Oaxaca Beaches: Which Ones You Can Actually Swim In

Every guide to the best Oaxaca beaches ranks them by how they look. On this coast that is the wrong question.

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This is open Pacific Ocean with no reef and no shelter, and most of it has a rip and a heavy shore break. The beaches you can swim at are the exceptions: a cove here, a small bay there, the sheltered bays at Huatulco. The famous ones, Zicatela and Zipolite, are not swimming beaches, and people drown at both every year.

So this is sorted by whether you can get in the water, because that is what decides which beach town in Oaxaca you should base yourself in. Every beach in Oaxaca is beautiful and the Oaxaca coastline holds many beaches. Not all of them are usable.

Beach positions, conditions, transport and season notes read 10 September 2026. Sea conditions change daily and we cannot check them for you, so ask locally and watch for flags before you swim.

The best Oaxaca beaches at a glance

If you want one answer: San Agustinillo. It is a single sand beach about a kilometre long with a swimmable west end, beach restaurants along it, and Mazunte and Zipolite both a short taxi ride away. Of all the beaches on the Oaxaca coast it is the one most people end up calling their favourite.

Puerto Escondido: Zicatela Beach, La Punta and Playa Carrizalillo

Puerto Escondido is the biggest town on this coast and the one with an airport, and it is really four beach areas that happen to share a name.

• Zicatela Beach is the famous one. The Mexican Pipeline breaks here and it is one of the heaviest beach breaks in the world. The swell is enormous from May to September. Do not swim.
• La Punta, at the south end of Zicatela, is the mellower longboard end with the beach bars and restaurants, the sunset crowd and the beach volleyball. Strong swimmers only, and even then with care.
• Playa Carrizalillo is the one that changes the maths: a small cove reached down about 170 steps, protected by headlands, with calm turquoise water and a gentle surf break for beginners. It is the best swimming beach in Puerto Escondido and it is busy for good reason.
• Playa Bacocho is a long open sand beach with a serious rip. It has a beach club and it is where the evening sea turtle releases happen, but it is not for swimming. It is a popular beach for sunset all the same.
• Playa Principal is the main beach in town, calmer, near the harbour, and the boats leave from there. Playa Manzanillo next to it is smaller and quieter.
• The town itself has grown fast and has the best coffeehouse and restaurant choice on the Oaxacan coast. Surfing is the whole economy here: board rental, repairs and schools on every street.
• Bring or rent a surfboard rather than shipping one. The rental shops on Zicatela carry everything from soft-tops to guns for a big swell.

Playa Zipolite: the nude beach and the current

• Playa Zipolite is Mexico’s only legally recognized nude beach, though most of the beach is clothed and the naturist end is at the west.
• The town of Zipolite is a hammock-and-palapa place that has kept its hippy character better than its neighbours, with cheap hostels, beach bars and a long late night.
• The current here is genuinely dangerous. There is a volunteer lifeguard service precisely because people get into trouble. Swim only where others are, only when the sea is small, and never after drinking.
• It is about a kilometre and a half long and you can walk the whole thing in twenty minutes.
• Best for a laid-back few nights, sunsets and a beach community rather than a beach holiday.

Playa San Agustinillo: the small bay where you can actually swim

• Playa San Agustinillo is one curved sand beach about a kilometre long, with a rocky point at each end and the whole village strung along a single road behind it.
• The west end is the swimming end. It is protected by the point and the water is usually calm enough for children. The east end picks up the surf.
• There are perhaps twenty beach restaurants and small hotels, most of them right on the beach, and nothing that could be called a resort.
• It sits exactly between Zipolite and Mazunte, ten minutes from each by taxi, which makes it the practical base for the strip.
• Best for families, for couples, and for anyone whose idea of a great beach involves getting in the sea.

