Zihuatanejo and Ixtapa are sister cities located in the State of Guerrero, Mexico on the Pacific Coast. All are serviced by the Zihuatnejo Ixtapa International Airport. Each of these unique beach vacation spots is located within a short drive of each other.

Zihuatanejo is the "getaway" talked about in the movie "The Shawshank Redemption". Zihuatanejo is a truly Mexican villages, with no high rises or large resorts.

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Accomodations
Snorkeling
Beaches
Dining
Activities
Shopping
Food Shopping
Friendliness
Cultural Experience
Value for Money
Would We Return

We really enjoyed our stay at Bungalows Ley. The staff is fantastic. The rooms were modest but very clean. Don't expect a four star establishment. If you want four stars then go to Ixtapa, there are plenty right on the beach or stay at Villa del Sol or La Casa Que Canta at La Ropa Beach. (They both looked really nice) Bungalows Ley is a more charming "real" Mexican vacation bungalow. 

Bungalows Ley is a very nice, low cost, set of bungalows located directly on Playa Madera.

As you can see, the balconies at Bungalows Ley are not your typical hotel balconies. These things are huge! We stayed in Room 2 which shares a balcony with Room 3. We didn't really find this to be a problem and actually turned out to be quite nice because we became acquainted with our neighbors. Below us were rooms 4 and 5 and although they also share a balcony, there is a divider wall between the rooms for more privacy.

Here is Carroll on the couch. We didn't use it much since we spent most of our time on the deck enjoying the view!

Our unit had a king size bed. The bed was muy firma! In fact it was very, very, very firm. Can you say "hard as a rock?" We got used to it after a few nights. Each day we had a towel animal on our bed. Wow, this is like a cruise ship!

The closet contained some cubbies and a safe. The bathroom was rather small, but it had a nice shower.

Our kitchen was located outside on the patio. (Room 3 also has this setup) We liked having everything outside because that is where we spent most of our time anyway.

The manager at Ley is Carlos. He is a wonderful guy that speaks a little English. (No one else there really speaks a lick) He was very helpful and courteous. We also got to know Elizabeth who is one of the maids. She was also very friendly and fun to try our Spanish.

Bungalows Ley is the white building between the Las Brisas, on the right, and Bungalows Allec on the left. The new white looking building by the beach is Room #8.

Ley is the second white arch to the left. The building to the immediate left, with the car, is the Brisas del Mar. Most taxi drivers have never heard of Ley so we always told them to take us to Brisas del Mar.

After dinner we walked down La Ropa beach and found Hotel Villa Del Sol. VERY nice looking place. We walked through the grounds and out to the lobby to grab a taxi.

On our way to the lobby we noticed a photographer taking pictures of one of their rooms. (Maybe soon to be on their website?) Anyway, I poked my head in and took a quick picture. As you can see above, the rooms look quite nice.

Listed below is our critique of the various places we dined. 

(In order of preference)

Elvira - Elvira's was our favorite meal. Directly on La Ropa. Great seafood at reasonable prices. We had a fabulous dinner for under 400 pesos including propina.

I had the "steak" which was a nice slab of fresh tuna wrapped in bacon. Muy bueno and only 80 pesos!

We hired a band to sing us "Zihuatanejo" which was really special. Support these guys because they were great. They did an excellent job and shook our hands after the song. And it was only 50 pesos, so support the local economy!

Patys - We also really like Patys. It is right next to Elvira so it is pretty much the same wonderful view. They also had excellent food which was also quite reasonable. Another fabulous dinner for under 450 pesos including propina.

Casa Bahia - Casa Bahia was a real treat. It is located up on a hill fronting the marina. The view is wonderful. We opted for steak and ribs but the menu also consisted of what looked like some good seafood. You can't beat the view at Casa Bahia. Dinner for two including propina for under 400 pesos.

Our dinner at Casa Bahia was very good. The view is just spectacular. It is an easy walk from downtown, just cross the bridge and head up the road toward the marina. 

Atoles Y Tamales 'ANY' - This is the best place for authentic Mexican food. We ate there two nights and enjoyed both meals. The prices are VERY reasonable. The tamales are only 10 pesos so you can fill up here for just a few bucks.

For dinner we chose Tamales y Atoles 'Any'. It is a very authentic Mexican food restaurant. The food was good and very inexpensive! I had the tamales and Carroll had some tacos. We ate here twice throughout the trip.

