Huatulco
Parque Nacional (CONANP) / Destino Certificado · Santa María Huatulco, Oaxaca
Nine bays and thirty-six beaches on the Oaxacan Pacific, developed from 1984 by FONATUR, the same federal fund that built Cancun, and deliberately not built like Cancun. Huatulco was planned low-rise, with roughly two thirds of the land kept as national park, which protects the offshore reefs and one of the last large tracts of tropical dry forest on Mexico's Pacific coast. It was also the first community in the Americas to earn international green certification. The result is calm, clean, well run and a little characterless compared with the surf towns up the coast, and that is the honest summary: come for swimmable water, boat trips and easy logistics, not for nightlife. Several of the best bays have no road and can only be reached by boat. The airport receives direct flights from Mexico City and seasonal flights from the US and Canada, so it works well as a short beach stop after Oaxaca city. Beaches are public, but all-inclusive resorts at Tangolunda control the access roads.
La Crucecita, Bahías de Huatulco, Santa María Huatulco, Oaxaca, 70989, Mexico
Beaches are open access and free - all Mexican beaches are public by law. ⚠ SEVERAL OF THE BEST BAYS - CACALUTA, SAN AGUSTÍN, ÓRGANO AND MAGUEY - HAVE NO ROAD ACCESS and are reached only by boat from Santa Cruz; the seven-bay tour is effectively the way to see the coast. ⚠ A CONANP NATIONAL PARK FEE APPLIES IN THE PROTECTED BAYS - ask whether the tour includes it. ⚠ REEF-SAFE SUNSCREEN ONLY, and do not touch or stand on coral. Copalita archaeological site keeps INAH daytime hours; INAH Sunday free admission applies to Mexican nationals and residents only. ⚠ OBEY THE BEACH FLAGS - the open bays have rip currents; the sheltered ones are the swimming. ⚠ HURRICANE SEASON JUNE TO NOVEMBER, and this coast has taken direct hits. ⚠ LA CRUCECITA IS WHERE THE CHEAP FOOD AND REAL SHOPS ARE, not the Tangolunda hotel zone. ⚠ HOURS AND PRICES NOT VERIFIED FOR THIS FILE.