Dozens of bars and restaurants line the beach, making it a great place for a stroll.
Playa Carrizalillo (pronounced car-rhee-za-lee-low... say that 3 times fast) offers a scenic change of pace from the vast Playa Zicatella. Surrounded by cliffs, visitors must navigate a very long stair case to reach the beach below. Once there, the scene is much more tranquil than its busy neighbor. There are a couple of spots to grab a drink and enjoy the views, before making the trek back UP.
At the southern most point of Playa Zicatela you'll find the area known as La Punta. It's another great spot to enjoy the sunset with a cold cerveza in hand.
Just outside of Puerto Escondido lies Laguna de Manialtepec. Known for its bioluminescence, its also a great spot for bird watching. For the best views of bioluminescence, plan your visit for a moonless night. You'll have no problem finding plenty of offers for guided boat tours in town. Nearby Chacahua Lagoon also features bioluminescent plankton as well.
If you've spent any amount of time in the Mexican Riviera cities of Cancun, Playa del Carmen, and Tulum, you'll find Puerto Escondido to be far cheaper in nearly all aspects of cost of living. While the cost of living in PE is higher than in Oaxaca City, you'll still find it largely to be bargain compared to other coastal towns.
The lions share of your living expenses will go towards your accommodations. Staying anywhere near Playa Zicatela or the other popular beaches will be the most expensive. However there are plenty of options to fit all budgets, even near the beaches. For cheaper accommodations, look towards downtown. Though the trade off is that you'll likely need to take taxis, or rent a car or scooter, to reach the beaches.
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If theres one thing digital nomads worry about, its access to quality, stable internet. Unfortunately, Puerto Escondido and the Oaxacan coast in general, have a bit of work to do to catch up in this department. After speaking with other nomads I had met in Mexico, I actually put off my first visit to Puerto Escondido for over a year due to the rumored poor quality of the internet.
When we finally did make the trek to Puerto Escondido in March of 2022, we spent about a week working from our Airbnb. The wifi at the place we stayed was surprisingly adequate for the work we were doing. However, where you're likely to encounter some some trouble would be during video calls/Zoom meetings. The internet is not particularly stable, which means video calls are likely to freeze or drop, particularly if they are lengthy.
I highly recommend contacting the property or host of any accommodations you are looking at and asking them about the wifi connection. More and more places are using Starlink, which can greatly improve the quality of internet. Ask the host to visit www.speedtest.net to test their connection and send you a screenshot with the results.
As always, its a smart play for any serious digital nomad to carry a mobile hotspot device and purchase a local SIM card. Telcel is widely regarded as the best cell provider in Mexico, so grab a card with 5GB+ of data and keep that as a backup, should your main wifi connection go down.
