We arrived at the Pacifica Resort in Ixtapa and there was no record of our reservation, the best we could tell they had no record of our reservation because there was a lot of confusion. We traded a five star resort timeshare (Grand Mayan Nuevo Vallarta) through San Francisco Trading and discovered this was probably a three star resort at best. We walked the property and they have some beautiful rooms ... not what we got!

They politely assigned us an RCI room after fumbling with a lot of papers. Then they hit us up for all inclusive. The problem was that they don’t speak English at reception. Seven days of all inclusive was $882+ tax for two (not including New Years Eve party). New Years Eve party was an additional $177 per couple. We went with four day all inclusive for $504 + tax for two people until we found our way around. That worked out really well because they have three fine dining restaurants that were exceptional. I asked about shopping, grocery stores, restaurants & Wal-Mart ... The reception desk gentleman got this confused look on his face like I was speaking in tongues. When you think of a Concierge you think helpful with information but not at the Pacifica! At Pacifica they didn't speak English & get a confused look on their faces. The daily program placed under your door was all in Spanish. The waiters & other staff spoke enough English & humored their way through trying to communicate.

We arrived at our room and the square footage is large for a one bedroom with two full baths. The RCI rooms are located directly above the transportation pickup & drop off to/from the beach & it is quite noisy. There was no privacy without closing our drapes and no privacy sheers. There was a nice hot tub outside on our balcony but we did not use it because how romantic would it be watching everyone at transportation & the tram.

The furnishings in the room are old, cold & stark but adequate … very clean but old. Very old appliances, no ambiance as there are no pictures on the walls, a television hutch with no TV because they had a flat screen in an odd spot too far to see from the sofas. No clock in any room. Cheap plastic chairs on balcony. No washers and driers in the room (one set available for everyone’s use by the elevator). The photos on the Internet did not show this room! No Wi-Fi in our room although available in most of the resort.

The location views are phenomenal. Steps mentioned in other reviews are correct & so be ready to get a workout. We love walking & exercise so enjoyed this resort on the side of the mountain as it was unique. Pacifica has a very loyal following of patrons from Mexico. We found the other guests spoke more English than the resort staff and most enjoyed practicing their English as we enjoy practicing our Spanish.

We were told by an owner at Pacifica that no tips were required for the buffet. Normal tipping is 10% for restaurants. Taxi drivers do not expect tips but you can tip if you like but not more than 10%. Talking about taxis is interesting ... Prices all over the place! Cabs are more expensive from resort. The resort marks up cab prices & if the cabs don’t honor the up charge they can no longer provide service for the resort. The cab prices discourage patrons from going off property for restaurants.
Cab from airport to resort was $34
Cab from Resort to Ixtapa market $4 ($1.00 for a local)
Cab from Ixtapa market to Zwan $5.50

Palapas can be reserved each day but you must go down at 6:30 a.m. each morning & stand in line. There are three different types of birds that come within inches of you to get fish. You share the water with a lot of interesting fish and the birds dive-bomb to eat the them. As the birds dive-bomb right next to you, the fish flutter around your legs to escape. It wasn’t until the next day when my husband went to put on his swim suit did he realize that we were also swimming in bird feces.

Shopping & restaurants very close & a couple we met never pays for all inclusive. We like fine dining & cocktails so it worked out well for us for 4 days. Accessing both shopping, restaurants & groceries are very close. Walk north about 200 yards on the beach & just before Barceló Hotel there is an exit to go to Ixtapa malecon. The Marina in Ixtapa has a few good restaurants but no shopping.

Food
El Suspiro in Zihauntenajo was our favorite! A very small elegant romantic restaurant that requires reservations and has a phenomenal view of the Zihauntenajo Bay. Great service and the food & drinks were exceptional! Our favorite dishes were duck & crepe desert. The cab ride was $15 each way but worth the view & food!

El Faro has a spectacular view by taking the tram to the top of the resort & excellent food! For those drinkers, you can get a list of the "inclusive" drinks (not everything is inclusive). You can order a bottle of wine or by glass. Wines are good. You can also ask for drinks to go.

Moon Bar opens at 7:00 p.m. We arrived early to watch the sunset. In Mexico if the restaurant opens at 7:00 they really open at 7:15'ish. They call it sushi but there was only one uncooked item on the menu. I had lobster & there was an additional charge but fabulous. My husband had fried rice with seafood & it was outstanding. Food was excellent; service was there when you needed something and made every attempt to speak English.

