Story and photographs by Susan Manlin Katzman
At 7 a.m. I was trudging through the icy slush of a St. Louis winter. By 2 p.m. I was eating grilled lobster at a quiet beach café, watching the Pacific lap foamy waves on sun-hot sand. Let me tell you which scenario I liked best. It’s called Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo (I-Z for short).
This gentle Mexican tourist destination is actually a tale of two cities—Ixtapa (eeks-TAH-pa) and Zihuatanejo (zee-watt-a-NEH-ho). Zee-watt (as tourists call it) came first.
Located on the Pacific coast of Mexico, Zee-watt dates to pre-Hispanic times and was virtually undiscovered by tourists until the Mexican government built a highway linking the fishing village to Acapulco, 140 miles to the southeast. Ixtapa followed in the mid 1970s, when the government, wanting to expand tourism in the area, built a new resort community four miles up coast from Zee-watt, on the site of a former coconut plantation.
Today Zee-watt and Ixtapa cover an 18-mile stretch of hilly coastline backed by the Sierra Madre Mountains. Taxis ($4) and buses (50 cents) tote visitors over the hills that separate the towns—about an eight-minute drive.
Despite being billed as a single destination, each town maintains a distinct and different personality. Zee-watt is the commercial and residential center of the region, holding the port that hosts cruise ships, an archeological museum, shops selling everything from designer clothes to handicrafts and the markets where merchants are so polite they don’t hassle you and bargaining keeps prices moderate. In Zee-watt you’ll find small, inexpensive hotels as well as a few luxury retreats of the super rich.
Ixtapa is basically a resort playground, with large, high-rise hotels lining the main two-mile beach. Most Ixtapa activity takes place out-of-doors—-at the resorts, on the beach or at the two 18-hole, par-72 golf courses. Ecological focus and nature programs appealing to children, such as a turtle release, a crocodile reserve and a Dolphinarium (where $130 buys hugs, kisses, and fin-swims with dolphins) makes Ixtapa truly family friendly.
Now the good and bad news. Bad first: with only 5,000 rooms available in the total I-Z area, hotels fill quickly (as do airplane seats), and prices go up, especially in high season, December through Easter. Keep in mind that some of the best deals are packages that combine air and hotel. Although no airlines fly direct from St. Louis to the Zihuatanejo International airport, American Airlines will take you through Dallas, and Frontier through Denver. Now the good news: the limited number of hotel rooms and airline seats help keep the beaches uncrowded, the restaurants easy to reserve and the ambiance peaceful, quiet and safe.
I-Z not only double dips vacation pleasure by giving visitors both a modern resort town and a culturally rich Mexican village to enjoy, but also gift wraps the whole experience with spacious beaches, friendly locals, fabulous food, gentle prices, glorious sunsets, 85-degree average winter temperature and 300 days per year of sunshine. Sigh!
For more information visit www.visitmexico.com and/or www.ixtapa-zihuatanejo.com or call 1-800-44-MEXICO.
