Acapulco, Mexico.

Old-style beach resort glamour the Mexican way.

Looking for concrete details and tips? Go straight to the Practical Information section, which includes an in-depth look at the safety situation.

“Acapulco”. Say the city’s name and it is very likely people’s eyes will light up and speak about the Love Boat, 1960’s glamour, that time where the Pacific resort town was jet set central. To this day, Acapulco has kept that magic, that special aura that millions of marketing money can’t buy.

I wasn’t immune to it, and knew Acapulco would be on my list of beach towns to visit at some point. To be fair, the city also attracted me because of its checkered history. Long gone are the days where Hollywood stars would come and vacation there. The city has fallen on hard times in the past decades, because of increasing drug cartel conflicts and, more recently, of a devastating hurricane that all but leveled parts of it.

Acapulco may have gone off the radar for most Western tourists, but is, still today, a favorite among Mexican travelers. It felt like a place I would want to write about.

Late September might not have been the best time to do - the Mexican Pacific coast’s hurricane season lasts from June to November, with its peak in September and October, but I needed a break from the incessant rain and gloomy days of Mexico City, which had witnessed one of the heaviest rainy seasons of the past decades. A trip to the beach would be welcome.

Icacos beach, on the bay of Acapulco.

Acapulco isn’t any beach. It is actually the closest beach town to Mexico City, only 235 miles (379 km) away, making it the escape of choice for capitalinos eager for an easy beach vacation. Because it’s relatively close, most domestic visitors get to Acapulco by car or bus. I actually chose to take a luxury bus from Mexico City, and specifically wrote about the trip here (if you enjoy trip reports and details about what it felt like, you’ll like this).

Mexico City sits at 7,350 ft of elevation (2,240 m) so the road gradually lost altitude as the bus made its way to the coast. I started seeing the ocean about thirty minutes before we arrived, and from there, the high-rises lining the waterfront on Acapulco bay became taller and taller as we approached.

In a city dedicated to packaged sea-and-sun fun, one could still find authentic slices of Mexican life.

For all the glamour and history of the resort, my first look at Acapulco, going through its suburbs, was typical of any big Mexican town, with haphazard construction, busy roads, street dogs dodging cars passing by, and street vendors - in my mind the whole area would have been gleaming and pristine, but I had somehow forgotten that most Mexican cities count with a significant percentage of its population living below the poverty line, and crossing through the outskirts of town was a sobering reminder Acapulco was more than palm trees and infinity pools.

Our Estrella de Oro bus dropped us in their exclusive terminal on Avenida Cuauhtémoc, a couple of blocks from the beach and Avenida Costera, built right along it. For most tourists going to the Acapulco Bay, the Costera, as it is widely known, is a great reference point, and, in many cases, the only main road on which to explore the city. It closely tracks the bay from one end to the other, and gets you to almost every point of interest.

The Acapulco cathedral.

I had picked a hotel on the bay - thanks to low season prices and the international tourist slump affecting the city, it was fairly affordable (as always, details are provided in the Practical Information section below), and was dropped by my old, worn-out VW Beetle taxi steps away from the lobby.

It’s hard to overstate the gap between the best-looking Acapulco properties and the run-down ones. My hotel had been recently refurbishes, post hurricane Otis, and was gleaming in the afternoon sun, while some properties next door felt like they might have been hit by an earthquake just a few weeks prior.

This sharp contrast from block to block would be true no matter where I would go in the city, expect perhaps in the old downtown area, far less touristy, where most if not all of the buildings looked like they could use a little love. On the bay, near Condesa or Icacos beach, in the heart of the most touristy part of town, this patchwork of great to crumbling buildings was a fascinating reminder that the city hadn’t fully recovered from all its recent issues.

As I took my first steps outside, I realized that walking around Acapulco bay in 2025 felt, at times, like stepping in a war zone. The main avenue along the bay, Avenida Costera, was patrolled by heavily armed police and army vehicles, with a frequency I had not fathomed. I knew this was a helpful deterrent for criminal activity, but it had a more chilling effect: if there were so many police units out there, then the situation must have been be really bad.

A building in downtown Acapulco.

I had planned for my five-day trip to be a good balance of chilling by the pool with a book and exploring the city, but it turned out that reading on a deck chair felt much more appealing than anything else, and I ended up spending a lot more time than I thought by the water. As a result, I couldn’t paint the exhaustive overview of Acapulco I had imagined when I booked my trip. It certainly gives me a reason to come back.

