Ok so Sayulita is not a big town by any stretch of the imagination, but boy has it grown since I was last here 15 years ago! Mexico’s not so little surfing village, Sayulita is a lot larger and developed than I was expecting it to be.
I have been reading for years now that Sayulita had outgrown its infrastructure, but wow, I was not expecting this. When I was here last, it was a dusty few streets surrounding a town square and the best little surfing beach in the area.
Sayulita Today
Today, the town is packed. From the wee hours of the morning, there are people on the streets, getting their businesses ready for the day or hunting down a coffee. It is high season for sure, but except for maybe July and August, I have heard the town is just as busy almost all year long. It has become the Tulum of the Pacific Coast.
Shopping
If you are looking for super cute vibey clothes, bags and decor, they are all here. I wanted to go into every shop on my first day in town. I will have to plan a couple of days to go into these stores and have a good browse around. I passed by some really beautiful clothes and artisan items. I can’t wait to delve into this further and show you some pictures of what I have found.
Food
There is definitely a foodie scene going on here. Lots of little organic, vegan and vegetarian restaurants as well as foods such as burgers, ribs and wings. I am looking forward to trying out some of these fun places. My first evening I had street fish tacos from Taco Gaby’s. They were amazing! Crispy fried white fish with cabbage slaw, pico de gallo, and chipotle mayo to top it off.
Beach
So what we used to all come to Sayulita for was the surfing. It almost feels like this is taking a back stage at this point. At sunrise there were numerous surfers on the water trying to catch a wave which was so fun to watch. However I’m not sure how many people are coming here to surf versus be in the cool place that Sayulita is.
Town
Old Sayulita was just a small area on the flats near the ocean. Today the streets are climbing up and over every hill in the area with abandon. Some of the structures are quite perilous looking with what seems like very little fore thought to a booming town.
I would hazard to guess that the town has just blossomed so fast, the municipality has not been able to keep up. I did pass by one massive multi story development right near the centre of town that doesn’t pass the vibe check. There are no large resorts here. Most hotels are very small, almost boutique in nature. After all it was initially just a tiny little village.
I’ll expand on these thoughts in later posts. These are my very first impressions after being in the town for 24 hours. I can’t wait to explore the area further and show you all the amazing sights in town and around this locale.
