Zipolite, Mexico

Mexico’s only nude beach is on the verge of being on the map.

I first visited Zipolite in late 2021 as part of a trip to Mazunte, a neighboring pueblo magico. I knew I wanted to come back, and finally, in Summer 2023, I was able to go back for two one-week stays.

On my first visit, I flew into Huatulco airport, an hour to the east, and shared a taxi with a few travelers. I arrived in Zipolite in no time and felt like I didn’t start my Zipolite experience as I should have. There is much to be said about a slow travel, which makes arriving at your destination a bigger reward.  On my second trip, I chose the slower (and cheaper) route and flew into Puerto Escondido, about ninety minutes to the west. I took a colectivo (or shared minivan) right into downtown Puerto to get into what Mexicans call a camion, a somewhat antique bus with no a/c and music blaring out of its speakers, that would drop me at the Zipolite turn off. The drive took us east via Highway 200, la Costera, the same one that passes by Troncones.

Nothing but a few mopeds and small delivery trucks come disturb the flow of barefoot tourists and meandering dogs.

Right after leaving town, we passed over the massive mouth of the Colotepec river, and continued a few miles inland, only glancing at the ocean from afar, while passing by a few villages and stopping seemingly randomly to drop off and pick up passengers. Most of my travel companions were locals coming back from town, or going into the next biggest one, San Pedro Pochutla, the bus’ final destination. Only a few passengers were tourists, and all of them got off the bus with me in San Antonio, where we left the main road for a smaller one leading to a string of seaside villages: Mazunte, San Agustinillo, Zipolite and Puerto Angel.

The searing heat made the wait for my last colectivo of the day feel a little too intense. I cheated on my slow travel plan, ended up sharing a taxi with a couple going to Mazunte, and probably gained a half hour on my schedule. Past the turnoff, road 175 goes straight towards the ocean until Mazunte and then hugs the coast for a few miles, passing so close to the ocean in San Agustinillo that the village’s beachfront restaurant feels like it’s sitting on the road.

No matter which direction you’re coming from, Zipolite feels very unassuming. The village’s main area, called colonia Roca Blanca is actually off the main road, so if you miss a right turn past the colectivo terminal (a big word), you’ll actually end up in the next village, Puerto Angel, before you know it.

If you do make a right in calle Pelicano, you’ll head straight towards the ocean and, a block away from it, will find a chain preventing you from going any further. Zipolite’s main drag is actually -mostly- pedestrian, and nothing but a few mopeds and small delivery trucks come disturb the flow of barefoot tourists and meandering dogs.

Without any status clues from fashion, everyone looks like a chill version of themselves. 

Zipolite, which means Beach of the Dead in the Zapotec language, isn’t Mykonos-famous, not yet anyway. The pueblo is a little bit of an oddball in Mexico’s endless list of gorgeous beach towns thanks to its very singular history. In 1970, what was then a sleepy little beach surrounded by shrubs owned by a few rural families became notable as one of the best sites on the Mexican Pacific coast to observe a full solar eclipse. It took a few people, driven by the hippie vibes of the time, to realize the town’s potential and make it a place welcoming all free spirits.

Today, Zipolite is Mexico’s only official nude beach, and because of its past, is a welcoming destination for the LGBT+ community. It gives the beach its laid back, anything-goes vibe that’s quite endearing. Zipolite’s beach front is a mix of wooden huts, most with a thatched roof, and small-scale concrete building in various states of construction or disrepair (hurricane Agatha cause serious damage to the town in 2022). This sort of humble, raw beauty is part of the charm. In Zipolite, people don’t need to pretend. After all, most people on the beach are sunning in their birthday suit, and without any status clues from fashion, everyone looks like a chill version of themselves. 

Zipolite also feels very authentically Mexican. The crowd of tourists is mostly composed of nationals, and the Americans (plus a few Canadians and Europeans) are a minority. It’s changing however, and the number of foreign tourists is growing year after year, as the town’s fame extends beyond the Mexican borders. A few hotels on or off the beach are clearly trying to attract a more global and moneyed clientele, and Mexoni, the town’s exquisite design store is clearly targeting the well-off tourist.

Walking on the shore is probably one of the best things to do in Zipolite. The main beach extends for more than a mile as it gently curves like a lazy bay. Its waves are famous for both being a surfers’ magnet and a treacherous treat. I didn’t see anything but red flags doting the beach during my two stays and while a few brave souls dared wet their feet in the ocean, most people kept to the sand.

