Sayulita



Sayulita is a beach town in Nayarit, on the Pacific Coast of Mexico. Once an "off the beaten path" beach populated by surfers and backpackers, word about the town's mellow vibe, great food, and warm hospitality has gotten out and today so many visitors come to town that it's hard to imagine anyone saying it is "off the beaten path". Despite its popularity, the town is still a friendly, beautiful beach with wide sandy beaches and amazing sunsets.

Get in
Sayulita is located north of Puerto Vallarta on a two-lane highway (Fed Hwy 200). You can take a bus or a taxi from the Puerto Vallarta airport.

From the Puerto Vallarta airport, use the pedestrian overpass to cross the highway and flag a green and white "Compostela" bus that says Sayulita on the front. The fare is MXN55 as of 2023. The buses run every 10 minutes from 5:15 am until 10:30 pm.



Get around
If you are staying in the main part of town, nearly everything is walkable. You may want a rental car if you are staying more than a mile or two from the center of town.

See
Sayulita is a natural beauty. It still has plenty of virgin jungle for hiking. You will also find several different hidden beaches as you travel the dirt roads deeper into the jungle. You can rent ATVs and/or horses for jungle tours and the jungle roads are great for mountain biking.

Rent kayaks to explore the ocean or hire a panga boat to take you whale watching (November through January).

Experience the economic diversity of the Bahia de Banderas while giving back to its Mexican communities. A local nonprofit called Investours offers socially responsible microfinance tours in Sayulita and its surrounding communities.



Do
Surfing: Sayulita is an excellent, tranquil place for new surfers to learn the sport. The beach is shallow and you can reach the bottom even fifty meters away from the shore. The bottom of the beginner section is sandy and mostly safe. This makes it easy to get back to the place the waves break and allows more efficient learning. The beach also has a more demanding, rockier section, but it is quite hard to get there by accident. The waves are rather small and easy for beginners (at least in January through March).

Plenty of small sport fishing trips available if you look around. If you can find Nacho's boat trips, he will give you a fun trip and can take you whale watching if you don't want to fish (be forewarned he'll stop to fish anyhow if he sees something interesting).

There are a couple of other beaches that are more 'local', if you're up for minor adventure scout out the other beaches around town.

You can go hiking to the north-east, west and south. OsmAnd or Mapy.cz covers the walking paths.

There are several options for yoga locally, including The Rose Room and Oka Hey Sayulita, both of which offer yoga classes twice daily (as of February 2024).

Buy


There are ATMs throughout the village, for example from Multiva. As they are standing on the streets, take care that they aren't manipulated.

Plenty of shops with tourist things and local art.

Huichol Indians sell their handcrafted wares in the plaza daily. The true find: some of the best Huichol art in Mexico in the museum store Galeria Tanana on Avenida Palmar.

Eat
For breakfast try Rollie's Place just a couple of blocks off of the main square (they also serve dinner now too). There are 40 or more restaurants in town even though it is a small town. Try the street side taco stand vendors for some great fare and cheap eats.

Try the Mangiafuoco for dinner, an Italian restaurant with an Italian chef with a menu changing daily, and frequent live music later on. Excellent homemade pasta and wood oven fired pizza.

Drink
Go to one of the grocery stores off of the main square to get cervezas, then return your bottles for deposit returns. There are margaritas the size of your head available at Costeno's, which is located right on the beach, straight down from the plaza.

If you are looking for a more upscale establishment, try Don Pedro's (also on the beach) or head to the plaza and check out Miro Vino or Calypso. If you want to learn about and sample Mexico's finest Tequilas, then try Sayulita Fish Taco.

Sleep
There are several affordable options for accommodation. The town center is just a couple blocks in size and you should have no trouble finding a place to stay. The campgrounds in Sayulita are considered to be among the best in Mexico and are famous word of mouth lore passed among seasoned travelers.

Stay safe
As the beaches in Sayulita have shallow temperate ocean water: Do the Stingray Shuffle and you will be fine. It means when going in the water, shuffle or slide your feet forward without lifting them. There are YouTube videos about how to do it.

Go next
You find hostels and private rooms in:


 * San Francisco (Mexico) – just 7 km in the north-east. At a beach, surrounded by a jungle and notable for its floral diversity.
 * Bucerias – 20 km in the south-east. A coastal village with a long uninterrupted white sand beach
 * Tepic – 130 km in the north-east. It's the capital of Nayarit
 * Puerto Vallarta - Compostella buses leave about every 10 minutes to the Puerto Vallarta airport. They leave from the Terminal de Autobuses Sayulita, and cost 50 pesos as of February 2023. Note that this is a second class bus, and might not be a good option for travelers with multiple suitcases, or travelers who are unable to use Spanish to tell the driver where they want to be dropped off. They take between 60 and 120 minutes, depending on how many stops passengers request the driver to make, but expect about a 90 minute trip.
 * Guadalajara – 295 km in the east. You can go by carpooling or from Puerto Vallarta by intercity bus or non-stop flight. From there further to San Luis Potosi, Guanajuato, San Miguel de Allende or Querétaro
 * Mazatlán – It is recommended to take a flight to and out of the city.