I focused my exploration on the bay, from downtown, to the north, to playa Icacos to the south. The Costera is, unexpectedly, not a great avenue to walk on. It’s busy, noisy and, at times, badly maintained (jumping through huge water puddles? Check). The beach, however, is a much more enjoyable way to get from one part of the bay to the other, knowing that there are a few areas where you can’t go through, because of rocky terrain or simply because of an overflowing river.

Walking around Acapulco bay felt, at times, like stepping in a war zone.

I took one day to explore the oldest part of Acapulco, its downtown area where very few tourists venture - except, I guess, when the rare cruise ship is in town, as the port lies just the side of the zócalo.

This area was actually my favorite of the city. While it may not be the most visually pleasing, with its decrepit buildings, overwhelming tourist stands and chaotic traffic, it felt the most authentic part of town, away from the 30-floor high-rises dotting the southern part of the bay.

Fort San Diego in downtown Acapulco.

The downtown neighborhood is also, historically, the oldest part of the city, where the original Spanish settlement was established, in the mid-16th century. Today, it exudes a very Mexican charm, like a part of the country that is exactly how it wants to be, without caring whether it is Western-tourist friendly.

It was hard to describe how it made me feel, but my mind instantly went to Maputo, Mozambique. There was a similar vibe in the unkept city, its former colonial buildings in a state of disrepair, next to unappealing, unpainted concrete structures built with little aesthetic vision. And yet, in the middle of this urban jungle, I couldn’t help but notice the hubbub, the activity of a living city: its small food stands at every corner, its humble seafood restaurants, people shopping for colorful fruits artfully merchandised in small tienditas, here a WiFi cafe, there a cheap hostel for budget travelers. It was refreshing, unpretentious, and undeniable proof that among a city dedicated to making tourists enjoy carefully packaged sea-and-sun fun, one could still find authentic, non-curated slices of Mexican life.

One one side of plaza Alvarez, downtown’s main square, sat the Acapulco cathedral. Built in the 1950s, after various other attempts were thwarted by earthquakes or hurricanes, the church is a mishmash of various styles that shouldn’t work together but unexpectedly do. It was a very different sight from your typical Mexican colonial church, and felt less grand, but more welcoming. The mix of white, blue and gold against the sky and the mauresque-byzantine architectural inspiration just worked - and that was before I got in. I was wowed by the cathedral’s interior and its bright-blue cupola.

A few blocks away from the zócalo, I found another of downtown’s most valuable buildings: the San Diego fort. When Hernán Cortés claimed the Acapulco bay for the Spanish crown in 1531, he immediately saw the potential of the harbor as a port from which Spanish ships could reach Asia, and facilitate trade with that continent. In fact, the Galleon Trade, as it became known, was a shipping route between Manilla, Philippines, and Acapulco between 1565 and 1815, that helped bring Asian merchandise to Spain, via Acapulco.

A sunset on Condesa beach in Acapulco.

This trade attracted pirates, and the fort was built in the beginning of the 17th century to protect the port. The fort I visited was actually rebuilt at the end of the 18th century, after an earthquake destroyed the original building. It was now dedicated to sharing the history of Acapulco, and showcased artifacts of pre-Hispanic cultures as well as large-scale replicas of some the most iconic vessels used during the Galleon Trade. Besides, the fort allows for sprawling views over the bays on one side, and the mountains on the other. It was absolutely worth a visit.

For all my mixed feelings about the city, its partial recovery and the painful sights it entails, the security issues that are very real, there is an undeniable charm to the place that made me want to come back and explore further. From the Zona Diamante to great hiking in the surrounding mountains with gorgeous views of the bay, there was no shortage of activities in Acapulco I still had on my list, and, under the bay’s spell, I promised myself I would be back again soon.

Practical information

(updated as of October 2025)

In a nutshell

Best way to go to Acapulco: by luxury bus. 5h trip in a super comfortable seat, on a toll highway that’s heavily patrolled. Best bus company: Estrella de Oro, using the Diamante (luxury) service from Taxqueña terminal in CDMX to Acapulco Costera near downtown Acapulco. Between MXN600 and 950 one-way, depending on how close to your travel date tickets are purchased.

I wrote an article about my trip on a luxury bus between Mexico City and Acapulco, which you can read here.

Acapulco is best visited between November and May, during the dry season.

Key highlights of Acapulco bay:

• the downtown area with its gorgeous cathedral and imposing Fort San Diego.

• Condesa and Icacos beaches, towards the center of the bay, for the stunning views and the golden sand.

There are other areas of Acapulco I wanted to check out, especially some hikes to enjoy a full panorama on the bay, as well as there recent and fancier Zona Diamante, but this will be for another trip. If you plan to stay a few days in Acapulco for R&R, staying within the old bay area is probably all you need to do.

