Zihuatanejo-Ixtapa Message Board - Turistas en AbundanZIHa

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While Zihuatanejo enjoyed a lovely Monday evening of great sleeping weather, temps rose into the mid-30s on Tuesday, and the humidity seems to be at its peak. Huge storm clouds surround Zihuatanejo this Tuesday evening, but so far no rain in downtown Zihuatanejo, and no significant rain appears likely until this weekend. But keeping fingers crossed because we still need the rain.

There continues to be a high volume of visitors coming and going, but sales by local merchants remain low, though some restaurants are of course doing a good business due to the sheer volume of people. But we all don't live from the restaurant business here, and we need to focus our marketing a little better. While we are grateful for the folks visiting from El Bajío region, and many wealthy Mexicans are among them, I hope we can do better than simply leaving it up to travel agents to send us tourists. Your trip reports here are a huge help in that respect. This website continues receiving thousands of visitors daily, both Spanish and English speakers. Every little bit helps.

Ate some delicious fresh tuna yesterday. They're still around! And a fishing captain friend said one of his clients caught a large marlin yesterday. The fishing apparently remains decent in spite of the full moon.

A world apart from most of Ixtapa, Ixtapa Iguana Condo 270 offers a comfortable and lovely two-bedroom low-rise condominium overlooking a pool right on El Palmar Beach in Ixtapa, available by week or month. Sleeps up to six and features a full kitchen, terrace, air conditioning, and TV.
Ixtapa Vacation Rentals

¡Cuidemos nuestro patrimonio!
#MásSeguridadPúblicaMenosCemento
#NoQueremosBlueFlagEnLasPlayas
#PreservemosPlayaManzanillo
#DenunciaElEcocidioEnLaRopa

Una señora camina en Playa Principal durante el amanecer en la muy tranquila bahía de Zihuatanejo.
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American Airlines will be flying from DFW at the beginning of November several days a week. Right now, it's expensive - over $1,000 in coach, but that should come down. With my Inapam card and a condo we've owned for almost 20 years, I'm not the target demographic. Sure, we go to restaurants, the mercado and Soriana, but we are not in the vacation rental market and already have plenty of stuff like, clothing, furniture, art, etc. much of which was purchased locally. It seems like the pace of development has slowed, so people setting up a new home with mattresses, furniture and art may be slower as well. In season, Zihua is already hard to get around, and there may be a limit to growth where the experience becomes less desirable.

Old gringos who own property contribute to the economy in season, but it's mainly restaurants, food and entertainment with HOA fees paid to cover administrative staff. Busloads of nationals add more people, but the economic impact is not that great. All inclusives provide steady employment at the hotels and guests who come for a week may buy some souvenirs. Maybe with directed marketing, there could be rampant growth like Cabo, Cancun and PVR. We could have a similar homogenous experience albeit with more money circulating in the local economy. We went to a Ruth's Chris steakhouse in Cabo a few years ago and I asked if the tuna was fresh. I was told, in one of the world's sport fishing capitals, that it came from their commissary in Chicago to maintain quality across the brand.

By the way, July 24th is national tequila day in the US. No idea why.

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It's been my experience that the visitors who most benefit any vacation destination are the people who stay in non-all-included hotels and especially locally owned and run lodgings. They come, spend money, and leave. Leaving the community just as they found it so that the next visitor can enjoy its beauty and serenity. I've lived in the U.S. Virgin Islands and all up and down both coasts of Florida. Seen a lot of communities destroyed by tourism, made even worse by speculative development and time-shares. Overdevelopment seems to be the inevitable result of tourism in every single destination except where natural disasters have created additional problems. Acapulco is a prime example of both locally.

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I have friends who love taking cruises. They get to see so many places - for a few hours or maybe a day and there are a lot of activities. I would rather settle in some place for a couple of unstructured weeks and do some day trips, but to each their own. We rented a house in Oaxaca for a month and it was great.

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I have friends who love taking cruises. They get to see so many places - for a few hours or maybe a day and there are a lot of activities. I would rather settle in some place for a couple of unstructured weeks and do some day trips, but to each their own. We rented a house in Oaxaca for a month and it was great.

Cruises are good for advertising places like Zihuatanejo, and often cruise ship passengers return to places they found unique and pleasing, like Zihuatanejo. Which is why I fight so much with the current local government for doing its utmost to imitate other places with all its painted cement and palm trees. As you know, Zihuatanejo used to be quite unique for being an authentic Mexican community. But for folks who travel to Miami Beach, Vallarta, Manzanillo, Acapulco and other big resort areas you'll now see how Zihuatanejo's mayor has tried to imitate the look of those other places. We've lost much of our authenticity. Now our pedestrian streets look so different from the surrounding neighborhoods that they look 100% like tourist traps instead of like places locals would hang out. It was better when they had a bit of grit and grime on them. It made our visitors feel a bit more adventurous and like they were in a place where locals could be found instead of like streets where only tourists shop.

