Budget,
Backpackers,
Surfers,
Beach Lovers,
Naturalist,
Hippie,
Sun and Sand worshipers,
Off the Beaten Path Paradise! Everyone is welcome at Zipolite!
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A little about Playa Zipolite, The Beach of the Dead . . .
Playa Zipolite, Oaxaca, Southern Mexico, on the Pacific Ocean. A little bit about my favorite little get-away on this small world of ours.
Zipolite, a sweaty 30-minute walk west from Puerto Angel, brings you to Playa Zipolite and another world. The feeling here is 1970's - Led Zep, Marley, and scruffy gringos.
A long, long time ago, Zipolite beach was usually visited by the Zapotecans...who made it a magical place. They came to visit Zipolite to meditate, or just to rest.
Recently, this beach has begun to receive day-trippers from Puerto Angel and Puerto Escondido, giving it a more TOURISTY feel than before.
Most people come here for the novelty of the nude beach, yoga, turtles, seafood, surf, meditation, vegetarians, discos, party, to get burnt by the sun, or to see how long they can stretch their skinny budget.
I post WWW Oaxaca, Mexico, Zipolite and areas nearby information. Also general budget, backpacker, surfer, off the beaten path, Mexico and beyond, information.
If you've thought about visiting Mexico City, you've no doubt been faced with the question, "Is it safe?"
This is perhaps the most asked question on my blog - by total strangers and by my closest friends. It’s the one people want to ask when they are thinking about visiting Mexico City.
It’s also the question that riles me up the most. It’s one that even divides Mexicans around the country.
For me, the answer is a definitive YES. It is safe to travel to Mexico City just as it is safe to travel to London or Tokyo or New York City.
In fact, I’ve been to all three of those cities and I often feel just as safe, if not safer here in Mexico City as I have in those places. Even at night.
I have written a blog post to answer this question in detail which you can find here:
I have also had an open discussion about safety in Mexico City on my Youtube Channel. If you’re concerned about safety, I recommend having a watch of that video and then scrolling through the comments at what other visitors to the city have said about their experience. You can find that video here:
I hope these help to sufficiently put your fears at bay and allow you to see that Mexico City is a metropolis that deserves tourism and exploration. It’s a wonderful placed filled with incredibly kind people.
While Huatulco is known best as a resort area with rows of all-inclusive hotels, it’s also a sleepy beach town with tons of quiet bays to explore and a neighboring jungle full of waterfalls to swim beneath. There are a surprisingly large amount of fun things to do in Huatulco, but there’s also plenty of quiet beaches where you can do absolutely nothing.
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EXPLORE THE MANY BEACHES
If you’ve come to Huatulco, you’re no doubt here to enjoy a little bit of beach time. Lucky for you this little town is full of them. Every taxi driver we had couldn’t wait to tell us all about the areas nine bays and 30+ beaches (some said 36, others said 37). Many of the beaches are easily accessible by car and are cheap to get to by taxi from the town center, which is called La Crucecita.
I’ve written a comprehensive post about all of the bays and beaches that are worth exploring on your trip which you can read here:
SPEND THE DAY IN ZIPOLITE
This infamous beach town is a very popular day trip from Huatulco. I say infamous because it’s known best by Mexicans as a nude beach, even though only a very small portion of this beach is clothing-optional. It takes about an hour and 15 minutes to get from downtown La Crucecita to the main beach area of Zipolite.
The town is growing quickly and is starting to be considered an alternative to the bigger beach town up the road, Puerto Escondido. Zipolite is also popular with international surfers who come and once or twice a year hosts surfing tournaments.
If you have rented a car, it’s easy to get here. Alternatively, almost any taxi in Huatulco will take you there on a day trip. Be sure to negotiate the price because they usually start quite high.
The most popular bays are Maguey, Entrega, and Santa Cruz. The bays that are west of town are significantly calmer than those to the east.
Unfortunately, almost all of the resorts are to the east in the bays of Conejo and Tangolunda where the sea is pretty rough. While it’s beautiful to watch the power of the ocean, if you want to swim, it’s best to head to the more popular bays that I just mentioned above.
