Where locals go

Where residents actually go

Manzanillenses do not spend their weekends on the resort peninsula. Here is where they actually eat, drink, and unwind.

The Sunday beach at Miramar and Playa Azul

The open beaches northwest of the peninsula are the real local scene. On Sundays especially, families claim the sand from mid-morning, kids splash in the shallows, and the palapa restaurants along the beach do a roaring trade in whole grilled fish and cold Pacífico beer. This is where the seafood is freshest and cheapest, and where the tuberos walk the sand selling tuba, the fermented palm-sap drink, poured from a decorated gourd and topped with chopped apple and peanuts. Order a whole pescado zarandeado to share and settle in for the afternoon.

The downtown market and marisco stands

For everyday eating, the crowd is downtown around the Mercado Municipal and the taco and marisco stands near the zócalo (Jardín Obregón), not the tourist restaurants. This is where you get sopitos, ceviche tostadas, and marlin empanadas at local prices. Go mid-morning to midday when the market kitchens are firing and the seafood is at its freshest. The fish stalls along the malecón are where families buy the catch straight off the boats.

Cenadurías after dark

In the evening, locals head to the cenadurías, the supper stands and small kitchens that only open at night, for sopitos colimenses (little sopes drenched in a thin tomato broth), pozole, and tacos. It is the Colima habit of eating your main meal late and light. Ask your hotel where the nearest good one is; these are neighborhood spots, not tourist listings.

Weekend escapes inland

When the coastal heat gets heavy, plenty of residents drive out. The Laguna de Cuyutlán, the huge coastal lagoon and salt-flat zone southeast toward Cuyutlán, is a low-key local day out, home to the turtle sanctuary and, in season, the strange “ola verde,” the glowing green wave. Others head up to cooler, arcaded Comala for its free-botana tradition, where snacks keep arriving with your drinks, or on to Colima city for a change from the beach.

What a friend here would tell you

Skip the hotel restaurant and eat where the families eat. A Sunday afternoon at a Miramar palapa with a whole fried fish, a cold gourd of tuba, and your feet in the sand is the most Manzanillo thing you can do, and it costs a fraction of the resort strip. If you only do one “local” thing, do that one. For the dishes by name and rough prices, see food; for the inland runs, see day trips.