Puerto Escondido: The Best Value Vacation in Mexico

Economic times are tough and inexpensive vacations are a necessity. If you have Mexico in mind, stay away from the resort cities like Cancun and Cabo, and take a look at Puerto Escondido, where your peso will stretch further and your experience will be more authentic.

Puerto Escondido is a small fishing village in southern Mexico. Located about 150 southeast of Acapulco on the Pacific Coast, this beach side town has great surfing and fun entertainment. When you're talking vacations, it's the best value in Mexico. Originally Puerto Escondido was a port where coffee was exported. Slowly the surfing crowd discovered it. Today you can often see surfing competitions at Puerto Escondido featured on ESPN. After the surfing crowd came, the tourists followed, but not nearly as many as in other resort cities like the ones designated and funded by the Mexican government.

When I say Puerto Escondido is a great value, what am I talking about? Hotels are cheaper than $30/night. If you're more into hostels, look at $5/night. If you just want to sleep on a hammock at one of the hotels, try $1/night. Food is equally inexpensive. Fresh fish dinners, along with a few cervezas, will never be more than $10. A cab ride is $2 anywhere in the city. The only thing that may cost you a bit more is a flight from the United States. You can either get to Puerto Escondido by connecting through Mexico City, or you can take direct flights to Huatulco and take a bus or a cab for the two hour drive to Puerto Escondido. For flights you're looking at around $500 roundtrip, so you want to take a vacation of at least a week in order to take advantage of the cheaper hotels and food.

Puerto Escondido is definitely an outdoors adventure and there are a variety of things to keep you busy or, if you want, you can sit on the beach all day under an umbrella and have the waitresses bring you cocktails. It's really your call. If you are looking to do some things though, surfing and skimboarding are there for you. There are also fishing trips and boat rides through the freshwater lagoon, where there are birds, lizards, and alligators to see. There is horseback riding to a hot water spring near Puerto Escondido as well. If you're the yoga type, you'll find a variety of places to commiserate with other yoga fanatics. Of course there is always a spa to go to.

If you have time, a trip to Oaxaca City will open the door to a world of ancient structures and ruins. Monte Alban was built over a period of 2000 years. There is also a cathedral and a Basilica dating back to the 1600s and other churches going back to the 1700s to see. If you're into baseball, just outside of the city there is a Mexican League team and stadium.

When the economy is rough, it pays to seek value in a vacation. Puerto Escondido will save you a ton of money and will connect you to a more authentic, more simple Mexico.