13 Wonderful Things to Do in Puerto Escondido — ALONG DUSTY ROADS

We didn’t like Puerto Escondido the first time we visited, ten long years ago.

In fact, we were very grumpy toward it.

We’d finally dragged ourselves away from our beach shack in Zipolite – home for three weeks – and nowhere else on the Oaxacan coast was going to come close.

Looking back, we should really have headed further away, rather than to bunk beds under fluorescent lights in a place which, in comparison, felt more like a holiday destination for spring breakers and surfers.

Overpriced and overrated: that’s what our first guide to Puerto Escondido said.

So, on our return to Mexico last year, ending our trip here wasn’t the obvious choice. And, to be frank, we weren’t sure it was a good idea either given we love so many other spots along this glorious stretch of Pacific coastline, and would happily have spent our final days there instead.

But this was a place that over the years, a fair few people told us we were wrong about – that we’d written it off too harshly in a fight it could never win – and we felt it was only fair to give Puerto Escondido a second chance.

Here at Along Dusty Roads, we always say that it’s you, rather than the place, which is responsible for how much you enjoy it and, back then, bitter about leaving Zipolite, counting every single penny, speaking no Spanish, staying in the crappest of the crap hostels, and with a lot of Latin America backpacking ahead of us on that two-year trip, Puerto was perhaps never going to be a good fit.

Thankfully, on this second stay, we left with a much better feeling than when we arrived…