La Saladita is not a resort town. There is no commercial strip, no all-inclusive, no beachfront hotel with a concierge desk. It is a fishing village on the Pacific coast of Guerrero — small, quiet in the way that places are quiet when they have been doing the same thing for decades without needing to explain themselves. The reason it is on anyone's radar at all is the wave: a left-hand point break that runs several hundred meters from the tip of the point to shore, mellow and long and consistent in a way that draws longboarders from all over the world and keeps them coming back.
For an executive looking at this as a potential destination, the question is less "is this a good place?" than "is this the right kind of good place?" The answer depends on what you are looking for. If you want Cabo San Lucas — a resort apparatus, poolside service, maximal infrastructure — La Saladita is the wrong answer. If you want a place that has held its character through the growth of surf tourism around it, where the food is at fishing-village restaurants rather than hotel dining rooms, where the sound at night is the ocean rather than a generator — La Saladita holds up under scrutiny.
The geography — Guerrero, Pacific coast
Guerrero is a Pacific coast state in southwest Mexico, most internationally recognized for Acapulco in the south and increasingly for Zihuatanejo and the Costa Grande in the center and north. La Saladita sits on the Costa Grande, approximately 45 kilometers north of Zihuatanejo — which places it outside the Acapulco metropolitan area and firmly in a quieter coastal stretch that has been developing slowly rather than rapidly.
The nearest airport is Zihuatanejo International (ZIH), which matters more than its name suggests for international travelers. ZIH receives direct seasonal flights from Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, Denver, Chicago, and Vancouver, as well as year-round service from Mexico City. The flight from LAX is under three hours. From ZIH, La Saladita is a 45-minute drive north on the coastal highway — a drive that passes through Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa before the road quiets into the fishing-village strip of the Costa Grande. There is no connection required, no internal flight, no complicated transfer. You land at ZIH and you are in La Saladita in under an hour.
The village itself is small. A main beach road, a few cross streets, restaurants and shops on the beachfront, modest palapa-roofed structures set back from the sand. The point is at the north end of the beach; the wave breaks along the rocks from the point south toward the middle of the bay. The lagoon sits behind the beachfront strip, separated by a narrow band of land — Templo is on the lagoon corner, with the ocean-side surf break a hundred meters in one direction and the calm lagoon water in the other.
The wave — left-hand point, consistent, forgiving
La Saladita is consistently cited among the world's great longboard waves — and it earns that description through consistency rather than drama. It is a left-hand point break, which means it peels from the tip of the point to the south in a long, predictable wall that experienced longboarders can ride for several hundred meters. Warm water year-round. The break faces south, which catches the Pacific swells that roll in from the south through the summer and the smaller north swells in winter.
For executives who do not surf, this geography matters: a forgiving left-hand point with a slow peel and a sandy bottom beyond the rocks is one of the most learnable wave shapes available. It does not throw you over falls; it does not require reading a complex, fast-breaking barrel. Local guides who have been working this wave for decades know how to introduce someone to it without overwhelming them. The percentage of Templo retreat participants who get to their feet on their first or second day in the water is high, because the wave is designed by geology and current to make that possible.
For experienced surfers, the same geology that makes it accessible produces long, contemplative rides that are a different practice than high-performance surfing. The longboard wave demands weight transfer, patience, cross-stepping — it rewards timing over aggression. Experienced shortboarders often find this an interesting re-calibration; experienced longboarders arrive and do not want to leave.
Conditions vary by season. The November-through-April period brings smaller, glassier waves, lower humidity, and cleaner mornings. The May-through-October period brings larger south swells — chest to overhead on good days — warmer water, and more consistent activity in the lineup. The wave does not close out in either season; it simply changes register.
The local-coaches-only rule — what it means, and why it matters
There is a rule at La Saladita that the village has maintained over years of surf tourism growth: coaching in this lineup is done by local Saladita guides only. This is not posted on a sign; it is a community standard, enforced by shared understanding among the operators who work this break, and respected by the surf hotels and retreats that have chosen to set up here.
Templo Saladita takes this seriously. Jordan Smith, who co-founded Templo and co-facilitates the retreats, spent a decade as a professional surf coach at three of the most technically respected coaching schools in the world. She does not coach in this water. The local guides do. Their knowledge of this specific wave — the tides, the rip channels, the sets, the etiquette, the subtle variations in how the break shifts through the day — is accumulated over years in this place, and it is not something that a coaching credential from Nosara or Sayulita transfers to automatically.
This matters for an executive audience beyond the practical. A property that chooses to honor this rule when it has every economic incentive to bypass it — Jordan's background would make it trivially easy to run a proprietary coaching operation — is signaling something about its relationship to the place it operates in. The rule is a filter for the kind of operator who is serious about being here rather than extracting from here. Retreat participants interact with local guides who know their names, their ability level, and their specific tendencies in the water within two sessions. That relationship has a texture that a visiting surf coach without local knowledge cannot produce.
The food landscape
La Saladita is a fishing village, and the best food here reflects that. The local restaurants are small, open-air, and built around the daily catch and the staples of Guerrero cooking rather than around a tourist menu.
