gamedayoc

Just got back from Las Brisas in Ixtapa last week. Had a terrific time. I ended up booking there thanks to all of the recommendations and trip reports on here, so I wanted to "give back" and leave my trip report. I tried breaking it up into a few sections, so everyone can find what they're looking for the easiest. Also, before I get into the details, I thought I'd share how much I spent. I don't see much of this on these boards, but thought it would be helpful. I paid $1,569 thru Orbitz for airfare for two from Chicago on Mexicana Air (connecting in Mexico City) and 5 nights at Las Brisas. I booked this exactly one week before we left. No clue if this is a good deal or not, but thought I'd share. I know I'd have liked to know what others were paying when I was looking.

Hotel - Las Brisas
Very pleased with this hotel choice. Such a unique place. I found the service to be pretty good - better than what we found outside of the resort. We didn't eat at the nicer restaurants at the resort, only the snack bar by the beach for lunch one day. I had a Cuban sandwich, my wife had a club sandwich. They were like $8 each or so, not really cheap, but very convenient. Same with the drinks. Beers were about $4 at the beach, and pina coladas were like $7. Again, not real cheap, but it sure is nice having a Corona brought to you while laying in a beach chair.

My favorite parts of the hotel were:
- The huge balconies off of every room. Never seen a hotel with such large balconies..and with an ocean view!
- Catching sunset at happy hour in the lobby bar. I would highly recommend this your first night. It's a terrific welcome to the hotel and to Mexico
- The private beach was absolutely the best part. The beach is a pretty good size, and is never too crowded. It can be tough to get a chair under the shaded huts/tents, but you can always get a chair. With the hotel rising into the hill behind the beach, and hills on each side, you really do feel secluded. We spent a lot of time on the beach and absolutely loved it.

Things that could be improved:
- Only thing I can think of is that the rooms do need a little updating. They're clean, but very simple, and a bit antiquated. For what they charge, I'd expect a nice room. Not a huge deal, but it could be improved.
- This really can't be improved...but it does get annoying having to take a cab ride to and from town. You can walk it, and we did a few times, but it's like 15 or 20 minutes. Cabs are only $3 to town, so it's not a huge deal. I guess the seclusion of the hotel can be a blessing and a curse.

Overall, I'd highly recommend this hotel. The benefits definitely outweigh my two complaints above. If/When we return to Ixtapa, I will stay at Las Brisas again.


Ixtapa
I was pleasantly suprised at how much was in town. From all the reports I read, I thought I'd hate it. But there was a lot more to it than I had assumed. Plenty of restaurants and shopping, and a few bars to keep you busy. It's definitely not a town (more of a planned area), ad it's definitely not "old Mexico", but you can go to Zihua if that's really what you're looking for. If you're looking for a place with good enough restaurants, a few bars, and some shopping, then Ixtapa does the trick.


Zihuatanejo
Much bigger and busier than I was anticipating. The 'little sleepy fishing village' tag doesn't fit, in my opinion. This is definitely a town, and has more hustle and bustle to it than I was expecting. Not that it's really fast-paced, but I think it was just bigger and busier than I was anticipating. Kind of a cool place to spend an afternoon though. My wife and I spent an afternoon walking around the downtown area, which was pretty cool. It's obviously very old, which gives it some charm. We didn't even make it to Playa La Ropa or Playa Las Gatas, which is the one thing I did want to check out. If you'd rather spend your days walking around and checking things out (town, the pier, shipping boats, 4 different beaches) as opposed to laying on a beach, then Zihua will offer more than Ixtapa.


Restaurants/Bars
Seemed like there were quite a few nicer, and more expensive, Italian restaurants in Ixtapa. Our thinking was that we didn't go to Mexico to get Italian food. We live in Chicago, and have quite a number of good Italian restaurants near where we live so we avoided those places in Ixtapa, and went for the places we felt had a little more character. Plus, we didn't feel like dropping $80-$100 for a meal with drinks. Here's where we did eat...