An Estrella de Oro Pluss bus arriving at the Costera terminal in Acapulco.

Getting to Acapulco

How to get to Acapulco from the United States: given the longstanding security issues throughout the state of Guerrero, very few American tourists visit Acapulco, which means non-stop flights to and from the US are hard to come by. American Airlines flies to Acapulco (ACA) year-round from Dallas Fort Worth (DFW), once or twice a week, depending on the season. United airlines also offers non-stop flights to Acapulco, from Houston (IAH), once or twice a week. Your best best is to fly a Mexican airline, most likely Aeromexico, due to the breadth of its US network, and connect in Mexico City (MEX) onto a domestic flight to Acapulco. Aeromexico mostly flies twice a day between Mexico City’s main international airport (MEX) and Acapulco, making connections to and from the US convenient.

From Acapulco airport, take an official taxi to wherever you’re going. The trip costs are fixed. I didn’t fly into Acapulco, but a trip to the zona Diamante (which I don’t cover in this article) should be around MXN450 and last 20-25 minutes, while going all the way to la zona Costera (the old Acapulco bay) should cost MXN 600 and last 30 to 40 minutes.

Note Uber doesn’t operate in Acapulco and while DiDi, a cheaper alternative, is available, I wasn’t ever able to get a driver to a accept my ride requests.

How to get to Acapulco from Mexico City: it is possible to fly to Acapulco from Mexico City. From Benito Juarez airport (Mexico City’s main airport, or MEX), Aeromexico operates two flights a day on most days, while Volaris operates one. Viva Aerobus flies four times a week from Mexico City’s secondary airport, AIFA (IATA code: NLU).

Another way to get to the Pacific ocean from the capital is to take a bus. There are many options, which make bus travel a lot more convenient, although, all in all, it is a slightly longer trip than via air. I cover all of them in detail in my Mexico City to Acapulco on a luxury bus trip report. Estrella de Oro is your best best, with the most departures from the southern terminal, also known as Terminal Taxqueña. Estrella, part of the ADO group, offers two levels of comfort on the route: Pluss, which is an executive service, and Diamante, a luxury offering. Check out the difference between the two and much more in an article that explains all the intricacies of bus service in Mexico here.

The trip takes 5h or so, depending on traffic, on a toll highway that’s heavily patrolled by the military to ensure a good level of safety. The scenery is gorgeous, and the seats so comfortable you’ll probably fall asleep at some point (I know I did). fares vary between MXN600 and MXN950. The earlier you buy your ticket, the cheaper the fare will be.

Bus companies have different terminals in the city, but Estrella de Oro can get you either to the zona Costera (the old Acapulco bay) if you pick Terminal Costera as your destination or to the zona Diamante (a newer, more upscale neighborhood to the south of the older one) via the Terminal Diamante.

When to go to Acapulco

Weather wise, Acapulco is best visited between November and May, during the dry season. Weather will be gorgeous, with little to no rain and perfect temperatures, with highs sometimes above 90 degrees (32 C)

June to October is the rainy season, which sees frequent tropical rains and a higher humidity level which makes the heat a little less enjoyable. Acapulco can be visited during these months but be prepared for at least a strong shower in the late afternoon - just bear in mind the most active part of the hurricane season will go from July to October.

From a crowd’s perspective, shoulder months are the best (October/November, April/May). If you don’t enjoy crowds, avoid December and early January, as well as the weeks around Holy Week, which is a big holiday period in Mexico.

A view over the mountains surrounding Acapulco from the San Diego fort.

Safety in Acapulco: a deep dive into history and an overview of the current situation

The safety situation in Acapulco is a sad snapshot of narco violence in Mexico. The US Department of State gives the state of Guerrero a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” label, which is shared with countries that are at war (Ukraine, Yemen), where risk of terror attacks is high (Afghanistan, Mali) or, as is the case for Guerrero and some other parts of Mexico, severe crime can happen with a higher probability.

In the past, the US government would carve out exceptions for parts of the state: a few years ago, places like Zihuatanejo and Taxco, would be OK for tourists to visit. Today, the whole state is covered by the Level 4 warning - although it must be noted that Canada and the UK deem the area around Zihuatanejo safe to visit as long as travel is made by air.

How could Acapulco go from jet set mecca to a city put on the same level as Kabul? A few facts help explain this downward spiral.

First, the state of Guerrero is a mostly rural state that’s the second poorest in Mexico, where a lot of people work in the informal economy. It’s also a state whose climate and relief help are ideal for opium and marijuana production - a temping endeavor when the state’s GDP-per-capita is roughly half of the country average.

