Acapulco - Good vacation destination?
 

Never been to Acapulco and was wondering if it is a good vacation destination. Where are some of the nicer places to stay and eat? What are some of the must-do activities while visiting there? How to get around town, local buses....? When is the best time of the year to go?<BR>We've been to Cancun, Mayan Riviera and Los Cabos and would like to visit Acapulco. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.<BR>

I like Acapulco.But I'm betting you'll get a lot of responses that its a let down from the other places you've been.I find it more of the &quot;real&quot; Mexico feel.I stay at the Hyatt Regency or The Princess if I'm playing golf.Taxis are plentiful cheap and reliable.Take the &quot;BayCruise&quot; there are several,but go in the morning when its cooler and dont drink.As soon as you leave the main bay area, you are in the open ocean and it could get choppy.Most of the cruises just go around to the cliffs and see the divers and then return.I enjoy it very much.

BeachBoi: Thanks. The Princess is located in the Diamante zone, close to the airport. Is there a shuttle, local bus, etc, that would take us into town?

Dear WW,<BR><BR> I used to go to Acapulco for many many years. I was thinking about it again this year-I would have to say that the drive from the airport into acapulco is still one of the nicest I've ever been on. I think Acapulco is stunning and I've been to Cancun,Los Cabos,Huatulco and PV-I especially love acapulco and PV as well. But since I haven't been to Acap. in some time I wouldn't know where to stay. I must go back there.

With so many great beach resorts, I firmly believe that there is a &quot;perfect&quot; beach for just about everyone somewhere in Mexico. <BR><BR>Acapulco has a lot going for it -- it's big and it has a certain patina of sophistication that Americanized Cancun will probably never duplicate. I think the food and night life are unquestionably better in Acapulco, though of course the beaches and the water sports are better in Cancun.<BR><BR>I've got a few thoughts about Acapulco online (along with sundry thoughts). If you're interested, see http://www.tiogringo.com/acapulco.html<BR><BR>Have fun!<BR>Mark<BR>

TioGringo:<BR>I'm torn between whether to book a hotel at the Diamante or hotel zone. I visited the site you mentioned (thank you, it was very helpful). I guess there are no local buses or minivans that would take the tourists from the Princess Hotel into town without paying dearly if they wish to go into town. Sigh.....thanks for the info!

ww-<BR>We have always had to taxi to and from the Princess and town.I dont remember it being too expensive.I find the Princess to be totally awesome.A paradise all to its own!!

We stayed at the Princess while down there for a business meeting. Paid for so we skip the meetings and just go have fun. (Cancun this year!) We hired a taxi driver for the day for each of the 4 days there and had a ball. We fly on a charter and we always get asked what kind of fun we had while at the &quot;meeting&quot; by the jealous people who actually did what they were supposed to. This was about 4 years ago and it was about $50 a day for the taxi. Cheaper than a rental car and we saw stuff we never would have seen otherwise. We spent very little time in &quot;downtown&quot; Acapulco. He took us to a rodeo where we were the only gringos there. The whole ring where they rode the bulls was made up of small tree branches tied together. We went to another beach area that had a lake on one side of the road and the ocean on the other. He took us to his aunts ranch and his cock fighting ring that he and a friend were building. Basically we saw a lot of stuff around Acapulco but not much in. Did get to the beach one day and played around at the Fon Ton (sp?). Went to a few places where they make silver jewelry. Did some deep sea fishing one day. Can't tell you much about the princess because we left after breakfast and only went back at bed time. It looked very nice. Our taxi driver actually called us at about 3am a few months ago to say hi. Needless to say he was quite drunk at the time. He was a lot of fun and I think we have his card if you are interested.

My husband and I went to Acapulco last year.We stayed at Las Brisas which is a wonderful hotel (had our own private plunge pool)but I have to admit even though the food and hotel were great, Acapulco was too touristy and not the real Mexico.The year before last we stayed at a resort outside of Manzanillo and we enjoyed that much better.

Please think what it means when using the phrase &quot;not the real Mexico&quot;. OF COURSE Acapulco is the real Mexico, what else can it be? It is not your preconceived notion or ideal vacation perhaps, but *real* it is. (Sorry for the rant, but this overused phrase is a pet peeve of mine.)<BR>

Sorry.

de nada mi amigo/a

We went to Acapulco last year and I really enjoyed it. It was beautiful at night when the whole city was lit up. We had a lot of fun at the nightclubs there and some of those even had spectacular views. We stayed at the Hyatt Regency which I thought was very nice and in a great location for walking around. We also visiting El Cano which looked to be very nice.

I agree with jlb about Las Brisas. We stayed there and loved it. We have also stayed in town on the beach in a small place called MaraLisa. I don't know if it is still in operation--this was probably 10 years ago. It was nice to be able to walk everywhere we wanted to go, especially in the evening. I would stay at Las Brisas again if we were in Acapulco--the view of the city surrounding the bay at night is truly magical. Some of the casitas face the ocean, some the town and bay. I really liked looking back towards town for the reason mentioned above. We took cabs to town and did not find them expensive at all. We enjoyed the cliff divers at La Quebrada and watching the sunset at Pie de la Cuesta as well as shopping the mercados and enjoying the ocean.

Dear Arriba,<BR><BR> My memories of Acapulco have come flooding back-I used to go year after year. Las Brisas is SPECIAL-Acapulco has such magnificent scenery. I remember staying at the Princess plus many others;like I said, must go back!

We stayed at the Peirre(sp?) Marquez which is a sister property of the Princess. It is quieter, low rise, gorgeous grounds. There was a shuttle to the Princess where we ate dinner once. We really preferred going into town at night. We liked our stay there, but nothing beats Las Brisas!

I went to Acapulco for the first (and only time) last new years. I personally did not enjoy this destination at all. Stayed at the Costa Club which was not a hotel I would stay at again. In general, we could not enjoy the night life at all as every night we went out we were almost the only americans and the young (20 year old boys) in bars would just relentlessly bug us (we are in our 30's) to dance with them and sit with them - they were so pushy and obnoxious. We would try different night clubs, but end up leaving almost every night because it was the same situation. The taxi drivers mess with you - they seem to speak english when you get in the cab but do not want to understand when it comes to paying and giving change back....it was a frustrating experience every time we got in a cab. Also they charge you one price to go to a destination (in our case - a night club) and charged double to go home later (all the cab drivers did it - so there was no choice but to pay to double to get home). We were both very careful about what we ate and both ended up very sick too. The beach had washed up garbage everywhere too. I have been to Cancun twice and Cozumel once in addition, I have travelled all over Europe, Brazil, Caribbean and the US so I consider myself a seasoned traveller...I do not recommend this destination and would never go back. Maybe others have had better experiences here...I hope so.

Dear Arriba,<BR><BR> It would be mighty hard to beat LAS BRISAS anywhere, anyhow-such magnificence the likes which CAN'T be beat!!!

To mgfit,<BR>Sorry to hear that your trip to Acapulco was not a pleasant one. After I read the previous postings, I was even thinking about spending two weeks there. Well, maybe not.

I wouldn't let one person's bad experience make you change your mind. I did not see any garbage on the beach and we had no problems with taxi drivers. In fact, we had a couple of drivers that we used regularly and they were great. He would drop us off and we would tell him when to pick us up and if we were doing something the next day we would arrange a time the night before. We had two different guys and I don't think either of them ripped us off. As far as the night clubs, we were there during spring break so there were many Americans - I have heard this isn't always the case. I don't know if I would want to stay for two weeks but if you are looking for somewhere different to go you might like it.