“Wow, you live in Mexico, you must be close to the beach!” - says every single person who realizes we live in Mexico.
Guadalajara is not a beach town, but we are pretty lucky to be just a few hours from some beautiful beach towns.
And during the pandemic, it’s sure been a nice getaway for us to drive over to the beach as it’s just 4-5 hours away depending on the curvy mountain roads and how much traffic there is.
It just so happens that in November 2020 and April 2021, we chose the same little beach town to enjoy our vacation.
Bucerias.
Bucerias is sometimes considered “Little Canada” with the amount of Canadians who have come to retire or enjoy the beach life in this small town right outside of the larger and more well-known Puerto Vallarta.
Bucerias is right on the coast and has a nice mix of houses on the beach and gated communities not too far from the beach. We enjoyed both scenarios over our last two vacations.
For a bit of a cheaper rental, we used Airbnb in November and rented a house in a neighborhood (coto) sharing it with one other family. We had access to an outdoor patio, two different pools and were just a five-minute drive from the public beach.
In April, we chose to stay at another Airbnb location, Casa Blanca right on the beach, which was more expensive but we highly recommend it as it’s right on the beach.! This place is a small boutique hotel with 7 units that include two-bedroom apartments, a tiny little pool, BBQ area and direct access to the beach. It’s close to lots of cute restaurants and more in the quaint town of Bucerias.
Once we parked our car, everything was available on foot from a little general store down the street to the cutest restaurants around.
Here’s a list of locally recommended restaurants if you’re heading to Bucerias:
1. La Negra: We loved this little spot. During the day it’s great food and atmosphere and at night, there’s a DJ upstairs.
2. La Postal: Great pizza and pasta with wine or cocktails and yummy gelato on the corner.
3. Culi's : best steak in town. I always get the coconut shrimp and they split plates so perfectly. - recommended by my friend @camcunning who lives in Bucerias.
4. The Snack bar: on top of Kiosko in the Centro ( Camille's fave happy hour, live music and people watching spot).
5. Panino’s: Breakfast spot with freshly baked pastries and coffees (within walking distance of the place we stayed!)
Bucerias is also the place to kite surf on the coast and there’s all sorts of spots that offer classes, it was super windy in the afternoons and made for a pretty sight over the water.
We definitely recommend Bucerias, super family friendly and there’s a Mega grocery store if you do need to stock up once you’re in town. It’s not far to drive to Sayulita or Punta de Mita for surf lessons. And not too far to drive into Puerto Vallarta if you’re looking for some additional activities or places to explore.
Buen viaje!
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