Whole Homes With No Shared Spaces

Square metres are only part of it. The practical differences show up on day three of a stay, not on arrival:

• Bedrooms that are actually separatedIn a house the sleeping rooms are usually spread across a floor or a wing, so an early-rising toddler or a late-returning surfer does not wake everyone.
• A kitchen sized for cooking, not reheatingFull fridge, gas stove, oven in many houses, counter space and a table big enough for everyone to eat at once.
• LaundryA washing machine and a line in the sun matters enormously in a place where you go through swimwear and salty towels daily.
• Outdoor roomsA garden, a walled patio, a roof terrace or a palapa. In this climate the covered outdoor space is where people actually spend the day.
• Parking inside the gate, which is the difference between renting a car comfortably and not.

What a house does not automatically include is a pool. Plenty of family houses here have one, plenty do not — if it matters, filter for it rather than assuming it comes with the house.

Bacocho is the classic family choice: wide, mostly paved streets, larger lots, a genuinely quiet residential feel, and Playa Bacocho and the Rinconada restaurants both a short drive away. It is where you find houses with proper gardens and space between neighbours.

Rinconada puts a house within walking distance of Carrizalillo, the sheltered cove that is the best swimming beach in town for children, plus a dense cluster of restaurants and small supermarkets. Lots are smaller and the streets steeper, but you can live here without a car.

The streets behind Zicatela and Brisas de Zicatela hold houses a block or two off the beach road — close enough to walk to the surf and the restaurants, far enough back that the beach bars are a hum rather than a soundtrack. Good for a group where some people surf at dawn and others do not.

El Centro and its surrounding colonias offer houses within walking distance of the municipal market, the bus terminals and the Adoquín. Less garden, more everyday town life, and the easiest option if you are not renting a car.

Booking a house means you take on the small logistics of running a household, which is easier here than most visitors expect once you know where things are.

Food. The municipal market in El Centro is the cheapest and best source of fruit, vegetables, eggs and fish; the supermarkets on the highway cover everything else in one trip. Most colonias have a tienda within a couple of blocks for the things you forgot, and a tortillería that is worth walking to.

Water. Do not drink from the tap. Houses run on garrafones — 20-litre returnable bottles delivered by truck or bought from the corner shop. Ask your host how the exchange works and whether a full one is waiting when you arrive.

Gas and power. Cooking gas comes from a rooftop or ground tank refilled by a delivery truck, and outages happen, especially in the rainy months. A well-managed house has a tinaco or cistern so a mains interruption does not mean no water. Ask before booking rather than after.

Houses are the natural format for a stay measured in weeks. Many owners here price monthly stays well below the nightly rate multiplied out, because a long booking means fewer changeovers — if you are staying 28 days or more, ask about a monthly rate directly rather than booking night by night.

The dry season, roughly November to April, is the reliable one: hot days, cool-ish evenings, almost no rain and the busiest calendar. Christmas, New Year and Semana Santa fill first and hardest, and a family-sized house with a garden is exactly the kind of property that disappears months in advance.

The rainy season, roughly June to October, brings warm ocean water, dramatic green hillsides, heavy but usually short afternoon and night storms, and noticeably lower rates. It is the best value for a long stay if you can work around the weather. Two practical notes: humidity is high, so ventilation and fans matter as much as air conditioning, and mosquitoes are more active — check that windows have screens.