Huatulco

Bay-hopping from Santa Cruz harbour to Cacaluta in four days

Spend your first Huatulco day at La Entrega, a short ride from Santa Cruz, where the water is calm, the reef starts in the shallows and snorkel gear is rented on the beach. In the evening, walk the zócalo and look up at the giant Virgin painted across the ceiling of the Parroquia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe.

Day two. Book a lancha tour from the Santa Cruz harbour. The boats run west along the coast of the national park, past rock arches and cliffs, and stop at bays such as Órgano and Maguey, with time to swim and snorkel. Some trips continue to Cacaluta, a wide, protected bay with no buildings at all. Eat lunch at the palapas at Maguey.

Day three. Go east early to the Parque Eco-Arqueológico Copalita, near Tangolunda, where a trail through dry forest leads to ceremonial buildings, a small museum and a lookout over the Pacific. In the afternoon, drive or taxi to Tangolunda for a late swim, or to the cliffside cove of Conejos for sunset.

Day four. Rent a car or join a tour into the Sierra Sur to the coffee fincas around Pluma Hidalgo, where cool air, cloud forest and shade-grown coffee replace the beach heat. In the rainy months, rafting on the Copalita is an alternative. Return for a final dinner in La Crucecita.

Tlayudas in La Crucecita and fish on the sand at Maguey

Huatulco eats like the rest of Oaxaca with the sea added, and the best food is in La Crucecita, a few blocks inland from the resort hotels. Start with a tlayuda, a huge crisp corn tortilla spread with pork lard and black beans and topped with quesillo, cabbage and grilled tasajo or cecina.

Start with a tlayuda, a huge, crisp corn tortilla spread with pork lard and black beans, then topped with stringy quesillo cheese, cabbage and grilled meat such as tasajo (thin dried beef) or cecina (chile-rubbed pork). Many places fold it and toast it over charcoal in the evening. Oaxaca's moles appear on menus too: black mole thick with chocolate and burnt chiles, yellow mole and red mole, usually served over chicken. Tamales come wrapped in banana leaf here, and you may be offered chapulines, toasted grasshoppers with lime and chile.

On the coast, fish and shrimp take over. At the beach restaurants of Maguey, Santa Cruz and San Agustín, the catch is grilled whole, fried, or made into ceviche and seafood cocktails. Order pescado a la talla if it is offered: fish split open, brushed with chile paste and grilled.

Drink mezcal, Oaxaca's agave spirit, sipped slowly with orange slices and chile salt, and try the local coffee from the Pluma Hidalgo farms. The covered market in La Crucecita is the place for cheap breakfasts, fresh juices and Oaxacan snacks. Mornings there are the liveliest.

Copalita ruins, Pluma Hidalgo coffee and the road to Mazunte

Huatulco makes a good base for the wider Oaxaca coast and hills. Copalita, on the eastern edge of the resort zone, combines a pre-Hispanic site above the river mouth with forest trails and Pacific views; the coffee fincas of Pluma Hidalgo lie inland, and the coast road runs west to Mazunte.

Copalita, on the eastern edge of the resort zone, combines a pre-Hispanic site with forest trails. Its stone platforms and temple bases sit above the mouth of the Copalita river, and a lookout gives views of the open Pacific. Go first thing, before the heat.

Upriver, the Copalita is used for rafting when it runs high in the rainy months, and tours also visit waterfalls in the hills. Further inland, Pluma Hidalgo is a coffee village in the Sierra Sur about an hour and a half away by road, where old fincas still grow shade coffee under tall trees; some offer tours and simple rooms. The air is cooler, the roads are steep and winding.

West along Highway 200 lies a different kind of coast. Mazunte, home to a national turtle centre, and Zipolite, Mexico's best-known nudist beach, attract a younger, barefoot crowd, and San Agustinillo sits between them. Each is about an hour from Huatulco, and colectivos run via Pochutla. Going further, Puerto Escondido, roughly two hours away, is famous among surfers.

On the way, look out for the inland town of Santa María Huatulco, the municipal seat, whose name means the place where the tree is worshipped, after an old legend.