MJ & Ritchies - MJ's is a nice little place on Playa Madera. We ate there for two evenings because it was close and they had good food. (We also loved the service there) We had shrimp, abalone, tuna fajitas, and calamari throughout the week. Decent food at reasonable prices.

We ate dinner at MJ & Ritchies near our bungalow. Again, they had good food and were super people. At the end of our meal, the owner gave us a free round of liqueurs!

Obos Deli - This one is listed last but just because we only had lunch. We loved talking with the owner, she makes great sandwiches, and it sounds like the prix fee dinners she is planning in the future will be a hit. Make sure and patronize this place!

La Sirena Gorda - We only had breakfast here but it was good. Our only complaint was that they were off the water which made for a "warmer" meal.

Madera Beach

We stayed on Madera beach. It is a small beach that is frequented by locals and close to town.

Madera is a nice place to relax and it is within easy walking distance to town via a beach walkway.

La Ropa Beach

One night we walked over to La Ropa. (And wow, what a walk!) There is a very large hill that separates Playa Madera with Playa La Ropa. After walking it in the humidity we decided on taxis the rest of the trip. We stopped off at the Sunset Bar, shown to the right, in the Sovento hotel for a quick snapshot. The Catalina and Sovento have a great location and the balconies look nice and large but we thought the place looked very tired and rundown. But the views were great!

At the southern end of La Ropa there lives a cocodrilo. We saw him swim by in the distance.

Getting to Zihuatanejo

Getting to Zihuatanejo was a breeze from Sacramento, CA. We flew on America West airline which made one stop in Phoenix. We were lucky enough to get "upgraded" to first class on the first leg of the trip due to my frequent flier status. (About time all of those business trips came in handy!) We arrived into Zihuatanejo at about 2:30 PM.  After getting off the plane our first stop was to the ATM to get some Pesos! As you head toward the taxi counter you will see an ATM on your left. Fortunately it had money so we were lucky enough to pull out some of the local currency before heading into town.

We took the "collectivo" taxis which load groups into vans and then head into town. We had to wait about 10 minutes or so because we were going to Zihua. Most of the plane headed toward Ixtapa. The fare was 150 pesos. Because it is a "collective" taxi you may have to stop a few times before your stop, but we thought it was a great way to see Zihua.

Downtown Zihua

Since the weather was a little overcast we decided to spend our first day in town "getting our bearings". Downtown consists of a "row of shops and restaurants" along the water, a Mercado food market, and an artesian craft market.

El Centro Zihuatanejo is a very pretty city. We like it even better than Puerto Vallarta. It was full of charm and color. The people we met were very nice. Little English is spoken, but the locals do their best to communicate. We felt very safe and comfortable walking around town. 

This was an interesting site. The building was built around a tree trunk, so a cactus muriel was painted for decoration.

Located by the river is a craft market. The vendors here for the most part were very nice and not too pushy. We found better deals on masks and carvings in the "real" shops just a few streets over. But we did buy some salsa dishes and a Jimmy Buffett looking parrot at the market.

We went back to our bungalow via "the city" rather than the ocean front walk. This is the "hill" you have to climb to get up to the Playa Madera hotels. Needless to say, we took the beach route the rest of the week!

Zihua is still a big fishing town.

After dinner we walk around downtown. We were stopped by a teenage girl who asked us if we would help her with her "English pronunciation" homework. Since Carroll is a teacher, with her CA CLAD credential, she couldn't resist. She had a print out of a Britney Spears song. Her assignment was to practice saying the words and to find out their meaning. This was really fun for us. She was so cute trying to speak English. One exchange I remember was when she was trying to pronounce "her". First she said "here" and we said, no that is "aqui". She smiled and then said "hair", and we laughed and pointed to our hair. She cracked up laughing and then got it right. But this really made ME think. Oh my god, I've probably been bastardizing their language all week long!

This was probably our favorite day because it seemed the most real. We got to ride the local transportation, eat the state meal, and then converse with a local teenager. Very cool day.

Little too much sun and cerveca yesterday so we spent Tuesday checking out Ixtapa. We took a taxi to the Marina and then walked back along the beach to the south end. I guess they have "Cocodrilos" in the marina. Yikes!

Ixtapa is an entirely different world from Zihuatanejo. We found it to be much cleaner but also much more sterile. The Marina area was nice but rather than seeing "local fishing boats" we saw million dollar yachts.

