A warning at the very start of this ultimate guide: I am yet to meet a backpacker who hasn’t extended their stay in Puerto Escondido, myself included! This utopia sucks you in and makes it almost impossible to leave.
Puerto Escondido is located on the Pacific coast of Mexico and has recently become one of the most popular backpacker destinations in the country. This laid-back town was once an off-the-beaten-track destination but has become famous for its world-class surfing, beautiful beaches, and crazy parties! With its abundance of activities and great weather year-round, Puerto Escondido is a must-do on any backpacker’s Mexico itinerary.
I visited Puerto Escondido at the end of 2023 and ended up extending my stay twice, staying 10 days in the backpacker haven of La Punta. This is a town that you can easily get stuck in, and many expats and digital nomads have decided to make Puerto their forever home.
I have put together this ultimate guide, consisting of everything you need to know about this paradise.
How to get there
Most backpackers visiting Puerto Escondido will be arriving by bus from Oaxaca or San Cristobal. Both directions require an easy but long bus ride, better done with an overnight bus.
I used ADO for all my buses throughout Mexico and booked through BusBud. The ADO buses are a mid-range service, offering backpackers a convenient, safe way to travel between the most popular destinations. Most of the buses have toilets, reclining seats, and charging ports. I paid £38 for my overnight bus from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido and it took about 9 hours.
Puerto Escondido also has an airport, and domestic flights within Mexico can sometimes be cheaper than taking the bus. Therefore, some backpackers opt for this option.
Where to stay
When I arrived into Puerto Escondido I was surprised at how large and spread out it was. I was expecting a small beach town, but it felt more like a city, with distances of up to an hour between attractions. This means there are many different areas to stay in, each with its own feel.
I stayed in La Punta and loved it, in my opinion, this is the best area to stay in. It felt like its own small town within Puerto Escondido, full of small sandy roads, lined with cute cafés, bars, and restaurants. This is the type of place you can walk around in a sarong and no shoes any time of day.
The neighborhood is backed by Zicatela Beach, the largest and most famous surf beach in Puerto. This is not a surf spot for beginners, but a great place to watch the professionals.
However, like all of the areas, La Punta does have its downsides. Firstly,it isn’t very close to the nicest beaches, which require a colectivo ride and then a short walk to get to. It is also a half-hour walk or 10-minute taxi from the nightclubs which can be annoying. However, in my opinion, it is a great middle ground, and all the areas have pros and cons.
Where you stay is going to depend on what you want most from your time here. If you want to be closer to the nicer beaches, you could stay in Centro. However, the streets here are nowhere near as nice as the cute, sandy streets of La Punta. If you want to be a short walk away from the main nightclubs, you could stay in Zicatela. This is about a half-hour walk further up the beach from La Punta.
I stayed in the Bonita Escondida Hostel which has a beautiful pool area and comfy, spacious, dorm rooms. It is extremely social with a lot of events on each night, ranging from karaoke to salsa lessons. I also loved the free SHRED workout classes on the terrace they have multiple times a week. These workout classes are famous around town and if you aren’t a guest, they cost almost £10/$200 per class!
However, I did find it quite hard to meet people who wanted to do things in the day here. I found most people here prioritised partying, so if you aren’t a huge partier there are probably better options for you. Luckily, I knew people in other hostels. If this hadn’t been the case, I think I would have been a bit lonely during the day, maybe I just got unlucky with the crowd at this time.
How to get around
My ultimate tip for visiting Puerto Escondido, no matter where you are staying, is to rent a scooter. Due to how spread out everything is it will give you so much more freedom! I didn’t hire a scooter and I think it would have improved my experience massively.
Picture walking into the rainforest house in a zoo and the heat and humidity hit you like a wave. This is what you experience every time you step outside in Puerto Escondido. I have hiked in the Outback of Australia in 40-degree heat and this felt worse! Having a scooter will be a huge relief to get to places quickly in this heat. It got to the stage where we were getting into ice storage boxes outside of supermarkets whilst waiting for colectivos.
If you can’t drive a scooter, don’t worry, there are still options to travel between areas.
Colectivos in Puerto Escondido look slightly different from the ones seen around the rest of Mexico. Some are the normal vans, others are open trucks that look like the picture below. Each journey should cost about £1.60/$35.
From La Punta, the colectivos go from the main road towards Centro. Type ‘Meraki Tattoo Studio” into Google Maps, and this is where you wait. You shouldn’t need to wait longer than 5 minutes before one arrives.
Unfortunately, the colectivos don’t go all the way to the beaches. Once you are dropped off in Centro you will need to walk the rest of the way. The distance is about 15 minutes to Playa Manzanillo, 20 minutes to Carrizalillo, and 35 minutes to Bacacho.
