We spent three days in Puerto Escondido as part of a longer trip to Oaxaca. Getting there was quite the adventure as the only convenient way in was on a tiny plane. The flight is 35 minutes and incredibly bumpy (pack Dramamine), but much better than a 7 hour drive any day.
Once you arrive it is clear you will not need to leave for any reason. We did spend one day in the Playa Zicatela, which is an incredibly charming beach town. The house manager can schedule a taxi for you as the beach is not entirely walkable the whole way.
The house has a beautiful open air plan and feels like a mini resort. All rooms but the bunk room face the ocean and the rooms offer a lot of privacy. We coordinated the meals with the house staff by day and time and they did all the shopping for us.
For 3 days, with 3 meals a day, beer, mezcal and vodka we paid about 15,00 pesos, which is about $750, which for us was about $150 a person. You should plan to bring cash for this and many ATMs only give you 4,000 pesos at a time, so plan ahead. All the meals were amazing and prepared fresh daily and completely worth it.
If you are worried the staff will be trying to do everything for you and make it awkward, it's not like that at all. Their presence is very much known, but they aren't standing by to do every little thing for you and really just keep to themselves. They speak no English, so a translation app is a must, unless one of your group is bilingual. Typically they stay only until around 4 PM, but will stay for dinner if you request it, which we did for all 3 nights. They leave around 9 PM and return in the morning. It was a very nice amenity to wake up to a clean kitchen and a fresh pot of coffee.
This place is perfect if you want to relax and unwind and leave the everyday world behind. We were all able to work while we were there and cell service and WiFi worked just fine, but you will not want to do these things, as the location really lulls you into a state of relaxation and calm.
The ocean is not suitable for swimming or surfing, but it provides very nice white noise to sleep to. The pool offers more than enough opportunity for swimming and you won't even miss the beach.
It's not close to downtown (about 30 minutes by taxi) so if you want proximity to nightlife, this place is probably not ideal. However, if you want to relax, and unwind and watch some of the most beautiful sunsets and moonrises you have ever seen, this place is perfect.
