Carricitos or Las Cuevas: which Sayulita beach wins
Published 2026-08-30. Conditions described are typical and never guaranteed.
Here is the short answer before you lace up your shoes. If you want an open Pacific horizon, room to walk for what feels like miles and the raw drama of surf hitting an empty strand, go to Playa Carricitos. If you want clear water over rock, a mask and fins morning and a small pocket of sand you can call your own, go to Playa Las Cuevas. Both sit on the wild coast around Sayulita, both are reached only on foot, and neither is a casual swimming beach with a lifeguard watching over you. Choose by what you want to do in and beside the water, not by which one is prettier, because they are pretty in completely different ways.
This is not a case of one beach being better than the other. It is a case of two very specific beaches that reward two very specific kinds of visitor. Pick wrong and you will haul yourself through the jungle for the wrong reasons. Pick right and you get one of the best mornings on this stretch of the Riviera Nayarit.
Who Playa Carricitos is for
Carricitos is a wild undeveloped surf beach, a long strand of open sand backed by jungle south of town. Its whole character is emptiness. You come here to walk, to watch the waves and, if you are an experienced surfer, to ride them. The Pacific rolls in hard, with powerful surf and currents that can be strong, so this is a beach to respect from the sand rather than to wade into on a whim. The reward is scale: big sky, a wide horizon and often not another soul in either direction.
You earn all of it. The only way in is a steep jungle walk of roughly twenty five to thirty minutes from the plaza, west along Ninos Heroes and up the rough dirt road, taking the left fork away from Los Muertos until the beach opens below you over one last rise. There is no road to the sand, no parking and no taxi that can drop you there. That walk is the price of entry, and it is exactly why the beach stays so quiet.
Be clear about what is not here. There are no vendors, no restrooms, no bar, no water and no shade beyond a few palms at the back. There is no lifeguard and no reliable phone signal. You carry in everything you need and carry out all your rubbish. The best plan is to go in the cool of the morning, settle at the far end near those back beach palms for a scrap of shade and a wide view, then leave before the midday heat builds, since there is almost nothing to hide under once the sun is high.
Carricitos suits the visitor who thinks of a beach as a place to move through rather than a place to lie still. If your ideal is a long barefoot walk and a front row seat to a serious ocean, this is your shore.
Who Playa Las Cuevas is for
Las Cuevas is a different animal entirely: a small hidden cove on the rocky coast between Sayulita and San Pancho, kept by those who come for the snorkelling. Instead of a long open strand you get a pocket of coarse golden sand set between rocky points, backed by low cliffs and greenery rather than any building. Those same rocky points are the whole reason to come, because they shelter the clearest water on this stretch and the reef life that goes with it.
On a calm morning at low tide the visibility and the fish here are genuinely good, and that is the window you want. Bring your own mask and fins, because nothing is sold or rented at the cove. Like Carricitos, it is reached only on foot, along the coast path or over the rocks from the neighbouring beaches, and the easiest route in shifts with the tide, so it is worth asking locally for the current way down before you scramble anywhere.
The honest caveats mirror the other beach. No vendors, no toilets, no loungers, no shade. No lifeguard either. The water can turn choppy fast when the Pacific swell is up, and the rocks that make the snorkelling lovely can make the entry tricky in those conditions. Treat calm water as typical rather than guaranteed, stay within your depth and never go in on your own.
Las Cuevas suits the visitor who wants to look down, not out: someone happy to spend an hour face in the water over reef, then dry off on a warm patch of sand with no scene and no service.
Sand, water, facilities and crowd, side by side
The contrasts are sharp once you line them up.
- Sand: Carricitos gives you a long wild strand of open sand you can walk end to end. Las Cuevas gives you a small pocket of coarse golden sand between two rocky headlands. One is about space, the other about intimacy.
- Water: Carricitos is powerful surf and strong currents, exciting to watch and demanding to ride. Las Cuevas is clear water over rock and reef, calm on a settled day and best judged tide by tide.
- Facilities: Neither has any. No toilets, no shade to speak of, no food, no water on either beach. You are entirely self sufficient at both, so pack accordingly.
- Crowd: Both stay quiet because the walk filters out casual visitors. Carricitos can feel completely empty in both directions. Las Cuevas is small enough that even a handful of snorkellers fills it, so early is the way to have it to yourself.
Both share the same best window too. The dry season from November to April brings the most settled weather for the hike at Carricitos and the calmest, clearest water at Las Cuevas. If you are still mapping out your trip, the wider guide to timing a Sayulita visit is worth a read before you commit to dates.
The situations that flip the answer
Every recommendation here has a condition that reverses it, so pay attention to the day you actually get.
When Las Cuevas wins even for the walker: if the Pacific swell is up, Carricitos becomes pure spectacle and nothing more, a beach to admire from a distance with a shore break you keep children well back from. On those same big days, if you still want to get in the water safely and within your depth, Las Cuevas rarely offers the calm you need either. The flip that matters is on a settled low tide morning, when Las Cuevas rewards you with something Carricitos never can: an actual reason to enter the sea, over reef, in clear water.
When Carricitos wins even for the snorkeller: if you want distance, solitude and a proper walk rather than a peer down at fish, Carricitos delivers a scale that the little cove cannot. It is also the stronger sunset walk, thanks to that open western horizon. And if you are travelling with an experienced surfer while others simply want to stroll, Carricitos serves both at once in a way a tight rocky cove does not.
When neither is the right call: if anyone in your group wants an easy, serviced day with lunch and shade close at hand, skip both and head to the lively main beach at Playa Sayulita, where palapa restaurants supply the loungers and the surf schools run gentle lessons. Families chasing a calmer paddle will find the family focused rundown of the area more useful than either wild beach here. And if it is simply more empty sand you are after, Playa Malpaso and Playa Patzcuarito offer the same walk in solitude, both again with strong surf and no facilities. Our full list of the quietest beaches around town puts them all in one place.
The verdict, restated
Choose Carricitos to walk a wild open coast and watch a serious ocean do its work. Choose Las Cuevas to snorkel clear water in a sheltered cove on a calm low tide morning. Both ask the same of you: proper footwear, all your own supplies, a friend along, and honest respect for water that has no lifeguard. Get those right and both are among the most rewarding quiet mornings you can have near Sayulita.
Prefer a serviced day instead
Neither of these beaches has a club, a bar or a lounger, and that is by design. If you would rather trade the jungle walk for shade, service and a cold drink brought to your seat, browse the options on our Sayulita beach club page and enquire there about booking a club day. It is the easy counterpoint to a wild beach morning, and a good way to round out a trip that has one of each.