Love it or Leave it

The Sayulita Shore

Around noon on Sunday we pulled into Sayulita and found our way to the Sayulita Trailer Park despite the main bridge into town being closed down. The owner didn’t recall us making a reservation only a few days before, but not to worry, he had a great beach-front spot still available where we met our neighbors, Lyman and Susan, sunbirds from Oregon handing out in Mexico in their 1977 custom painted Dodge Camper Van. Well, this got Ben all worked up, being that he himself used to drive a 1977 Chevy van, Sam, and soon we were old friends with our new neighbors.

The church in the center of town

In days to pass we felt popular around the trailer park, making friends with several other campers there. We certainly can’t take the credit as all of these people first approached us to ask about our vehicle (John at Ecamper was right when he told us we’d spend hours explaining our camper!). Another nice couple we met (also from Oregon), Pat & Ray, offered up lots of travel advice, yummy granola, and the use of their boogie boards (Thank you!). We really do hope we have the privilege of meeting up with so many of these folks again sometime throughout our year of travel.

Bungalows at Sayulita Trailer Park

Boogie boarding addict

During our 4 days in Sayulita we fell in love with a lot of things - the almost white-sand beaches, the just right waters, the cute artsy town, everything about Sayulita Trailer Park – we know we’ll be coming back someday. But just so it doesn’t sound too perfect, there were a few turn-offs that weighed heavily on us. First off - the crowd. Granted it is Spring Break /Semana Santa, so lots of tourists were there, both Mexican and American. The other turn off was the attitude of the people from Sayulita. Many of the shop owners and waiters had an arrogance about them. We understand they have this prime piece of real estate that can’t be found in many other parts of Mexico (we’ve looked), and that they have to deal with annoying tourists all the time, but seriously be grateful that we’re here, making your town thrive!


All in all, Sayulita is a great small town and much more our style than it’s not-so-distant counterpart Puerto Vallarta. While it has tons of charm, if you hope to vacation to a place that truly feels like Mexico, Sayulita may not be for you. But if you’re simply looking for a relaxing vacation on the beach where you can try your hand at surfing and not have to stress out about traffic and crowds, you should book a flight right away…...just remember not to schedule it during the 2 weeks around Easter!