Mazunte beach and Punta Cometa

• Playa Mazunte is a wide, usually calm sand beach with a headland at the west end and a small town of dirt streets behind it, and restaurants all along the beach.
• The Centro Mexicano de la Tortuga is here, a national sea turtle research centre with aquariums, on the beach where a turtle fishery used to operate.
• Punta Cometa is the headland trail west of town and the southernmost point of Oaxaca state. It is a twenty-minute walk and the best sunset on the coast, which means you will not be alone.
• Playa Mermejita, on the far side of Punta Cometa, is a long empty stretch of golden sand with a strong current. Walk it, do not swim it.
• Mazunte has gone from village to destination in about fifteen years, and in high season it is busy. Casa Corazon and the other small hillside places are the type of stay here.
• Best for turtles, yoga, walking and a slightly softer version of Zipolite.

Bahias de Huatulco: nine bays and 36 beaches

• Huatulco is a planned development, built from the 1980s along a coast of nine bays and 36 beaches, most of it inside a national park.
• The bays are sheltered, which is the entire point. This is where you snorkel, where children swim, and where the water is clear rather than churned.
• Bahia Maguey and Bahia Santa Cruz are the easy ones with palapa restaurants on the sand. Bahia Chahue and Tangolunda hold most of the resorts.
• Several bays are reachable only by boat, and a boat trip around the bays and beaches is the standard day out.
• La Crucecita is the town where people actually live and eat, a few minutes inland from Santa Cruz.
• It feels nothing like Zipolite. This is closer to a smaller, greener Cancún or Cabo San Lucas, and whether that is good depends entirely on what you want.

Laguna de Chacahua and the far west

• Laguna de Chacahua is a national park of lagoons and sandbars about two hours west of Puerto Escondido, and it is the least developed part of the Oaxacan coast that visitors reach.
• The bioluminescence in the lagoon on a moonless night is the reason most people go, and a boat is the only way to see it.
• The village has electricity for part of the day and the accommodation is simple cabanas. Bring cash; a credit card is useless here.
• The beach is open ocean with a strong break, so this is a lagoon trip rather than a swimming trip.
• Best for two nights, birds, and being somewhere genuinely remote.

The best beach towns: which beautiful beach should you choose?

• To swim and do nothing — San Agustinillo.
• To surf — Puerto Escondido, La Punta if you are learning, Zicatela if you are not.
• To be social — Zipolite for the beach bars, or La Punta.
• With children — Huatulco for the sheltered bays, or San Agustinillo.
• For a secluded beach — Mermejita on foot, or Chacahua for two nights.
• For one week — base in San Agustinillo and day trip to the rest of the strip. That covers most people’s favourite beaches on Oaxaca’s coast in one go.
• For two weeks — split between Puerto Escondido and the Zipolite strip, and skip Huatulco unless you want a resort.

Getting to the Oaxaca coast from Oaxaca City

• The new highway has cut the drive from Oaxaca City to the coast to roughly four hours, down from the six or seven that older guides quote.
• A small plane takes about forty minutes to Puerto Escondido or Huatulco and costs less than you would think.
• The overnight bus takes ten hours on the old road and is cheap and slow.
• Between the beach towns, colectivo taxis run constantly along the coast road and cost very little. Puerto Escondido to Mazunte is about an hour and a quarter.
• You do not need a car if you are staying on the Zipolite strip. You might want one for Chacahua.
• This is a state in southern Mexico, and the coast is a long way from the capital. Treat it as its own trip rather than a day trip from the city.

Sea turtles on the Oaxaca coast

• Olive ridley turtles nest along this coast in enormous numbers, and the arribadas at Playa Escobilla are among the largest nesting events anywhere.
• Hatchling releases are run at Playa Bacocho most evenings in season, and at various points along the strip.
• The turtle centre at Mazunte is the research and education side of the same story, and it explains why the fishery closed.
• Do not handle the turtles or use flash. A release that lets you pick them up is not a good one.
• Season runs roughly July to February, with the peak in autumn.