The beach at Ixtapa is large and the surf is rough. Not particularly a good swimming beach, but a fun one to walk. As you can see, the beach is mostly lined with large hotels and a few timeshares.

We had lunch at Carlos & Charlies on the beach. They have a pool that you can use if you buy food or drink. Pretty nice place but it was EMPTY at lunch time. A Pacifico here ran 31 pesos. ¡Ése es robo de la carretera! (highway robbery)

We found these at the north end on the path to the beach. We saw lots of pretty flowers during our entire trip.

There is a craft market in Ixtapa that is similar to the one in Zihuatanejo. We found this one to be a little more expensive and a little more "like the ones we saw in Cancun". After a few hours we had enough of Ixtapa and went back to Playa Madera for some relaxation.

We had read lots of interesting stories about "making the journey" to Barra de Potosi so we decided to have an adventure and head south. You can either hire a private taxi or take the local transportation. We opted for the local transportation because as we know, "getting there is half the fun".

You can pick up the bus in downtown Zihuatanejo on Las Palmas Ave. It is just across the street from where the three ATM's are located. We board the bus and were only accompanied by a few other locals. As we drove down the street the "money taker" would yell "Peta, Peta". (Since this was the bus to Petalan)

You'll want to get off the bus at the Los Achotes stop which seems like it is in the middle of nowhere. After getting off the bus you'll want to walk to the corner and look down the street to your right.

There you will find some flat bed trucks with benches and a tarp.YES, this is your transportation the rest of the way! The cost is 8 pesos. You climb on board and the wait until there are about 10 passengers. Then it is off to the beach! The ride takes about 15 minutes.

Barra de Potosi is like a time warp. It is a very relaxing place. The only people we saw were the occasional fishing boat coming in with the day's catch.

The village sits at the mouth of a large river. It was low season, but we did see a few people renting boats and exploring the river.

We camped out at Nayitos which is near the end of the row of enramadas. As you can see, they have PLENTY of hammocks for tired souls.

There is not much to do in Barra so this is a great place to recharge your batteries. The food was good and the beer was only 10 pesos.

Have I died and gone to heaven? Guess what Carroll had for lunch?

OK, enough fun. It is time to go home. We went back the same way as we came. This time the driver did not wait for a full load. We left Barra at about 4:00 PM. One tip is to bring change for the transportation. 

On Wednesday we thought we would check out Isla Ixtapa. With snorkeling gear in hand we took a taxi to a beach near the Club Med. The fare for the Panga ride was 30 pesos but where was the pier? The Panga boat gets pulled ashore, everyone in, and then off to Isla Ixtapa.

Isla Ixtapa is comprised of three main beaches. We spent our time on Playa Coral because we were interested in snorkeling. Playa Coral was the smallest of the beaches.

The bay had good snorkeling to the right. It gets rather rough to the right so you have to watch that you don't get thrown into the shallow coral. We saw some really pretty coral and fish in the bay.

We had lunch right on the beach.  Some tacos and cerveza.  Can this get any better?

Throughout the trip I read a book called "Naked Economics" by Charles Wheelan which I HIGHLY recommend. It was great beach reading in Mexico because it discusses the big picture of economics. Some of the discussions involve why some countries are productive and some are not which is quite interesting reading when you are in Mexico. (I'll give you a hint, government!) I hated economics in college but really enjoyed this book. (Did I just say I enjoyed an economics book?)

By the end of the day the surf was getting pretty rough so we headed back to our bungalow.

On Monday we decided to go to Playa Las Gatas and do a little snorkeling. It is an easy trip from downtown. At the start of the pier, on your left, you will see a booth where you buy the 30 peso ticket to the beach. After purchasing your ticket, walk down to the first stairway on your left and wait for a Panga. The boat ride only takes about 5 minutes. It is a great way to see the bay!

The beach is full of palapas which all try and "invite you into" their establishments. Be ready when you get off the boat to be "invited" into everyone's place. We settled on a place in the middle because we met one of the workers on our Panga ride. 

Our place was called "El Rayito de Sol". Luis was very nice, gave us some great lounge chairs, and kept the 12 peso beer flowing. Las Gatas was one of our favorite days. The beach is beautiful and it makes for a relaxing day.

The snorkeling at Las Gatas was pretty marginal. We saw some nice stuff, but it was mainly rocks and small fish. 

A trip to Playa Las Gatas wouldn't be complete without seeing a cat, would it? This little guy found his way onto my lap and whispered "Tell El Gato Negro that I said hello".