We are considering a trip to Zipolite in July 2016. We are looknig at a couple of places on the west end of the beach, including El Aquimista.

It seems to be under the radar and I can't tell if that's for good or bad reasons.

Has anyone been down there recently?

Thanks

We stayed at El Aquimista for a month about 4 years ago. We loved it! We had cabana #3 and that would be our choice if we went again. We might, but Zipo is hard to get to on airlines for us. Regardless of where you stay you'll end up eating at Aquimista a lot. Their restaurant is excellent. If you're coffee drinkers bring a small electric pot and some coffee. It's hard to find in Zipo before 8am or so. Don't listen to those who tell you it's dangerous. You'll meet lots of Canadians who make fun of U.S. media for that stuff. Aquimista's wi-fi works great everywhere but all internet and sometimes all electricity in Zipo used to quit almost daily for a hour or so.

Thanks for the info. good to know.

This looks like an interesting destination, would you fly out of LAX?

LAX is our closest large airport. Others may have better connections or even a non-stop to HUX which is the Huatulco airport that you'd fly in to. HUX is about a 45 minute ride in a cab from Zipo. It's a beautiful tropical airport and they have posted prices to various places including to Zipo so you can't get taken.

Thanks for the information. My research indicates there are 2 resort properties of note, which would you prefer and why?

There are numerous "resort properties of note" in Zipo. It just depends on what you find notable. In any case, you might want to dig deeper in your own research. Are you looking for a big corporate resort chain with lots of glass, stainless & plastic? You might try the beach resorts in Huatulco. Most Zipo hotels are far more primitive and many are so small they just rent hammocks to backpackers. Others are very nice rental houses with pools or places like El-Aquimista or Nude. We've only stayed at Aquimista. If you're bothered by friendly strangers speaking to you, who might be anybody from wealthy Canadians or Europeans to not-so-wealthy hippies, you'll probably be happier in a Huatulco resort. Of course, you'll have to wear swimsuits there.

Thanks for the reply. El-Aquimista Yoga & Spa is appealing, rustic but with amenities? C/O use of beach?

Clothing is optional and accepted along the whole length of Zipolite's mile-plus beach but you'll find more naked people closer to each end. Most beach bars and restaurants require bottoms for both sexes but not tops. You must wear clothes in town, of course. The main street is 1 block off the beach. El Alquimista's website: http://www.el-alquimista.com/es/home.html

Has anyone stayed at Hotel Nude? Can you use credit cards and run a tab for food or do you need to bring cash for everything?

There are reasonably priced direct flights from IAH to HUX. There are also a couple of B&B properties just up the hill from El Aquimista that we are going to check out.

Good question on running a tab v. cash? I'm curious how much cash we should plan to bring per day.

Remember, my comments are about our trip 4 years ago. Even Zipo will have changed in that much time. We thought the best restaurant & bar in Zipo back then was the one at El Aquimista and we just charged everything, including drinks, on our credit card since we were staying there. We've done a lot of traveling in Mexico and Central America & knew we didn't want to use plastic very often if at all so we got about $1000.00US in Pesos from Wells Fargo before we left Calif. Things were relatively cheap in Zipo then and that was enough cash for several weeks since most expenses were charged. I don't know how plastic works at Nude. When we were in Zipo Nude often had loud bands & parties at night. That's not what we wanted so we didn't consider going there. It did look nice when we walked by.

This place sounds interesting. Can you rent chairs and umbrellas on the nude beach, or do you have to bring your own?
Do you fly in HUX because it is non-stop from LAX? OAX looks closer and I will have to make one-stop flying out of ATL anyway. Is a rent a car a good idea?

Sorry for all the questions

I'm not sure where you're looking sc50, but HUX is much closer to Zipo than OAX. I would only recommend renting a car to people familar with driving in 3rd world countries and not in a hurry. Although this would allow you to see the archeological ruins near OAX. Do you know you have to get over to the far right and stop before you can turn left in Mexico? I've driven as far as Puerto Vallarto from Calif. and back and I would not drive at night in Mexico because the roads become walkways for people and herds of farm animals at night. There were no beach rental chairs or umbrellas 4 years ago so we took a bus to Pochutla & bought some. Pochutla's close but not very big. Zipo's tiny with a main st. only about 4 blocks long that was part dirt then. This is not a typical resort town. Ask all the questions you want. It's making us want to go again. I almost wish we weren't already booked on the Feb nude cruise. :-)

We were there about a 1.5 years ago and stayed at Nude. It was about the 3rd time we had been to Zipolite.
It ended badly when we were robbed of almost everything out of our room. We had travelled to Hualtulco to get money to pay our room the next day when we planned to check out. That night we went our for about 2 hours to eat and returned to find all our cash, passports, computers, phones and anything else of value taken. There were hotel staff nearby that apparently saw nothing. Our room was on the second floor with 2 doors to get through. We believe it was an inside job orchestrated by one of the younger cleaning staff. The police were useless since they would not persue our case if we returned to Canada. We found out from the locals that they have a rampant crime ( theft ) problem since there is almost no police presence within an hour or two from Zipolite. We met with a local that had aspirations to become the town mayor and he filled us in. The day after we left a couple were held up at gun point in their second floor condo. The place they stayed in is at the opposite end of the beach from the Nude resort. We loved the entire place as its very low key, rustic, nude beach and very inexpensive but you need to watch out for your stuff and don't take any unecessary chances. I'm not sure how you do that when none of the hotels etc. have in room safes and only take cash. There is a new condo building that is new and is located in the middle of the beach stretch but we couldn't find any info regarding potential rentals.
We were stranded and only had my wife's phone and 1 credit card and had to travel to Oaxaca city to the Canadian consulate to re - new our passports which took a week to accomplish and re - route our return flights from there.
Unless they have done something to improve on the theft / burglary issue I would not recommend it and especially the Nude hotel. I lost all respect for the community when they refuse to address the ongoing crime issue there.
Total cost to us for the theft was ~ $ 10,000 with about 70 % covered by our insurance.

I forgot to mention that we were there for 3 weeks at Zipolite which also gave the theives plenty of time to check us out and get to know our routine.