Mexico

Everyone – even if they’ve not the remotest idea where it is – has heard of ACAPULCO , but few people know what to expect. Truth is that, as long as you don’t yearn to get away from it all, you’ll find almost anything you want here, from magnificent beaches by day to clubs and discos by night.

What Acapulco undoubtedly has going for it, however, is its stunning bay : a sweeping scythe-stroke of yellow sand backed by the white towers of the high-rise hotels and, behind them, the jungly green foothills of the Sierra. And, even though there are hundreds of thousands of people here throughout the year – the town itself has a population approaching one and a half million and even out of season (busiest months are Dec-Feb) most of the big hotels remain nearly full – it rarely seems oppressively crowded. Certainly there’s always space to lie somewhere along the beach, partly because of its sheer size, partly because of the number of rival attractions from hotel pools to parasailing and “romantic” cruises. Hawkers , too, are everywhere – there’s no need to go shopping in Acapulco, simply lie on the beach and a string of goods will be paraded in front of you.

Read More at the Acapulco Visitor Guide

I have not been to Cabo in years but it remains as a very popular vacation spot mostly becasue of it’s quiet fishing village aura and the fact that it sits on the edge of the beautiful Pacific Ocean at the tip of the Baja Peninisula. Maybe not so much for families you can usually find cheaper accomadations here than on the Carribean side of Mexico and you will still have a fantastic vacation.

The bay of  Cabo San Lucas , at the southernmost tip of Baja, was once a base for pirate ships waiting to pounce on Spanish treasure ships. Even fifteen years ago, it was little more than a fishing and canning village occasionally visited by adventurous sports fishermen with the means to sail in or fly down, but it quickly earned a reputation for the marlin that could be caught here, and the once-quiet place found itself inundated with fishermen in search of El Marlin Azul, home to sleek, radar-equipped fishing yachts.

In recent years, it has rapidly become the focal point of Los Cabos: million-dollar condos have sprung up, palms have been transplanted, golf courses have been laid, water has been piped in from San José and everywhere is kept pristine. More like an enclave of the US than part of Mexico, preserving almost nothing that is not geared to tourism, it can be fun for a day or two, unless, of course, you want to fish or dive.

Though prices are higher than in neighbouring San José, there’s more of a party atmosphere, with a younger crowd. Currently there are some 3000 rooms for rent, and the local feeling is that 10,000 is the next feasible “goal” that would equate the town with the long-established resorts such as Mazatlán or Acapulco. Upcoming developments include an enormous mall that will comprise a convention centre, a theatre complex, a bowling alley, a huge parking outlet and condos, and there are even plans for an artificial island to sit in the bay, complete with restaurants and bars

The Town
With its great sands and fascinating marine life, Cabo San Lucas should be one of the most attractive spots in Baja. Above all there’s the huge rock arch at Finisterra – Land’s End, where the Sea of Cortés meets the Pacific – an extraordinary…

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For Families there is almost no better place to go for a nice quiet and safe vacation than going to one of the many all inclusive resorts of Cancun Mexico. We went a while back and found many things to love about Cancun and the entire Mayan Riviera south of the city.

CANCUN is, if nothing else, proof of Mexico’s remarkable ability to get things done in a hurry if the political will is there. A fishing village of 120 people as recently as 1970, it’s now a city with a resident population of half a million and receives almost two million visitors a year.

To some extent the computer selected its location well. Cancún is marginally closer to Miami than it is to Mexico City, and if you come on an all-inclusive package tour the place has a lot to offer: striking modern hotels on white-sand beaches; high-class entertainment including parachuting, jet-skiing, scuba-diving and golf; a hectic nightlife; and from here much of the rest of the Yucatán is easily accessible.

For the independent traveller, though, it is expensive, and can be frustrating and unwelcoming. You may well be forced to spend the night here, but without pots of money the true pleasures of the place will elude you. There are, in effect, two quite separate parts to Cancun: the zona commercial downtown – the shopping and residential centre which, as it gets older, is becoming genuinely earthy – and the zona hotelera , a string of hotels and tourist amenities around “Cancún island”, actually a narrow strip of sandy land connected to the mainland at each end by causeways. It encloses a huge lagoon, so there’s water on both sides.

The Town and beaches of Cancun
There’s little to see in downtown Cancún. Most visitors head straight for the zona hotelera and the beaches. Though you’re free to go anywhere, and signposted public walkways lead down to the sea at regular intervals,…

To find out about Vacation Spots in Cancun

Cancun prices and availability

For a very indepth report about Cancun

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A couple of weeks back my family went on a trip for 11 days and stayed at the Royal Solaris Los Cabos resort near Cabo San Lucas. The trip was great, there were a few good and bad things that we experienced in the area and I wanted to write a bit about the trip in general and then a bunch of articles in particular about the various features of the resort and the area.

The Royal Solaris resort really caters a lot to families and has a lot of kids around which is great for us but to couples with no kids I can imagine it would be frustrating. The frustrating part to us was that the kids did not want to go to the kids club and just want to tag around with my wife and I all week. 🙂

Travel to Cabo San Lucas and Los Cabos

So our trip started when we landed and tried to leave the airport in Los Cabos Mexico. To those who have never been to that airport it can be a mess. All we needed was a cab to the Royal Solaris as we did not have our transport booked and we got sent in circles by the guys hawking time shares. The time share sales guys at the airport are really aggresive and you just have to keep saying no you are not interested. All you want is a cab to the hotel.

Better yet, make sure you have your cab or transport worked out ahead of time to get to the hotel.

Royal Solaris Los Cabos Resort

The Royal Solaris itself was fantastic for us. There are shows in the evening, at least three bars, a few restaurants and a very big pool. The place is great for kids and actually there is an entertainment group that looks after your fun day and night.

Royal Solaris Food

The food I found was pretty good and there was a lot of selection throughout the week. There is a restaurant that is open starting at 6 or 7 in the morning until lunch, another covered outdoor resaturant that is open from lunch until dinner and then there are two restaurants plus an evening show for food.

Royal Solaris Drinks

The drinks are great even though they are kind of watered down. If you tip the bartenders early in the week you will probably get stronger drinks but there is a swim up bar that has a shoice of 80+ drinks and another bar near the beach as well. Indoors just down some stairs from the lobby is another bar, they call it a pub but kids can go in there withour any problem, it is wide open with TVs. Also there are drinks in the fridge that will be replenished every day.

Royal Solaris Gym

There is a gym at the Royal Solaris that has cardio equiment, weights and some machines. The room is small but it is not very busy and for the first few days my wife and I would go down when they opened it at 7:00 am and have a quick workout. There is no water in the gym but I was able to find bottles of water near the lobby bar that had been left out unopened which came in handy.

Royal Solaris Rooms

The room we stayed in at the Royal Solaris Los Cabos had two queen beds and another bed that we slid down from the wall so we had lots of room. The air conditioning is good which is nice since we went in a very hot time of year and it was nice to escape the heat sometimes.

Entertainment at Royal Solaris Los Cabos

The entertainment at the Royal Solaris los cabos is fantastic. Starting early in the morning until later in the afternoon there is a crew of people that facilitate games, trivia contests, stretches, water aerobics and volleyball. This same group in the evening does a singing and dancing show that changes from night to night and was really entertaining. My wife and kids as well as I thought the entertainment at the Royal Solaris was definitely one of the real highlights of the trip.

We found that for us the price of the trip compared to all of the all-inclusive features of the Royal Solaris definitely made the holiday well worth it. We are not sure we will go back as we have now seen everything in the area but I loved our trip to Cabo San Lucas and especially the staff, food, and facilities at the Royal Solaris Los Cabos