Beaches | Mexico Travel

Every one of the beaches we visited in the Banderas Bay and those beaches near Sayulita were nothing short of perfection. Soft sand mixed with golden flecks of mica, a variety of beautiful shells and fossils, and a mix of happy locals and tourists. And the Pacific Ocean was warm enough to run full throttle into the waves with no regrets. But, admittedly, that’s partially due to luck. Please be careful out there!

I’ll include a few words about my experience at each beach, along with a couple horror stories, but for the most part, consider this blog post to be about pretty pictures.

Sayulita Beach

Sayulita Beach is considered one of the most beautiful beaches in Mexico, surrounded by jungle on the east and west extremes. This is an awesome location for beginner and intermediate surfers. I spent more time on this beach than any other during my trip, so expect lots of pictures!

Look down and you’ll see stunning, soft sand highlighted with flecks of gold-colored mica and lots of beautiful rocks and shells.

Seabirds include willets dodging the incoming tide, Magnificent Frigatebirds overhead, and seagulls and pelicans diving amongst the surfers and wave hoppers.

Keep an eye on that horizon when you are on the beach. I didn’t get so lucky, but you very well might see whales spouting, slapping the water with their fins, preparing to dive, or even a breach.

Beach Safety

If you are like my kiddo and brave enough to wander out into the waves, please read up on rip currents in advance. Kaia talked me into some wave hopping fun and pushed the limits, drawing me deeper than I was comfortable. Right as I realized it was time to pull rank and send her back to shore, she caught a wave and was suddenly a good 20 feet closer to safety.

I spent the next several minutes trying to catch up to her, but not getting any closer to shore. If you get caught in a rip current, it is critical that you swim parallel to shore. But, I only had my sights on my daughter. Before it dawned on me that I was in a rip current, someone swam up to me with a boogey board and asked if I was okay. “I don’t know.” “You don’t look like you’re okay. Grab on.”
It took my rescuer a good ten minutes with fins on to get us to shore where my daughter waited with a nervous look on her face.

It turns out that the person who saved me from the rip current was also a professional photographer who specialized in surfing pictures. He had been photographing the surfers when he spotted the two of us struggling and came to our aid. I’ll tell you more about my new photographer friend on my surfer blog post.

Protect your belongings.

Sayulita is pretty safe, but if you are going to enjoy the waves, here are some tips for your belongings.
1) Keep them on you. Use waterproof phone cases and other small waterproof bags for money and paperwork.
2) Make friends and make sure your valuables are under a watchful eye.

3) Bury them in the sand. A waterproof bag is still a good idea if you do this, and make sure to mark your treasure so you can find it later. One person suggested filling a diaper with some wet sand and putting it on top of your things. If you are worried, that will probably do the trick!
4) If you are lucky enough to have lodging close to the beach, leave your valuables back in your room. I’m glad I didn’t have to worry about anything buried on the beach during my rip current rescue. I did have my water camera and have to admit that despite being a fairly strong swimmer, that camera complicated things!

If you are a dog-lover like me, you will never get bored of these happy Sayulita beach goers.

Of course, the people-watching is excellent, as well!

Hungry? No problem!

There are plenty of vendors on Sayulita Beach along with amazing restaurants.

From sunrise to sunset, there will be no shortage of beach entertainment in Sayulita. There are always surfers waiting for the perfect wave! I got so many great surfing pictures that I’m putting together a separate blog post to showcase them.

You won’t get a westward view from Sayulita Beach, but the sunsets are still beautiful. We’ll head to Playa Los Muertos and Playa Carricitos next for better views of the sunset.

This is one of the gorgeous views of Sayulita Beach you’ll see on your short walk to Playa Los Muertos.

Playa De Los Muertos (Sayulita)

The walk to Playa de los Muertos from Sayulita is very quick. You’ll see exceptional views of Sayulita Beach before you pass through an incredible archway into the cemetery. You can wander around the cemetery and then head to the small beach.

Other than the incredible displays in the cemetery, what I remember most about Playa Los Muertos are the dead puffer fish. There were dozens of these odd creatures washed up on shore. I couldn’t help but wonder if there were some really happy dolphins nearby. Alas, we never got to see any dolphins on our trip.

Los Muertos Beach, not to be confused with Playa Los Muertos in Puerto Vallarta, is a peaceful place to watch the sunset. But, another 10 minute walk will take you to an even better sunset beach where very few people bother to go to.

Playa Carricitos

First things first. This is a designated nude beach, so don’t be surprised if there are people taking advantage of the “clothing optional” option.

I made three separate trips to this beach. It’s a little bit of a hike, but so worth it! And surprisingly few people put that effort in, so it’s very quiet. Needless to say, I have plenty of pictures to share of this little piece of heaven.

The first time I visited Playa Carricitos was a solo adventure. When I mapped out the hike, there was a road closure due to construction and Google Maps indicated a rather large detour. I decided to scout it out on my own before dragging my two travel companions along.

Fortunately, the detour was unnecessary and I was able to safely navigate my way to Carricitos Beach on foot. The short jungle journey was fantastic!

