The 12 Best Beaches Between Mazunte and Huatulco

Every year more travelers find this coast, and the question is always the same: which beach should I go to? The honest answer: it depends on the day, the season, and your tolerance for stairs. What follows is the tour we give friends who visit, with the unglamorous details included. For seasons, towns, and logistics, start with the Oaxaca coast travel guide.

The method

How to read this list

The word "best" needs a definition. A beach earns its place on four things: how you reach it, how crowded it gets, whether you can swim safely, and what it feels like once you are on it. A beach that fails on access but wins on character still makes the list — it just carries the warning in the same paragraph.

The coast runs west to east, and the list follows the road. We start in Mazunte, head west to Zipolite, then turn back east through Puerto Ángel and on to the bays of Huatulco. For the slower version of this route — the one that notes what sits behind each beach — read Beach by Beach: Mazunte to Huatulco afterwards.

Nobody who lives here argues about which beach is best. They argue about which one you are in the mood for.

The villages

From Mazunte to Puerto Ángel

The western end is the part most people know: four towns in a short drive, each with its own beach and rhythm. We start at Mazunte and work west before coming back east.

Playa Mazunte

Mazunte's beach is the town's front yard — a wide, gentle bay that stays calm most of the year, with the turtle sanctuary at its east end. Swimming is easy, and in high season there are lifeguards. Crowds peak at sunset, when everyone walks the sand; the rest of the day it is half-empty.

Playa Rinconcito

Rinconcito is the small cove at Mazunte's western edge, tucked below the road. It is shallow, protected, and rarely busy — mostly locals. You reach it by a short path down from the highway. Not a destination, but the best beach on the stretch for a quiet hour with a book.

Playa Mermejita

Mermejita sits at the base of Punta Cometa, the headland between Mazunte and San Agustinillo. It is wilder than the town beaches: open surf, fewer swimmers, and the best sunsets on the coast. At night, in season — the dry months, on moonless nights — the surf lights up with bioluminescence. A natural show, not a nightly one.

Playa San Agustinillo

San Agustinillo is the fishing village between Mazunte and Zipolite, and its beach is the family pick of the stretch. The middle of the bay is calm enough for children, while the ends pick up surf. Palapas — the thatched shelters that double as beach restaurants — serve fish and cold drinks at fair prices. Crowds stay light, and the town behind the sand is small and slow.

Playa Zipolite

Zipolite is the long one: a wide, open beach of about two kilometers, and Mexico's only legal nude beach. The dress code is optional and nobody stares. The swimming warning belongs in caps: the open beach has real rips and a shore break that shifts with the tide. Swim between the flags near the lifeguard stations; ask locals before going in anywhere else. The town behind the sand has the most restaurants and nightlife on the stretch, and the beach fills up in high season.

Playa del Amor

Playa del Amor is the small cove at the far west end of Zipolite, past the rocks. It is quieter and more protected than the main beach — the naturist corner of an already optional-dress coast. At high tide the rocks cut it off from the main beach, which adds to the privacy. A walk from town, and worth it for the calm.

Playa Panteón

Puerto Ángel is a working fishing port, and Panteón is its main beach — a protected cove named for the cemetery on the hill above. The water is calm, the pangas — the small open fishing boats — sit at anchor, and the palapas on the sand grill whatever came in that morning. Locals swim here, and tourists are a minority.

Playa Principal

Principal is the port beach proper, where the pangas land and the day's catch comes off the boats. More working harbor than swimming beach, though the water at the edges is fine. You come here for the scene — fishermen mending nets, boats coming and going — and the seafood. It is also where boat trips to the coves leave from.

Playa Estacahuite

Estacahuite is a small bay just east of Puerto Ángel, past the point. The water is clear and calm, the swimming is easy, and there is decent snorkeling around the rocks. A handful of restaurants sit on the sand. Reach it by road — a short dirt turnoff — or by panga from the port. The quiet end of the Puerto Ángel cluster.

The road east

From Salchi to Huatulco

East of Puerto Ángel the towns thin out and the coast turns wild. This is the stretch where transport decides everything, and the best beaches ask more of you in return.

Playa Salchi

Salchi is the coast's quietest beach, and it stays that way on purpose. A wide, wild stretch of sand with dunes behind it, strong surf, and almost nobody on it. Access is a dirt track that turns serious in the rainy season — sometimes the last stretch is a walk. No palapas, no vendors, no services: that is the appeal, and also the warning. We wrote the full guide to Salchi — beach and land.

Ventanilla — lagoon and crocodiles

Ventanilla is two things at once: a long, wild ocean beach and, behind it, an estero — a coastal lagoon — where the village runs boat tours through the mangroves. The lagoon has crocodiles, which is exactly why you go with a local guide and not on your own. Birds are the other show: herons, egrets, and in winter, migratory flocks. The ocean beach is rough for swimming; the lagoon is the reason to stop.

La Escobilla — turtle arribadas

La Escobilla is the turtle beach. Olive ridley turtles come ashore here in arribadas — mass nesting events — that peak between June and December, when thousands can arrive in a single night. It is not a swimming beach: the surf is rough, and nesting turtles deserve quiet. Visit with the campamento tortuguero, the local turtle camp, which runs night watches and morning releases.

