What You’ll Find in Puerto Escondido, Mexico’s Most Underrated Beach Town 

We were looking to spend a month at the beach and we could have picked literally anywhere in Mexico. We considered all the obvious beach destinations — Tulum, Puerto Vallarta, Playa del Carmen — but they all seemed a little overdeveloped and a little spendy. And then we came across a little beach town that we had never, ever heard of before: Puerto Escondido. 

It’s not exactly an undiscovered gem. Certainly Puerto Escondido sees its fair share of tourists. However it’s not a mega-resort town either or one stacked with overpriced condos. Puerto Escondido is a laid-back place — possibly even too quiet depending on which part of town you choose to stay in. It’s got a nice mix of locals and expats and a whole lot of hostels and surfers. And, importantly for us, it’s a place where you can get all the beach time you want and it won’t break the bank.

We’ve just wrapped up a month in Puerto Escondido and, despite the sleepy ambiance of the town, our time was way more action packed than we expected. There was a food tour, surfing, dolphin watching, baby turtles and, oh yeah, a Category 2 hurricane. 

Now that we’ve had our fill — it’s been a month of exploring, eating, drinking and generally just chilling out — this is the time when we add it all up. But to be really clear, we’re not operating on a shoestring budget. We’re budget minded but we’re definitely not budget travelers. With that in mind, let’s take a look at what we got up to this month and how much it cost.

We came to Puerto Escondido expecting a lot of chill out time at the beach. But the town turned out to have quite a few adventures available. Upon arrival, I immediately signed up for a food tour as I wanted to kick off our time in Mexico with a proper introduction to local cuisine. We’re talking over three glorious hours of sampling enchiladas, enfrijoladas, fish tacos and more.

We also made sure to tour all the key beaches: Playa Zicatela for long walks and sundowners; Playa Coral for a quiet afternoon in the town’s only paid beach; scenic Playa Carrizalillo, where Gillian tried out surfing for the first time (no surprise – she took to it like a champ); Playa Bacocho, where I encouraged a tiny baby turtle to make its way into the ocean; and Playa Angelito, which was the jumping off point for our dolphin tour — a must-do if you want to see these beautiful creatures close up. 

We also jumped in a cab a couple times to explore La Punta, the main area for the backpackers and surfers. In addition to the little boutiques and international eateries, there was a true party vibe in this end of town. We were happy to visit but equally happy to make our way back home to the quiet Rinconada area. 

We kept things simple at meal time since visiting Puerto Escondido during the hottest month of the year called for lighter eats. We sometimes headed out for a breakfast of huevos divorciados or chilaquiles at our favourite neighbourhood restaurants, Cafecito and Cafe Nopal. Early evening called for a chelada and fish taco at Rey Shaman or a burger at Oaxaca Grill and possibly a sugar-free paleta at Palma Negra. 

As usual, Gillian took care of all the groceries, typically heading off to the mega-store Chedraui on the scooter that was graciously loaned to us by our host. 

The most challenging aspect of our month in Puerto Escondido was easily our apartment. In fact, we’ve never stayed in an apartment where the pros and cons are just so obvious. First, the cons. It was a totally open-air apartment without any walls or windows, except in the kitchen. There was no air conditioning so it got pretty hot during the peak heat of the day, although still cooler than being outside in direct sunlight. Even though there were blinds that we could pull down, we had very limited privacy — even in the bathroom.

And naturally there was no way to keep the bugs out so we had to keep a very loud, high-powered fan running through the night. This place is definitely not a good fit for light sleepers.

Those are all the kinds of issues you would expect living in an open-air apartment. We also had to deal with the small matter of a Category 2 hurricane. Fortunately the apartment below us was vacant so we were able to take shelter there. Also fortunately the hurricane passed to the south of Puerto Escondido so we didn’t take the full brunt of the storm. 

Despite these misadventures, we actually ended up enjoying the space. We loved the design with its open-floor plan and traditional palapa roof. We loved waking up to the birds singing every morning and having a view of palm trees. There was usually a nice breeze coming through. And when it got too hot, we would just have a dip in the pool. 

Now for our spending, since that’s a major selling point for Puerto Escondido versus the big resort towns. Our entertainment came in at a whopping $258 USD, which is a lot more than we usually spend but we took on a lot of paid activities, with the food tour being the most expensive. 

Our transportation was $33 USD and that covered all our cabs for getting around town plus a few bucks for filling up the scooter with gas. 

Our dining out came in at $410 USD — not too bad considering we ate out every couple of days. Sometimes it was just a snack; sometimes it was dinner; occasionally we indulged in a happy hour. We wouldn’t say it was the cheapest destination for dining out, certainly nothing like what we experienced in Turkey or Serbia. Certainly we ate most of our meals at home. That brings us to groceries, which added up to $435 USD.

And, the line item you’ve been waiting for: our very interesting apartment. We did something a little different this month in that we rented directly from the host instead of going through the Airbnb platform. We don’t normally do this nor do we recommend it to others. However, we felt comfortable with it this time and it resulted in some big savings since we avoided the hefty local tax on rentals. Our apartment ended up being just $1,515 USD. Considering that it came with a pool, weekly cleaning and Gillian had a scooter to use whenever I wanted, it seemed like a decent deal. 

The total amount that we spent here in Puerto Escondido was $2,650 USD — not bad for a month at the beach. We came to Puerto Escondido looking for deep relaxation but it ended up being a pretty action-packed month. 

Of course, we were pretty worried when we first arrived in Puerto Escondido.

We came with a fantasy about what tropical living would be like. Once we arrived, we really didn’t know whether we’d make it for a full month. We were suddenly living in an open-air apartment with no air conditioning and it was sizzling hot all day long. We realized that we needed to do things very differently from our usual if we were going to survive here. If you want to see what we changed up to make the most of our time, you can click on the video right here.