Walking on the shore is probably one of the best things to do in Zipolite.

If you walk west, you’ll end up by the Alquimista hotel, on a small beach that is famous for its dangerous undertow. If you walk east, you’ll hit a rocky point that separates Zipolite’s main beach from Playa del Amor, a stunning, secluded bay flanked by what I can only describe as a miniature version of Rio’s Sugar Loaf mountain. You’ll have to walk up a few stone steps and pass an abandoned beach house to be rewarded with a panoramic view of the beach. It’s the gayer area and the cruising tension is palpable. It also is one of my favorite spots on the Oaxacan coast to watch the sunset. In the summer, the sun goes down almost exactly over Punta Cometa, Oaxaca’s southern point, located in Mazunte, a few miles to the west, framed by the beach’s rocky sides. It’s quite a sight.

It's hard to give a detailed recap of what I did during my two one-week stays in Zipolite, and I guess that’s part of the point of coming here. Chilling, doing nothing, not accounting for every minute of the day, most of it while naked is very liberating. Note that in the town’s signature laissez-faire attitude, no one will bat an eye if you decide against baring it all, and plenty of people were enjoying the beach with some clothes on.

Most of Zipolite’s restaurants and shops are located on the main street, avenida Roca Blanca, over just five blocks. The menus are heavy on fish and seafood, most of it fresh and from the area, but a few restaurants are bringing variations to an otherwise very classically and delicious Mexican fare (Mao Mau, a Thai restaurant at the very end of the avenue, being one of them). At night, the street comes to life with tables extending the restaurants’ footprint on the pavement, vendors laying out their handmade jewelry on hastily dressed tables and convenience stores open late.

It would be hard to speak about Zipolite without mentioning its dogs. Why? Because dogs are everywhere. Playing with the waves on the beach, sunning themselves on the sidewalks, with their owners at the gym or gently begging for food by your side if the restaurant staff hasn’t shooed them away. It’s fairly frequent to see dogs roaming around freely in rural Mexico, or even in towns like Puerto Escondido. I lived in cities with plenty of dogs, in Europe and in the US, and I am an unabashed dog lover but the first time a lone dog came up to me here, I have to admit I tensed up a bit.

I had picked a nude hotel for both of my stays. It was the right move.

A few months back, while hiking the Quilotoa loop in Ecuador, I had been warned about potential aggressive dogs on the path, and every time I saw a dog, I imagined I was about to lose a limb (the worst that happened was being barked at very unceremoniously by a dog that was probably more scared of me than I was of him). In Zipolite, I quickly realized the dogs meant no harm. They were well cared for and most had collars – people just let them be free all day. I saw dog food ready for the taking in several of the stores I shopped at. To me, it looked as close to a dog paradise as I imagined.

I had picked a nude hotel for both of my stays. Why not, I pondered, I might as well go with the flow. It was the right move. My hotel was off the beach, very relaxed (and quite affordable), and while I was a little self-conscious for the first few minutes, I forgot about it very quickly. The fact that everyone was naked, even the hotel staff, certainly helped. There was a certain relief to be able to be oneself and not worry about what to wear or how to wear it. As a result, the hotel felt very egalitarian with none of the pretense you can find in other places where the pool is the center of social life and people spend hours chatting in or around it. It was actually hard to dress up to go outside the hotel grounds, even if that didn’t mean much: a lot of people go about town barefoot, or just wearing shorts.

Spending so much time being social doesn’t always come naturally to me, but the way the hotel was laid out made it a must, and I enjoyed getting to know the other guests. The hotel was founded by a Frenchman, but caters mostly to a Mexican clientele, with Americans a small minority. As a result, my pool sessions were a full-on immersion into Mexican culture, and I think my Spanish proficiency shot up a few notches after each stay.

The hotel featured both rooms and dormitories, which created great social mixity, from Monterrey doctors to Canadian backpackers to middle-class folks from Sinaloa or Chiapas.

Having lived most of my life in big, progressive cities, I easily forget that, in many places, living as gay or queer isn’t the walk in the park it can be in Los Angeles or London. Mexico’s record as a pro-LGBT nation has improved over the past years: gay marriage is legal nation-wise, as is changing one’s gender. However, according to Equaldex, adoption by gay couples is still illegal in ten states, and conversion therapy isn’t banned in sixteen of them.

In a community that celebrates difference and nudity, it is a lot easier to be yourself.