EXPLORE THE TOWN CENTER
The downtown area of Huatulco, where I recommend basing yourself if you want to explore all of the different beaches while still having access to restaurants and bars, is La Crucecita.
It’s a very small town and you’ll likely be able to see the whole town in less than an hour, but it’s still quite a quaint place worth spending some time. The main square is where you’ll find the small church and as the sun begins to set, the main square comes alive. People play music inside the bandstand. Vendors set up along the paths selling souvenirs, bracelets, and ice cream. The restaurants are all open and serving up delicious food. The karaoke bar is blaring out music and La Crema, the towns best bar, is full of people waiting for a free table (ok this last one is only true on a Friday and Saturday night).
The church in the town center of La Crucecita
VISIT THE ANCIENT RUINS OF COPALITA
The ruins of Copalita are about a 15-minute taxi ride from La Crucecita. These ruins are small, but they still take roughly an hour to explore and you can even hire a guide if you want to learn more about each of the different buildings. While it’s certainly not as grand as some of the other sites around the country, or even indeed around Oaxaca state, it’s still worth it if you enjoy mesoamerican history at all.
Entry to Copalita costs 80 Pesos per person and about 100 Pesos each way in a taxi. You can explore the ruins, go through the museum which has relics found around the site, and then follow the paths through the jungle all the way to the coast. On one side is a beautiful river and directly in front is the Pacific Ocean in all its wild and roaring glory.
One of the many areas that you can explore when you visit Copalita
TAKE A TOUR OF A COFFEE PLANTATION & WATERFALLS
If you look up tours in Huatulco, this is likely to be your most popular search result. There are a lot of tour companies in La Crucecita where you can book this tour. It includes a stop at at least one waterfall where you can swim beneath the falls. You then carry on up into the hills and jungle where the weather is usually wet and dreary until you get to a local coffee plantation.
Much of the coffee that you see around Mexico that comes from Oaxaca tends to come from this region of the state. The climate in this jungle-like zone is perfect for growing coffee and many of the farms here are still doing it the way they’ve been doing it for generations. You’ll be able to explore some of the coffee fields where the plants grow and then see the different stages of the process. You’ll then, of course, get to sample a few different cups of coffee from the beans of that farm.
The view of the hazy jungle where the coffee plantations are located
GO ON A BOAT TOUR OF THE BAYS
This is one of the best ways to explore the different bays, especially those that you can’t reach by taking a taxi. It’s also a really fun way to get around. Every boat sort of does something different, but the majority of them leave from Bahia Santa Cruz, either straight from the beach or at the pier near the parking lot (it’s right behind the taxi rank).
Boats run pretty much all day long until just before sunset, so you can simply show up at the dock when you want to take a tour and pay. Prices vary depending on how many bays you want to see, whether you want to share a boat with other strangers, and if you want to snorkel along the way.
The typical trip is a private boat tour that costs about 2500 Pesos (about $125 USD) per boat, not per person, which makes this particularly great value if you are a group traveling together. It starts at Marina Santa Cruz and goes all the way to Bahia San Augustin with two stops for snorkeling. You’re usually free to bring your own snacks and drinks. You may be able to negotiate the price of the boat a little bit and many of the people at the docks speak both English and Spanish.
One of the best things about taking a boat tour in Huatulco is that you can get to the hard-to-reach beaches where you’ll be one of only a handful of people walking the sand.
HIRE JET SKIS OR TAKE A BANANA BOAT RIDE
These two things are available at almost every single beach. I saw them at Tangolunda, Santa Cruz, Entrega, and Maguey and they are very reasonably priced. You can spend as little as 50 Pesos (about $2.50 USD) on a jetski ride and you can either ride it yourself if you are experienced, or you will ride it with the person who runs the tours (they will be the driver). It may cost more to self-drive the jetski.
The banana boats are just small little inflatables that seat about 5-7 people. You hold on and the inflatable is towed by a small speed boat. They usually take you just outside of the bay and do a loop before coming back. The trip lasts no more than 10 minutes but is a fun ride for kids and when you get back into the bay they tip the boat so you fall into the water.
