Benito Juarez Lake | Wild Camping

November 23rd, 2023 by conk_ak

We tried to drive to this spot this evening and there was a very large dirt road block across the road preventing you from being able to drive to the lake. It was after driving through the town, at what almost seemed like the end of the road for the town, there is a construction site for a building and then the large road blocked with a dirt pile. ? We ended up staying at the policia/guard area in the town.

November 22nd, 2023 by conk_ak

The road is blocked with a large dirt pile , preventing you from being able to drive through

April 28th, 2023 by amtravelling.nl

Yep, still a good spot. The space to park is huge so you can get a decent distance from anyone. Very calm at night and nice and cool compared to sea level.

April 14th, 2023 by ritathechickenbus

Lovely spot. We arrived just after sunset but the mountain range all around was still visible and absolutely beautiful. There's a few local spots down by the water which sounded pretty lively until around 21.00. We parked up right by the water, still very hot in the night, we slept with all the van and tent doors open. No fishermen arrived before 6.

March 14th, 2023 by Nomad N Rad

Place is as described. We picked up a bag of garbage before we got settled in. We hung a few hammocks and had a lovely evening. Sunset was nice and a few locals came down to watch it as well. Yes, there are some beach dogs but they are quiet at night and we’re very friendly. We fed one of the extremely skinny ones. If you can bring some food please do!
It’s a bit buggy with something you can’t even see so screens are helpful. There’s a lovely view of the mountains and it was a perfectly safe and lovely place to spend a night.

February 1st, 2023 by adventuresofbrucethevan

Stayed here one night cause it was getting late. Lake is pretty, but there's lots of trash all around. Many dogs, but we don't mind as we are animal lovers and dogs were friendly. Had to pull out a few locals out of the sand, so don't go too far.

February 1st, 2023 by lauswz

Dirty and at least 10 dogs around the van after 5' on place. We didn't stay and found a nice, clean, quiet place 10km after.

January 10th, 2023 by earthsguide

Didn’t stay here as it was filthy with garbage and many beach dogs, we had three of our own and so not worthy. We found a place on river past the dam but also dirty so didn’t post.

January 9th, 2023 by Where does the road end?

As described, you must detour around up towards the hill to circumvent the road that is being rebuilt. Anything but super wide rigs should make it. We are a combined 40+ ft truck and trailer. Nobody here on a Monday afternoon, one fisherman just pushed off.

January 3rd, 2023 by hihosilver.van

Spent one quiet night. The detour around the damaged road was easy to find with the help of the locals and we were able to make it with our 3.2 meter tall rig with only a few mild brushes of tree branches. Pretty and mostly level spot and very popular with the locals. We arrived at sunset and there were folks swimming and enjoying an evening walk. Very quiet after dark, except for one short fight between the resident beach dogs in the middle of the night. Quite warm and humid after spending a week in Oaxaca city! Also, lots of trash, so do your part and keep it clean and consider packing a bag of trash up on your way out

November 14th, 2022 by desertfalcon

Just to add: The detours may change as the road construction moves on. The access to the lake will be kept open as the fishermen need it. The local people are happy to show you the actual detours.

November 14th, 2022 by desertfalcon

Stopping here again for a night. Some sections of the main access road are under construction. There are detours which are pretty bumpy but can be mastered probably by most vehicles with reasonable clearance. Height is not an issue. The water level is about 2 to 3 meters higher than in January, so the beach is flooded up to the small parking place. Still enough space to park a van there without being in the way for the fishermen.

November 1st, 2022 by on.vagabonde

Unfortunately we couldn’t go because they were fixing the road and we had to take an other road. With our truck camper we couldn’t pass through the trees because we are too high (~3.2meters).

June 6th, 2022 by fannyspironelli

Spent one night here on the way to Oaxaca from Guatemala. Soooo quiet and nice. A few locals until 7:30pm on a Sunday night and then we were alone. The sunset was great and a little breeze to sleep like babies.
Big rig (2WD front wheel RV) no problem at all on the road and there is ton of space near the lake. In the morning a few fishermen came but they were not noisy at all.
Perfect free spot !

