Selina Puerto Escondido is probably for sure the most expensive accommodation in the area. But is it worth the money? How is this Selina for long-stay, where do we see its biggest pros and cons, what did we like and what did we miss? We spent about six weeks altogether in this surfers paradise, so let’s check it out!
Where is Selina Puerto Escondido?
This is already our second of Selina hostel. The first one was Selina in Oaxaca de Juaréz, the capital of the state. This one is just a 6 hour’s colectivo ride away on the pacific coast. And when I say pacific coast, I mean surfers everywhere.
Tip: Check out our What to do in Oaxaca City video, where we also shared information about the trip by colectivo from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido.
Puerto Escondido is a small surf town with its main beach Zicatela, hippie Punta, and charming Carrizalillo. It is possible to separate the town into two parts: The local part and the surfer’s part. The local part is just like any other small Mexican town — loud, cheap, and colorful.
The beachside is more oriented towards tourism. You can find nice restaurants (with many veg options), hotels, hostels, and obviously beach and surf schools. The three main neighborhoods are Zicatela, Rinconada, and La Punta. Zicatela is where you find Selina Coliving.
Best Neighborhood in Puerto Escondido
Obviously, it depends on what you’re looking for. Each neighborhood has a very different vibe and offers something else.
La Punta
La Punta is my favorite neighborhood. It’s the place to go if you want to chill, eat good food, and surf. Not so good if you need to work. The internet connection is very bad and there are power outages way too often.
It has a very hippie feeling. The modern kind you need to pay for. It’s the most expensive part, but far from places like Tulum. You’ll find good veg options here and the most beautiful sunsets. When it comes to surfing, it’s low-intermediate to high difficulty, depending on the weather.
Rinconada
Rinconada is a neighborhood above the paradise beach Playa Carrizalillo – the beach you will most probably go to for your first surfing classes. The biggest advantage is how close this and more beaches are.
You’ll find some restaurants and cafés, it’s not far to the center and it’s very calm. You might find it either laid back, or boring.
Centro
If you’re keen to experience the chill beach vibe, skip the Centro. I mean go there for a market etc., but don’t live there. As I said before, it’s loud just like any other real Mexican neighborhood.
It’s also very cheap and you can find all the supermarkets, small shops, ATMs, colectivos, bus station, fresh tortillas, etc. in the Centro.
Zicatela
Zicatela offers some of the best waves for surfing around the world. Important to know: They are huge and only pros can ride them. If you’re just learning or surfing very occasionally, Zicatela won’t be a place where you should put even a tip toe in the water.
On the other hand, if you know how to surf, you’ll probably love it! And even if not, you can still enjoy watching the surfers while sitting on the huge beach! There are many restaurants, small shops, a veggie store, and all the basics you might need.
Also, Selina is located on Zicatela. It is on the side closer to the town, so you can easily get to the bus station, the main market or Chedraui, the big store. It’s also not far to Punta. The taxi will take you anywhere in the town for more or less 50 MX$ (€2) and you can catch a local colectivo for 8 MX$ on the main road above Selina.
What is Selina Puerto Escondido like?
One of the reasons why chains are successful is that you sort of know what to expect every time. But we found out it doesn’t really work like that with Selina. That’s why we reviewed the rooms, common areas, activities, coworking space, quality of WiFi and more!
The Accommodation: Micro Room
As always in Selina, most of the time we stayed in a Micro room. It’s a tiny private room with a shared bathroom. This Selina is spread over a hill and the Micro rooms are located on the top part. So prepare yourself for a lot of stairs and think twice before booking if you have some injury or other medical predispositions. Hehe, climbing that with a casket was no fun!
There are two bathrooms next to the Micro rooms. All in all, some six showers and seven toilets shared between six Micro rooms, about 10 teepees, and some of the dorms. They are cleaned twice a day and it never happend to us there wouldn’t be a shower or a toilet available.
The room itself is tiny, but the AC works well and you have a proper window! Unfortunately, that is not standard in other Selinas… The view is either to the ocean or to the pool. Obviously, the ocean is better, also because it gives you more privacy.
The Accommodation: Teepee
You can also stay in a Teepee in Puerto Escondido with the Micro room CoLive package. Which we did, since there was no room available during one weekend.
The Teepes are really cute and it’s fun for a couple of nights. I wouldn’t want to stay for example a full month, since there is no space, and it’s hell hot. Although, that might be easier without a casket, right?
The Bar and Restaurant
There are actually two bars in Selina Puerto Esconido. You will find the first one right after you get in the hostel. It’s nice, since there is sand everywhere and even though there is a street between the beach and Selina, you feel like there is none.
The other bar is on the top floor, so it comes with a beautiful view. It’s not open every night, usually only when there is some event. Sometimes it’s also open during the day, so you can work from there.
The drinks were good and not too expensive. They have some veggie options in the restaurant. Some really nice, but the portions were quite small for the prices.
