We have been going to Acapulco, Mexico for the past 10 years. It is a beautiful place to vacation since the weather is always great year round. We have a wonderful experienced cab driver that takes us all over. He is very knowledgeable always on time and has fun with us. His name is Benjamin Alarcon and his brother is Roberto. Between the two of them they run us (usually a group of 25) everywhere. Benjamin picks us up at the airport and always checks to see if we are on time. We never have to worry about being stranded. If you ever visit the city of Acapulco and in need of a great driver and tour guide email Benjamin and you will be treated very well.
benjamin_alarcon@yahoo.com

Ralph & Dawn Pickering
Cleveland, ohio

Just got back from a wonderful week in Acapulco. Sunny and in the 80's everyday. We stayed at the Mar Azul and I can't say enough about it. Smaller place, only about 25 units, which means it does not have all of the amenities (such as a workout room) of larger places but it has a nice (smaller) pool, is RIGHT on the beach, has a terrific poolside bar, and most important, staff that will do everything to make your visit memorable. They hosted a dinner on Tuesday for any guest who wished to participate--open bar for 3 hours, beef tacos with all of the fixings, salad, etc for less than $19 per person. Many of the guests who are there tend to have stayed there previously and it is a tradition that one will "host" a Friday nite social evening for anyone who would like to attend. I would recommend this place for people without children and couples as it really does not seem to have many kids. Also, all of the water is purified in this hotel and we all drank it with no ill effects :>)

Taxi drivers were overall good. I have some mixed feels about Sebastian Hernandez who is generally well thought of on this site. We had arranged in advance to have him pick us up at the airport. When we got there, he was not there. I walked through the "gauntlet" of timeshare guys asking for Sebastian and no one had seen him. About 20 minutes later, Miguel came outside to find me. Sebastian had called him on his cell phone and asked him to find me. Miguel had noticed me looking for Sebastian and came outside to find me and give me his cell to talk to Sebastian. Turns out, he was running late and asked Miguel to arrange another cab for us. By this time (circus that it was), we had found out that my sister's arrival was delayed 45 minutes so Sebastian would be able to pick her up and we went with another driver. Of course, by now, my nieces had "disappeared" into the airport waiting for my sister but Miguel tracked them down (having Margaritas at the bar) and got them out to the cab for me! OK, off to a adventurous start!!

We finally got everyone together and arranged with Sebastian to take us on a tour of the city on Monday. The tour was terrific!! We really felt that his knowledge of the Chapel of Peace added to our trip and gave us good insights. He knew some great places in the market to shop and brought us up to see the cliff divers. His suggestion to have lunch at La Perla was very good although the food was average. However, the service was good and the cerveza was cold which we needed at that time!
When we got back we arranged for Sebastian to take us to Pie de la Cuesta on Wednesday at 1pm.

Unfortunately, Sebastian did not show on Wednesday. By the time we realized he was not going to be there, it was too late for us to make the trip so we missed out on that part of the adventure. He did call on the next day (a little late) and apologized. He said he doublebooked himself and didn't realize it until too late. In order to make it up to us, he offered to take us to the airport on Saturday free of charge. I took him up on the offer, although some of our party were very reluctant to rely on a driver to the airport who had already not shown up for a trip. However, Sebastian was true to his word and picked us up on Saturday for the airport right on time. So....mixed reviews here.

We did use another driver arranged through the hotel who was also excellent. His name is David Vazquez and he drove us several times. He spoke very good english, recommended wonderful places for us to go for dinner, and waited for us if he felt it would be difficult for us to get a cab back (this was especially nice since we had 5 people so the VW cabs were a bit small for us.) HIs prices were very reasonable and he just asked that we "tip" him for the wait time.

Restaurants: Highlight of the trip was dinner at Su Casa. Wonderful ambience, great food, great views, waiters with personality! I had the ribeye and it was one of the best steaks I have had recently--anywhere! My sisters and I shared the Su Casa salad which was enough for all 3 of us. We also had 2 bottles of wine (okay, we were there for a couple of hours...) Also shared coco ice cream for dessert--YUM! Cost was about $70 each but keep in mind that included the wine so was very in line for a restaurant of this type.

Also had a very good dinner at Linda Vista. We had quite an assortment of dinners here...the chateuabriand for two, the shrimp, a mahi mahi special, and a red snapper filet in garlic sauce. The food was all superb and averaged about $20 per plate which included sides of a starch and veggies. The rice (or potatoes) and veggies were a bit uninspired but the entrees were excellent. The coco ice cream here was the best we had anywhere (and we made a point of having it EVERYWHERE!). Also, the had the best mojito that we tasted all week--very refreshing and not too sweet.

Other than these outings we stayed near our hotel for dinner and had some good experiences. El Zorritto's is basically across the Contrera from the hotel and served excellent seafood and Mexican. My sister had a shrimp brochette here that was out of the world: shrimp wrapped in bacon, pineapple, onion, peppers all grilled and served with a saffron rice and other fixings. Very good...and could have fed the whole table. Also had excellent shrimp ceviche here and pozole on Thursday.