When to go: high season, swell and weather

• November to April is the dry season and the reliable weather, with December to January and Easter the high season peaks.
• May to October is hot and humid with afternoon rain, and it is when the biggest swell arrives from the south, which is why surfers come then.
• September and October are the wettest and the quietest, and prices drop accordingly.
• The sea is warm all year. Nobody here owns a wetsuit.
• Book ahead over Christmas and Easter, when the strip fills with Mexican families and the small places sell out.

Practical notes for the Oaxacan coast

• Bring cash. Mazunte, San Agustinillo and Zipolite are largely cash towns and ATMs run out. A credit card works in Puerto Escondido and Huatulco and often nowhere else.
• Book a hotel with a hammock rather than a television. That is the beach experience here.
• There is no private beach in Mexico. Every beach is public by law, including the ones in front of resorts.
• Sand flies bite at dawn and dusk on the quieter beaches. Repellent matters more than sunscreen at those hours.
• Watch for red flags and for where local people are and are not swimming. That signal is more reliable than any beach guide, including this one.
• Among destinations in Mexico this coast is still underbuilt, which is exactly why people keep going back. Compared with the beaches in Mexico that most visitors from the United States know, the Pacific coast of Oaxaca is a generation behind, in the good sense.

This travel guide covers the coast only. Heading inland to the city of Oaxaca too? See things to do in Oaxaca and our Oaxaca food guide.

Want the sheltered end of the coast in detail? See our guide to Huatulco, Oaxaca — nine bays, and the only easy snorkeling on this coast.

Check hotels in Puerto Escondido →

Frequently asked questions

Which Oaxaca beach is best for swimming?

Playa Carrizalillo in Puerto Escondido, the west end of Playa San Agustinillo, and the sheltered bays at Huatulco. All three are protected by headlands. Zicatela, Bacocho and Playa Mermejita have strong rips and are not swimming beaches, whatever they look like from the sand.

What is the best beach town in Oaxaca?

San Agustinillo for most people. It is a single kilometer-long beach with a swimmable west end, about twenty small hotels and beach restaurants right on the sand, and Mazunte and Zipolite ten minutes away by taxi. Puerto Escondido is better if you surf; Huatulco if you want a resort.

Is Zipolite safe to swim at?

Treat it as dangerous. Zipolite has a strong current and a volunteer lifeguard service that exists because people get into trouble there every year. If you do go in, stay shallow, go where others are, only when the sea is small, and never after drinking. It is a beautiful beach to walk rather than to swim.

How do you get from Oaxaca City to the coast?

The new highway has cut the drive to roughly four hours, which is much faster than older guides say. A small plane to Puerto Escondido or Huatulco takes about forty minutes. The overnight bus on the old road takes around ten hours. Between the beach towns, shared colectivo taxis run all day and cost very little.

Is Zicatela good for beginner surfers?

No. Zicatela is the Mexican Pipeline, one of the heaviest beach breaks in the world, and it is for experienced surfers only. Beginners should go to Playa Carrizalillo, where the cove has a small gentle break and several schools, or to La Punta at the south end of Zicatela for longboarding on smaller days.

How many bays does Huatulco have?

Nine bays and 36 beaches, most of them inside a national park. The bays are sheltered, which makes Huatulco the only easy snorkeling on the Oaxaca coast and the safest swimming for children. Several bays can only be reached by boat, and a boat trip around them is the standard day out.

Can you visit the Oaxaca coast as a day trip from Oaxaca City?

Not sensibly. Even with the new highway it is about four hours each way by road, or a forty-minute flight plus transfers. Give the coast at least three nights, and preferably a week. It is a separate trip from the city rather than an add-on to one.

Do you need cash on the Oaxaca coast?

Yes. Mazunte, San Agustinillo, Zipolite and Chacahua run largely on cash, and the few ATMs run empty in high season. Withdraw in Puerto Escondido or Huatulco, where cards are widely accepted, before you move along the strip.