Go for the Sunset -- You'll Stay for the Party
Written: Oct 10 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Picture perfect sunsets every night
Cons: Traffic can be a zoo
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| mrkstvns's Full Review: Acapulco |
Review Topic: Overview
Straight talk time: Acapulco is my favorite big beach resort in the world. Why? One word: sunset. No other resort anywhere in the world has sunsets as dramatically beautiful as you find in Acapulco.
Sure, the sun sets everywhere and you can find nice sunsets in lots of places. But there's nothing like the view of the sun turning orange as its daily fires are slowly extinguished as it sinks into the Pacific Ocean.
Sure, lots of Pacific coast resorts can claim to give that kind of view. But not like Acapulco. You see, the Bay is the thing...
From the beachfront palapa bars on Condesa Beach, you can sip a frosty margarita as the sun frames itself perfectly in the mouth of the bay, braced on one side by the hillside of old Acapulco, and on the other side by the lush jungle-covered hills near Diamante Point. Add a splash of color from the sails of a catamaran and the rocks jutting out of the sea, and you start to get the picture of what really makes up the world's best sunset.
Yeah sure, most U.S. tourists today would rather go to Cancun, where the beaches are better for swimming and water sports and most of the resorts cater more heavily to American tastes. And sure, Acapulco is still reeling from image problems created a decade ago by negative press about pollution in the bay. Yet for all the negatives, Acapulco remains what it was in its heyday: a stunningly gorgeous resort city where beaches rule the day and nightclubs keep the parties going until the sun comes up.
Today, Acapulco has grown far beyond its 1950s small town feel into a huge city with strips of towering white hotels on sandy beaches. It's also a place that really does offer something for everyone, and it's a place that's surprisingly affordable for almost any travel budget.
What to See:
I wouldn't waste too much time with sightseeing in Acapulco. It's really a place that's best experienced. Hang out on the beach. Take a boat over to Isla Roqueta. Relax in a hammock admiring the stunning scenery. Party all night long in one of the dozens of huge nightclubs. Save that museum tour for another city...
Okay, okay, so there are a few places around town that you might want to see.
Old Acapulco (southwest horn of Acapulco Bay)
- La Quebrada Cliff Divers: The world-famous cliff divers plunge from a ledge that's the height of a 10-story building into the raging surf below. Amazing! This is the one sight in Acapulco that you should NOT miss! Shows every evening (and usually one around 1pm). Look for my detailed epinion article about these incredible divers...
- Isla Roqueta: Small nature preserve island off the tip of Old Acapulco. Boats leave from the dock near the Aca Tiki catamaran. Fare is about 50 pesos round-trip. There are restaurants and bars on the island's beachfront, or you can check out the fairly meager Acapulco Zoo. The underwater virgin was sure a silly waste of time!
- Fuerte del San Diego: Climb the stairs across the street from the cruise ship dock to the star-shaped old Spanish fort whose cannons guarded the port in the period from the 17th through 19th century. The historical museum inside the fort is currently closed for remodeling.
Condesa Beach
Pretty nice beach with about 3 miles of long white sandy beach. Like most Acapulco beaches, this one is fairly rough and is considered dangerous to swim in during all but the most placid doldrums because of the undertow. Water sports are available at most hotels along here, and the banana boats seem to be especially popular although we did see a few people doing some parasailing too.
Icacos Beach
A continuation of Condesa as you head eastward along the bay. Same advisory about swimming applies. There's also a Jai-Alai fronton where you can bet on the world's fastest game, or check out the bingo hall.
Puerto Marquez
From the road this looks like the perfect little beach village with lots of pleasure boats anchored in its sheltered harbor and rows of restaurants lining its calm beach. This is one of the few calm, relatively safe swimming areas in Acapulco. The town consists mostly of about a mile of identical beachfront restaurants, each serving fried fish, seafood dishes, and one or two chicken or beef dishes. All of them are servicably good, cheap, and offer endless supplies of beer and sodas as you sit in the umbrella covered chairs outside their establishments. The big downside is the huge number of relentless vendors that come by. I enjoy haggling over things for a while, but after the 75th T-shirt or bracelet vendor comes by in the course of a single hour, my patience starts wearing thin...
Diamante (Revolcadero, Airport)
This is one of the few beaches to directly face the Pacific, as opposed to the sheltered coves along Acapulco Bay. Lots of new resorts, golf courses, big hotels with lots of amenities. Nothing really to see or do other than the beach.
Where to Eat:
There must be a million and one restaurants in Acapulco, and while I never had a bad meal in Acapulco, I didn't have many remarkable ones either. One of the best was at one of the beachfront palapa-style places on Playa los Hornos. I wish I could remember the name of this place, but I think it was something like Chichirrones (I doubt that's right -- but it's probably close). The place had a wonderful shrimp shish-kebab (brochette) of absolutely huge shrimps that were so tender they practically melted in my mouth.
Here are some comments on a few other places we ate.
La Frigata is a modern place on the waterfront right next to the cruise ship dock. The dining room is very clean and modern and the menu is sort of a mix of mexican, american, and european dishes. They had a bucket of 5 beers for 60 pesos (US$6) which went over well with me, plus some absolutely delicious cheeseburgers (a touch more salt flavor than you might expect).
