Oaxaca Beaches, First Class Bus

Bus First Class, Oaxaca Beaches, Huatulco, Zipolite, Mazunte, Puerto Escondido

Update March 2014

OCC Bus from Oaxaca City's first class ADO terminal reaches

Huatulco where nine bays and 33 beaches offer all kinds of lodging

options

Bus To Oaxaca Pacific Coast Beaches

Oaxaca's Pacific Coast Beach bus service has not changed much over the years regardless of the occasional earth tremor and hurricane.

Additions to the OCC Bus (link) out of Oaxaca City and the Estrella Blanca Bus (link)  and Alta Mar Bus service out of Acapulco to Oaxaca's beach villages, are the new van services  (link)  from Oaxaca City that now reach three main towns on the Pacific Coast where you find beach transportation: Puerto Escondido, Pochutla, and Huatulco.

From these towns, a bus, taxi, or colective taxi will reach all the smaller beach villages.

Bus Oaxaca Beaches From Acapulco

Estrella Blanca Bus Line runs the Highway 200 bus route with Futura Buses out of Acapulco (link) to offer first class bus routes along Route 200 between Huatulco, (link) Puerto Escondido, and Acapulco.

Alta Mar Buses also run bus routes between Acapulco,  Puerto Escondido, (link) Pochutla, and Hualtulco.
For trips south to Chiapas find OCC buses leaving Pochutla for the 12 hour, 440 Peso trip southeast to San Cristobal de las Casas  (link)  Chiapas.

Huatulco Resort beaches, high rise and all inclusive

 included

Huatulco Beach Resort

Direct, first class buses from Oaxaca City (8 hours) and second class buses from Puerto Escondido and Pochutla serve the beach town furthest southeast on Oaxaca's Pacific Coast, the resort town of Huatulco. This relatively new resort area created by the Government in the 1980s was built from the nine bays and 33 beaches in the area.

The chapel honoring the Cross Of Huatulco at the

village of Santa Cruz

 The town of Crucicita is the transfer hub for this area, a tidy little place that offers an ADO  (link)  first class bus terminal, a second class bus terminal,  lodging, clubs, restaurants and shopping around the small square a fifteen minute taxi ride from Huatulco's airport. (HUX).

The marina at the village of Santa Cruz

Several of the bays of Huatulco are developed much more intensly than Crucicita, with high-rise resorts, some with protected beaches others with surfing waves.

In the winter months, cruise ships visit the harbor of Santa Cruz at the end of a long bay.

The harbor's name, Santa Cruz, was inspired by a legend about the discovery by the first Spanish visitors of a huge, wooden cross standing in place at the beach, “The Cross of Huatulco.”

The village of Santa Cruz showing the cruise ship dock.

The latest addition to the attractions in Huatulco is the small Huatulco archaeological ruin site called  Copalita, opened recently to display artifacts from the State of Oaxaca and from the small ruin site on the coast by the river.  Entry to the museum is 100 pesos. 
 Other ruin sites such as  Monte Alban, (link)  near Oaxaca City, and  Teotihuacan, (link) near Mexico City are archaeological ruins with splendid museums and monumental buildings and pyramidal structures typical of Mexico’s ancient cities.  

 OCC Bus leaves from the Oaxaca ADO Bus Terminal and
serves the Pacific Coast towns of Huatulco, Pochutla, and Puerto Escondido.

Bus To Huatulco

Reach Huatulco from Oaxaca City via OCC Buses that  leave from the Oaxaca ADO Bus Terminal with stops in Huatulco, Pochutla, and Puerto Escondido.  Sur Buses run regular service between Pochutla and Puerto Escondido. OCC buses and Sur Buses run routes from Huatulco, Pochutla, and Puerto Escondido as they run hourly up and down the bus routes on coastal Route 200, the highway between Huatulco and Puerto Escondido. 

See Huatulco (link)  for more details on lodging, golf, beaches, hiring a cab by the hour, and about the Cross of Huatulco legend. 

Transportation To Oaxaca's Pacific Coast Beaches

Taxis, Colectivos

Long-haul, first class buses don't reach all the small beach towns, they are served by taxi and colectivo. The fare from Pochutla by private taxi to the beach towns of Puerto Angel and Zipolite, for example, cost around 100 pesos to reach Zipolite Beach, Colonia Roca Blanca, Puerto Angel and Mazunte. 

Group To Save

If you group with other travelers you can save; the taxis charge by the trip not by the number of people. 


