7 Reasons to Visit Puerto Escondido

If you’re looking for a new destination that has a bit of everything, Puerto Escondido should be at the top of your travel bucket list.

We spent a sun-filled week in this rambunctious Mexican surf town, largely intact. Read on for our seven favorite reasons to visit this jalapeno of a town:

To Learn to Surf

Puerto Escondido is known for the giant wave “The Mexican Pipeline” also called “the destroyer of boards” and is one of top ten surf meccas in the world. There are several surf schools to choose from, with the locals choice being Oasis Surf School. They were the first surf school in Puerto Escondido, they teach surfing and spanish to foreigners, and are run by ex-pro surfers who really know what they’re doing.

Unlike other destinations (like Hawaii, for example, which only has good surfing conditions for six months of the year), Puerto Escondido has great surfing conditions year-round. That means that you don’t have to tailor your time away from work to the surfing conditions. You can simply expect that when you arrive, the surf will be sick, the water will be warm, and the town will be active.

To Take a Foodie – History Tour with Gina

On your first full day in Puerto Escondido, if you really want get to know the town inside and out, you simply must take a walking tour with Gina Machorro. I was a little skeptical of this idea at first. Getting up at 7am to walk through these busy streets during the warmest time of year sounded a little daunting.

Thankfully, Gina put all of my doubts to rest shortly after we met for breakfast at one of the original structures in Puerto Escondido. Still owned and operated by one of the longest running families in Puerto Escondido, we were treated to a traditional meal that included grilled cactus (quite yummy!), refried beans, and tortillas.

The coffee, made from locally grown Oaxaca beans, was as good — if not better — as what you’d find at a trendy coffeehouse in the West Village of Manhattan. As we devoured our meal, we sat and watched the local fishermen return from the early morning launch to usher their spoils (tuna, snapper, etc) to their families so they could then sell them to the local restaurants. In fact, in Puerto Escondido, fishing is one of the primary means by which people support themselves. I was able to snap a pic with a few of the women during this transition.

From there, we moved north to visit one of the most frequented churches in Puerto Escondido to learn a bit about the local figures that locals travel miles on foot to visit. We were only days away from Good Friday, and you can feel the religious energy pulsing through this modest, yet elegant, holy place.

After paying our respects, we continued north to experience what was promised as the best mole negro in all of Oaxaca. Along the way, we sampled fresh limes from trees on the street (you won’t find lemons anywhere in Mexico!), pulled cashmere-soft cotton from cotton trees, smelled fresh herbs, and shared “hola’s” with the locals who seemed genuinely happy to see “gringos” traversing the local veins of their town.

We arrived at small local caterer’s house, a place you’d never notice from the streets in a million years. Beyond the old gates, and past the loyal/friendly guard dog, we met Doña Inez: the grandmother of cuisine in Puerto Escondido. She works with the women in her extended family to create delicious meals for local weddings and events — and a few lucky tourists, like us.

We just happened to arrive on a day when she had leftovers from an order the day before. To say the food we were given was mouth-wateringly delicious would be an understatement to the fullest. HOLY POLLO! The tamales and mole negro was out of control. Wrapped in banana leaves (don’t eat the leaves), we unearthed the spicy/sweet/savory goodness that nearly made us fall over.

Thinking we couldn’t sample anything even close to as good as this, we had our minds blown when we sunk our teeth into the creamy custard wrap. Think creme brulee and corn on the cob having a baby. They basically had to drag me outta there. I felt like a vampire on True Blood after tasting fairy blood.

To be honest, what followed was all a bit fuzzy, as I remained in a glorious food comma for the rest of the tour. In short, we visited a local woman that makes super yummy chocolate from local cacao beans, went to the Mercado (think Chelsea Market) to sample more delicious local food (I also bought a gorgeous hand-embroidered blouse for only $10!), and a made a few more foodie stops that seemed to blur together in a haze of delicious smells and tastes.

All I can say is that I was totally blown away by this tour, and most of all, Gina. She loves this town, the people in it, and makes sure you walk away with a profound respect and appreciation for Puerto Vallarta. Her tour was definitely the best 300 pesos ($20US) I spent on this vacation, and gave me a much deeper appreciation and colorful perspective of this fascinating town.

To Party Like a Rock Star at Rockaway

If you’re looking to party with a beach-scene backdrop, Puerto Escondido is a great place to get your dance on for a few nights. It has lively bars, a couple of rowdy night clubs, as well as beach parties. The most lively times to visit are the religious holidays, from December 20th to January 5th and Easter weekend, when people from all over Mexico descend on Puerto Escondido to rage well into the dawn. The summers belong to foreigners, particularly in July, when a large influx of Australian surfers hit the beach.

The most party-centric hotel in town is Hotel Rockaway. It has a Miami-meets-Greece feel to it; the rooms are modern, minimal and white; the floors are stylishly stained concrete; the walls are white stucco. The hotel is so close to several active nightspots that you won’t even need your own music — the area’s DJ’s play plenty loud enough to lend their tunes to the party in your hotel room — alllll night (bring good earplugs!).

