Acapulco and the Pacific beaches

The 800-kilometre stretch of coast between Puerto Vallarta and Punta Maldonado, where the Sierra Madre reaches out to the ocean, is lined with some of Mexico’s most popular resorts. Acapulco – the original, the biggest, and for many, the best – is a steep-sided, tightly curving bay that, for all its excesses of high-rise development, remains breathtakingly beautiful, from a distance at least. This is the stomping ground of the wealthy, whose villas, high around the wooded sides of the bay, offer isolation from the packaged enclaves below. It’s pricey, but not ridiculously so, and while tourists swarm the congested beaches the city retains a local feel, with the coarse characteristics of a working port.

Puerto Vallarta, second in size and reputation, feels altogether more manageable, with cobbled streets fanning out from a colonial plaza overlooking an oceanfront boulevard. Still, with its party ambience and unbridled commercialism, it is far removed from the tropical village it claims to be: spreading for miles along a series of tiny, rugged beaches, it’s certainly a resort. However, if you travel far enough from the downtown beaches you can still find cove after isolated cove backed by forested mountains. For a less commercial experience, Barra de Navidad, two hours south of here, is a glorious sweep of sand, surrounded by flatlands and lagoons, with a low-key village at either end. By contrast, Manzanillo is first and foremost a port and naval base – despite its lively seaside boardwalk and sail-fishing tournaments its pitch for tourism seems something of an afterthought. Zihuatanejo is an attractive, gentle resort where magnificent villas have popped up on the slopes overlooking inviting swathes of sand studded with palms. Its purpose-built neighbour Ixtapa, the Pacific coast’s answer to Cancún, is far less enchanting, with sterile high-rise developments, shopping malls and an international feel. All along this coast, between the major centres, you’ll find beaches, some completely undeveloped, others linked to a village with a few rooms to rent and a makeshift bar on the sand.

Most people arrive on the fast – and expensive – Autopista del Sol from Mexico City to Acapulco, but the coast road is perfectly feasible all the way from the US border to Guatemala. Between Puerto Vallarta and Acapulco, it’s a good modern highway, unrelentingly spectacular as it forces its way south, sometimes over the narrow coastal plain, more often clinging precariously to the fringes of the sierra where it falls away into the ocean.

The region is easily traversed by bus and all the major resorts have well-connected airports with direct flights from Mexico City and the US. Remember that if you’ve come south from Tepic, San Blas, Mazatlán or points north along the coast, you need to advance your watch an hour: the time zone changes at the Jalisco state border, just north of Puerto Vallarta’s airport. Prices in the resorts, particularly for accommodation, are dictated largely by season. High season at the bigger destinations stretches from early or mid-December to after Easter or the end of April, during which time the swankier hotels can charge as much as double the off-season rates and need to be booked in advance; in many resorts a surge in domestic tourism means that prices also rise again in July and August.