Budget Transfer

The budget alternatives for transportation from Pochutla to the beach villages are the colectivo taxi and the camioneta.  The colectivo is a shared taxi costing 12 Pesos and leaving from Pochutla.  Walk to your right from the bus station about one block and find the collective taxis at a fork in the road.  Tewlve Pesos for Puerto Angel.  

Camioneta, shared transportation

 The camioneta is a pickup truck with a covered bed that costs ten pesos per person, a budget ride but an uncomfortable one.   The camioneta are allowed to pick up and drop off anywhere along their route.

Snorkel, scuba, and sightseeing boat tours 
leave from Puerto Angel.  

Puerto Angel Beaches

Reach the fishing village and beach town of Puerto Angel via taxi, collective taxi, or camioneta from the town of Pochutla.
The collective taxi is the best option for saving on transit.  It runs hourly from just a block northeast  of the bus terminal.  The collective taxis also pick up at the crossroads of Route 200 and Route 175 but will usually be full before they reach this location.  
Cost is 12 Peso to Puerto Angel, the first beach town you passs as you go northwest along the coast road from Pochutla.  Puerto Angel offers a beach-side hotel, the Cordelia at 350 peso per night with Air Conditioning, wifi, and a restaurant.  Several other hotels are nearby.  Snorkel, scuba, and sightseeing boat tours leave from Puerto Angel.  

Camping Mazunte 

Sightseeing tours leave from Playa Panteon, a calm water beach where you can swim and snorkel.  In front of the hotel Cordelia, two tour agencies offer four-hour whale watch, dolphin watch, turtle watch boat tours with visits to four secluded bays along the coast.  

There are restaurants at the beach villages.   See Other area dining  Dining Zipolite (link)

Dawn at Zipolite Beach

Transportation To Zipolite Beach

Taxi, colectivo, and camioneta from Pochutla reach Zipolite Beach. 
Zipolite is a nude-optional beach noted for its sunrises and sunsets located a few miles west of Puerto Angel. Nudism is not legal in Mexico but is allowed on Zipolite Beach.  
Budget lodging, beachside posadas, beach camping, surfing, laundromat, and good restaurants such as Piedra del Fuego and “A Nice Place on the Beach” make Zipolite a good visit. 
See Zipolite Lodging 

Transportation To Mazunte Beach

A few miles west of Zipolite, along the coast, is the village of Mazunte. There you find beach-side camping, beach restaurants, posada lodging, and the Turtle Rescue Project.
Reach Mazunte and the other beaches, San Agustinillo, and Ventanillo in the same fashion: taxi, colectivo, or camioneta out of Pochutla or anywhere along the beach road, Route 175.

Mazunte Turtle Rescue Project Museum

San Agustinillo

SanAgustinillo is a small beach village on Route 175 just east of Mazunte. Find a small wave beach and a beach open to the ocean bordered by inns and restaurants.

Ventanilla offers tours of a  crocodile lagoon

Ventanilla
Ventanilla is a tiny community on an open ocean beach where you find tours of a lagoon to view crocodiles in the wild.

Tours of Manialtepec and Chacahua lagoons are offered 

in the coastal village of Puerto Escondido 

Puerto Escondido

The surfing and fishing village of Puerto Escondido is the best known of Oaxaca beach villages and offers first class bus service from the ADO terminal on Route 200. The second class bus terminal offers bus service to Acapulco via Alta Mar and Estrella Blanca Buses..

Beach dining Puerto Escondido

Fishing boats on the beach, Puerto Escondido

Related Links
Puerto Escondido Camping

Chacahua Lagoon Tour

Oaxaca Pacific Coast Mexico, Coast Road Route 200

Oaxaca Pacific Coast beaches offer dining on the beach as

above at Puerto Escondido 

 Oaxaca, Mexico, Pacific Coast Beaches   Updated December 2013

    Oaxaca's Pacific Coast beaches include  Zipolite, Puerto Angel, Puerto Escondido, Mazunte, and Huatulco.  These are quiet Oaxacan beaches where you can enjoy an inexpensive vacation of surfing, kayaking, diving, fishing, and ecotouring.  Huatulco is the exception.  There  you can find luxury lodging  golfing, and upscale resort amenities as well as humble digs.

