A week in Acapulco

Trip to Taxco, Forte de San Diego, ride the bus up and down the costera, diving is so so, visibility is about 10 - 20 ft.

Quick Tips:

Have fun, spend a day checking things out, and if you want to go to Taxco, check out the bus lines rather than the tours. When you get to Taxco, there are tourist maps that guide you around town.

Best Way To Get Around:

From the Sea Garden (Mayan Palace) it can cost you dollars round trip to go into town. We found that taking the cab to costco (.50), then taking the yellow cab (.80 per person) or bus (.30 per person) would get you into town quickly. During the day the busses seem to run every 5 - 10 minutes.

Best Things Nearby:
Beach access, mini supermarket, shuttle to Mayan Palace. Half hour walk to main road to catch the bus, or you can get the yellow taxis and pay 8 - 10 pesos per person to get into town.

Best Things About the Resort:
Small and intimate, has nice pool, and lake grounds are well kept. Room capacity is misleading - it is two adults and three kids (not five adults) as the two couch beds are roll out on the ground twin bed pallets. The fifth person would sleep on the couch.

Resort Experience:
The Sea Garden is a horseshoe grouping of three buildings no more than three stories tall - there''s probably about 60 units. The lake and pool are in the middle of the buildings with the golf course in the back. The lake had free paddle boats, half hour max if there were people waiting. The restaurant wasn''t super exotic but the food looked good (we ate in our room or in town). There was a bar at the pool and across the street (five minute walk) was a beach, pool, snack bar, and bar. There was seating on the cement and beach sand. There was a lifeguard station and we were far enough away to not be bugged by the beach vendors. They are building a huge tower in the front of the hotel, so it will soon lose its sunset view from the pools. The kitchen is very utilitarian, two burners, pots and pans (enough to cook spagetti or pancakes) place setting for 4. I had to use one of the pots to make the pancake batter in. the fridge is one of those 3 footer small jobbies. very difficult to fit a gallon of milk but a half gallon on the door should be ok. there was a microwave and I beleive I remember seeing a blender and coffee pot but I never used them.

• Unit Type: 1 Bedroom
• Activities: Good
• Amenities: Good
• Unit Satisfaction: Very Good
• Family Friendliness: Good
• Service: Fair

Mexican movies are United States movies with spanish subtitles. They do the movie titles different on the marques so you have to look at the posters to figure out which movie it is. We hadn't seen Jacki Chan's "The Tuxedo" movie while it was in the states, so we tried a theater that was two blocks off of the Costera. The cost was $3.50 per person. Popcorn and two sodas were $5.00 and the popcorn had a free refill...nice prices considering what we pay in the states. The theater wasn't the new staduim seating, that we're accustomed to but it was clean and the voice track was in english so we did understand the movie.

We went on the super tour from 11a-2p. It included breakfast (egg omelet and a mexican tortilla dish) and all you can drink soda (pepsi or squirt). They did have alcohol available also. The Bonanza is a three deck boat and they had a live band playing on the first deck and music on the second. We left dock and proceeded around the bay. The tour guide spoke both spanish and english so we could understand the tour descriptions. The super cruise doesn't see the cliff diving show, just the spot where they dive from. We think a later one does (becase we saw the boat out there when we saw the 7:30p cliff diving show). When we got around to the swimming part of the bay, the boat threw out anchor and let us swim in the bay for 30 minutes. They took our picture with a pirate and were selling 8x10's for five bucks. we weren't hit up to buy anything else.

The fort was built to protect the townspeople from pirates. The museum built inside the fort rooms are different descriptions of the trade industry that built Acapculo, the history of the fort, and how the trade with the middle east and the Philippines affected Mexico. It also covered the advance of christianity (become christian and you didn't pay taxes for 10 years) and Mexico's battle for independance.

They had English and Spanish on all of the plaques, and they had 15 minute movies in several of the rooms that you could choose to play in Spanish or English. The rooms were air conditioned. We spent two hours going through the museum. It was very well done.

The visability was about 10-20ft. The fish were very varied. Our first dive was to 45 ft, and we saw sea snakes, octopus, and other fish. The second dive was at the under water statue of the virgin of Guadalupe. We picked up some neet shells on the second dive.

The boat was small and serviceable; the crew was very helpful. We were beginners, and they didn't make us feel bad. You could have pictures taken of your dive, but before we went out, they showed us some samples and we decided not to go for the extra expense. The pictures we saw hardly showed anything.

We went to Taxco the silver town ourselves, rather than the arranged tours ($24.00 per person round trip 1st class bus instead of $80.00).

We felt we had more time and saw more of the town. There are at least four churches to check out. You can get the bus tickets at the travel agent down the street from the zocolo in Accapulco (walk towards the Forte de San Diego). It's on the land side of the main road. She will only book you on the going trip. When you get at Taxco immediately check the return times for the buses, but don't buy tickets until you are ready to leave. If you are bored you can return earlier if necessary.

The shared taxies in Taxco are VW minivans.