Acapulco, for a long time Mexico’s most famous seaside resort, is not for friends dreamy fishing villages.

First, it was the American tourists who discovered the run-down harbor on the beautiful Horseshoe Bay for themselves as a holiday destination. In the late fifties began the international tourist rush. A variety of hotel towers were built between the beach and the green hills. This created a completely concreted coastal region. Today Acapulco is an ideal place for vacationers who want to burn black on the twenty different beaches and are looking for nocturnal pleasure.

Since the 1930s, the famous rock jumpers of La Quebrada attract large crowds of visitors. With a mighty jump from suicidal height of 45 m you dive into a narrow basin. A daring company, because the water in which they dive seems to be just a puddle. Before the jump, a short prayer is performed on a small altar. There is a nice view from the bar of the El Mirador hotel to the divers.

Less crowded beach is at the Pie de la Cuesta, 8 km northwest of the city center. From the road to Puerto Marqués, 16 km southeast of the city, you have an impressive view over the bay of Acapulco. South of the Península de las Playas lies the underwater shrine, a bronze statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which stands on the seabed.

Meanwhile, Cancún has denied Acapulco the reputation of being Mexico’s most famous and feudal resort. Cancún is a more modern vacation center. The island off the northeast coast of Yucatán is 21 km long and about 400 m wide. At the northern and southern tip roads lead to the mainland. In 1970 there were at most 200 people here, meanwhile more than 200,000 people live here. Almost all live on tourism. One million tourists flood the area every year. The mostly North American holidaymakers are offered endlessly long and white Caribbean beaches combined with turquoise lagoons.

You can practice any kind of sport here. The hotel buildings are modern designed. There are air-conditioned shopping malls with upscale boutiques and plenty of gourmet restaurants. Most things are considerably more expensive than on the mainland. It is cheaper and less hectic on the Isla Mujeres, the “island of women” just a few kilometers to the east. You can reach them either by ferry from Puerto Juarez or by hydrofoil from Cancun. A bit you will find the idyll of the Caribbean, as it still floats in your mind, with simple hotels on the white palm beach and a coral reef on the southern tip.