May 4th, 2022 by gusigb

As previously described. Pretty lake with pretty mountains surrounding it. No facilities. Very little trash (for Mexico) and very quiet (was a Tuesday night, mind you). Some locals came to swim in late afternoon and some fisherman came for dawn, but no one bothered me and I felt completely safe.

February 19th, 2022 by Adriaan&Isabelle

Using the instructions by @alyvanblade, we camped to the left, under the trees, a bit shielded from the wind and out of the sun. We parked so that we did not block the trail (Land Cruiser with roof tent). Mama stray dog appreciated our left over shrimp meal.

After a beautiful sunset over the mountains in the distance, the fierce wind stopped blowing. At 8:00 pm the municipal police came by (using the trail). They said we'd be OK here.

We had a quiet night.

January 30th, 2022 by @alyvanblake

when you get to the parking area, stick right to stay on the packed dirt and then turn left past the sandy spot to go around the point on your left. you get away from most of the boats and the scrappy dogs don't come over here. much more quiet and better parking options, although mostly not flat. quite windy here, keeps the bugs at bay. the water is way too murky to want to go into it, but no foul odors blowing on the wind. it's a nice spot. after an expensive time in Oaxaca, a free couple of nights feels nice. the police came down at 6:45pm and approached us. probably just checking for riff raff. we asked if it was ok to stay here and they said "es tranquilo" with a thumbs up.

January 15th, 2022 by desertfalcon

Road and place open again. Some garbage laying around, nevertheless a nice spot. Some families coming here (Saturday evening), atmosphere very friendly and relaxed.

December 28th, 2021 by helene-jean.blogspot.com

The main dirt road is closed ( Covid or legal dispute?) so we took the other way which is worse than the regular one. Ok for small and narrow RVs. You may have to back up if your cross another car. Once to the little beach you park as level as possible… The scenery is wonderful but the lake seems full of algaes and the water is brown-green. We did not swim. Quite a lot of garbage all around. During the night many fishermen and others came. Quite disturbing but not as the 5 resident dogs who spent the night barking at 2 m from our RV. For all these reasons we do not recommend this site .

November 26th, 2021 by follow_nadle

The road to the lake was blocked due to some road maintenance.

December 10th, 2020 by vandersons.com

This place was closed during the pandemic

March 1st, 2020 by kombiwasi.com

A beautiful quiet and windy place to camp. Few fishermen and kayakers to keep you company. Police drive by, no questions. Highly recommend it.

February 20th, 2020 by instagram

The place is ok. Very quiet and no people. We don’t enter to the lake.
During the day very hot and there is a few shadows to park.
The road to take the place is not good
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El lugar está bien,es tranquilo y sin gente. En el día have mucho calor y no hay mucha sombra para estacionar. No pasamos la noche aquí,fue una parada para descansar.
El camino para llegar no está muy lindo, tierra y con pozos.

February 14th, 2020 by viajantes.de

Great Place. Still all as described before.

January 26th, 2020 by GapYearLatvians

Perfect place for overnight! Even on Saturday night we had all this beach just to ourselves. All local left after a sunset. It was super quiet and tranquilo. There was wind at night so no bugs at all. The views over the lake are amazing!

December 29th, 2019 by America Viva con La Chiva

Lugar feo, con mucha basura, el lago as veces tiene un boom de algas que lo torna inservible para el baño. por el dia hace mucho calor, a la noche muy muy isolado. Mejor conviver con las personas y irse para el parque de Jalapa. La playa és de piedra, no es de arena.

August 15th, 2019 by lamornaharpin

Very large area, easy access, friendly locals, felt very safe, lake is huge and is actually covering a whole town that was submerged, on the far side you can see the top of a church. Great for swimming in, if you have a rod maybe fishing as there are locals here morning and evening. Also kayakers. Really beautiful spot, surrounded by mountain views.