My Mexican pool mates would tell me how being gay isn’t super easy in some of the states they lived in, like Aguascalientes, which they described as somewhat close-minded, and it made me understand why some of them came back to Zipolite year after year. In a community that openly celebrates difference and promotes nudity as a way to highlight everyone’s sameness, it is a lot easier to be yourself. It could also explain why some of the guests at the hotel seemed determined to make the most of their vacation, going out every night. It wasn’t just a vacation, but a vacation in a place you can truly enjoy yourself as you, not the person you create when you code-switch to blend in.

Something else that stayed with me after my trip was how the obsession for body perfection that is de rigueur in places like Sitges or Fire Island wasn’t really relevant here. People came in all shapes and sizes in a way that felt natural. I don’t know to what extent this was Zipolite-specific or more of a Mexican thing, but this was definitely welcome.

While fun and entertaining, my days by the hotel pool weren’t enough to satisfy my wanderlust, and so on my second stay on the coast, I set my sights outside of Zipolite proper. I checked out Puerto Angel, the next village over on the east side, and also went a little further out of the way, in search for the elusive wild and desert Mexican beach in Agua Blanca. I hope you’ll enjoy these diary entries as well.

Beyond exploring on land, I sailed in a small boat in search of Golfina turtles and dolphins. This trip departed from Mazunte and it is the kind of unpolished experience you won’t find on Viator anytime soon. We spent three hours at sea, repeatedly splashed and washed by waves, saw dolphins and turtles up close – dolphins, being curious animals, will come up to the boat even if you try to stay at a safe distance from them – and towards the end of the trip, had to jump off the boat and swim back to shore while our captain stayed on deck, waiting for the right wave to beach the boat back on the sand. Super fun, but also a little rough around the edges.

Real estate development isn’t really wanted here.

I have been serious about my work out routine for about a year now, and it means I hit the gym every other day, rain or shine. Zipolite’s Move Gym is located on the main street, a step above the doctor’s office – which I assume isn’t intentional. The gym itself is an open space of wood and concrete with a thatched roof and no windows, letting the hot air in. In other words, it gets sweaty pretty easily. Going to the gym regularly was another great way to meet people, and understand what they were doing here.

There are two kinds of people in a small beach town gym. People who live there or come regularly, les habitués, as the French like to say, and tourists who are a little too obsessed with their gym routine, like yours truly. The locals often came with their dogs, who never worked out but either slept or dutifully followed their owner from machine to machine. I had only seen dogs in a gym in Sayulita before, but I wholeheartedly approve of the concept. What better way to rest between reps than pet a cute pup?

One of the persons I met at the gym wasn’t truly a local, but loved the town enough to come by car from Mexico City regularly, with his two dogs. An architect, passionate about sustainability, he talked to me about how Zipolite is fighting to keep big development away, and how architecture here should be less about concrete and more about wood (I must admit I asked him his opinion about container homes, and it didn’t go super well).

It’s a fundamental difference between Zipolite and other towns up and down the Oaxacan coast (looking at you, Puerto Escondido). Real estate development isn’t really wanted here and is severely restricted, as the community aims to preserve what makes the town unique.

It may be what saves Zipolite from the fate of so many of these magical coastal towns turned into caricatures of paradise for global tourists, and keep the incredible balance of weirdness and inclusivity that makes this little gem of a place a truly beautiful stop on my list of places to come back to again, and again and again.

Practical information (updated November 2024 with latest prices and recommendations)

Getting to Zipolite

-       From the US: there is no airport near to Zipolite, which partly explains why it hasn’t been fully discovered yet. The two closest airports are Puerto Escondido (PXM), about 90 minutes west and Huatulco (HUX), one hour away to the east. While there are a few seasonal flights from the US and Canada to Huatulco, the Puerto Escondido airport isn’t equipped to handle international flights yet (but it is changing: United AIrlines is planning to open a direct flight between PXM and Houston in April of 2025). As result, most flights into either airport require a connection in Mexico City.

Once you land in PXM or HUX, there are a few ways to reach Zipo, depending on time and budget (and as you know, I try to favor cheap options, so they are below as well). Just remember to bring cash, as most options require that you pay in efectivo.

From Puerto Escondido:

• an official taxi from PXM airport will cost MXN1200 or USD70 at time of writing. This is the easiest option, and 90 minutes later you’ll be on the beach. Note Uber isn’t available in the region.

