Playa Carricitos or Playa Malpaso: which Sayulita beach
Published 2026-09-14. Conditions described are typical and never guaranteed.
Here is the short version before you lace up your shoes. Both of these beaches are wild, empty and reached only on foot, and neither is a swimming beach. If you are an experienced surfer, or a walker who wants the longest, most committing jungle approach and a sliver of back beach shade to sit under, pick Playa Carricitos. If you want the reward of a wide, soft, long strand you can pace end to end, reached by a shorter walk with a clifftop option, and you care more about space than shade, pick Playa Malpaso. Choose neither if what you actually want is a safe paddle, a lounger and a cold drink brought to your hand. That is a different day in a different place, and I will point you there at the end.
So much of what you read about these two shores blurs them into one idea: remote beach near a surf town, bring water, do not swim. That is true as far as it goes, but it hides the real differences that decide which walk is right for you. Let me separate them honestly.
The walk is the whole point, and it is not the same walk
Carricitos is earned. From the Sayulita plaza you go west to the end of Ninos Heroes, climb a steep dirt road through the jungle, fork left away from Playa Los Muertos, and drop over one last rise to find the sand below. Reckon on twenty five to thirty minutes each way, on a rough, potholed track with construction in places. Real shoes, not sandals. There is no road to the sand, no parking at the beach and no taxi that reaches it. That effort is exactly why the beach stays as empty as it does.
Malpaso is gentler on the legs and gives you a choice of approaches. One is an inland jungle trail over the hill from Avenida del Palmar in the centre of town. The other is a clifftop path that climbs over the rocks at the north end of the town beach and drops onto the sand. Both are short, well under a couple of kilometres, and the clifftop route in particular hands you sea views you never get on the enclosed Carricitos climb. There is one honest caveat: construction and private property have affected the trails here, so access can change. Verify the current route locally before you set out rather than trusting a map.
If you enjoy the sweat and the sense of disappearing into the trees, Carricitos delivers the bigger commitment. If you want to be standing on wide sand sooner, or you fancy walking the cliff with the Pacific opening beside you, Malpaso is the easier and arguably more scenic in.
Sand and space: subtle, and it matters more than you think
Carricitos is a long wild strand of open sand backed by jungle, often empty in both directions, with a few palms at the back that give the only shade you will find. The far end near those palms is the spot I would head for: shade, plus a wide view down an empty beach.
Malpaso is a wide, long stretch of soft sand, and its glory is that emptiness on a larger, more open scale. The pleasure here is walking it end to end, ideally in the cool of the early morning when you may well have the whole thing to yourself. Where Carricitos rewards you with a shady base to settle into, Malpaso rewards you with room to roam and no reason to stop.
The flip point on sand is simple. Want to arrive, sit, watch and stay put under a palm? Carricitos edges it. Want to keep moving across a big empty beach and cover ground barefoot? Malpaso wins.
The water: read this part twice
Neither of these is a safe swimming beach, and no honest guide would tell you otherwise.
Carricitos faces the open Pacific with powerful surf and currents that can run strong. It is a beach to walk, and to surf if you genuinely know what you are doing. Malpaso faces the same ocean with no shelter and is known for strong undertows and riptides, which is why swimming here is not recommended at all. There is no lifeguard at either beach, no one to call on, and at Carricitos you should not count on phone signal.
The meaningful distinction is surf culture. Carricitos is described as a place to surf if you are experienced, so a competent surfer with their own board and their own judgement has a reason to make that climb. Malpaso is framed purely as a hazard to respect from the dry sand, a beach to admire rather than enter. If you are a strong surfer reading the swell yourself, Carricitos is the one with your name on it. If you are anyone else, treat both seas as a genuine danger, keep children well back from the shore break, wade only with great care at the very edge if at all, and never go in alone. Conditions here are always variable and never safe to assume.
Facilities and crowd: identical on paper, and it means bring everything
This is where the two beaches converge completely. Neither has toilets, vendors, a bar, drinking water or shade structures. Neither has a lifeguard. You carry in everything you need, water first and in quantity, plus sun cover and sturdy footwear, and you carry out every scrap of rubbish. Plan to be entirely self sufficient. Both stay quiet precisely because the walk filters out the casual crowd, so if solitude is your metric, either will satisfy. Malpaso can feel like you have barely another soul in sight; Carricitos can leave you with no one in either direction. On sheer emptiness there is little to choose.
Because both are exposed and hot, timing is not optional. Start early, before eight in the morning is the advice for Malpaso, and go in the cool of the morning at Carricitos, leaving before the midday heat since shade is almost nonexistent at one beach and limited to a handful of palms at the other. The dry season from November to April gives the best trail conditions, the most settled weather and the clearest sunsets at both. You can sanity check the timing on the seasonal notes for the area before you commit.
The verdict, reader by reader
The experienced surfer: Carricitos. It is the beach explicitly worth surfing if you have the skill, and the longer approach keeps the lineup as quiet as the sand.
The long distance beach walker: Malpaso, for the wide soft sand you can pace from one end to the other, and the clifftop route in.
The shade seeker who wants to settle: Carricitos, and specifically the far end by the back beach palms.
The sunrise solitude hunter with limited time: Malpaso, since the walk is shorter and you can be on empty sand faster.
The first timer who wants maximum wildness: Carricitos, because the steep jungle climb is the fuller adventure.
When the other one wins
Two conditions flip the answer. First, trail access. If you hear locally that Malpaso's routes are disrupted by construction or private property on the day you go, Carricitos becomes the safer bet simply because its approach is more consistent. Conversely, if the steep Carricitos road is a slog too far in the heat or after rain, Malpaso's shorter clifftop path is the kinder choice. Second, the sea state. On a big Pacific swell, neither is for swimming, but a surfer will find Carricitos the one with a purpose, while a walker who just wants to be near calm looking water will be happier watching a smaller day. When the swell is really up, honestly, both are for looking only.
If either starts to sound like more beach than you bargained for, the coast nearby has gentler and different characters. There is the hidden snorkelling cove of Playa Las Cuevas for clear water on a calm low tide, the black and gold sunset sand of Playa Patzcuarito for another wild walk in, and the busy, serviced town beach itself for lunch, a surf lesson and shade you do not have to hike for. Anyone set on true quiet can browse the wider roundup of secluded shores to compare the trade offs in one place.
Want a lounger and a drink instead of a hike
Both of these beaches are about effort, emptiness and respect for a serious ocean, and neither offers a single comfort on the sand. If that is not the day you are after, and you would rather book a bed, order lunch and let someone else carry the water, look at the town's club options on the Sayulita beach club page to enquire about a club day. Prices, opening status and any minimum spend vary by venue and are to be confirmed on the day, so ask before you settle in.