Zihuatenejo - Las Gatas Beach Club

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m planning a trip to Mexico next winter. The above town and resort sound like a good setup - has anyone been to either?

I’d appreciate any other suggestions for a place to go in Mexico, keeping in mind the following:

  1. It has to be at or near an Alaska Airlines destination. I’ll be cashing in miles to fly.

  2. The smaller the better. I don’t like cities, big hotels, discos, tourist areas or being around a lot of people. The hotels I’ve liked best in traveling are those that have under 30 rooms, are locally owned and are just off the beaten path. I’d sooner stay home than stay in a 400 room hotel.

  3. I want to kayak and snorkel, then lay on the beach and read some stored up copies of the Wall Street Journal and NY Times. Then eat something, drink a couple of beers, go to bed and do it all over again. Golf would be good, but not necessary.

Thanks.

2

I would want to checkout Zihuatenejo just because Stephen King used it in Rita Hayworth and the Shawshank Redemption!

I understand it is a rather quiet place, but haven’t been there myself.

3

Basically I like your philosophy (small hotel off beaten path, etc.), but seriously you would lug newspapers along with you? :confused:

4

Yep. Some people take a novel to the beach, I enjoy reading good newspapers. And if I go somewhere where they don’t have the WSJ or NYT, I bring a couple of my own.

5

I don’t know if you’ve seenthis, but I was reading it on the NY Times site earlier today. Hope it’s helpful - if it’s not, don’t tell me. I’ll just imagine it was. :wink:

6

Actually, that article is the one that got me thinking of Zihuatenejo as a vacation location.

7

I’ve been to Zihua. Over 10 years ago I worked at the Club Med in Ixtapa, which is a short car ride away. We G.O.'s would go into Z-town to pick up supplies and get haircuts and stuff. The old fishing village parts of Zihua (unlike the touristy parts) are very genuine and third-worldish. Unless things have changed since I was there, you can live well for very little cash in Zihua – just avoid the tourist haunts. And watch out for those Mexican cabs – no shocks, no seat belts and no enforced speed limits.

8

You might want to check out Barra de Navidad. It’s more low key and laid back than Zihua. There are a number of small hotels and Alaska flies into the area (Manzanillo). There other small towns in the area that offer a lot of the same.

9

When I was a kid, my family used to vacation in Zihuatanejo every winter break, I must have been there at least seven times. Unfortunately, the last time was well over 10 years ago (15 is more like it).

Back then it was very nice place, quaint but not too remote, and certainly A LOT less touristy than the neighbouring Ixtapa.

Bad memories: gellyfish tides that would keep us from swimming and cruise ships that would pass sometimes, when they did, the water filled with trash. :frowning:

We used to stay at a hotel called the Sotavento (or was it the Catalina?) I remember it as a very charming place, built on a mountainside.

Aside RE: Stephen King One of my big disapointments in the movie version of Shawshank Redemption was that the beach they tried to pass for Zihuatanejo didn’t look at all like the real place.

10

whistlepig - The Mrs. and I went there on our honeymoon two years ago. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and thought it was much nicer than neighbouring Ixtapa which looked more like a touristy spot. We stayed in one of the nicer hotels there (it was our honeymoon after all) but we looked the unpretentious feel of the small town of Zihuatanejo. I don’t play golf and I don’t remember any golf courses. On one of the small beaches you can rent jetskis. For snorkeling we went to Isla Ixtapa (took a taxi dock and then a boat to the island.) This was my very first time snorkeling and I was amazed at how many fish you could see, but maybe it wasn’t all that special for an experienced diver.