• walk a few minutes from the terminal and onto the main road, and you can find other taxis waiting for passengers (these are official as well but are not licensed to operate from the airport). The cost should be close to MXN800 (USD40). The walk is absolutely feasible with a carry on, but anything more than that and you might struggle. You may also share these taxis with other people - I have done this a few times and only paid a quarter of the fare as a result

• the cheap option: take a colectivo from the terminal (follow the signs). For about MXN70, they will drop you anywhere in town. Ask to be dropped at the Terminal Delfines (basically nothing more than a bus stop, close to the Chedraui supermarket), where you can take a basic Delfines bus to San Antonio (MXN60), where the road towards Mazunte and Zipolite starts and you can see the last Oxxo convenience store of your trip (the bus will drop you right in front of it). Walk 20 meters to the side of the Oxxo sitting on the actual road to Zipolite and from there, take a colectivo into town, that will drop you here, about 5-10 minutes from Zipo’s main street, for MXN 20. Plan for this whole trip to last two good hours, but the overall cost of USD7.50 is unbeatable (I have done this a few times as well).

From Huatulco: the same options are available: a taxi from the airport for about the same price (the last time I checked, it was MXN1100), or a taxi from the main road (MXN800, shareable - note that taxis may sometimes wait on the gas station parking, but you can’t miss them), or finally a colectivo (MXN 50) that you would hail from the main road that would leave you here in Pochutla, where you can take a shared cab for Zipolite for MXN 30. I have done this twice (once in a shared taxi and once via the colectivo and both are fine, just plan for a little more time if using the colectivo route, and avoid it with too much luggage).

-       From CDMX: flying is easiest, either from MEX (the airport in the city) or NLU, Mexico’s new airport that’s further to the north but with cheaper flights. One-way flight prices range from USD50 to USD250 depending on the airline and the day of travel. However, buses are also available to Puerto Escondido, some like ETN are quite luxurious with almost flat bed seats. Most leave from the Taxqueña station in the south of the city. The trip takes about 10 hours and most buses do the route at night, for a cost between MXN800 and MXN 1100. Once you’re in Puerto Escondido, refer to the section above on how to get to Zipolite.

Safety

-       The Oaxacan coast, away from major drug trafficking routes, is fairly safe, and the US Department of State only recommends to “exercise increased caution” when traveling there. For perspective, that is the same advisory level as Mexico City or Germany. Take normal precautions but don’t sweat it, this isn’t a particularly dangerous part of Mexico.

Restaurants and coffeeshops

-       MaoMau – it can seem strange to recommend a thai restaurant in a small beach town hidden in the middle of Mexico, but there you have it. The food is nice if a little pricey, the bridge at the entrance very photo-friendly, and the evening crowd always looking smart (Zipolite-style, don’t imagine cocktail dresses).

-      Sal y Pimienta – the quintessential Zipolite experience: delicious tacos right on the beach. You’ll eat with feet in the sand as beachgoers stroll around. Prices are fair, the only thing this place has not going for it are its unreliable opening times (last time I was in Zipolite, I wasn’t able to eat there once, but do persist, it is worth it)

-      Posada Mexico – a cute, no frills little hotel on the beach, it offers delicious breakfasts and lunches. Probably my go-to place. It never disappoints.

-      El Alquimista – located at the very end of the beach, on the west side, it would be easy to miss El Aquimista. It’s first a hotel, and its relative remoteness is an advantage: you get a secluded cove (almost) to yourself. The restaurant is a little fancier than other options, with prices to match, but the food is absolutely worth it as well as the scenery.

Fitness

There is only one option in Zipolite, but luckily it’s a great one. Move Gym is located on Avenica Roca Blanca, Zipo’s main (and some would say only) street. Its opening times vary according to the season, the equipment is pretty basic but it does the job for a few days. Move Gym also offers different types of (great) yoga classes in the morning. A day pass is MXN150 and a weekly pass around MXN600.

Shopping

Casa Mexoni - no one really goes to Zipolite for retail therapy, and to be fair, that’s not the point of the place. However, it would be unfair to not list Mexoni, the town’s design store, filled with upscale creations, most of them local or regional. Their beach towels are are great souvenir, and they are actually made in town. They have a location on Zipo’s main street that stays open late, and one in the Alquemista hotel.

Photos from top to bottom: Zipolite’s main beach from the Shambala hotel, Nene Malo (one of main street’s convenience stores), Playa del Amor, Calle Pelicano towards the beach, Playa del Amor at sunset, Zipolite’s main beach, a delivery truck on avenida Roca Blanca.

All photos are mine.