Renters and buyers of course contribute to our economy, but the problem is if we continue going that route of trying to sell and develop all our real estate, it quickly runs out, and then the natural beauty gets lost in all the cement and gardens and so does the local community who quickly get priced out of existence.

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"Right now, it's expensive - over $1,000 in coach, but that should come down."

Why I always catch TIJ to Mexico City and then take advantage of the excellent buses in Mexico. One night in Morelia, then I'm in Zihua the next night to say hi to Maria Conchita. For about 150 bucks, including the hotel sometimes. However buses in the North of Mexico stop every 45 minutes for guns and drug and durian checks. Not my kinda place. Also hotter than Hades.

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For me it is just difficult to get to Zihua vs. Cabo that is why we still go to Cabo at times. Many months there are only Saturday flights once a day to Zihua from Los Angeles or Phoenix. We live in Fresno and once we were going Fresno to Phoenix then Zihua but the first flight was delayed. We lost our condo in Ixtapa and went to Cabo. Now we always drive to Los Angeles and stay the night before and after so we won’t miss our flight. Then there is the lovely Zihua airport that was trying to steal from you for a couple of years, thank god that’s over, but then there is still let’s X-ray every single bag and make everyone wait. The BS about cement has much to do about nothing until you have the access problem fixed first. Plenty of buses and a few planes a day from CDMX coming to bring in national tourists which appears to be the market for Zihua. We still try to come twice a year but would probably come more if it were more convenient.

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Then there is the lovely Zihua airport that was trying to steal from you for a couple of years, thank god that’s over, but then there is still let’s X-ray every single bag and make everyone wait.

Just a gratuitous reminder that if you fly out of Tijuana, you will be spared a customs check in Zihua. Check out the Valle de Guadalupe wine country. Wine tasting that rivals Napa Valleys!

(Just like Jefe, we are always selling our region.)

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Zih is now targeting the The State of Jalisco to lure visitors.

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Zih is now targeting the The State of Jalisco to lure visitors.

I wouldn't even call it "targeting". In their zeal to appear to be doing their job, Zihuatanejo's tourism office and the OCV-IZ apparently invited and paid for travel agents to come to Zihuatanejo where they were wooed with a Callejoneada and other free stuff, but it's still up to the travel agents to market and sell Zihuatanejo. Since Ixtapa's corporate-owned hotels can underprice Zihuatanejo's lodgings, it simply looks like a self-serving measure by Ixtapa's big box hotels to drum up some business for themselves, paid for by the taxpayers. But I could be wrong. I see a stupid marketing slogan "#ThisIZit" being used by Zihuatanejo's tourism office that apparently they don't realize sounds and looks gross to English speakers (though I've certainly brought it to their attention), and tourism officials bragging about putting posters in airports (the absolute worst spot since those folks are already on their way to somewhere else). I don't see any real effort to bring us cruise ships or to attract discerning visitors with high purchasing power. They just want to fill the Disneyland they've made of Zihuatanejo with warm bodies and brag about numbers that don't translate into prosperity for local merchants. All a SIMULATION.

Twice this past month the mayor has tried bragging about phony awards. Both times I've called him out. One was an award that the city paid 5 or 6 hundred euros for claiming Zihuatanejo was Mexico's top beach destination (or some such nonsense). The other claimed La Ropa was the #2 beach in Mexico, but it was a poster I think the city simply made up itself, and it referred to a travel agency in Puebla that apparently doesn't even mention Zihuatanejo anywhere on their website, which makes me suspect they probably don't know they are being used by Zihuatanejo's municipal publicity office. Sad to see our tax money wasted and so many gullible people give the mayor accolades for things he hasn't actually done. All he's done is enrich himself. But sycophants must be sycophants.

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The what appears to be weekly killings in the streets is probably not helping much; especially for the US and CAD tourists.

They found a dismembered body in trash bags the other day in the El Hujal neighborhood.

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The what appears to be weekly killings in the streets is probably not helping much; especially for the US and CAD tourists.

They found a dismembered body in trash bags the other day in the El Hujal neighborhood.

Which is why I've urged this mayor since the beginning of his term to take measures to improve public safety, which he has to date still done absolutely nothing about. He continues to use the public budget for mostly purchasing cement from his own company. Insatiable greed.

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