San Agustinillo

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TRIP IDEAS

• The Best of Oaxaca
• Treasures of Old Mexico
• On Land and Sea
• Best Beaches
• Tianguis: Native Markets

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EXPLORE FURTHER

• Cancún & the Yucatán
• Guatemala
• Puerto Vallarta

A number of lodgings sprinkle the San Agustinillobeachfront and view hillside above the road. Here, you can enjoy it all: Mexican beach village ambience, stores and small restaurants nearby, and hammock-hung verandas with gorgeous views of the foaming San Agustinillo surf and hundreds of yards of golden sand to wander upon.

$25–50

One of the most popular options, where you can walk out your door right onto the sand, is Mexico Lindo(fafinyleila@latinmail.com, no phone, $50 d) hotel and restaurant. Italian-born owner-manager Fausto offers five spacious individually decoratedcabañas in two stories, with soft beds and private shower-baths. Amenities include fans and Fausto’s good (but sometimes noisy) restaurant next door.

Nearby, removed two long blocks along a signed uphill driveway, find Casazul (tel. 958/587-4627,casazulplus@hotmail.com,www.casazulposada.com, $35–55), the lovely life-project of friendly owner Yolanda Quintana. Her hillside-perched stucco-and-tile, art-decorated complex offers four guest lodgings. They include two deluxe kitchenette studio apartments (“casitas”), each with two double beds and private baths, sharing a hammock-hung gorgeous-view-veranda, for $55 d; one rustic palm-thatched bungalow-in-the-round casita with a queen-sized bed, small refrigerator, and private bath for $35 d; and one “relaxation-room” casita, with small sauna, two double beds and private view veranda for $35 d. Extras include breakfast service at additional cost, mosquito nets, and a small but lovely blue lap pool.

Over $50

If, however, you prefer the beach, consider rustic-chic Posada La Termita(www.posadalatermita.com, $75 d) back downhill, right on the dazzlingSan Agustinillo beachfront. Italian-born owner Isabel Bresci offers four deluxe cabañas, with choice of one king-sized, two double, or two single beds, with private hot-water shower-bath, fan, and mosquito net. Reservations can be made through the website.

 Casa Pan de Miel (about a third of a mile west of San Agustinillo village, tel. 958/589-5844, casapandemiel@yahoo.com.mx,www.casapandemiel.com, $95 d, $130 q), the lifelong dream-come-true of French-born co-owner Anne Gillete, perches on its airy hilltop above the blue Pacific. Only superlatives can describe the architecturally designed amenities: spacious veranda breakfast restaurant, a blue designer pool, soft couches and chairs for sitting inside, lounge chairs and umbrellas by the pool, and panoramic ocean views east, toward San Agustinillo; south, out to sea; and west toward Mazunte’s gracefully curving strand. Guests enjoy four spacious, comfortable, and artfully decorated deluxe rooms, with private view porches, hot water bathrooms, fans, a/c, and credit cards accepted, but no children under 12, please.

Innovative Posada Rancho Cerro Largo(ranchocerrolargomx@yahoo.com.mx, $80 s, $95 d), half a mile farther west, is the creation of builder Mario Corella, descendant of a longtime Hermosillo, Sonora, hotel family. After knocking around in the hospitality trade for several years, Mario decided to create his own version of utopia. Mario says that he wanted to “be in contact with nature and live among the community with as little impact as possible.” He’s done it, with a reception-restaurant and six rustically charming tile-floored, wood-and-adobe cabañas,furnished with hand-loomed bedspreads and opening to hammock-hung ocean-view verandas.

The entire complex nestles in a summer-green and lovely hillside deciduous forest, linked by a path that meanders, between panoramic ocean viewpoints, to a gorgeously isolated, wave-washed sandy beach below. Rates include dinner and breakfast. Email for reservations (necessary in winter, highly recommended anytime).

© Bruce Whipperman from Moon Oaxaca, 5th edition