Zihuatanejo

Zihuatanejo is a magical little town with cobblestone streets and a boardwalk where lovers make out as you pass by. It had such charm and still not overrun with tourists – the reason it is still a great place to go!

Honeymoon, 1986, Very beutiful, Loved it!

Well, my initial reason was that Zihuatanejo is the place Andy escaped to at the end of Shawshank Redemption. That’s a ridiculous reson to go anywhere, but it’s symbolic of freedom.

Recently I’ve been looking into international volunteering opportunities, and I found a sea turtle rescue in Zihuatanejo.

I’ve always thought turtles were cool (have a 12 year old one in a pond we built for him) and the location has some sort of strange allure. So, it seems like a perfect combination.

I’d like to go in about a year. We’ll see…

I really liked our vacation to Zihua. It’s a nice alternative to commercialized spring break type areas. It’s much more low key and relaxing. If you want the resort/all inclusive type of vacation Ixtapa is a better fit, but both cities are close enough where you could do a bit of both.

I went to Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo in December of 2003. It was a lot of fun if you have some one who speaks Spanish. I went with my boyfriend and the time and his mother who both were full blooded Columbian and were down there visiting friends. Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo is the only place in Mexico that I have been were I actually felt comfortable walking down the street. I was not bombarded by drunks and icky guys coming up and staring at me or something. Its a not very commercialized area which makes it really nice. We stayed in a little pueblo (thats what they called it) outside of Ixtapa about 15 minutes. To me it was a neat experience! I thought it was so cool that we took a shower out of a trash can! I swear! We had our bathing suits on and they filled up this trash can with clean water. We stood outside and used a tub to scoop up the water and pour the water on ourselves. The water was so nice and refreshing in the scourching heat. I swear the moment I was done with my shower I was dry within 5 minutes. The locals were really nice and helpful…when I could understand their broken English. The food down there was delicious. My boyfriend at the time could not stand not having running water so we stayed in a small hotel in Ixtapa for our last 3 days. (Wuss!) Anyways…we found this restaurant down the street from our hotel that served the BEST Al Pastor tacos for 10 cents! I was addicted to those tacos and horchata! The downtown area was really nice!.....

Far more charming than Ixtapa, which is a government-created resort town. Zihua is the fishing town that was always there.

Don’t feed the alligators or swim with any snakes. Aaside from the exotic wildlife I’m ready to go back to Villa del Sol in a heartbeat.

Worth visiting…but if you really want to enjoy mexico, limit your time in a tourist place like this. I stayed in a nice hotel here at the end of a 10 day trip to a little town with no tourists, which is the best – you get the real mexico experience with a nice relaxing end.

Twelve night in for Zihua for my honeymoon. We stayed in three different hotels on three different beaches in the area. Hotel Brisas Del Mar on Playa la Madera, Hotel Casa Don Francisco on Playa la Ropa and Hotel las Palmas on Playa Blanca.

Hotel Brisas Del Mar was wonderful we stayed there twice. It is right on the beach with wonderful views in all of the rooms. We walked each night into town to shop or eat. The location is perfect for seeing everything in Zihua.

Hotel Casa Don Francisco was my least favorite choice, mostly because of it’s location. It is at the end of Playa la Ropa on a dirt road, up a hill. The views from the room was wonderful, but it was inconvenient to get anywhere. The room itself was one of the best rooms. We had our own pool that made it perfect for not leaving the hotel. We were there over the May Day weekend with all the local vacationers, so we didn’t leave much that weekend anyway.

Our hands-down favorite place was Hotel las Palmas. It is outside of the town about 15 minutes on a undeveloped beach. This hotel is on 2.5 arces and only had six rooms. Every meal is served at the hotel, since there is no where near to eat. Everything was provide and any request was granted. It was the most relaxing part of the honeymoon. It was paradise for us. We will be return many times as do most people after staying at Hotel las Palmas.

I visited this sweet, sleepy beach town many years ago and have wonderful memories. I doubt it’s changed that much since then. There’s simply not enough infrastructure to support progress, and that’s a good thing!