For quality familia time

With news of drug-related violence and H1N1 flu in the headlines, tourism to Mexico has plummeted. But the truth is the violence is largely regional and the swine flu is no longer confined to here. Many places in Mexico are inexpensive, kid-friendly and sunny. Here are some of my family’s recent favorites.

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Sayulita, Nayarit

Once a fishing village, Sayulita has become a haunt for surfers, bohemians and vacationers who want to avoid the crowds. It’s just an hour’s drive from Puerto Vallarta on Mexico’s west coast. We’ve visited this authentic Mexican town with our two girls three times, starting at age 3.

Although the town has bad dirt roads, legions of skinny dogs and its share of perennially unfinished construction sites, it has no high-rises, no traffic, no strip malls, no rave bars.

It has a lovely beach and great accommodations, and there’s always some fiesta or another. The food is diverse, creative, tasty and safe. Sayulita also has an ideal learner’s surf break. You can rent giant foam boards on the beach for $10 and stand waist-deep in water to push kids into the small waves (then gnash your teeth at how easily they pop up after you went over the falls yourself so many times).

Farther down the two-mile-long beach is a break for more serious surfers, many of whom are Mexican dudes and gringo surf bums like my husband (at least for the week).

The town’s casual vibe means bare feet are accepted anywhere. Although there are a couple of decent hotels, we always rent a house for the privacy and convenience of being able to whip up mac and cheese on demand. Many a norteamericano has come to Sayulita, fallen in love, built a spacious vacation house and then realized extra income would make it even better, so rentals are plentiful.

On our last visit, we rented Casa Magia, a house perched atop the hill behind town. Previously we’ve rented on the beach, but the downside of Sayulita becoming popular with the hipster crowd is that the cost of beachfront pads has skyrocketed.

Because we always rent a car, Magia, a seven-minute drive from town, worked well for us. It’s sleek minimalist, with modern furniture, splendid sunset-over-jungle views and none of the Mexican kitsch that litters so many rentals. It was quiet, remote and, most important, it had wireless and a pool. It’s hot year-round, so the pool is a must for kids. They spend hours in it, and it prevents whining about the heat. And they fall into bed exhausted.

Although Sayulita is not a cultural epicenter, it has surprisingly chic shopping for a town of 2,000 full-time residents. You’ll find, for instance, pricey black pearl jewelry made by the striking Les Gazelles sisters in their chic shop Pachamama and exquisite beadwork sold by traditionally dressed Huichol Indians in the plaza.

What most visitors don’t know about Sayulita is that there are isolated, gorgeous coves a short walk through jungle at the southern end of town. When the main beach gets too crowded on weekends, we run off to Playa de los Muertos (beyond the colorful old cemetery) or even farther to the crashing waves and empty beach of Playa Carricitos.

If you rent a car, spend a day on neighboring San Pancho beach, which is far less popular than Sayulita and has rough waves but is a great place to go for lunch or dinner.

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Getting there

Fly into Puerto Vallarta ($280 from LAX), rent a car or catch a shuttle northwest to Sayulita.

Where to stay

Rental houses

Casa Magia: Two bedrooms from $250 a night; www.magiasayulita.com.

Casa Ava: Two bedrooms from $125 a night. We stayed here on a previous trip, and it was great; also has a pool and a large outdoor area; www.sayulitalife.com/ava.

Hotels

Petit Hotel d’Hafa: A small, Morocco-inspired, funky-chic hotel right in the heart of town and a deal to boot. Doubles from $50 a night; www.sayulitalife.com/hafa.

Villa Amor: A boutique hotel at the end of the beach, Villa Amor is the swankiest outfit in town, although not very private. Doubles from $55; www.villaamor.com.

For more information, www.sayulitalife.com.

Where to eat

We’ve always found street food safe to eat in Sayulita. There are carts and canteens everywhere serving fabulous fish tacos for about a buck. There are some terrific outdoor fish restaurants lining the beach; I recommend plain grilled snapper any day. But if you’re leery of those places, here are some brick-and-mortar establishments we like:

Rollie’s: For breakfast, this place near the plaza serves the best pancakes in town.

Choco-Banana: The morning hipster hangout serves snacks and muffins.

Sayulita Fish Taco Restaurant & Tequila Bar: Fish tacos at a slightly higher price with a great view of the plaza happenings.

Don Pedros: Though it has American prices and a touristy beachfront location, it is an excellent stumble-in-off-the-beach spot and serves outstanding margaritas.

Bicyclette: Our favorite kid-friendly fine dining spot in Sayulita is on a back street in an enclosed garden. The owners are French, and the food is terrific.

Mar Plata: An unexpectedly swank restaurant in the town of San Pancho. Possibly a good date-night alternative.

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Bahia de la Luna, Oaxaca coast

For a place where kids can roam freely and there’s no room service, TV or telephones, head to Bahia de la Luna. At the end of a hideously pot-holed road (which works wonders in keeping out the world), you’ll find the remote American-owned beach resort on La Boquilla Bay, about 40 minutes from Huatulco airport on Mexico’s southern coast.

We spent a week here this summer, having the quintessential beach vacation with much desired “quality time.”

There are 14 rustic-chic (more rustic than chic), stucco and thatched dwellings, three of which have two bedrooms or more. The sand is sparkling, the ocean turquoise, the jungle luxuriant and the attitude very chill. Upon arrival, my kids flew out of the car before I could stop them, ripped off their clothes and plunged into the tide in their underwear. No one batted an eye.

Amid a notoriously rough coast with big-wave surfing just an hour up the pike, La Boquilla is an oasis of tranquillity where kid-sized waves hit the vanilla sand. There isn’t much to do here but sleep, swim, snorkel, kayak, eat, read, log hammock hours and drink cerveza.

