A perfect beach is a healthy, alive beach, a place where you can spot fish in the waves and see birds diving after them. If it's a truly great beach, you should be able to watch whales from your hammock.
The snorkeling should be good, but so should the body surfing. Waterfront restaurants that serve the daily catch from local fishermen are essential, as is the ready availability of cold beer and tasty snacks.
The best beaches aren't too crowded, although it's OK if they get busy on weekends; someone has to keep the restaurants in business.
Perfect beaches are as hard to find as pristine conch shells. Having dedicated my early adulthood to becoming a beach connoisseur, I know of a few that fit the bill. But I know only one that has all the attributes above and requires no long layovers or extended transport between airport and destination: Playa Blanca.
Trip planner
Accommodations
The higher end accommodations on the Playa Blanca start at $100 a night and include
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Midrange options start at $70 a night and include
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Economical options are available for as little as $35 a night and include
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For a list of many of the private homes and bed-and-breakfasts as well as hotels in Barra de Potosi and Playa Blanca, visit
Attractions
i: 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday, Monday, Thursday. Admission: 60 pesos adults, 30 pesos children under 12.
: Mesoamerican archaeological site
with Avimael Cadena: Bird-watching tours of the lagoon behind Barra de Potosi and other tours with a local guide
Playa Blanca is a 12-mile long beach 25 minutes south of Zihuatanejo on the west coast of Mexico. The beach is only five miles from the Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo airport (Airport code: ZIH), which is served by Alaska Airlines and other major airlines every day.
The fact that I can fly out of Portland at 7 a.m., lay over in LAX for an hour and be on the beach sipping from the rim of a freshly cut coconut by 3:30 p.m. has kept me coming back to Playa Blanca for over 15 years.
Here are my recommendations on how to spend your time at Playa Blanca.
Wake up slowly every day. Listen to the crashing waves and smell the salty air for a while before you open your eyes to your pretty bedroom in Mexico. A range of accommodations are available along Playa Blanca, from stylish digs complete with beachfront pools, cooks and gardens to simple, naturally air-conditioned rooms where you can rest your head for as low as $35 a night.
For breakfast, if you are within a 15-minute walk of the enramadas, the restaurants at the far end of the beach in front of the village of Barra de Potosi, head that way for huevos rancheros.
Or, if you are loving your accommodations and they come with a kitchen, procure farm-fresh eggs, avocados, a pile of handmade tortillas and maybe some hot sauce from either Barra de Potosi or Los Achotes, the tiny villages that anchor each end of Playa Blanca.
Put some fresh fruit for walking-around snacks in your backpack. The mangos and bananas are local, as are the tamarinds and coconuts and other seasonally available treats.
Either way, after breakfast, find a breezy spot and rock in a hammock until you have digested your breakfast
Late morning means adventure time. If you're still at home, head toward the enramadas and the village of Barra de Potosi. There you can book a boat tour of the lagoon behind the village, where you can spot roseate spoonbills and a host of other big, cool birds.
Paddleboats are for rent and guides with motorboats are available for tours. The folks at the enramada will point you in the right direction.
Not a bird person? Go for a swim, try snorkeling, take a horse ride on the beach, or wander up the beach half a mile to the little massage hut and treat yourself to a $20 massage. The beach itself invites hours of walking and ruminating. Fish may knock against your legs in the surf. Pelicans perform acrobatics and trace the waves with their wings. Farther up, frigate birds create Etch A Sketch patterns that only they can see.
When you have worked up an appetite, have lunch at one of the enramadas. Local fishermen sell their catch to these restaurants every day. Try the huachinango a la plancha (red snapper) or the pulpo al ajillo (octopus in garlic). Do not deprive yourself of the guacamole.
Feeling nappish after lunch? Happily, the rows of tables are staggered with hammocks in every enramada, making the transition from lunch to nap easy. You are welcome to stay all day.
Brown pelicans skim the waves endlessly, searching the healthy sea for a meal
If your book isn't speaking to you or you're getting itchy to explore, options abound. Fishing and snorkeling are excellent around the Morros, those white-specked islands about two miles in the distance. I have pulled many a meal of tender, quarter-size abalone from those rocks and yanked everything from red snapper to dorado out of the surrounding sea. Dolphins frequent the area year-round, and winter humpback whale numbers are on the rise.
The Refugio de Potosi is an easy couple of miles up the road from Barra de Potosi and is accessible by bike, car, colectivo (a covered truck that shuttles between Barra de Potosi and Los Achotes for 10 pesos a ride) or ever-circling taxi. The Refugio offers a butterfly sanctuary, a rehabilitation center for injured animals, and the chance to see and sometimes even interact with local fauna such as iguanas, coatimundi, hedgehogs, armadillos, monkeys and small wild cats. The Refugio also has the largest sperm whale skeleton in North America on display.
Huachinango (red snapper) caught an hour earlier alongside handmade tortillas served up in the village of Barra de Potosi,
Farther-flung day trip possibilities include deep sea fishing, scuba diving, surfing, a visit to La Soledad de Maciel (a significant, newly discovered Mesoamerican archaeological site), a trip to the turtle sanctuary in San Valentin, where you can send newly born baby turtles on their way, and a day of shopping in Zihuatanejo for tequila, vanilla, art (fine and folk) and other souvenirs.
Come evening, the tiny village of Barra de Potosi (population 750) stirs to life. Settle in at one of the tiny local taco shops over a plate of $1 carnitas tacos and keep them coming until you're full. The tortillas are hand-pressed and cooked on a clay comal, as they have been for thousands of years. You may get lucky and find yourself suddenly invited to be a guest at someone's quinceañera, wedding or a village pageant that night.
The weather is warm year-round, the people are kind, it's a wonderful life.