Second, Acapulco and the surrounding area’s jagged coastline have been a magnet for illegal trade: drugs can flow from South America into Mexico and further north via the port. Because of this and the production of opioids upstate, cartels have historically been present in Guerrero, and especially in Acapulco.

Third, while Acapulco’s golden age dates back from the 1950s and 1960’s, the area continued to develop as a tourist haven later in the 20th century, but started being shadowed by a newer, more easily accessible resort in the 1970s: Cancún started to grow into the tourist hub that it is back then, and became a strong competitor to the pearl of the Pacific Ocean.

Finally, if one could put the finger on a date that would highlight when everything seemed to unravel for Acapulco, it would probably be December 16, 2009. I wrote about this fateful date in my Cuernavaca article. On that night, the Mexican Navy cornered Arturo Beltrán Leyva, a major narco boss and some of his men in Cuernavaca, and eventually killed him. After his death, various cartel factions started a fight to take over his territory, that included the state of Guerrero.

The narco control of Acapulco was in play. Because it was such a strategic point of entry for drugs into the country, the battle was fierce, and, sadly, murders started piling up. While the US State Department didn’t use to issue state-by-state travel warnings for Mexico until 2012, the state was slapped with a warning right from the start, which was upgraded to a higher level in 2014, following the dramatic disappearance of 43 students in the town of Iguala.

In 2016, the warning was upped again, and this time the US Department of State specifically called out Acapulco as a city to avoid. At that time, Guerrero had been Mexico’s most violent state for a few years.

In 2018, the US government introduced its still-current 4-level warning system, and Guerrero was among 5 states in Mexico to be labeled at the highest level, with a “do not travel” advisory.

As if that wasn’t enough, Acapulco was hit very hard by 2023 hurricane Otis, a level-5 monster that leveled part of the city and destroyed many structures along its famous bay. Today, some of the buildings are still in a state of disrepair - even some beachfront properties. This didn’t help Acapulco’s recovery, when so much of its economy is dependent on tourism.

Would I recommend a visit to Acapulco today, knowing all of this? It probably isn’t a destination for the average traveler. That being said, I think classifying the region as as dangerous as the Ukraine is probably exaggerated. The risk of violence is real, and I think this is the first time in my Mexican travels that I felt very aware of my surroundings anytime during the day - and I didn’t venture out at night, except to restaurants super close to my hotel.

If you have traveled to dangerous places or even sketchy areas of major world cities, you probably have already felt this eerie, hard-to-explain sense that you needed to be careful, with your guard up, wherever you were going. If you’re comfortable with this and apply the basic behaviors I list in all my Mexican articles (checking the local news beforehand, knowing where you’re going, keeping your wits about you, not flashing expensive clothes or phones, not doing things you shouldn’t do, staying in touristy areas, avoiding walking at night, only taking offocial taxis from taxi stands), you can enjoy Acapulco and its fantastic scenery in a way that will limit the likelihood of anything bad happening.

It’s also true that a lot of hotels along the bay offer a shelter from the outside: it would have been really easy for me to spend five days safely relaxing by a gorgeous hotel pool overlooking the ocean - the only telltale signs I wasn’t in a safer city like Puerto Vallarta or Los Cabos were the number of private guards patrolling the hotel grounds. That’s another kind of Acapulco vacation that can be safe and, given the town’s economic situation, relatively affordable.

Condesa beach as seen from the Fiesta Americana hotel in Acapulco.

Food & lodging in Acapulco bay

I stayed on the Acapulco bay for this 5-day trip, and therefore, this isn’t meant to be an exhaustive review of the whole Acapulco area.

I picked the Fiesta Americana hotel on the bay, as one of the best-rated hotels on booking.com along the Costera. The hotel sits on a bluff protruding into the bay, which means you get a full bay view from almost every room, which was quite incredible.

The hotel felt like a very nice 4-star resort by US standards. The rooms were somewhat basic but very comfortable and freshly redone, but the highlights were the pool area (wide, clean, set up with different spaces for to relax or play, with a perfect view on the bay) and its secure beach access. It was a great area to read and rest.

I found a few restaurants worth a mention:

• El Plebe Alegre: a beachfront seafood restaurant on Condesa beach, where I loved the food even more than the view. I went back a couple of times to try a few different things on the menu, but especially loved the marlin-stuffed peppers, wrapped in bacon, served in a slightly-spicy soy sauce. A big win!

• Pescao: off the beach, not too far from a big supermarket, sat this upscale fish place which great service and great food. You’ll most likely seat inside because of the heat, but the food is worth it.

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