Barra de la Cruz — surf

Barra de la Cruz is a surfer's beach with a world-class left-hand point break, the kind that hosts international competitions. The village is small, and the water is not for beginners — strong waves, currents, and a break that demands respect. If you surf, bring your board; if not, it is still worth the drive to watch people who do.

Playa La Entrega

La Entrega is the classic Huatulco boat day-trip: pangas leave from Santa Cruz and drop you at a small, calm beach with clear water, good snorkeling, and palapas grilling fish. It is protected and gentle, which is why it is popular — in high season the sand fills up by mid-morning. Arrive early, or take the afternoon boat.

Playa Cacaluta

Cacaluta is the wild bay made famous by the film Y Tu Mamá También — a wide crescent of sand with jungle down to the water, inside the Huatulco National Park. No services and no road; you reach it by boat, or a long hike over the headland. Swimming is fine in the calm center of the bay. It is the emptiest of the accessible Huatulco beaches.

Playa Maguey

Maguey is the family beach of Huatulco: a gentle, protected bay with soft sand, calm water, and palapas serving ceviche and cold drinks. It is easy to reach by road from La Crucecita, which makes it the busiest of the bays on weekends. The swimming is as safe as this coast gets. If you only have one day in Huatulco with kids, this is the beach.

Playa San Agustín

San Agustín is the westernmost of Huatulco's main bays, and the calmest. Palm trees shade the sand, the water is clear and almost always gentle, and development is limited to a couple of small hotels. Reach it by a short drive through the jungle from the highway, or by boat from Santa Cruz. It is the beach people mean when they say Huatulco can still feel quiet.

The shortlist

Which beach for which mood

Here is the whole list in one table. Crowds are judged against the rest of this coast, not against anything on the Caribbean side.

Beach	Best for	Crowds	Access (road or boat)
Playa Mazunte	Sunset walks, easy swimming, families	Moderate; busiest at sunset	Road (paved)
Playa Rinconcito	Quiet hours, shallow water, reading	Light	Road plus a short path
Playa Mermejita	Sunsets, bioluminescence, solitude	Light	Road plus a walk over Punta Cometa
Playa San Agustinillo	Families, calm swimming, fish lunches	Light to moderate	Road (paved)
Playa Zipolite	Long walks, naturists, nightlife nearby	Heavy in high season	Road (paved)
Playa del Amor	Privacy, naturists, calm water	Light	Walk from Zipolite's west end
Playa Panteón	Local rhythm, safe swimming, seafood	Moderate	Road (paved)
Playa Principal	Port life, boats, seafood	Moderate	Road (paved)
Playa Estacahuite	Snorkeling, quiet coves	Light	Road (dirt turnoff) or boat
Playa Salchi	Solitude, wild coast	Very light	Rough dirt road; sometimes a walk
Ventanilla	Lagoon tour, birds, crocodiles	Light	Road (paved), then village tour
La Escobilla	Turtle arribadas	Moderate in nesting season	Road (paved)
Barra de la Cruz	Surfing, watching surfers	Light	Road (paved)
Playa La Entrega	Snorkeling, boat day-trip	Heavy in high season	Boat from Santa Cruz
Playa Cacaluta	Wilderness, film-buff pilgrimage	Very light	Boat, or a long hike
Playa Maguey	Families, safe swimming	Heavy on weekends	Road (paved)
Playa San Agustín	Calm water, quiet bays	Light to moderate	Road (paved) or boat

Read the access column carefully — on this coast, transport is the whole game.

Getting around

Getting between beaches

Getting around is easier than it looks and slower than you hope. The coastal road is paved through the Mazunte–Zipolite–Puerto Ángel cluster and east toward Huatulco, though the eastern stretch is winding and rough in rain.

Colectivos — the shared vans that work the coast road — are the honest way to move between towns. They are cheap (roughly 20 to 60 pesos a run), frequent in daylight, and they stop wherever you flag them. Taxis cover the same routes for more money and comfort. In the towns, moto-taxis — the small three-wheelers — handle the short hops up hills and into the back streets.

For the beaches east of Puerto Ángel — Salchi, Ventanilla, Escobilla, Barra de la Cruz — you need more of a plan: a taxi hired for the day, a rental car, or a boat. The pangas out of Puerto Ángel and Huatulco's Santa Cruz reach beaches the road never will.

Two airports bookend the coast. Puerto Escondido (PXM) sits at the western end, about an hour by road from Mazunte; Huatulco (HUX) at the eastern end, roughly forty-five minutes the other way. Both run daily flights from Mexico City and a thin selection of international routes. Fly into one and out of the other to see the whole coast without doubling back.

The land

What's behind the beaches

One honest note before you go. The beach belongs to everyone: in Mexico, the sand and the first stretch of shore are federal land — the ZOFEMAT — and no one can own, fence, or build on them. What you can own is the land that starts behind the beach.

Each stretch has its own market. Jungle lots climb the hillsides above Mazunte and Zipolite. Town parcels sit behind Puerto Ángel's beaches. Wild, larger parcels lie behind Salchi. Serviced lots fill the planned bays of Huatulco. The rules are the same everywhere — the sand is public, the title decides everything. If you are thinking of owning a piece of this coast, read the buying-land guide before you look at a single lot.