These distances can feel very far in the heat. I dealt with it due to my small budget, but some people prefer to take taxis. This is where having a scooter would make everything a lot easier!
Things to do
1. Spend a day at the beach
There are six main beaches in Puerto Escondido, each with its own charm and characteristics. Some are great for surfing, others for swimming and snorkelling, some are huge, long bays, and others are small and secluded.
The beach closest to La Punta is Playa Zicatela. This is a wide bay, famous for the Mexican Pipeline, a huge wave reserved for only the professionals. As well as the best surfing in Puerto Escondido, this is one of the best beaches to watch the sunset.
For calmer waters, appropriate for beginner surf lessons, or to swim and snorkel, I recommend my favourite beach, Playa Carrizalillo. A hidden bay nestled between the cliffs, with beautiful, white sand. It is also the best beach for snorkelling, both times I snorkelled here I was swimming alongside a turtle within the first 10 minutes!
Other beaches include Playa Bacocho, a large beach that houses the turtle rescue centre. Next door to this beach is Playa Coral, a smaller, more hidden bay.
Playa Manzanillo is the second-best beach for snorkelling. I didn’t see turtles, but I saw many fish amongst the rocks. This beach seemed to be one of the busiest, with many local families enjoying the sunshine. However, I did visit on a weekend so this could have played a part. This is a medium-sized beach with beautiful sandy shores. There are a lot of boats here but there is an area close to shore where you can swim safely without boats riding past.
Playa Principal is the least ‘beautiful’ of all the beaches and is a hub for fishing boats. However, this beach is still an interesting place to visit, and it is the start of the coastal walkway.
2. Turtle Release Center
Located on Bacocho Beach is Vive Mar, an organisation working to protect turtles along 30km of coastline around Puerto Escondido. Their work involves finding turtle nests and removing the eggs, so they aren’t taken by poachers or predators. They re-bury the eggs in their facility on the beach, and once the turtles hatch, tourists can release them.
You can visit Bacocoho Beach and release the baby turtles at 5 pm every day. This gets very busy with large queues. Once you have paid the $9.50/$200, the volunteers give an educational talk, speaking about the turtles and the work they do. After this, you queue up on the beach and you are given a baby turtle in a bowl to release onto the sand.
Unfortunately, as I was watching, a massacre took place. Almost all the turtles that were released were eaten by seagulls before they got to the water!
The organisation is doing amazing things, and I don’t want to discourage anyone from visiting and seeing the baby turtles. However, as a marine biologist, I saw a couple of small red flags so I didn’t pay to release them myself.
3. Whale and dolphin watching
This is one of the most exciting activities you can do in Puerto Escondido. Going out onto the ocean just after sunrise, watching dolphins jumping in the waves and whales in the distance.
I didn’t do this as I had just left my job leading whale and dolphin tours in Mozambique! However, if I hadn’t just spent 3 months being able to see dolphins every day, this would have been the number one thing I would have wanted to do in Puerto.
Of course, these animals are wild and it is not 100% guaranteed that you will see them, but everyone I met had amazing encounters. Tours are between 2-3 hours and cost around £50. This is a good price compared to similar experiences around the world.
4. La Reforma Waterfall
If you love hiking, I would recommend joining the ‘The Hikers of Puerto Escondido’ Facebook group and checking if they have any organised hikes whilst you are in the area.
A few lovely expats put this group together and organise regular hikes. The hike I joined took us to a spectacular waterfall called Cascada La Reforma. They don’t do this hike too often, so if you see this event you should definitely go.
The organisers charge £14/$300. This is to cover the costs of the transport and the wear and tear on their trucks from the bumpy road there!
If you have your own scooter, you could get here yourself. Be careful as the hour journey through the mountains is very windy and the road isn’t in the best condition. Head to the town called La Reforma and there is a small shop called ‘Comedor Y Abarrotes Jery’ which is next to the start of the track.
The hike is mostly shaded which is necessary in the humidity and heat here! It takes about an hour and a half to reach the main waterfall, you will cross a river or two on your way so wear shorts and water shoes if you can!
Enjoy a refreshing swim under this powerful waterfall before heading back the same way. It had rained quite a lot in the previous days, so the water was brown when I went. Even so, this was a beautiful waterfall. Apparently, the waterfall isn’t normally this colour!
5. Surfing
Surfing is what first put Puerto Escondido on the map when a towering barrel wave, now named the ‘Mexican Pipeline’, was discovered by surfers in the 1950s. This wave at Zicatela Beach is one of the heaviest waves in the world. It attracts surfers from all over the planet, and surf competitions are held here every November.
This wave should not be taken lightly, Zicatela Beach is a surf location for the professionals! However, other beaches in Puerto Escondido are perfect for beginners.
