Living in Bucerías, Mexico – The Perfect Little West Coast Town?

A house two blocks from the beach, delicious food, friendly people, and a town that’s totally walkable – as it turns out, that’s basically all I need to be happy. That’s what we found in Bucerías, Mexico, a little town just 30 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta. And this place couldn’t have been more of a pleasant surprise.

How the heck did we discover Bucerías? Well, my friend Larry is an 82-year-old man who somehow stumbled across the blog. We email back and forth frequently and get each other’s opinions on travel destinations and restaurants. He’s the one who recommended Bucerías – a small town of about 8,000 people on the west coast of Mexico. He said it’s one of his favorite places in Mexico and, well, Larry has been to over 25 places in Mexico and he likes food… so I trusted his opinion. Because why would you not plan a month’s worth of travel based off an Internet strangers’ advice?

Anyway, Larry did not steer us wrong. We loved this little town so much that we’ve already booked another month in Bucerias! We’ll be back in March! In fact, I feel like I could live there.

Related Post: Guanajuato: The Most Beautiful City in Mexico?

What Bucerías is Like // Where We Stayed

First off, I forget how easy it is to travel to Mexico from the US. I’m used to these 8 or 9-hour flights to Europe (or worse yet, a 15 to 20-hour flight to Southeast Asia) that when we left RDU at 6AM and arrived in Puerto Vallarta before noon, it felt miraculous. We could still go out for lunch! After three nights exploring Puerto Vallarta, we headed to our new home for the next month.

Bucerías is a bit of a sleepy town not too far away that’s a mix of locals, expats, and tourists. We stayed in Zona Dorada, a residential area of colorful homes and flower-lined streets south of the Kissing Bridge, one of the few landmarks in town.

We were a three-minute walk to the beach, an eight-minute walk to the gym, and about a 12-minute walk to town. At first, I thought it would be annoying having to walk about a mile into town – I’m used to being in the mix! – but with all the tacos, it was nice to have an excuse to walk into the city at night for dinner. There are also several great restaurants and bars in Zona Dorada as well.

Our place in Bucerías was one of the best Airbnb we’ve ever stayed in. It was spacious and comfortable, complete with a pool, paddleboard, and perhaps best of all, two golden retrievers and one little dog named Taco. Oh, and our rent for the whole first floor of the house, complete with two bedrooms, one bathroom, huge living room, laundry, and full kitchen? $555 USD each. That’s slightly pricey compared to past stays in other countries, but being this close to the beach, it was a great deal! (And still way cheaper than my rent in Raleigh.)

If you’re not on Airbnb, get on it! Get $40 off your first stay.

In November, just before high season kicked into full force, we were able to stroll to town in the middle of the cobblestone streets without worrying about traffic. There were a few infrequent cars and motorbikes, but that was about it. Unlike in Puerto Vallarta and Sayulita, I loved not having to look when I cross the street! Everyone was so friendly as well, literally always saying “hola” or “buenos dias” or “buenas noches” as they walked past. It felt so welcoming.

We’re coming back to this exact spot when we return. Except this time, we’ve got the totally picturesque, open-air third floor this time!

Of course, perhaps the best part about Bucerías was the food. So here we go…

Now that I’ve started making food collages for other destinations, I guess I can’t stop now, right?

Food, Bars, and Restaurants in Bucerías!

One of the best things about Bucerías is that despite its size, the food and restaurant options are fantastic! Whether you want street food, cheap food, fancy food, Mexican, or international, they’ve got it. They even have a French cheese shop! That’s niche! There is a ton of fresh seafood, ceviche, and raw tuna (my fave). But of course, there’s no shortage of tacos either.

You can find handmade pasta, fresh bread, great pizza, bar food like wings and burgers, and there’s even a little Indian place that just opened up by the highway. We had sushi, a whole fish on the beach for like $8, and street tacos on weeknights by the plaza. Or fried fish and shrimp tacos, depending on what we were craving. It was super easy to have dinner for $3-4 dollars if we wanted to have a cheap day. You can get the usual Mexican dishes like enchiladas, chiles rellenos, and tortilla soup here, but I also discovered of my two new favorite Mexican foods on this trip – as I mentioned on Instagram – tortas ahogadas and aguachile! The tortas are literally “drowned sandwiches” of carnitas dunked in a chile-tomato sauce. Aguachile is made up of fresh, raw shrimp mixed with a sauce of chiles, lime juice, cucumbers, and red onions. It’s the perfect beer-drinking food!