It’s required by law that anyone out on the water whether on a jetski or other type of boat, must wear a life jacket.
A huge plate of mixed seafood ceviche that we had at Los Portales
EAT ALL THE SEAFOOD
The seafood in any coastal town in Mexico is always worth checking out, but I found the seafood in Huatulco to be particularly delicious. Beaches like Santa Cruz, Maguey, and Entrega all have restaurants that line the sand. Simply choose a table and they’ll rush over to bring you a menu and take your drinks orders.
I like this setup, which is popular in most Mexican beach towns, because you can order a few beers and then sit under the umbrellas and on the chairs for free. All of these restaurants serve up ceviche, grilled fish, fried shrimp and some even have lobster.
In the downtown area of La Crucecita, there is also a really great little seafood restaurant that I highly recommend, Los Portales. It’s right on the corner of the main square and they serve up some of the best ceviches I’ve eaten in the entire country.
For the best shrimp tacos on the country’s west coast, get yourself over to Fish Chef. It’s a small little restaurant just off of the main street that connects La Crucecita to all of the beaches. If you find Chedraui, the main supermarket, just go across the street and you’ll see the Fish Chef. By night it’s a good spot for meat tacos, but for lunch, better fried shrimp does not exist in all of Oaxaca.
SAMPLE SOME OAXACAN STREET FOOD
In addition to delicious seafood, Huatulco also has plenty of other options that you won’t want to miss. Oaxaca is famous for its cuisine and you can sample some of the more popular Oaxacan dishes here. The dish you’ll see most around La Crucecita is the Tlayuda. Tlayudas are a large, flat, thin tortillas that are stuffed with refried beans, cheese, and a meat of your choice. It’s then folded in half and roasted over charcoal so that the cheese becomes lovely and gooey and the tortilla becomes crispy. It’s delicious.
The delicious tlayudas that we had in Huatulco
SPEND THE DAY IN ZIPOLITE
This infamous beach town is a very popular day trip from Huatulco. I say infamous because it’s known best by Mexicans as a nude beach, even though only a very small portion of this beach is clothing-optional. It takes about an hour and 15 minutes to get from downtown La Crucecita to the main beach area of Zipolite.
The town is growing quickly and is starting to be considered an alternative to the bigger beach town up the road, Puerto Escondido. Zipolite is also popular with international surfers who come and once or twice a year hosts surfing tournaments.
If you have rented a car, it’s easy to get here. Alternatively, almost any taxi in Huatulco will take you there on a day trip. Be sure to negotiate the price because they usually start quite high.
Breakfast in Mexico City is something that you don’t want to sleep through.
Not to worry though, most places don’t open until around 8am and many places serve breakfast until at least 12 or 1, so even the late risers can enjoy some of the best breakfast in Mexico City.
I’ve done my best to divide the breakfast options into different categories so that you can choose based on price and menu option.
Most are located in the Centro Historico, Roma Norte, or Condesa neighborhoods with a few spreading out into neighborhoods slightly further afield, but still not too far from the central region of the city.
For the most part, breakfast foods aren’t wildly different to what you’ll find at different times of day in Mexico, but there are a few staple menu items that are specific to breakfast.
In Mexico City this can include chilaquiles, tamales, enchiladas, and guisados.
I’ve written comprehensively about Mexican foods in this article so for a full breakdown on what each of those things really is, be sure to have a read of that.
For more information on delicious Mexican foods, be sure to check out my Mexican tacos article, too.
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FANCY SPOTS FOR BREAKFAST IN MEXICO CITY
These are the more expensive places to have breakfast in Mexico City. They still won’t really break the bank if you’re visiting with dollars, though.
The restaurants listed below are some of the most famous in the city for breakfast and brunch, so you may want to consider making a reservation.
EL CARDINAL
El Cardinal is perhaps the most famous place to have breakfast in Mexico City.
It is quite a historical spot and when you walk in you’ll truly get to experience the old-school Mexican dining tradition.