Playa Carizalillo is one such place. A protected bay, generating only small waves, this is the perfect place to take a surf lesson. You can also rent out a board if you feel comfortable doing so. Surf lessons start at about £30, or you can rent a board for an hour, with prices starting at about £15.
6. Eat fish tacos
If you go to Puerto Escondido and don’t eat coconut fried, fish tacos, have you actually visited Puerto Escondido?
There is a famous, ongoing battle between two restaurants in Puerto Escondido. Fish Shack in La Punta and Pepe’s in Centro which divides backpackers! Try both and decide for yourself which is better.
I only had the chance to try them at Fish Shack and it was one of my favourite meals I had in Mexico. It was the biggest taco I’ve ever seen!
7. Bioluminescent plankton
Okay, spoiler alert, I did this, and the sign below was the most luminescent thing I saw all night!
There are signs all over town advertising Laguna Manialtepec, which is famous for bioluminescence, just outside of Puerto Escondido. Now, I might have got unlucky, but I haven’t heard of anyone yet who saw anything to write home about.
If you still want to try to witness the bioluminescence, don’t expect the bright blue images you see on social media. Also, try to avoid a tour if you can. Luckily, I met someone who had a scooter and they gave me a lift to the lagoon. This is a much cheaper way of doing it and means if you don’t see anything, at least you haven’t wasted too much money!
To do this yourself, head to Laguna Manialtepec, specifically to ‘Tours Bioluminscencia’ on Google Maps. This is located in the part of the lagoon that is closest to Puerto Escondido. The journey should take about 20 minutes.
Once there it will be impossible to miss where you need to go, you will see the large BIOLUMINESCENCE signs seen in the photo above. Here you will pay £7/$150, a much better price compared to the tours which cost about £25. You will be given life jackets and walked down to the boats.
We drove out into the darkness of the lagoon for about 10 minutes. The captain then started doing doughnuts to stir up the bioluminescent plankton from the bottom of the lagoon. He was circling for about 10 minutes and then told us to jump in. When people started getting into the water, I could see an extremely faint glow, but you could have easily missed it!
Even though we didn’t see anything it was a fun experience going out onto the lagoon in complete darkness. However, if I had paid £25 for a tour, I would have been very disappointed! Aim to get to the lagoon between 6-7 pm.
8. Coastal walk
Time for a free activity, the coastal walk takes you along a fun stone trail along the coast for about half an hour. I would recommend going early in the morning, or in the evening just before sunset, as there is very little shade.
The walk starts at Playa Principal and includes lookout points, staircases, and bridges. It can get a little sketchy in places, one of the bridges no longer exists and you must climb over some boulders which is a little difficult but doable!
9. Boneyard Bar
My favourite bar in La Punta was Boneyard. This bar has happy hour, amazing cocktails, and a fun atmosphere, but the unique selling point is a skate park in the middle.
I really enjoyed my evening here, drinking 2-for-1 margaritas, listening to good music, and watching the professionals on the ramps.
10. Watch the sunset
My favourite spot to watch the sunset was Zicatela Beach. As I was staying in La Punta, it was easy to grab a beer and watch the sunset before dinner. The sunsets were beautiful every night, and it was fun to watch the surfers catch their last waves of the day. There were often volleyball matches going on too.
I also watched the sunset from Playa Carizallilo which was just as beautiful. However, as this was further away from La Punta, and the colectivos stop quite early in the evening, it is not as easy.
11. Explore other nearby beach towns
Unfortunately, even two months in Mexico isn’t enough time to do everything! If I were to go back to Puerto Escondido in the future, there are two towns I would love to visit. These are both slightly more ‘off-the-beaten-track’.
Mazunte: One hour to the South is a much quieter, less visited, version of Puerto Escondido. A sleepy beach town with a laid-back vibe, surfing, yoga, and much emptier beaches.
Laguna de Chacahua: One hour North of Puerto Escondido, and even less visited than Mazunte, is Chacahua. Think of sleeping in hammocks next to the ocean, exploring mangrove forests, and having beaches to yourself.
Where to eat
It can be quite difficult to eat cheaply in Puerto Escondido, so I did cook for myself a lot. This is something to be aware of when booking a hostel, if on a tight budget make sure it has a kitchen.
However, I also ate out at some amazing places, below are my favourites in the La Punta area.
1. Fish shack for shrimp tacos
2. Big Burrito for, you guessed it, the biggest burritos you’ve ever seen!
3. Smoke shack for bbq style meals
4. Mundaka for pizza
5. Fine Gelateria for ice cream
6. Espacio Cometa for a food market with multiple options, the pad thai was amazing!
7. Piyoli for brunch
If you have got this far you will be amazingly prepared for your trip to Puerto Escondido. I hope you love it as much as I did!