April 24th, 2019 by alwin_bakker

Stayed here for one night. Super nice swimming and little mosquitos, just strong winds at sunset.

Police came for a casual chat as they drove over the beach, and asked if we were planning on staying for the night. I answered “If it’s allowed?” and they confirmed it was totally ok.

Lots of local fisherman around in the evening and the morning, as well as local dogs on the beach.

April 21st, 2019 by dreadscanada

Nice stop. It was very hot outside and we stopped here to escape the hottest part of the day. (43 degrees Celsius) good pits stop. everything is as discribed. Looks big and good enough for a night, but we kept going towards the pyramids.

February 2nd, 2019 by jille86

Free, not bothered by locals. Stayed 2 nights in flat area to the left of the beach. Absolutely murdered by bugs at sunrise/sunset (will attach pic of my bf's leg), not sure if gnats or sand fleas but not mosquitoes. Bring dog food if you can! There's a stray mum feeding wee pups here who could use the nutrients!

January 15th, 2019 by gmail.com

Patrick&Nicole en Rialta, Arrivée à 16h30 avec notre rv pour un magnifique coucher de soleil sur le lac Benito Juárez, avons passé la nuit très tranquille, sans services mais la nuit étoilée en valait la peine

December 5th, 2018 by geck1942

excellent place to park a van and sleep.
On a Tuesday night it was very quiet. fishermen came around 4:30 but luckily I didn't park too close to the shore and they could do their business with the boat. expect 3 to 4 cars in the morning. people started to come in the morning around 8:30.
a bit of trash everywhere and 0 amenity.

January 23rd, 2018 by acrosstheamericas.net

The dirt road is not so narrow for our 25’’RV. We stayed last night, few cars came ard night time(friends jam up or couple). We parked a bit up from the lake side so we were not close to the noise. One car got stuck ard 3:30am so this disturbed a bit which was pulled by a tractor in the morning. Felt safe and people were jogging in the morning.

Had a good dip in brownish lake water. Dogs were hungry so we emptied all the cookies & bread.

November 10th, 2017 by Facebook.com/hottahue

Like described. it's a boat launch area. very narrow and small. We spent the night here and felt safe. Be prepared for cars and people showing up at night. Can get crowded. No facilities. Only some cellphone signal.

July 18th, 2017 by It's not a slow car, it's a fast house

This is a working launch area. Tough to find a flat spot that is not in the way of the boats going in/out.

March 3rd, 2017 by egp12

Great place to camp...unless your in a tent because it was very windy. Very quiet and plenty of flat places as well. Great mountain and church view.

The town to turn to the camp spot is Jalapa del marques..and we just took the paved road in that town most aligned with the green spot on the map. Went around a few round about and easily found it.

December 8th, 2016 by koj86

As we drove out of the street onto the open "beach" area we turned right onto the little cliff overlooking the two beaches. Small fisherboats on the beach, but not much going on. Some trash. Some hungry but friendly dogs. Windy :-) Beatiful view!

November 1st, 2016 by michelle.georgilas

Please note, this is wild camping in full view of everyone, and there are no amenities at this location. Beautiful beach. Probably excellent camping if you are in a truck, car, etc., but we arrived on two motorcycles and didn't feel safe setting up a tent here.

September 18th, 2016 by maxtraveling

Great place to relax for a day or two. There is a tiny restaurant on the shore that serves delicious fresh fish. The owners camp there overnight on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, making it a safe place to sleep.

May 2nd, 2014 by Jim the Truck

Beach parking on Benito Juarez lake. Drive to the end of Presa Benito Juarez, a dirt road leading north out of the town of Santa Maria Jalapa, the road ends on the beach of the lake.

Beautiful mountains behind the lake, sandy beach, cool freshwater lake to swim in. Perfect boondocking site. Fisherman launch small boats there in the morning, and families come to the palapa restaurants in the afternoon.