Sunrise on Zipolite Beach

Transportation, Bus, Van, Flights

     Reach the Oaxaca Pacific Coast beaches via Route 175 over the mountains from Oaxaca City, to the town of Pochutla,
Vans from Oaxaca City make this trip for 160 Pesos with many trips throughout the day.   Vans from Oaxaca City also reach the coast with trips to Puerto Escondido via Route 131 through Sola de Vega.
Flights from Oaxaca City and Mexico City also reach Puerto Escondido and Huatulco Airports.
Buses from Oaxaca's ADO Station also make trips to Pochutla.  They use Highway 190 to Huatulco and then go northwest on Route 200 to Pochutla and Puerto Escondido.

Sunset Zipolite Beach 

Puerto Angel
Once you arrive in Pochutla you are about six miles from the beach at Puerto Angel, a small fishing village that has one large hotel on the beach to the right side as you face the water with another on the street behind it.  Reach Puerto Angel by taxi, collective taxi, or camioneta.

Camioneta are a pickup

with a covered bed that 

reach the beaches for 

10 Pesos

    If you are at Puerto Angel's Playa Principal  around 8 am you will see the fishing fleet come in to the pier (8:00-10:00 in the morning) to unload their catch. Otherwise this village is a quiet place to relax under the shading palm trees,  

     In front of the hotel at Playa Panteon, scuba and snorkel trips leave by small boat for the coves and dive spots outside the sheltered harbor. The beach at Puerto Angel has small waves for swimming.

Morning jog on Zipolite Beach

Zipolite Beach

      A short drive or collective taxi ride to the north will take you to Zipolite Beach, a long strand of south-facing beach open to the Pacific Ocean that occasionally offers surfing. This is Mexico’s only nude optional beach. The beach can be hazardous for swimming because of rip currents that run along the shore and then zoom out to sea with a strong, narrow current that often carries unaware swimmers with it. There is a lifeguard station near the Posada San Cristobal on the west end of the beach.

    Posada San Cristobal on the western end of Zipolite Beach offers inexpensive lodging and a restaurant right on the beach. Nearby find breakfast at "A Nice Place On The Beach" and other restaurants serving lunch and dinner beneath the palm roofs with a great view of the surf and the sunsets.   ($12-$15 USD Lodging,  $4.50-5.50  fish dinner)

The sun rises between the rocks in November at Zipolite Beach

     November is a great time to visit Zipolite for several reasons. Foremost, the sun comes up over the rocks to the east, and sets over another series of rocks to the west.
    November also favors the surfers.   August through November could produce ocean storms that will send swells into Zipolite.  Good surfing could continue into March.  The proof of this is that further northwest, the surfing town of Puerto Escondido holds two annual international surfing competitions, one in August, the other in November.

November surfing competitions are held at Puerto Escondido

     You will also find that the hills around Zipolite will be green in November but turn brown later in the year.

Then, as December nears its end, the vacation crowds come to Zipolite and it will be busy along the rest of the coast during Christmas and New Years holidays.

Fishing families bring in the catch 

in the morning

    At sunset in November on Zipolite, people sit at candle-lit tables on the beach and watch as the sun dips below the rocks at the western end.  They then walk the one main street in the twilight,  headed for  Zipolite's disco,  the WiFi cafe, or the barbecue stands,  lured by the scent of roasting chicken.
      Recently,  the one main street became pedestrian only:  Calle Roca Blanca, it runs  along the beach to Posada San Cristobal.

Visitors watch the surfers and the sunsets at Zipolite Beach

Mazunte Sea Turtles

      A short drive from Zipolite to the northwest will take you to the village of Mazunte, famed for its turtle museum. The museum, called the Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga is located on a 10 acre site on the Pacific shore.  Since 1991 the center has worked  to protect the sea turtles that swim ashore each year to lay their eggs on the beaches.

     The eggs were once prized by the locals for their taste and for their perceived  value as an aphrodisiac.  This reputation made them widely exportable to the inland cities where they had become a delicacy. The turtles became endangered and the the government acted to halt the practice of harvesting the eggs.  The raiding of the turtle nests has diminished, due in part to armed guards that patrol the beaches during the May,egg-laying season.

The museum rescues sea turtles that have been injured and rehabilitates them for release.  

     The Turtle Center educates visitors about the threats to the sea turtle.  They have helped the local people find alternatives to the harvesting of scarce animal and plant resources.
    The common sea turtles in the area are the Olive Ridley, the Leatherback, the Hawksbill, and the Green.   The Green and Hawksbill could weigh as much as 400 pounds while the leatherback, the rarest, could weigh nearly a ton.

Puerto Escondido

     Further northwest, about forty miles on Route 200 along the coast, find the surfing town of Puerto Escondido, a great place to swim, ecotour, party, and relax.