Related Post: Food and Drinking in Guanajuato, Mexico

Nightlife in Bucerías

As for nightlife, Bucerías is not a crazy party place. Which is fine with us because I struggle to stay up til 2AM, like, ever. But when we do head out for the night, it’s usually to check out live music or watch sports (while eating bar food). And Bucerías has that! There are a couple of sports bars – YoYoMo’s and Barcheleta Beer Bar – where we watched NFL games and even Carolina basketball games! There are also a few of bars that have live music on the weekends – The Drunken Duck being our favorite. (They even have steps leading up to the bar if you feel like joining all the tourists and Canadian expats dancing up there. Not for me, but I will get up and dance with strangers to a Shania Twain song.) Anyway, we had a great time listening to the Mexican cover bands, sipping tequila, and drinking Pacificos.

Of course, if you want to listen to live music on the beach during the day – because why wouldn’t you? – you can do that too! We found the daytime band at El Chivero to be pretty fun too, even if we listened to the same jams every Saturday while we drank buckets (cubetas) of beers.

While it’s super approachable in size, after a month in Bucerías, we still hadn’t tried all of the restaurants and bars that we wanted to and we still have plenty more to explore when we return. (As usual, I’ll list my favorite places below, so scroll down if those details are what you’re looking for!)

Things to Do in Bucerías

So you guys know I’m a bit lazy in this category. Since we’re working on the weekdays, we’ve really got to maximize our weekends to pack in touristy activities. While we felt like we did a lot, we still have a to-do list for when we return.

Obviously, we hit the beach frequently to swim and paddleboard on the weeknights, but Saturdays and Sundays, we might also grab a few chairs near town for buckets of beers, snacks, live music, and the occasional chats with locals.

One Sunday, we headed to the La Cruz Market, which is kind of a must-do and the perfect laid back Sunday activity. It’s filled with food and artisan vendors and (yes, more) live music at the nearby bars. It’s a great place to grab souvenirs and art, but obviously, we bought some handmade pasta to make for dinner that week instead… oh, and I got a bracelet with a single black pearl. It’s a cheap and easy bus ride to La Cruz, but if you’re feeling energetic, you can walk back to Bucerias via the beach!

There are lots of little community things to do in town too that’ll help you get to know the locals. On Wednesdays, there’s a smaller Farmer’s Market by the Chedraui. And on Thursdays in the high season, we went out for the Bucerias Art Walk where you can check out all the local galleries and grab free drinks in each spot.

Puerto Vallarta is also a cheap bus ride away, so we visited the marina for the Sailfish and Marlin Tournament on one Saturday in November so Marko could see all the big fish come in, including a 400+ pound marlin. I’d also recommend heading to Boca de Tomatlan to do the hike to Playa Colomitos and Playa Las Animas. And on one very early Sunday morning, we booked a fishing trip out of Puerto Vallarta marina, caught a couple of mahi-mahi, and had a great time eating the freshest ceviche ever on the boat with our guides Juan and Jose. Ideally, I’ll write about these Puerto Vallarta activities in more detail later… But just in case I don’t get around to it (I know how I am), that was a little run-down for you.

Next time we’re in Bucerias, we hope to take surf lessons, hike Monkey Mountain, and go to the local Bucerias Sunday market on the other side of the highway!

If you’re looking for more tips on things to do (and places to eat), check out this Bucerias destination guide by Like Where You’re Going. Alyssa has some different options for places to stay as well!

Safety?

I’ve been traveling for over three years now and I’ve never received as many (unsolicited) pleas to “be careful” as I did when heading to Mexico. Yeah, even though I’ve been here before. I blame the news. To be honest, I’ve felt safer almost everywhere else I’ve traveled when I compare it to home. At least three women got murdered in the US going out for a jog in 2016. But let’s not get into that…

In this part of Mexico, like anywhere, if you’re aware of your surroundings and reasonably careful, you’ll be fine. Of course, I’ve read that petty theft exists here, like most places, but we never encountered any issues. I frequently walked around in the dark – yes, sometimes alone while leaving the gym – in Bucerias and never once felt threatened or unsafe. (In general though, I try not to do a lot of solo nighttime walking anywhere, home or abroad.) We sat on the beach after sunset. We swam and left our bags alone on the uncrowded beach a couple of times. We got boozy and walked home through the streets at night over the Kissing Bridge (one place in town where the expat forums warn you might want to be careful after dark) and nothing sketchy ever happened. Knock on wood!