We don't normally eat buffets ... Pacifica had an excellent buffet & we would highly recommend.

We heard that Bogart’s had a fine dining restaurant worth visiting. We made reservations for New Year’s Eve and they had live jazz music for dancing. The food was excellent and service first-rate.

In Zihauntenajo... Sienna Gordo fish tacos & margaritas is a MUST! In Ixtapa a great restaurant for breakfast called Chili Beans.

For those of you who like to take home something, there is a nice jewelry store in Ixtapa that has quality pieces called Ruby's.

My husband and I both came down with Montezuma’s Revenge from this trip after we got home. This is our first experience in Mexico of getting sick. As far as Ixtapa and Zihauntenajo … been there, done it and would never go back. My advice to others who are considering going to Ixtapa would be to not waste their time or money as there are a lot of wonderful places in the world to see!

To start everyone is po'd because they had to pay an assesment fee this yr. if they were owners at this resort! Apparently it is in our contracts (I do not have an original I bought on a website). When all was said and done they made special offers to owners: such as an extra week free when you paid this fee. I first clicked very good and decided to change it to excellent because of the staff we have encountered over the last 7 yrs. The person above was in a Aqua (well let me tell you if I was in an Aqua I would be be staying in my own condo on the beach). Have you ever heard the phrase typical American? Well I have and being a middle class person I really don't feel good hearing it. :( I do believe the Pacifca is like any other business (exspecially in MX) trying to do the best for their buck. There are things that I dislike heck I told them to Santos who talked to us about rebuying this year. I am still trying to decide if we should buy or not. The problem is the lack of and price from MN lately. Not sure about those of you that visit through RCI or some where else but as an owner and visiting yrs. in a row. The staff is awesome.

My wife and I love traveling to Mexico and have been lucky enough to stay in several places on both Mexico’s Pacific and Caribbean Coast. We enjoy the people and the relaxed culture. This was not the case at the Pacifica Resort in Ixtapa. Here you will experience Mexican nationals cutting inline in front of you at the concierge desk, at the restaurant line, and at the bars.
Although, I should start at the beginning. When we arrived at the front desk they had no record of our reservation. Lucky for us we had already confirmed our reservation and details of the all-inclusive package several times in the prior week. Once I showed them the email conversations they acknowledge we had reservations. They then promptly started to sell us the all-inclusive package. I had to show them that our reservations included this package. This was topped off with a timeshare pitch before we even had been assigned our room!!!
Our room was old but functional and it had a nice view of the ocean and Ixtapa. It had a hot tub on the balcony. The goal was to drink Champaign in the hot tub and watch the sunset. This romantic idea was never achieved as the children in the room above us used theirs as a splash pool and we had constant drips coming down on to our balcony and the noise of children playing until after 11:00 when we gave up.
I always thought that the occupancy maximum at resorts was to limit the springbreak crowd from having one room for a dozen people….now I feel it is to limit an extended family consisting of a couple of grandparents, parents, and four of five kids from occupying the same room.
Beach:
Beautiful beach with only a few palapas. In your daily paper it is partially outlined in Spanish that reservations for the palapas will be taken at 7am each morning. If your Spanish is rusty you will miss this fact and be evicted from your palapa. Of course this only works if you let it, I saw one group not evicted without any problem….but I think the concierge read his neck tattoo and thought to avoid the conflict.
The buffet was dreadful. No bacon for breakfast but refritos are available for every meal. On the first night I cut into my meat and blood came out of it, so I did not eat it. When the waiter saw it he gave me grief and then had the chef talk to me. Later when I was reviewing my bill I noticed that these gentlemen had charged me $6 for not finishing my meat. I had front desk waive this charge.
There are some positives:
The Moonbar run by Maria has very good staff and their chef is an expert with mahi mahi. I would recommend this restraunt above all others at this resort. The pool service from Innocente during the day at Bugambillias is very good as well.

Most importantly get off the resort! The restraunts in Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo are wonderful. People you find in town are polite and happy to serve you. Their English is excellent. Zihuatanejo has the amenities of most tourist towns but still retains it fishing village atmosphere.

We are stuck with three weeks a year in the aqua section at pacifica, on top of the $3000.00 per year maintenance fee, we were just hit with an additional $2400.00 assesment fee to pay for pay increases, and new offices. We were promised all kinds of improvements when we spent almost $60,000 five years ago, none of the promised improvements have happened. Stay as far away from this awful place as you can.