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Home/ Areas/ Pacific Coast Coast and swell · Nayarit to Oaxaca

Pacific Coast

Fifteen hundred kilometres of Pacific across six states, with four airports, whales in winter and a sea you need to read before you get in.

1343 km of coast 5 states with a shoreline 4 airports 4 months of whales
In two minutes

What it is, and what it is not

The Mexican Pacific is not one destination: it is a very long road with four airports hanging off it. Sayulita and Vallarta at the top, Zihuatanejo in the middle, and below them the Oaxacan coast — another country in pace, price and swell.

What almost nobody says before you book: the surf breaks hard here and the rip currents are real; June to November is hurricane season, peaking in September; and between one airport and the next lie hours of driving, not transfers.

State Nayarit to Oaxaca Airport PVR · ZIH · PXM · HUX Best time Dec – Mar Avoid Sep – Oct Minimum days 6 Currency Peso (MXN)
The places

Six stops, north to south

Read them in order: it is the order you work down the coast, and every jump is a flight or half a day on a bus.

Riviera Nayarit Sayulita and San Pancho
01 / 06
01 Riviera Nayarit Sayulita and San Pancho Two towns eight kilometres apart: the first packed with surf schools and stalls, the second with the same beach and half the crowd. 45 min from Vallarta Beginner's wave
02 Beach city Puerto Vallarta The only real city on the northern coast: a cobbled centre, a seafront promenade and the airport that feeds all of Nayarit. Also the priciest and most built-up base. PVR airport Best-connected base
03 Guerrero bay Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa A fishing town on a closed bay of still water, next to a purpose-built resort strip from the seventies. Playa La Ropa is one of the few Pacific beaches where you swim without fighting the current. Sheltered bay ZIH airport
04 Surf and town Puerto Escondido Zicatela is one of the heaviest waves on earth and it is no swimming beach: it breaks on the sand and it drags. Next door, Carrizalillo and Puerto Angelito are genuinely calm coves. Zicatela: experts only PXM airport
05 Oaxacan coast Mazunte and Zipolite Two low-key cabaña villages, one with the national turtle centre, the other with the only legal nudist beach in the country. Zipolite has a well-earned name for treacherous current. Strong current 1 h from Puerto Escondido
06 Planned bays Huatulco Nine bays and thirty-six beaches inside a development laid out in one go in the eighties. It is the tidiest and dearest stretch of the Oaxacan coast, and several coves are reachable only by boat. 9 bays HUX airport
When to go

The coast has four seasons

Here the month decides the heat, the rain, the size of the swell and whether the hotel is open at all.

The best December to March Dry, twenty-eight degrees by day and no humidity. It is also when the humpbacks come through and when the whole coast is full. —Whales Dec to Mar —Christmas and Easter double
With a caveat June to August Sticky heat, thirty-five degrees with high humidity and a storm most afternoons. In exchange, low prices and the olive ridley turtle arribadas. —Turtle arribadas —Mosquitoes at dusk
Risk September and October The peak of the Pacific hurricane season and the wettest months of the year. Many small businesses shut and the mountain roads get cut. —Take flexible cancellation —Places closed in September
Good value April and May Still dry, the heat climbing but bearable, and once Holy Week is over the coast empties and prices fall away sharply. —Best value of the year —Holy Week is the exception
Getting around

Legs, times and prices

Within any one stretch you move by bus and shared van. Between stretches, flying almost always wins.

Puerto Vallarta (PVR) → Sayulita 50 min $4 bus Buses every half hour from the north terminal, via Bucerías. A taxi costs ten times as much. Guadalajara → Puerto Vallarta 5 h $30 bus Over the sierra and in good condition. The flight takes an hour and often costs about the same. Puerto Escondido (PXM) → Mazunte 1 h 15 $8 shared van Shared vans from the highway junction. The last one goes at dusk; after that it is taxis only. Mexico City → Huatulco (HUX) 1 h 20 $60 – $140 The realistic way into the southern coast. The equivalent bus is over fifteen hours. Puerto Escondido → Huatulco 2 h 30 $12 bus Along federal 200, the only paved link between the two halves of the Oaxacan coast.

Reference prices in dollars gathered in 2025, per person, one way. Federal highway 200 runs almost the whole coast, but it is single-lane each way and not a road to drive after dark.

Where to sleep

Four bases, four different trips

See hotels →
From $70 Sayulita and San Pancho Houses and cabañas inside the village, three streets from the sand. For learning to surf and not touching a car all week.
From $55 Zihuatanejo A closed bay, still water, and the fishing town right there. For travelling with children, or swimming without watching the current.
From $40 Puerto Escondido La Punta for surfers, Rinconada for the quieter coves. For people here for the wave, or for the small bays beside it.
From $35 Mazunte and Zipolite Simple cabañas on the sand, many without air conditioning. For genuinely switching off, and accepting the sea is not always usable.
Before you book

What everybody asks

Vallarta for Nayarit and Sayulita, Zihuatanejo for Guerrero, Puerto Escondido for Mazunte and Zipolite, Huatulco for the southern bays. Choosing wrong costs half a day on the road: there are no direct flights between them.

It depends on the beach. In closed bays like La Ropa or Carrizalillo, yes. On beaches open to the swell — Zicatela, Zipolite, much of the Oaxacan coast — the rips are real and there are drownings every year. Check the flag and ask before you go in.

Humpbacks reach Banderas Bay and Huatulco from December to March. The olive ridley arribadas run from June to December on Oaxaca's protected beaches, always on regulated trips and always at a distance.

You can, but it takes days. Federal 200 runs from Nayarit to Chiapas with one lane each way and slow mountain sections. A hop between airports is an hour by plane or a full day on a bus.

The Pacific season runs June to November and peaks in September. It does not mean a storm every day, but a cyclone can shut roads and airports for two or three days. Book something you can cancel.

Six for a single stretch, with two or three beaches and a day off. Ten if you want to go from Vallarta down to Oaxaca, counting the internal flight. Anything less disappears into transfers.