Most importantly, though, the food is delicious. Everything from their thick hot chocolate to the freshly baked breads you dip into it will start you off on a delicious breakfast experience.
I really love the chilaquiles here, but you can’t go wrong with their enchiladas or egg options, either.
Pretty much everything on the breakfast menu is amazing, but I can never look past their chilaquiles or their enchiladas because the sauces they use are utterly delectable.
Hours: Daily 7:30am-12:30pm and 1pm-7pm, closed Sundays
Eno is sort of a new kid on the block. It’s the casual brunch spot of chef Enrique Olvera of Pujol.
There are a few locations. If you want a busy atmosphere head to the Polanco location, but be prepared to wait if you go on the weekends. For a quieter spot check out the Roma Norte location.
Eno has a combination of American breakfast options like waffles and French toast alongside Mexican classics like chilaquiles, tortas, and pan dulces (Mexican sweet bread). Their coffee is also outstanding.
This is where you can come for a good breakfast, brunch, or lunch in Mexico City. Most listed below are open well into the afternoon and most also serve breakfast until quite late.
It’s where to head for a place to sit down, relax in a more casual environment, and still get a great cup of coffee.
CAFE LA HABANA
For a month or two last year I was coming to Cafe la Habana almost once a week.
They make amazing coffee and their chilaquiles are ridiculously delicious. The portion sizes are huge and the price is not.
They have a paqueta menu, which is basically where you can choose a main and get included a pan dulce, a coffee, or a juice for a set price. The portions are slightly smaller than the main menu, but it’s still plenty of food.
You may need to ask for the paqueta menu when you get there because they don’t always hand it to you when you first sit down.
Other breakfast menu items that I love are the enchiladas suiza (very rich and decadent) and the regular enchiladas.
Hours: Monday to Saturday 7am-1am, Sundays 8am-11pm
Another restaurant that you should sample for both breakfast and dinner is Cafe de Tacuba.
It is one of the oldest restaurants in Mexico City and serves up some of the best, most traditional dishes in the city.
The waiters and waitresses all have quite traditional uniforms, there is live music, and the menu is enormous.
You’ll find just about anything on this menu including egg dishes, chilaquiles, grilled meat dishes, gorditas, tacos, and so much more. This is the perfect place for groups who all have different dietary needs or food tastes.
This is one of my favorite places to have breakfast in Mexico City when I have guests visiting.
Not only do they have all of the classic Mexico breakfast options, but the quality is very high, the service is excellent, the coffee is strong, and the view of the Santo Domingo plaza is wonderful.
There is a downstairs cafe with seemingly the same name, but be sure to head up through the boutique hotel and to the top floor for the best menu and view.
You’ll wait a while for a table if you head here on the weekends (so head here during the week instead), but the food is well worth the wait.
Lalo is the more casual breakfast and brunch spot of local chef Eduardo Garcia of the nearby Maximo Bistrot (also worth checking out and definitely make a reservation!).
Here you’ll get deliciously fresh juice, great coffee, unbelievable pan dulces, and some of the best classic Mexican breakfast dishes. It’s slightly more expensive than some of the more casual places, but it’s worth checking out if you want to enjoy a good cafe breakfast in Mexico City.
This was another breakfast and lunch spot that I used to go to almost once a week (their sandwiches are some of the best in the city).
I love grabbing a table outside and sitting with a coffee first thing in the morning. Once that’s settled, I’ll usually dig into their french toast or waffles.
They are also one of the few places in the city where you can find a decent bagel. Don’t expect a perfect New York style bagel, but it’s still the closest thing I’ve found to them.
Hours: Monday to Saturday 8:30am-midnight, Sundays 8:30am-6pm
This place at the Fuente de Cibeles area of Roma Norte is wildly popular, especially on weekends.
Their outdoor seating is perfect on a warm sunny morning and I love their light breakfast options.
They have a pretty comprehensive breakfast menu with everything from fruit, yogurt and granola to whole grain waffles and cheesy croissant breakfast sandwiches.
These are the places to head for breakfast tacos. These are the street carts, the little hole-in-the-wall spots, the greasy spoons, the little diners. These are the places I love best of all.