La Metata and La Fogata are these siamese-sister places on Costera M.Aleman near the Diana Circle that seem to share pretty much everything, right down to the signs proclaiming the availability of Rico Pozole (I'll be the judge of that!) 7 days a week. Straight up typical mexican food at reasonable prices. Great frozen margaritas!
La Petite Belgique was kind of a surprise -- an elegant Belgian restaurant in an impossibly hard to find location. Great food with a few surprises -- look for my separate epinion article on this fascinating little place...
Amigo Miguel is one of a bunch of ordinary restaurants in old Acapulco. Tucked into a side street (Juarez, about a block off C.Mig.Aleman, about 2 blocks west of the Zocalo), you'd probably never stop here, and lunch wasn't that memorable, but it was cheap. Smell that deep frying fish as you walk up the stairs to the dining room. Popular with mexican tourists, but I didn't see a single gringo there.
La Perla is the restaurant in el Mirador Hotel at La Quebrada. It's expensive and it's good, and it offers something no other restaurant in Acapulco can claim to offer -- a view of the cliff divers (look for my epinion article about these incredible athletes).
Italianissimo is located next to an Aca Joe store near the Diana Circle. While it doesn't look like anything from the outside, inside is quite another story. Big dining area that's thoroughly modern and clean with super high vaulted ceilings. Menu is thoroughly italian, and the food is excellent, but expensive. I do recommend this place.
Carlos N Charlies is a chain of restaurants with a location in every major Mexican beach resort town. The food is servicable but oriented towards American tastes. There's never anything imaginitive nor memorable on the menu, but it's predictably safe. Yawn...wake me when the yellow-cheese-covered tacos arrive...
Where to Stay:
There are so many hotels in Acapulco I couldn't begin to do justice to them all. Your best bet will be to get recent rating and price information from your travel agent. The big hotels that cater to American tourists are generally located between Condesa Beach and the airport. Condesa Beach is downtown and offers some really great deals, plus it has the advantage of being close to restaurants, shopping, and nightclubs. You can find great deals at Condesa -- but there are a lot of big-name hotels here that won't be doing deep discounts. I think you'd more likely get a cheap rate at the Tortuga, which is on the city side of Costera M.Aleman than you would at the Fiesta Americana, which is ocean front and more upscale. On the other hand, you'd more likely find luxurious digs at the latter...
New megaresorts are mostly springing up around the Diamante (Revolcadero) area, near the airport -- this is where places like Mayan Princess are located. In between is a rugged coastal area of sporadic resorts, many with outstanding views and many of excellent quality -- these include Las Brisas (see my separate review of this great romantic getaway resort), Quinta Real, the Princess, the Radisson, and the Hyatt Regency, to name but a few.
The backpacker crowd should look in Old Acapulco, especially near Caleta Beach, where it is possible to find older but clean hotels with rooms for $10 a night. You won't get an ocean view or a beach front, but then, if you're the type of traveler who seeks these places out, you already know what to expect...
Getting Around:
Buses are cheap and plentiful -- the big, ugly camion type buses are 3 pesos. The air conditioned yellow Acapulco buses are 7 pesos. The yellow buses are tourist oriented and run along Costera Miguel Aleman (I don't think they go anywhere away from the beaches).
Taxis are the most convenient way to get around. Acapulco has more taxis than I've ever seen anywhere else in my life. More than Mexico City, more than New York. Endless fleets of white Volkswagen bugs with blue fenders careen through the streets 24 hours a day. Fares are moderately cheap, but some drivers (especially those at hotel sitios) try to overcharge unsuspecting tourists. The fare from the yacht club in old Acapulco to the high-rise hotels of Condesa Beach should run about 30 pesos. There are also colectivo cabs driving along la Costera -- these cost 7 pesos.
Airport taxis are ridiculously overpriced. It ran us 400 pesos (US$40) from the airport to La Quebrada (which is about as far as you'd ever go). It will probably cost you at least 100 pesos for even the shortest imaginable rides (places like the Mayan Princess are so close to the airport that I think the two places share the same employee parking lot, yet there won't be any bargain taxi fare to haul you and your bags to the other side of the parking lot...) There are some collectivo taxis available outside the main door of the airport (don't buy a taxi ticket at the baggage claim area); if you're not familiar with colectivos, they are shared taxis. Colectivo fares start at 72 pesos. If you are a cheapskate and you're getting in during the day, you can blow off the official airport taxis, walk about 150 yards or so until you're off the airport premises and on the public road, and then hail the first white and blue VW bug you see -- the fare should be less than 150 pesos to La Quebrada, or about 100 pesos to Condesa.
Watch out for the price gouging, and always ask for the fare before jumping in (this is true everywhere in Mexico, but especially so in Acapulco). One driver at a hotel sitio wanted to charge 75 pesos for what should have been a 20 peso fare -- at least until my wife lit into him with a rapid-fire assault of verbal abuse so withering that even a drunken sailor would cringe in terror.
I'll Try the Coco Loco
Acapulco is a great resort town with a very sophisticated, cosmopolitan feel to it. It's more international in feel than places like Cancun or Puerto Vallarta, and it's got a level of nightlife that probably only Rio de Janiero might be able to compete with. You want to dance the night away under the stars, in a club a beachside club where the night surrenders before the music gives up? Then you really want to be in Acapulco. Don't worry, you can sleep it off in the beach hammocks -- the waiters will bring your drink to you...
Recommended:
Yes
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