Mexican Vacation: Ixtapa vs. Zihuatanejo

March 3, 2005 8:13 PM

Mexican Vacation Thunderdome: Ixtapa vs. Zihuatanejo. Two cities enter... One city leaves.

We're having trouble deciding between Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo as a destination for an April vacation. Friends who visited recently said Ixtapa was more laid back and comfortable than Zihuatanejo. The guidebooks say the opposite. Any (recently) informed opinions?

We're also traveling with our youngster (3), and would love your thoughts about that, as well as how 'perfect' we can make the vacation. We're hoping for...
Short walk to the beach, cool pool, kid friendly, good local activities (scuba diving reccomendations would be great), good resturants, some shopping/cultural excursions, and any other ideas you might have.

Help me please, before I have to call Tina Turner to settle this...

posted by daver to Where to go? (2 comments total)

I guess you're not a Shawshank fan or the choice would be easy.
posted by CunningLinguist at 9:12 PM on March 3

That's very easy. Zihua.

Ixtapa is a high rise chain hotel tourist hell. Zihua is a very charming village with considerable local life, along with regular tourist ammenities.

The beach is much much better in Zihua, restaurants much better, pretty much everything. Trust me, Ixtapa looks like a Soviet central designed vacation spot.

Also, they're only ten/fifteen minutes apart.

See www.egullet.com , Mexico board for more recent opinion on Zihua. One last time, DO NOT GO TO IXTAPA. E-gullet direct link to Zihua thread.
posted by Keith Talent at 8:31 AM on March 4