Paco's is the most established beachfront option — whole fish cooked simply, cold beer, the kind of place where the long lunch is the point and the conversation at the next table is also the conversation at your table. It is the social center of the village at midday. Crispy Fish is a more recent arrival popular with the surf crowd, lighter in format, good for a quick meal after a morning session. Marejada has built a reputation as a more considered dining experience by local standards — the cooking is more composed than Paco's straightforward fish and rice.
Lourdes is a longtime local breakfast spot; Acadia, in Troncones about twenty minutes south, is a wider destination for travelers who want a broader menu and are willing to make a short drive. Troncones itself is a useful comparison point: it is a quiet, small beach town that has developed a slightly more tourism-facing infrastructure than La Saladita while retaining a similar character.
For retreat participants, meals during the four days are prepared on-property at Templo. The kitchen is stocked with local produce, fish, and Guerrero staples; the edible garden contributes herbs and fruit. The food is not hotel dining — it is cooked by people who live here and know what is good. The village restaurants are an option on free afternoons for participants who want to explore, and Paco's at lunch on an unstructured afternoon is worth doing at least once.
The accommodation context
Templo Saladita is five spaces on a corner lot at the lagoon end of the village. Glass-walled treehouse in the palm canopy with a copper soaking tub and private barrel sauna; master casita with a full kitchen; three studio casitas, each with a private courtyard. A hexagonal yoga shala, two plunge ice baths, a pool, edible gardens, and the lagoon view. It is the only property of this scale and design on the point; nothing else in La Saladita combines this accommodation quality with a functioning program infrastructure and the retreat format.
Other accommodation exists in the village for independent travelers. SAMAS is a well-known surf camp with a longer history in Saladita. Casa Mango is a smaller property on the beachfront. La Chuparosa is a quieter option set back from the main strip. These are appropriate for independent surf travelers; they are not designed for a four-day executive retreat format that requires a hexagonal shala, dedicated peer-session space, full-property exclusivity, and a functioning wellness infrastructure. The retreat product at Templo occupies its own category in the La Saladita accommodation landscape; it is not a budget-tier option compared to others, and it does not compete in the same market.
What an executive visit looks like, compared to a tourist one
The difference between arriving in La Saladita as a tourist and arriving as part of a retreat cohort is roughly the difference between visiting a city alone versus knowing three people who live there. The physical place is the same; the experience of it is entirely different.
A tourist arriving independently gets the village and the wave, but navigates the logistics alone — transfer from ZIH, board rental from the local shops, figuring out the reef and the etiquette, finding Paco's on their own. The first day has a friction level that goes down after 24 hours but exists. A retreat participant arrives to a transfer that has been coordinated, a room that is ready, a dinner already underway, and seven other people with enough context about each other to begin the actual work by the second morning.
The retreat format also changes what is available at the place. The morning surf session with local guides is not something you can simply purchase as an independent traveler at the same quality — you can rent a board and paddle out, but you are not in the lineup with guides who have been briefed on your ability level and your goals for the session. The facilitated peer sessions in the shala are not available outside the retreat context. The ice bath and sauna and pool and edible garden are not amenities you can use unless you are staying at Templo. The retreat is not just access to La Saladita; it is access to a specific infrastructure built into La Saladita that does not exist anywhere else on the point.
Practical logistics for international travelers
The basics: fly into ZIH. No internal connection required from most major US cities. The drive north from the airport is 45 minutes on a well-maintained highway; private transfers are available and straightforward to arrange. Once accepted into a Templo retreat cohort, the property shares detailed logistics including recommended arrival windows, local transfer contacts, and answers to specific questions about what to bring and what is already at the property.
What to know about Mexico City as an alternative routing: CDMX to ZIH is a one-hour flight on Aeromexico and others, operated daily. If you are already in Mexico or routing through CDMX, this is a clean option. Driving the roughly 330 kilometers from CDMX to Zihuatanejo along the autopista is also possible, though most international travelers fly.
Weather: the November-through-April shoulder is drier and cooler in the relative sense — highs in the high 20s Celsius, low humidity, reliably good mornings. The June and September cohorts fall in the warmer, more humid months; the property's shade infrastructure, pool, and air-conditioned casitas make this workable, and the September swell season often produces the best surf conditions of the year. The December cohort catches the cleanest surf weather and the most favorable climate for non-surf participants.
Cellular and connectivity: La Saladita has workable cell coverage from the major Mexican carriers — Telcel has the strongest signal on this stretch of the coast. Property WiFi at Templo is adequate for communication but the retreat format is designed around periods of deliberate disconnection. Participants who need reliable high-speed connectivity for ongoing work during the four days should expect that the property infrastructure will handle light communication; video calls and heavy bandwidth use are less reliable. This is, in most participants' accounts, not a problem but a feature.
Spanish: Spanish is useful and appreciated in La Saladita. It is not required; the village has enough experience with international surf travelers that the local restaurants and shops navigate English adequately. Staff at Templo are bilingual. Local surf guides conduct sessions in both languages.
Frequently asked questions
If you are considering Templo Saladita for the 2027 executive retreat program — or simply want to understand the full format and cohort structure — the program page is at /retreats/. Four dates in 2027, eight seats each, March through December.