I didn’t have any problems following the signs to Carricitos Beach on the way there, but I did get a little lost on my way back and ended up all the way down on Punta de Mita. It wasn’t too difficult to get back to my hotel from there.

There is a steep hill to climb before dropping down to Carricitos. I was glad to have worn good shoes the first two hikes there, but did survive my decision to wear sandals the third time.

The hardest part of the hike is right as you start the real decline to the beach. This is where the mural-covered walls meet the beach access. The dirt is soft and loose and the slope is steep. I had to hold on to the fence that was topped with barbed wire. This isn’t much fun on the way back up, either, so keep that in mind when you are choosing what to wear on your tired feet. I never figured out why there was so much barbed wire!

Playa Carricitos is definitely worth the journey!

With that said, let me take you a little closer to the beautiful rocks and share my cautionary tale.

I think it was about a week before my trip to Mexico when I happened across a story online about a family who learned a lesson about rogue waves the hard way. I DID pay attention. But, I also wanted amazing pictures! In the story, a father and teenage kids were exploring some oceanside rocks that I’m guessing were similar to these. The dad was being silly and ventured onto some slick rocks. He was suddenly hit with a wave that nearly dragged him out to sea. Fortunately, he was fine.

I’m obviously fine, too. But, I did get too close. I followed the directions from that story to stay on dry rocks. I moved slowly and carefully, paying attention to what the waves were doing. These were the last two pictures before I realized I was in trouble. I quickly flipped around and protected my camera the best I could, watching the massive wave sail over my head and probably a good 10-15 feet past me.

The rocks weren’t dry, anymore. And neither was I.

I might look calm in that selfie, but I was shaking. I’m not sure how I stayed on my feet with the force of that wave. I was completely submerged for a moment. Everything was soaked including everything inside my closed camera bag. There was water under each of my three lens filters. Thank goodness my camera equipment ended up being fine! That was day 2 of a 9 day international trip and I would have been devastated if my camera crapped out. And no, there are no camera stores near Sayulita, Mexico.

Please be careful out there, friends. That was the only big wave like that and it came out of nowhere. There are no life guards and very few people. I could have easily been hit against the rocks and carried out to sea and nobody would have seen me. Stay in pairs and stay away from the rocks!

Oh! And be warned that if you stay for the sunset, which I highly recommend, the hike back doesn’t have much in the way of lighting. Most of the route is paved, though!

San Pancho Beach

I’m not going to be able to give San Pancho Beach the credit it deserves simply because I didn’t get to spend any real time there. I was on this beach for less than 10 minutes, but I have heard amazing things and overall, the day trip to San Pancho was fantastic. We just spent most of the time at the weekly market!

Marietas Islands – La Nopalera Beach

Boats cannot dock on the protected beaches of the Marietas Islands, so we paid for a whale watching trip with Chica Locca Tours. What a fantastic experience! 5 stars! I’ll share more about this adventure to the Marietas Islands in a separate post.

Since we had to swim to Playa La Nopalera, I could not carry my expensive camera. Fortunately, I had an old water camera for snorkeling and was able to bring that along. Unfortunately, it is an OLD water camera and the image quality is terrible. It’s better than nothing, though! I wish we could have spent more than 15 minutes on the beach. My favorite part was the hundreds of hermit crabs navigating there way over shells, fossils, dead coral, and driftwood. It killed my kiddo that she couldn’t bring some of those treasures with us. Of course the main feature of the Marietas Islands are the yellow and blue-footed boobies!

Head over to my Whale Watching post for more pictures from this amazing trip!

Puerto Vallarta Beaches

There are quite a few beaches in Puerto Vallarta. There were some purple flags flying due to an influx of venomous snakes while we were there, so we didn’t get in the water. But, there was still plenty to enjoy. You can check for warning flags online.

I was scanning the horizon for whales the entire trip, but never saw any from shore. It’s pretty far away, but my camera managed to catch one! Hopefully, you can see it in this lower resolution image. I know it’s hard to see, but it was enough that I checked every ocean horizon picture I took after seeing that.

playa-de-los-muertos-puerto-vallarta — **Playa Los Muertos**

One of my favorite memories from my trip to Mexico, was sitting on one of the Puerto Vallarta beaches while my daughter collected beautiful rocks and I listened to the waves. The sounds of the water fighting its way through the rocks was magical. It sounded like thunder rolling in the distance, and some exotic percussive instrument up close.

centro-beach-puerto-vallarta — **Playa Centro, Puerto Vallarta**

camarones-beach-puerto-vallarta — **Playa Camarones, Puerto Vallarta**

More Banderas Bay Beaches

There are so many extraordinary beaches further south from Puerto Vallarta. Many of them cannot be accessed by road. You either need to take a water taxi or put your hiking boots on. My daughter and I found a fantastic tour guide to explore these “hidden beaches”. I’ll include more about these locations in my jungle hike blog post, but here are some pictures of these beautiful beaches.

Playa Colomitos

Colomitos is the smallest beach in Mexico. It’s one of the better spots for snorkeling, but unfortunately the water was too murky and there were too many jellyfish.