If we didn’t feel totally safe and comfortable here, we wouldn’t be coming back for another month!

Bucerias vs. Sayulita

So. This was a source of a lot of angst and many hours of online research for me. While of course, I trusted Larry’s opinion on Bucerias, I was worried that we might be heading into a Canadian expat town of, well, much older people. And that did end up being partially true, but it also turned out that we didn’t mind at all! There were still younger tourists and locals around. Our Airbnb hosts were our age. And the bars and restaurants felt “cool” and “trendy” enough to cater to a younger crowd (because obviously, I’m so cool and trendy – not). Yes, there were lots of older expats and long-term residents, but let’s be real, they’re what made this little town so approachable… plus we have to work on the weekdays and don’t exactly rage!

But I still couldn’t decide between these two little towns, so I booked 12 days in Sayulita during December to see what all the fuss was about. I couldn’t trust the Internet – I had to see this little chic surf town for myself. And I’m writing this because it’s what Past Rachel would’ve wanted to read:

To be honest, after moving on to Sayulita, I was a little sad to leave behind the laid back peacefulness of Bucerias. Sayulita is tiny, but it’s WAY more packed with tourists, as evidenced by the wall-to-wall umbrellas on the beach, tons of surfers in the water, and crowds of people on the sidewalks… not to mention the many golf carts they use to get around town. (Yes, you do have to look before crossing the street here.)

Also, the sewage thing. Before choosing between Bucerias and Sayulita initially, I heard read lots of rumors that tourism has so overwhelmed the infrastructure of Sayulita that they now dump the excess sewage into the ocean. Yeah, literally right next to the main beach. Of course, I can’t confirm it, but that’s what they say.

And yes, you will occasionally catch a whiff of sewage on the air (or maybe it’s a placebo effect because you know about the issue?). You may also have to cross the so-called “sewage stream” by hopping from rock to rock if you don’t traverse the main bridge. (Or maybe that’s not what it actually is and you just think it’s sewage because you heard it from multiple sources.) And you might even get sick here. The Internets will also tell you this: Lots of people get sick in Sayulita. Whether it’s from contaminated water or the beach, who knows? I’m pretty proud of my ability to eat anything around the world and I’m well-versed in selecting street food, and I rarely get sick.

But sure as shit (pardon the expression), Marko and I both got sick in Sayulita. We still can’t pinpoint what we ate or drank that did it. Perhaps it was the rogue street corn I grabbed or the ceviche or the steak burritos. Maybe it was the water. Some people even say it comes from swimming at the main beach (though I didn’t do that). But after a month and a half in Mexico, it was Sayulita that finally brought us down. To be fair, it wasn’t so bad – we were only in pain and/or on the toilet for about 24 to 36 hours. And that was fine for us since we had so much time to explore, but for anybody who was just visiting for a week, I can see how it’d be pretty annoying.

On that note, I’ve now invested in some travel probiotics. One of my friends started Nomad Probiotics and offered to send me a bottle to get my opinion. And truly, after back-to-back days of being sick in Sayulita and partying in New York with friends (hey, it was on my way home from Mexico), my body needed anything that would make it feel better again. These did the job! After a lot of discomfort (you don’t want any more info than that!), they got me back to feeling normal. Maybe even better than normal. Needless to say, I’m a believer and I’m buying more to take back to Mexico with me to keep my gut healthy!

In my opinion, the beaches in Bucerias are better, less rocky, and less crowded. And you don’t get the bad smells. If you do go to Sayulita, check out Playa los Muertos in addition to the main beach. It’s a little less crowded, though not nearly as pristine and people-free as the Interwebs would suggest. Still, it is a great town!

Sayulita is definitely more of a young people place. There’s a few hostels, an obviously younger crowd, lots of Americans, and lots more tourists in general. There are plenty of bars (though nowhere we liked as much as the Drunken Duck) and the food was great (though pretty comparable in terms of quality with Bucerias). We did like that there were Christmas parades through town with lots of locals participating, really excellent beach clubs with impeccable service and food, and fun boutiques with local jewelry and clothing where you could do some great shopping for one-of-a-kind stuff. Sayulita is also a bit more expensive, though not overly so. It’s still a very cool hippie surf town, even if it has been discovered. Oh, and it has one of the best Thai restaurants I’ve ever been to outside of Southeast Asia.

