Anne Menke photographed a feature on Puerto Escondido for Travel + Leisure - Mexico’s long-hidden surf and beach paradise on Oaxaca’s Pacific coast.
“The Remote Beach Town of Puerto Escondido Is Mexico's Best-kept Secret - With Sumptuous Hotels, a Vibrant Art Scene, and Incredible Beaches,” writes the magazine about the once-isolated coastal town, which in recent years has transformed from a sleepy fishing village into an international hotspot shaped by boutique hotels, an emerging art scene and a growing digital nomad lifestyle.
According to local legends, the first globe-trotting gringos arrived in the almost inaccessible town as early as the 1960s. For decades, poor roads crossing the Sierra Madre del Sur prevented larger-scale tourism development. Only with the opening of the Barranca Larga-Ventanilla highway in 2024 did Puerto Escondido - meaning “Hidden Port” - gain a direct connection to the outside world. At the inauguration, Mexico’s Ministry of Transport described the new route as “Oaxaca’s window to the world.”
Anne Menke accompanies the story with her signature natural visual language, balancing travel journalism, documentary observation and contemporary lifestyle photography - always staying close to people, places and atmosphere.