Los Hauraches - Small place right in the middle of Ixtapa. We each had a few beers, I had steak tacos and my wife had a Mexican plate/sampler. We both really enjoyed our meals, and got out of there for about $30 USD, including tip. Very casual and low key. Service was ok, not great, not terrible. I'd recommend it for a simple, cheap dinner. We both thought this was one of the better meals we had, and will visit again if we come back to Ixtapa.

Mama Normas - Also right in the middle of Ixtapa, this was the only place we hit twice, as we both loved it. We each had different meals on our two trips and really enjoyed all of them. This was the only place in the general area that had a wait, and I see why. Good value, wide variety, great service, and the best meals we had in Ixtapa. Definitely recommended.

Casa Elvira - Located in downtown Zihua, not far from the basketball courts. This place was "just ok". Not bad, but nothing to write home about. Prices were fair for what we got. Service wasn't very good, as it seemed like they had more workers standing outside trying to lure customers in than they did serving the patrons who were actually in the restaurant.

Chili Beans - In Ixtapa, a little bit north of the main downtown area, and it's owned by the same person as Mama Norma's. Really great-tasting breakfast at a good price. I had a breakfast burrito that was very good, and only like $3.50. Best breakfast we had.

Casa Salsa - In Ixtapa, towards the south end of downtown. This was the only place we didn't like. From the time we ordered until the time our food came was 50 minutes. And we were one of 5 tables in the place. Just horrible service, and the food wasn't too great either. Bunch of cats wandering around by the tables too. Not recommended at all.

Carlos & Charlie's - Ate here our first night, as we had no clue where else to go and wanted something fun. It was exactly as you'd expect....decent food, lots of noise and things going on. Nice location on the beach though, and offers some entertainment and music to enjoy after dinner.


Random thoughts
- What is with all the people from Minnesota and Wisconsin? I swear 90% of the tourists we met were from one of those two states. Totally bizarre.

- We had to connect in Mexico City airport on both legs of the trip. It was very nice and clean, but the layout made no sense to me. I'm no stranger to airports, but I found this the least user-friendly airport I've ever been in. I just found the layout of the terminals and signage confusing. And the TV screens listing departure times/gates only showed flights leavin in the next 30 or 40 minutes. So, if it was 2pm, and you had a 2:45pm flight, you couldn't tell what gate it was leaving from. We ended up asking people at info booths, and they were able to help point us in the right direction. I've never had this problem at any other airport...and it had nothing to do with the language barrier

Little_Man

Excellent report, thank you. We've often thought about this area, and Las Brisas in particular...can you compare it to other resort towns in Mexico? Like it more or less?
Lol about the midwest tourists! They must get good flights! It's not easy to get there from the U.S. west coast, so we haven't gone...

jonzy

In response to your questions on all those tourists from Minnesota/Wis. - well as I look outside it is snowing and 32 degrees and it's the middle of March!! We have to do something to save our sanity and yes we have lots of cheaper flights to these areas and we all love it! Nothin' better than drinking on a warm beach.

gamedayoc

frankie - my travel experiences in Mexico are very limited. Only other place I've been to in Mexico is Acapulco, but I was there during college spring break and my week there just involved stumbling between the beach and the bar, so I can't be much help in a comparison. However, as noted, I would recommend Ixtapa if you're looking for a relaxing beach vacation, with just enough going on to keep you entertained. The weather there in the spring is 87 and sunny. every. single. day. We did not see 1 cloud in 6 days. Not everywhere in Mexico has such terrifically predictable weather.

jonzy - I hear you about the weather (I'm a midwesterner myself), but it's funny how so many were from those two states. Almost nobody from the east coast, Colorado, Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana, Illinois, etc.

LA_FadeAway

Thanks for the report! I stopped in Zihua for a few hours on a cruise about nine years ago and have always wanted to go back. The Las Brisas is one of the hotels I always look at when thinking about going there.