Carnival Spirit 3/13/08 Mex. Riviera

[querida]

It will be our first time in Mexico travelling with husband and two kids. We want to visit beaches, cliff divers. Is it safe to venture out on your own or should you go on ship excursions? Also, this may be a silly question, but how's the water in Mexico? Anything we should avoid? I'm talking about drinking, not swimming. Any restaurants to avoid?

[bunyababy]

It will be our first time in Mexico travelling with husband and two kids. We want to visit beaches, cliff divers. Is it safe to venture out on your own or should you go on ship excursions? Also, this may be a silly question, but how's the water in Mexico? Anything we should avoid? I'm talking about drinking, not swimming. Any restaurants to avoid?

 

A lot depends on your "adventure" meter!;) Also, the age of your children. When it comes to water the rule of thumb is drink only bottled water! Do not eat food from vendors on the sidewalk ( peeled mangos etc ). Almost all of the resorts and restaurants have purified water, especially the ones on the beach that encourage the ships passengers to visit.

 

Acapulco is a very "metropolitan" city and has lots of traffic and very large. It therefore also has an abudance of things to do and see. Might I recommend a private tour that would also include the cliff divers. The nice thing about booking private is that you can come and go from various locations without being at the mercy of the other people with you...especially nice being that you have children. Many people go this route and literally spend a full day sight seeing, eating at restaurants and relaxing for a while on a beach? Your tour guide will stay with you, or come back to get you at a specific time. You can get great advice from these boards on who to call to arrange these tours.

 

Manzanillo is also very busy with traffic and spread out. This might be an excellent port for you to have a beach day! The Las Hadas is a world famous resort and allows you to use their facility at a cost to you...but,. the nice thing is that the money goes towards credit for food and drink. You can enjoy the beautiful grounds, use the beach, the pool and all the while feel very safe and pampered.

 

Zih/Ixtapa is a wonderful place to see. You can spend some time walking around and doing some fantastic shopping in Zih because the shops literally start right where the tenders let you off. You can then either stay on the beach at various resorts in Zih or adventure off in a cab to Ixtapa...which has a very fancy, hotel zone feel to it! Your can arrange for your cab driver to come back at a set time to take you back to the tenders. We stayed the afternoon at Carlos and Charlies in Ixtapa and did not regret it one bit. It is free to use their beach lounge chairs and umbrellas. They have washrooms and a good pool for kids. It overlooks the beach. Also, the beach is huge and there are massage huts everywhere for the cost of next to nothing! The prices for food, margaritas, cerveza are very reasonable and excellent quality!

 

Just remember with a little research you can avoid the extra costs of shipped booked excursions. People will tell you that the nice thing about these "ship" excursions is that if you run behind they will hold the ship for you. True....but, a bit of caution and good timing allows for no problems getting back to the ship! Especially if you are within 1/2 hour cab ride in any direction. Just don't go off to some other side of a state and allow no "unforeseen" travel time.

 

Whatever you decide, feel safe knowing that majority of all cab drivers and store owner, vendors etc speak english being that tourism is their major source of revenue. Also american funds can be used instead of pesos and that might also eliminate some of your first time jitters.;) :D

 

I have included some good pics of Carlos and Charlies in Ixtapa.

 

 

[bunyababy]

Querida,

 

I found a great link to some posts here on cc. It talks all about Las Hadas....a wealth of information.

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=12581415&highlight=las+hadas#post12581415

 

Here are some pics of Las Hadas.

 

[querida]

Thank You, bunyababy for all the helpful info. I am adventurous up to a certain point, especially while travelling in a foreign country. I do speak the language so I know that will be helpful. Have you ever heard of Delfiniti in Ixtapa? I'm looking to do a Dolphin encounter but don't want to pay almost $800 for four of us. We did it in the Bahamas when my daughter was small (about 10 years ago) and the price was more reasonable. Kids are 13 and 10. Do you think I could venture out (as long as its not five hours from the ship) and hire a driver?

[querida]

Thank You, bunyababy for all the helpful info. I am adventurous up to a certain point, especially while travelling in a foreign country. I do speak the language so I know that will be helpful. Have you ever heard of Delfiniti in Ixtapa? I'm looking to do a Dolphin encounter but don't want to pay almost $800 for four of us. We did it in the Bahamas when my daughter was small (about 10 years ago) and the price was more reasonable. Kids are 13 and 10. Do you think I could venture out (as long as its not five hours from the ship) and hire a driver?

[bunyababy]

Thank You, bunyababy for all the helpful info. I am adventurous up to a certain point, especially while travelling in a foreign country. I do speak the language so I know that will be helpful. Have you ever heard of Delfiniti in Ixtapa? I'm looking to do a Dolphin encounter but don't want to pay almost $800 for four of us. We did it in the Bahamas when my daughter was small (about 10 years ago) and the price was more reasonable. Kids are 13 and 10. Do you think I could venture out (as long as its not five hours from the ship) and hire a driver?

 

Oh yes, without a doubt! Just be smart about giving yourself time to return to the ship. I have not heard of Delfiniti but I found some good reviews on tripadvisor.com. Here is the link.

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g150790-d260087-Reviews-Delfiniti-Ixtapa_Ixtapa_Zihuatanejo_Pacific_Coast.html

 

Of all the places to find a cab, Zihuatenejo was the easiest. They are waiting for you at the end of the tender dock.

The fact that you speak the language is a real bonus! I can speak a little spanish and throughout my travels we have had some amazing experiences in Mexico and I truly believe it is because I started off speaking spanish.

 

I am seriously considering doing a dolphin excursion this next trip. My DH and I were actually just talking about it last night!

 

Smiles,Connie

[skittl1321]

In Zihua you do not need to do a ship excursion- it is an easy port to do on your own. We found that everyone we talked to at the port trying to arrange taxis/ water taxis etc were not trying to rip you off- just trying to get your business before someone else did! We spent the day at Las Gatas beach (a round trip water taxi for 4 was $20, and we got to skip the line coming back!). It was a fantastic beach day.

 

In Manzanillo we took a bus tour to Colima and it was fine but over priced. Those who took the shuttle into town said shopping was good and it was a nice day. I don't shop, so I don't know how that would have been.

 

In Acapulco we did a kayaking excursion and were too tired to do anything afterwards so we essentially missed this port- we could have been kayaking anywhere in the ocean! (Though it was a fantastic excursion! It just wasn't acapulco dependent).

 

We talked to people who did the dolphin swim in Zihua and they all said it was fantastic, but the dolphin pool was small. If you've done it elsewhere it might disappoint, maybe- because of this.