You can effectively party, eat well, and chill on the beach in either place. Long-term or working online, I’d say go to Bucerias. But if you’re looking to make friends or do the backpacking thing, go to Sayulita. Either way, check them both out! Sometimes you miss the hustle and bustle, even on a sleepy Mexican beach town.

But at the end of our stay in Sayulita, we still wanted to go back to Bucerias. The thing is, we were pretty tough to sway because we’d already fallen in love. Thanks, Larry.

Have you been to Bucerías or Sayulita? What are your favorite spots there? I’d love more recs!

Our Favorite Restaurants in Bucerias, Mexico: La Negra, trendy, great quality food at reasonable prices – get the big boss ceviche and burgers – they also do DJs and fresh, fancy cocktails at night. Tortas Ahogadas Jalisco is across the highway and one of the best sandwiches you’ll ever have for under $3 USD – you must try it. El Rinconcito de Ensenada for the best fried shrimp tacos ever. Los Tejabanes is a real hidden gem – you can get an amazing three-course lunch with a drink for 70 pesos ($3.50 USD) – chips with salsa, soup, entree, and agua fresca (so sad I discovered it on my last few days). For street tacos, check out all the places along the main square, almost all of them have fresh-made tortillas and you can BYOB. We loved the al pastor and chivito (goat) tacos as well as the guy on the corner who can make whatever you want – try the gringas! End your night by getting churros from either cart (the young women or the older man) on the edge of the plaza. They are fabulous! Las Sushita is good if you need a sushi fix – it’s a little Mexican spin on sushi but lots of tuna, nice owners, and 12-peso beers on Friday. Los Frenchies is an awesome little shop if you want French-style cheeses (Camembert, Comte, Brie, etc). They’re made by artisanal cheese producers from all over Mexico using Mexican ingredients! Panino’s for brunch, coffee, and fresh bread and pastries.

Other Great Places to Eat in Bucerias, Mexico: Fat Boy for a whole fried snapper and lunch on the beach. Close to our place, Delicias Mexicanas has great enchiladas, chiles rellenos, tortilla soup, and margaritas. Mr. and Mrs. Fish for amazing seared tuna and fish and chips. Tacos Lindas for a BYOB joint where you can try different tacos like huitlacoche, mushroom, and squash blossom, as well as the usual suspects – the fun part is when they bring you all of the salsas, nopales, and beans that you never expected! La Takeria is another place you can try lots of tacos with plenty of different sides and salsas. Tacos Junior has great, authentic al pastor tacos in a bustling, local atmosphere. Leo’s Place for a cheap, Mexican combo meal with rice and beans that will remind you of home. For aguachile, you can get it most places on the beach, but try Rey de Aguachile for some really different stuff. La Postal for pizza, salad, and homemade pastas. Sandrina’s for Mediterranean food… but we only went for a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner there – it’s beautiful inside! Cafe de Bucerias is solid for breakfast. For hippie, healthy (slightly pricey) food, you can get big poke powls and smoothies at Organi-K, a little food truck spot on the corner of Lazaro Cardenas and Galeana.

Our Favorite Bars (with Food) in Bucerias, Mexico: For a Friday or Saturday night, we’d almost always end up at the Drunken Duck. I love a great cover band and they almost always had something fun going on. Barcheleta Beer Bar on the other end of town was our preferred sports bar (great wings), but YoYoMo’s is also a good spot for sports if you’re in the center of town. On the beach during the day, we almost always ended up at Mar y Sol or El Chivero. You can get buckets of beers for about 150 pesos or $7.50 USD. Can’t beat it! We’d sit and eat things like tuna tostadas, Bucerias-style ceviche (the fish is chopped super finely), aguachile, chips and salsa, guacamole, and crab taquitos. Adauto’s is also great, but a little nicer and slightly pricier for day drinking. We only went once, but Tequila Gardens in Zona Dorada has a pool and a TV and great all-day 2×1 happy hour!

For Fresh Juices, if you’re into that, check out Hacienda del Arte where you can browse their artwork, sign up for classes, and work on their wifi. I also grabbed a few juices down the street at El Cafe (or JoJo’s) on the corner of Lazaro Cardenas and Abasolo.

For a Gym in Bucerias, check out Bucerias Fitness Center. It’s about $40 per month, nice and clean, lots of treadmills, and they have yoga and spin classes. It was about an eight-minute walk from our place in Zona Dorada.