Small Towns, Big Buzz: Where to Hit the Beach in Riviera Nayarit Mark Rogers - USA Today
go to original October 18, 2016

Riviera Nayarit is a 200-mile stretch of verdant coastline on Mexico’s Pacific coast. Over the last few years, Riviera Nayarit and its Punta Mita peninsula have been generating lots of upmarket buzz, due to relatively new luxe resorts like Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita and St. Regis Punta Mita. This buzz is now vibrating up and down the coast, with many of the region’s under-the-radar beach towns getting the kind of notice they never enjoyed in the past.

Most visitors will first fly into Puerto Vallarta’s international airport, which is about a 15-minute drive from the southernmost part of Riviera Nayarit. Within the varied towns, they’ll find plenty of choices for accommodations, including funky guest houses, boutique hotels and villas. The small towns also position travelers to dive into their favorite activities, be it surfing, sailing, scuba diving, golf, riding on ATVs or ziplining through the jungle.

Sayulita

Once primarily a hot spot for surfers, Sayulita is now the Cool Capital of Riviera Nayarit and attracts boho travelers of all stripes. The town’s streets are lined with brightly colored cafes and restaurants serving everything from classic Mexican fare to paninis and wood-oven pizza. Sayulita is laid out for laidback leisure, with a town square only steps from a lively beach with lots of open-air beachfront restaurants. A not-to-be-missed store is Révolucion del Sueño, where creativity abounds with such items for sale as T-shirts showing the Mexican revolutionary Emiliano Zapata eating an ice cream cone, and Frida Kahlo throw pillows.

San Francisco

San Francisco, called San Pancho by the locals, is only a few miles up the coast from Sayulita. While almost as trendy as Sayulita, San Francisco has a more grounded feel, with a local population taking precedence over vacationing visitors. There's a main street lined with shops and restaurants that leads directly to the most popular beach, which is the pulse point of the town. It seems like everyone drifts down to the beach in the hour before sunset, to catch up on the news of the day, watch dogs romp along the shoreline, and to grab a cerveza and a ceviche tostada at one of the toes-in-the-sand restaurants.

San Blas

The town of San Blas is the place for those who want a dash of history with their time on the beach. San Blas was founded in 1530 and was a busy port city in the 17th century. Today, the town is noted for its historic buildings, its crocodile sanctuary and the mangrove lagoons surrounding the town that provide sanctuary for more than 300 species of migratory birds. There are regularly scheduled excursions by boat to explore the wildlife of the region. An unusual touch is the recreated floating homes of the original settlers, which were constructed for the 1991 Mexican film Cabeza de Vaca.

Read the rest including "A sextet of beach towns" at USA Today.