The suite you’ll want to reserve is the penthouse, which comes with a private pool and a phenomenal view. If a rock star were to visit Puerto Escondido, this is where they’d stay. I can imagine plenty of people “makin’ it rain” in this “baller” suite. Not only is it by far the most private accommodation at Rockaway (the others all have balconies that face the other rooms), but you’ll be glad for the private pool mid-day.

The suite is so complete, in fact, with its kitchen, living room, soaker tub, outdoor lounge area and a pool that overlooks the ocean, that you may find you rarely want to leave. It has a thatch roof, great lighting, and interesting art on the walls.

And whether you’re hungover or not, room service at Rockaway is simply delicious — we highly recommend the guacamole and mahi mahi, as well as their smoothies.

And to recover from all that partying, check out this next reason to visit:

To Rejuvenate Your Body and Spirit

We discovered a fantastic cafe/restaurant just around the corner from the main strip, called Spirulina. It’s run by a mother and her son — who just happens to be the most handsome man in Mexico (and a world-famous surfer) and is on the cover of Puerto Escondido’s tourism guide.

The waitresses are two gorgeous women from Sweden, who have possibly the cutest puppy alive, named Nala, who’s cuteness and playfulness persuades customers to stick around much longer than they otherwise would. But I digress.

Spirulina’s motto is “Healthy & Tasty Homemade Food, With Love”, and it rings true. The vibe is very hippie/surfer, and their delicious juices, smoothies and cocktails (coupled with fast WiFi) make it the sort of place you’ll want to spend all day in.

But good vibes and healthy food aren’t the only attractions that’ll keep you here. Upstairs, they have a thatch-roof yoga room, with two to five yoga classes per day, some two blissful hours long — all overlooking the ocean, of course.

On the same landscaped property, they have five rooms they rent, mostly to surfers, and a small spa offering hot stone therapies, facials and massage. My husband and I loved the couples massage we had there so much that we could do little to resist repeating the experience each day we were in town. For only about $500 pesos (about $40 US), you can get a deliciously relaxing massage, tailored to your preferences, set to relaxing music and candlelight.

Want more of this holistic goodness? A quick Google search will show you that several yoga schools are nearby, as well as many beachside yoga studios. You can either learn to be an instructor, improve your practice, or simply take a class or two in an exceptionally beautiful setting.

To Take Eco-Tours

Puerto Escondido is home to one of the only two lagoons in the entire world that have bioluminescent phytoplankton. We took the tour with Lalo Eco-Tours, and it did not disappoint. The water was warm, like bathwater, and when we swam, the water around our body lit up. It was surreal. I highly recommend paying extra for a private tour, so you don’t have to wait for the other tourists in the boat to get their fill.

But that’s not the only tour that’s available — far from it! We helped release endangered turtle babies (and were warned that horseback on the beach can crush turtle nests), which was a memorable experience. The three species of turtles we helped to release will live to be between 70 and 120 years old — they’ll outlive any of us! The man who runs the turtle charity (who is separate from Lalo Eco-Tours, who took us) sleeps in a tent on the beach in order to protect the incubating turtle eggs from poachers who’d steal them to sell as aphrodisiacs.

Another tour we did, with Lalo again, is a morning birdwatching tour. Most tourists in Puerto Escondido are too hungover in the morning to get up and take this tour, which makes it even more special. In the morning, the lagoon is quiet and peaceful, and there are exotic birds everywhere. Highly worth checking out, if you like birds.

And finally, there are dolphin and whale-watching tours, often coupled with scuba or snorkeling. Make sure to ask about the conditions and water clarity before committing to scuba or snorkeling, as many tour operators will take you out regardless of the visibility.

But above all, remember never to purchase exotic animal meat, or let tour operators pull animals into the boat. Some tour unscrupulous tour operators in Puerto Escondido pull sleeping endangered turtles into the boat, and in the process often break their fins. Here are a few more important eco-tourism tips.

To Try Something Crazy

If you’ve ever wanted to try sky diving, look no further. Self preservation be damned, it’s time to test the limits of reason. A few steps off the main strip on Playa Zicatela, you’ll find a gem of a sky diving mecca called Skydive Cuautla.

I can’t think of a better way to get crazy in this loco town then to fly thousands of feet above the earth and jump out of a plane. In fact, it might be one of the most sane things you’ll do on your trip.

After you’ve said your hail mary’s, double checked that your will is up to date, and sent you mom a text that you love her, you’ll be jonesing to make the plunge and kiss the clouds hovering above this sacred beach town. Come on, you have to admit, this is something you’d better check of your bucket list now. The voice in your head telling you to be afraid will only grow louder as you get older. And, as they say, there’s no time like the present to start truly living.