Oaxacan coast wins a spot among Nat Geo’s best 2026 destinations

As question guides merchandise their must-visit destinations for the year, Mexico keeps popping up.

This clip around, National Geographic included the Costa Chica portion successful the confederate authorities of Oaxaca arsenic 1 of the apical places to question to successful 2026.

“It’s a surfer’s dream, but connected a quieter coastline,” the mag says.

Historically, Oaxaca City, the state’s capital, has gotten the spotlight owed to its vibrant taste scene, pre-Hispanic monuments, culinary practice and Mexican traditions. But conscionable 100 miles southwest of the assemblage metropolis lies Costa Chica, a agelong of coastline betwixt Pinotepa Nacional and the Huatulco area.

Costa Chica has remained a “less traveled, quieter destination than Mexico’s much fashionable and accessible stretches of sand,” National Geographic says, adding that still, “it is each spot arsenic enticing.”

Renowned for its satellite people surf, the question work praises the destination’s “spectacular, undeveloped beaches, endemic birds, design-centric hotels, and countercultural enclaves, specified arsenic the queer-friendly, clothing-optional assemblage of Zipolite.”

Even though the country has accrued successful popularity with nationalist and planetary travellers, galore beaches stay underdeveloped, making them charismatic to those seeking quiescent places, surfing, and assemblage projects alternatively than ample resorts.

Places similar Puerto Escondido and adjacent beaches are world-renowned for surfing — the Zicatela wave, called “Mexican Pipeline,” is emblematic — and aboriginal this year, Puerto Escondido was recognized arsenic a World Surfing Reserve, to beforehand the conservation of historical beaches.

In summation to agelong stretches of uncrowded beaches, Costa Chica stands retired arsenic 1 of the fewer places successful Mexico with a beardown Afro-Indigenous identity, which reveals itself successful Indigenous and mestizo dances and euphony specified arsenic the chilenas of Pinotepa and the sones of Pochutla.

Nat Geo besides highlights the area’s inclination for architecture and design, starting with Casa Wabi arts complex, designed by celebrated Japanese designer Tadao Ando. It besides mentions 2 adjacent hotels, some designed by Mexican designer Alberto Kalach: Casona Sforza, an adults-only boutique edifice consisting of 11-suites, and the 100 percent star Grupo Habita eco-hotel Hotel Terrestre.

Desde la llanada de la Costa Chica de Oaxaca llegó a la Ciudad de México una tradición que pocas veces había salido de su territorio. En San Juan Bautista Lo de Soto, uno de los pueblos más antiguos de la región, la Danza de los Diablos se ha conservado por décadas gracias a su… pic.twitter.com/kaVmXfKuMY

— Secretaría de Cultura de la Ciudad de México (@CulturaCiudadMx) November 15, 2025

In 2025, Hotel Terrestre earned a Michelin Key, recognizing exceptional acquisition the edifice offers to guests.

Reaching this paradisiac coastline is present easier than ever pursuing the opening of a caller superhighway between Oaxaca City and Costa Chica, which turned the 10-hour thrust done the mountains into a 3.5-hour drive. And successful December, American Airlines began operating a nonstop work betwixt Dallas-Fort Worth and Puerto Escondido.

Mexico News Daily