Punta Xen

Punta Xen is a long, near-empty strand on the Champotón coast about 95 km south of San Francisco de Campeche and 30 km south of Champotón town. The beach is wide and open, facing the Gulf with light wind exposure and gently shelving pale sand, offering far clearer swimming water than the river-mouth beach at Champotón. There is almost no development behind the dunes: a turtle camp and nesting corral, a few palapa shelters and simple seafood stands make up the entire infrastructure, with no lifeguards, no rental loungers and limited mobile signal. Punta Xen's defining feature is its role as one of Mexico's most important hawksbill turtle nesting grounds; the 2026 nesting season opened on 1 April, with more than 142,000 eggs protected across the area's camps and the first hatchling releases in July. Visitors can watch releases between roughly April and September, when local conservation staff guide small groups to the nests and corral. Outside the nesting season the beach reverts to a wide, quiet stretch of sand with almost no other visitors, well suited to walking, swimming and photography rather than nightlife or resort amenities. Reaching Punta Xen requires a rental car along the coastal Champotón-Isla Aguada road (about 1h 30m from Campeche city), a taxi from Champotón for roughly 200-400 MXN, or a drop-off from a second-class bus on the coastal route at the turn-off, followed by a walk to the shore.