EL HIDALGUENSE
Made even more famous than it already was by the Netflix show Taco Chronicles, El Hidalguense is THE place to come for barbacoa in Mexico City.
It’s only open on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays and once they sell out for the day they close, so get there early!
It may seem strange to have slow-roasted goat meat for breakfast, but that’s traditionally when it’s eaten here in Mexico. It’s sort of a special-occasion meal in most of Mexico, but in Mexico City is a weekend hangover cure.
I usually head here for around 11:30 or 12 so it’s more like an early lunch than a breakfast meal, but I love it any time I can get it. You order the weight of meat that you want, a half kilo is plenty of meat for four people if you also get a few side dishes.
They serve the pile of meat with a basket full of tortillas and tons of salsas to cut through the fatty meat.
Another Mexico City breakfast institution, Fonda Margarita was made internationally famous after Anthony Bourdain went their in one of his episodes on Mexico.
It’s basically a big open-plan space where you sit at communal tables. The waitress will tell you what the menu is for the day, almost always different types of guisados, and then you order a few of each.
It’s not super tourist-friendly, so if you don’t speak much Spanish, you’ll probably struggle here. But if you know the names of a few different guisados and you’re feeling brave, by all means, head here to enjoy the food – it’s really a tasty spot.
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday 6-11:30am, closed Mondays
For a good Mexican cafe experience, head to Cafe La Blanca. There is a row of restaurants similar to La Blanca on the same street, but this is my favorite of the bunch (followed closely by Cafe Popular).
You can come here for a traditional and very cheap Mexican breakfast that will keep you full for hours of exploring the downtown area. I also like coming here for lunch when they have their menu del dia which includes four courses for a set price.
This little standing-room-only shop in Condesa is home to one of the best egg sandwiches I’ve ever had.
They have a few menu items, but they are all different types of breakfast sandwiches.
The Clara is your classic bacon and egg sandwich. The bread bun that they use is the perfect vessel for soaking up all of the runny egg and juices from the bacon.
They’re a touch expensive for the size of the sandwich and often I still need a mid-morning snack after having one, but they are so delicious that it’s worth checking out, especially if you are staying in the Condesa area.
Hours: Monday to Friday 7am-4pm, Saturdays 8am-4pm, Sundays 9am-4pm
There’s much debate around who is cooking up the best tamales in Mexico City, but Tamales Doña Emi is always a top contender.
For me, they are one of the best because of their variety and the flavor that they pack into all of their tamales. Sometimes you get a tamal on the street and it takes two or three bites to find the filling.
That never happens with a tamal at Doña Emi. They are packed almost to the brim with filling. The huitlacoche (corn mushrooms) with Oaxaca style cheese is my personal favorite, but I like to try a new one on every visit.
If you’ve never tried a sweet tamal, this is also a great place to have one. You can’t go wrong with the fig or the pineapple flavors.
Hours: Monday to Friday 8am-2pm, Saturdays & Sundays 9am-1:30pm
Just like Fonda Margarita mentioned above, El Jarocho is where to head for guisados, or stews.
Guisados are the closest thing you can get to Mexican home cooking without going to someone’s actual house in my opinion.
Guisados are what most people eat and cook and have in their homes on a day-to-day basis and the ones at el Jarocho are up there as one of the best in Mexico City.
Hours: Monday to Saturday 8am-10pm, Sundays 8am-7pm
This is another great guisado taco spot and is very popular with local business people for breakfast before they head to work or for an early lunch.
This spot in Condesa is very tourist friendly. They have their entire menu translated into English and you simply order a few tacos filled with different goodies.
This is also a really ideal spot for vegans and vegetarians who want to take part in the morning taco experience because they have tons of veggie guisados to choose from.
Hours: Monday to Friday 9am-9pm, Saturdays to 7pm, Sundays 8:30am-3:30pm
A lot of the cafes listed above could easily also be on this list. I love the chilaquiles at Cafe la Habana, but they also have a seriously great menu of other dishes.