The Coworking Space
Well, the coworking space is probably the biggest downside. The WiFi is good (or good for Puerto Escondido), and that is the only good thing I can say about this coworking space. There also used to be a nice ocean view, unfortunately, Selina decided to build a gym on the beach…
- Most of the desks are too low
- Not enough space for the amount of people
- The AC doesn’t work well when it’s hot outside
- Half of the chairs are broken and the other half uncomfortable
Okay, there is also coffee refilled every day. It’s really bad though, so I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad thing.
The coworking space is also one of the reasons, why this is Selina so expensive. The internet connection in Puerto is REALLY bad. So Selina is almost the only place to go for the digital nomads. (Or was? It should be getting better!) There is one more coworking space in Puerto Escondido, not on the beach though.
The Kitchen
The kitchen in Selina Puerto Escondido is nice. There is everything you need to cook: stoves, pots, pans, microwave, small oven, blender (well, that got broken and never replaced in three weeks while we stayed there…), plates, cutlery…
The only thing missing is space in the fridge. As always, there are two fridges, but that is obviously not enough for a huge hostel like this one…
Events and Activities
Selina in Puerto Escondido has pretty good diversity of the events. From the typical karaoke and movie night, to life music or salsa nights, there is something for everybody.
The activities are great. You can usually pick from two included yoga/meditation classes a day, plus there are some extra paid workouts, SUP yoga, etc.
All the classes we joined were excellent! They were led by a professional teacher and every day, there was a different type and level of yoga. Also the wellness area is beautiful and you can use it outside of the scheduled classes as well.
The Comunity in Selina Puerto Escondido
After spending time in some Selinas over the last year, we found out that those located on the beach usually have much better vibe, people are more open, and the comunity feeling is stronger.
Also, many people stayed longer time, even for months. So connecting with people and building some stronger relationships was easier.
Other Facilities in Selina Puerto Escondido
- Beach gym
- Movie room
- Amarisa, the café
- Oceanfront terrace
- Two swimming pools
There is a gym on the beach just in front of the Selina now. We didn’t use it, since it was build while we stayed there. I’m not a huge fan of it, as it’s blocking the nice view of the beach…
Movie room in this Selina is great. It’s quite big, but not too much when you want to have it just for yourself or for two people. You can book it for free any time. There is HDMI cable to connect your laptop, USB ports for external drives and Netflix.
There is a café/bakery connected to the Selina, Amarisa. You can also go there working, while using the Selina guest WiFi. They have really nice breakfast and if you have a breakfast included, you have it from the café, not from the Selina kitchen.
Our favorite spot of this Selina is the rooftop terrace. There are some sand bags, hammock and the beautiful view. Perfect for working or a chilled evening with a beer or wine.
And last, but not least, there are TWO swimming pools in this Selina. One is with a volleyball net, close to the main bar, the other one is on the top level, and great for a chat with a beer or two. There is no shower by the second pool, so it’s pretty dirty all the time.
Selina Surf Club
There is also a surfing school onsite. The price is similar to other schools in town and it’s door to door service. You might negotiate a better price right on the beach, but you would need to take a taxi there. In the end, you would pay the same or even more.
Also the boards are good and the instructors are great. Of course, one might be a better fit than the other. We had classes with all of them (or all who were there at the time) and it was at least all right or really good.
The annoying thing about surfing in Puerto Escondido is that if you are not good enough, you need to go to the smaller beaches. They get very crowded and if you go without a teacher, it’s not easy to practice (because most of the instructors won’t let you to).
Selina Puerto Escondido: Pros
- The location on Zicatela, but closer to the Centro
- All the rooms get cleaned every day
- There is a surfing school onsite
- The views from the top level
- The staff is nice and helpful
- WiFi works good enough
Selina Puerto Escondido: Cons
- The coworking space sucks
- You can’t swim on the main beach
- Other beaches closeby get very crowded
- The new gym is blocking the nice beach view
- Selina is way overpriced for Puerto Escondido
Summary
Selina in Puerto Escondido was our favorite Selina. The vibe was amazing, everything worked (well, sort of), there is water to refill your bottle everywhere, the area is good, we could’ve surfed and all of these positive thigns I’ve already mentioned.
The problem is the price. Already when we stayed there in May 2021, the price was about three times more than in the hostels around. For example, there is a hostel two doors next to this Selina, where you would pay $250 for a private room. We paid about $850 for the micro with the CoLive.
Now, in 2022, the price is even higher. Just the CoLive rate alone is $1013 for two people in the Micro room. As if it’s not enough, Selina marked some of the hostels as a “Premium destination”. What does it mean? You pay additional $15 per night in the Micro room. So you end up somewhere at $1500.
You can have a WHOLE BEACH HOUSE for that price in Puerto Escondido. And I’ve actually heard, the internet connection is getting better in Puerto. If you’re lucky, you can find an Airbnb with a fiber.
I would still recommend to go to Puerto Escondido. Just not to Selina anymore, if you value your money and don’t want to support a company, that delivers bad service and tries to make money on everything. It’s sad, because we had a great time in this Selina. Not for this price, though.
Enjoy the travels,
Love Lea