See Photos, Puerto Escondido Lagoon Tour, Crocodiles

Road Trip Pacific Coast, Mexico, Oaxaca

Road Trip Coastal, Oaxaca City to Nogales

Southern mountains between Oaxaca City and Puerto Escondido

Oaxaca to Puerto Angel/Zipolite

 Driving Oaxaca City to Pacific Coast

    Driving from Oaxaca City to the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca can be done over three different Routes: Route 175 to Pochutla, Route 135 to Puerto Escondido, and Route 190 to Huatulco.
On each of these mountain roads you will have incredible scenery in the southern mountains.

• Route 175

For  Routes 175 and 135 (131 on some Maps,  Puerto Escondido Road on other maps) take the road towards the Oaxaca Airport,  Route 175.  This road splits into 175 to the left and 135 to the right after the airport.
Follow Route 175 to Pochutla if you will go to Puerto Angel, Zipolite Beach, San Augustanillo, Ventanilla, or Mazunte, or go right to Route 135 (131 on some maps) to Puerto Escondido. The crossroads comes up shortly after the airport (OAX) turnoff.

•     Puerto Escondido

You can reach Puerto Escondido on Route 175  as well and it is a better choice for several reason. The road is better maintained for one, and at times Route 135 could be congested with religious pilgrims traveling by bicycle to the mountain town of Santa Catarina Juquila.
The pilgrims travel in large groups supported by vehicles and can be difficult to pass.  During November and December there can be many groups from all over the country biking and walking on the roads to to Juquila.
 The festival in Juquuila is a fascinating event and well worth the visit.

• Reach Puerto Escondido through Pochutla 

Reach Pochutla on Route 175 and drive Route 200 northwest 40 miles to Puerto Escondido
   

• Pochutla for Zipolite, Mazunte, Puerto Angel

 If you follow Route 175, you will go through Ocotlan, a town with market day on Friday, then you will enter a broad valley on the way to Ejutla and, eventually, Miahuatlan.
     Once you pass Mihuatlan, you start up into the mountains. The road narrows and the hairpin turns test your patience. (and your brakes)
This can be a five to eight hour trip , although the distance by road between Miahuatlan and the coast is only 90 miles.  The road twists through untold peaks and valleys of the Sierra Madre Del Sur.  (8 hours from Oaxaca)

   If darkness comes upon you before you clear the mountains it is best to park for a while until the heavy traffic subsides. The dangers are the buses and vans that shuttle to and from the City to the coast. The drivers push the limits and often hog what little road is available.
     There are hotels at a few of the mountaintop towns and you can pull off the road for a nap at the cleared spaces in front of the few roadside restaurants. Otherwise, there are few amenities on this stretch of mountain road.
     While driving over the many switchbacks, you make about 15-25 miles and hour headway.

•         Vans serve the Pacific Coast from Oaxaca City  120-150 Pesos, six hours

One interesting village at the three quarter point of the mountain trip is the coffee producing town of Pluma Hidalgo. The turnoff is 121 miles out of Oaxaca City. Pluma Hidalgo has a small hotel run by a former coffee broker. Find the hotel at the end of the one street village. The coffee co-op roasts its coffee near the main street. follow the smell of roasting coffee to visit and watch the process.
    December and January are the coffee harvest season.  Ask at the co-op if you can work as a volunteer picker for a few days, a great experience for a coffee lover.

     The mountain road Route 175 will eventually flatten out as you approach the town of Pochutla where you will find the crossroads for Coast Road, Route 200.  If you continue on 175 and cross the main highway, (Route 200) you will come to the coast and the fishing village of Puerto Angel after six miles. Route 175 ends in Puerto Angel, having gone about 320 miles and crossing Mexico east to west over two mountain ranges while going from Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico to Puerto Angel on the Pacific Coast

At the Pacific Coast end of Route 175 you find several interesting coastal villages:  Puerto Angel, Zipolite,  Mazunte, San Agustinillo, and Ventanilla.  Find hotels, posadas and camping at these villages.

• Route 190 To Huatulco Pacific Coast Oaxaca

An alternate route to the Pacific Coast of Oaxaca is Route 190, the Pan American Highway.  The route leaves the City of Oaxaca heading southeast towards Tlacalula / Mitla and goes over the mountains to Tehuantepec and then Huatulco.  This can be a ten hour trip to Puerto Escondido.

OCC Buses serve Huatulco with connections to Pochutla and Puerto Escondido.

Next Puerto Angel, Zipolite, Mazunte