The three places listed below serve almost nothing besides chilaquiles and they all do their singular item menu very very well.
CHILAKILLERS
If I was only allowed to visit one of the places on this list, Chilakillers would be it.
I love chilaquiles. I love how the tortillas get a little soggy while other parts are still crispy. I love the complex, rich, spicy sauces. I love the raw onions, the cream, the crumbly cheese, and I love the gooey egg on top.
My mouth is watering just thinking about the chilaquiles are Chilakillers.
They used to have two branches in the city, but at the moment they are back to just one in the Tacubaya area of the city.
This means that if you head here on the weekend, you should be prepared to wait (I have waited almost 45 minutes before, but I would wait hours for these chilaquiles, to be honest!).
While I usually opt for eggs on my chilaquiles, they have a huge selection of toppings including nopales (cactus), mushrooms, different cuts of beef, pork, and chicken.
Be sure to try their juice of the day and their perfectly sweet cafe de olla.
This is another chilaquiles-focused restaurant. They do have a few other breakfast options, but there are better places to go if you don’t want chilaquiles.
They have their own house sauce with five different types of chilies and I’ve never had anything on chilaquiles with quite so much depth. If you don’t like too much spice, they also have several milder sauces to choose from.
I usually opt for eggs on top, but they have several meat options as well including arrachera beef which is deliciously juicy.
This little street stand, known simple as La Esquina del Chilaquil (the corner of the chilaquil) is where to head for a truly Mexico City experience.
The rest of the country often mocks Mexico City because they put everything in a bread roll. They put tamales in bread rolls, the put all manner of meat in bread rolls, and they even stick chilaquiles in bread rolls.
That’s what you get at this Mexico City street stall.
It’s open every day from 8am to 12pm unless they run out earlier.
The line is almost always snaked around the block, but it moves quickly, so don’t let it scare you too much.
You basically choose whether you want red or green salsa and then what meat you want with your chilaquiles. I love the milanesa which is flattened pork that has been breaded and fried.
The other option is cochinita pibil, a type of pulled pork with several different types of seasoning. Both are incredible.
These are the best churros in Mexico City and don’t make me choose one of the sauces because I love all three equally (except the cajeta, I love her the most)
THE BEST BREAKFAST IN MEXICO CITY FOR THE SWEET TOOTHS
If you want to have a breakfast of sweet breads and bitter coffee, be sure to check out these famous little bakeries in Mexico City.
All of the places listed below have several locations, but their Centro Historico locations are the best.
CHURRERIA EL MORO
Ask anyone who has spent a bit of time in Mexico City where to get churros and you’ll hear the name El Moro.
There is no other place as good, perhaps in all of Mexico, for these little pillows of dough covered in cinnamon and sugar.
Sure, churros aren’t exactly Mexican, but they have been perfected at this family-run churreria.
I usually order four for 20 Pesos along with the cajeta dip and the chocolate dip. I pretend to share it with my boyfriend because four churros is a lot, but I probably eat three on my own.
They also have ice cream sandwiches in which the sandwich “bread” is made of churros. If you love hot chocolate, you can’t go wrong with one of their decadent cups, but I usually have my churros simply with a coffee.
Pan de Muerto with a coffee in the morning is perfection – be sure to look for this pan dulce in October and November in Mexico City!
PASTELERIA IDEAL
This enormous bakery in the Centro Historico can seem a little bit overwhelming. Do as the locals do and pick up a tray, a set of tongs, and start in the bread area.
They also have a whole section just for cakes and a whole section just for buttery cookies. However, for breakfast I tend to stay in the bread and pastry section.
Once you’ve picked out what you want, follow the crowds to the desk where you’ll have your goodies tallied up. You then take your receipt to the next counter where you pay.
This is a popular spot not just for its delicious baked goods, but also for it’s cooked breakfast options as well.
This pasteleria has been in the same location in the Centro Historico for decades and not much in the interior has changed either.
It’s a great place to have a quick bite to eat, especially if you are on a budget. They have filling plates of eggs with tortillas for a few dollars or several pieces of sweet bread and a coffee for about $1 USD.