We were going to go to Primo for pizza one nite which my sisters had raved about on previous trips but it was closed on Mondays so we ate at La Gondola instead. It was ok but nothing to rave over. My niece went to Primo by herself later in the week and said it was great. The son of the owner is taking over the business and is adding more things to attract a younger crowd such as live music in the courtyard, a variety of beers, etc. Might be something to check back on.

Also went to Scampi which is about a block behind Zorrito's. Very mixed reviews here....my sister and I shared a seafood platter for two. The shrimp and octupus were both excellent! The sea bass was very good but was not in a form familiar to us...was almost pounded to a dense fillet and then grilled. Very tasty, but different texture than we were expecting. The red snapper was VERY overdone, dry and inedible (by two people who love the snapper!). Also included fried crabs which must be an acquired taste...we just couldn't find much to eat in them for the work! The amount of food was huge but we ended up throwing away half of it because it just wasn't that good. I don't think I would go here again.

One last place to recommend although it may sound a bit odd--the "Buccaneer Bar" which is the snack bar in the Mar Azul. It is owned and operated by an American ex-pat named Danny. Prices are very reasonable 150-200 pesos for a beer (can cooler included), 200 pesos for an excellent good ole american cheeseburger (ask for the fried onions, they are free and good!) and 100 pesos for real french fries! I am not kidding--he cuts the potatoes up right in front of you and fries them up. If you have a craving for the good old american stand by of burger and fries, you couldn't get better than this at any price! He is only open from noon to 6:30 so more of a place to take a lunch or snack but the food was excellent! He also has a few more items on the menu but we never got past the burger and fries!

Spent several mornings taking a run on the Costera. Always felt very safe and got to see a lot of local scenery. Humidity was not a problem running in the morning although there is always a bit of air pollution and some "unusual" smells occaisionally!

Overall, it was a wonderful trip and I will definitely be back!

Acapulco is the ultimate beach location. I'v gone there all my life and you really have everything you can in a beach.
It's basically divided in two. The Acapulco Bay and Diamante area.
Acapulco Bay you have the old Acapulco with the divers and all the big hotels, shops and night clubs.
Diamante area is really the new part. It has all the new hotels and is growing incredibly fast.
You can also go to the lagoon wher you can water ski in an incredibly flat water.
I like Acapulco because you can relax or party depending on your plans. I fyou ever go there just try to avoid National Holidays because it can really get crouded... everything.. beaches malls everything is very crouded.
I would call it the Mexico City of beaches, so as in every big city you should be carefull in certain areas where locals try to take advantage of tourists.

Acapulco is pretty big so my wife and I figured a tour was the way to go. Normally we go it alone but some research revelead that we were a long way from the sights, of downtown that is.
Don't get me wrong, the resort we were at was exquiste. It was the Mayan Palace. Absolutely beautiful!
Anyway the idea of hopping in a hot sweaty VW with the local version of "AC" was not very appealing. Especially since doing anything in Mexico is about bargining whether it is goods to services.
Just a one way ride downtown on avg is about $20, the local Walmart $5 (if you are getting a lot stuff it is the only way to go) and the airport varies $75-$10 (btw - NEVER PAY $75! rip off).
One thing I don't like about Acapulco is that when you stay in the nice way out resorts there is no bus (like Cancun). Because the Cab union runs the place...

So with all that said we starting purusing the cabs. Of course all the cab drivers smoother you. The first question I asked was what kind of car did they drive, I saw a big Crown Victoria with leather seats that was the car I wanted to be in. So finally a cab driver named Ceasar walked up to us. Very neat looking guy and good english. That is important for somebody who is going to be your tour guide ;-).

So we hopped in, the cab which was the cream of the crop! Digital instrumentation, cold AC, leather...the works.
He was very polite he reffered to us as sir and mam (that had to go... not quite that old yet) he commence to explain the orgin and history of the resorts on the they way out of the area we were in. He was very personal asked us questions about what we did what we liked... nothing suspious if you know what I mean. We started up the hill winding along what looked like a small highway, obviously the main road to downtown. At the top of the hill there was an area where Ceasar pulled over for a photo op. It was absolutely beautiful, we were able to see the whole area fron on high. Next we went to Acapulco's Beverly Hills where we were able to see a lot of stars homes, MJackson, Santana...
Oh BTW they will hit you up for a few dollars as you go through the gate into this place and others similar to it so be prepared to tip like crazy.
We were looking to hit all the sights so next we went to a spot where we could get a good look at the whole city (photo op). Turns out Acapulco is divided into 3 districts Traditional, Gold and Diamond. Of course we wanted to see them all.
The Mayan Palace is in the Diamond District, do I need to explain why? Next we went to the Gold District. A lot of tall buildings and shops and TRAFFIC! LOTS OF TRAFFIC! (Acapulco has about 3 million people) It's pretty old too so we hung out at quite a few places one of then was an old fort I forget the name.
To make a long story short Caesar really showed us a good time during our whole trip.