As far as dining, it’s a one-horse town. Usually the menu involves the catch of the day, but if you request something else, it’s not a problem. When the girls tired of fancy fish meals, we’d mollify them with the regulation macaroni in the kitchen in our casa, then leave them watching a DVD to enjoy a romantic, candlelight meal alone on the beach.

If you rent a car, which we did, drive the coast from Puerto Angel to Puerto Escondido, taking in some typical Mexican villages along the way. If you’re lucky, the surf will be pumping and you can watch surfer studs get towed into 50-foot waves.

Getting there

You can fly into Puerto Escondido or Huatulco. Huatulco is closer and may be cheaper to fly into. You can get there through Mexico City or Oaxaca City. Round-trip service from LAX begins at $447.

Where to stay

Bahia de la Luna: Rooms from $65 a night; www.bahiadelaluna.com.

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Oaxaca City, Oaxaca

For a completely different, highly cultured kid holiday, I love Oaxaca City. Despite the bad press after the teachers’ union protests in 2006, it is one of the most genuine and gracious parts of Mexico. This stately Spanish colonial city in the mountains hundreds of miles from the coast is a hive of contemporary artists, actors, novelists, photographers, dancers and weavers. And it also has a healthy dose of colorful indigenous culture. Bonus: Because it lies at 5,000 feet, it is relatively cool in the summer.

Last summer, I brought the girls here for two weeks so they could take art classes taught in Spanish. Through the Internet, I had found Armando Ruiz, who has a studio in a 200-year-old house, which is part romantic ruin, part home.

In a city that is busy and crowded, this place was so inspiring that I, who have no artistic talent, hung out making beer bottle-cap earrings and chunky turquoise necklaces under the shady boughs of a fig tree in the courtyard while the girls painted, potted, made plant-based papier-mache and improved their Spanish. (Ruiz is bilingual, so English was spoken when confusion reigned.) The classes were $15 for two hours per child and flexible (they could stay longer and come at any time).

The Textile Museum also hosts excellent (and sometimes free) summer classes for children. The girls took part in a dyeing class that used traditional indigo plant dye, a weaving class featuring the technique that the Zapotec were using as far back as 500 BC, and a mural class using hand-spun yarns.

When not whipping out masterpieces, we’d walk the cobbled streets between opulent cathedrals and colonial houses with ornate iron balconies, shop for hand-embroidered bags at the Indian market in the zocalo (the main plaza) or be entertained by one of the many mobile festivals that seem to wander the streets day and night. One day we were eating grilled cheese on the zocalo, and suddenly a band began to play and a Guelaguetza parade strolled by. This indigenous pre-Columbian festival celebrates the corn harvest, and gorgeous village women danced through the streets wearing extravagantly colorful dresses and jewelry, throwing candy to children.

Although staying in the middle of town is imperative for being in the middle of the action, it is raucous. We rented a three-bedroom bed-and-breakfast called Casa de los Milagros, owned by a family that has three of the best B&Bs; in Oaxaca City.

It was great to have a house decorated with colonial antiques all to ourselves with a kitchen and a cook on hand. Noise was the drawback.

One day we hired a driver to take us to the Teotitlan market. On the way we stopped for an interesting rug-weaving demonstration, showing us how the Zapotec made their dyes, yarn and selected patterns. The market was crowded and hot, but it was fun, and we returned home sporting peasant blouses and the ornately embroidered gingham kitchen aprons indigenous women wear.

Of course, there is no trip to Oaxaca City without seeing Monte Alban, the pre-Columbian mega-center of the Zapotec people. Go early before this enormous archaeological site on a nearby mountaintop gets hot and crowded, and you’ll have the place to yourself.

A museum that I promise will not make your kids groan is the spectacular Museo del Palacio on the zocalo. It’s better than many American city museums and has state-of-the-art interactive technology for kids, clever exhibits on regional history and a chic gift shop to which parents can escape while kids go through the earthquake house for the 10th time.

Getting there

The most direct route is through Houston and on to Oaxaca City, about $418 round trip.

Where to stay

Casa de los Milagros: A three-bedroom house we rented for $240 a night. Rooms can be rented for $90 to $120 each on a per-room basis; www.casadelosmilagros.com.

Las Bugambilias: With nine rooms set back off the street, this is a quieter, although less private, option with no public kitchen. Rooms for $65 per night; www.lasbugambilias.com /oaxaca-bed-breakfast.htm.

Art classes

Armando Ruiz was our teacher, and I recommend him. One two-hour lesson costs $15. Three two-hour lessons, materials included, cost $40; www.ishuakara.com.

Textile museum: Most of these classes were free or about $15 for a three-hour class; www.museotextilde oaxaca.org.mx.

Where to eat

La Biznaga: Our favorite was La Biznaga, which also seemed popular with the local arty set. It has a hip, relaxed atmosphere in an open-air patio with modern art and fusion food. Service is slow, so be prepared. It had the girls’ pick of sopa con pollo y arroz (chicken and rice soup); 512 Garcia Vigil.

Los Danzantes: Fantastic for fine dining in interesting architecture. I don’t recommend it for really young kids, but for the over-8 crowd, it’s a treat; www.losdanzantes.com, 403 Macedonio Alcala.

La Olla: Excellent for a lunch of traditional Oaxacan food (moles, stuffed chiles, soups). 402 Reforma; www.laolla.com.mx.

For great tamales, hang out at night on the zocalo, and look for the stand near the farmacia. Find the line of people and you will find the famous tamale lady. Bring napkins.

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