The Pacifica Club Ixtapa
Built up the side of a hill, with magnificent views of the bay, lies the Pacifica resort. Pacifica is composed of three sections, Pacifica Club, Pacifica Golf and Pacifica Sands. Among these there are 170 suites with the flexibility to accommodate as few as two honeymooners or a family of 12. The compound boasts 6 swimming pools strategically located, as well as the main swimming pool down on beach level at the beach club. You can view their web site at: http://www.pacifica.com.mx/
Here are some comments of our experience during a visit to Pacifica Club in 2001:
We decided to look for warm weather in January of 2001. A few days in Ixtapa seemed ideal for this purpose. I would like to re-emphasize the fact that Ixtapa is an almost ideal location to spend a week during a cold January. There is absolutely nothing iffy about the weather. While it may be too cool to enjoy swimming some days in Cancun, Puerto Vallarta and especially Los Cabos, Ixtapa weather is ideal, with daytime high temps in the mid 80's, bright sunshine each and every day and no rain. And so it was during our visit. The weather was absolutely perfect.
There is additional development occurring in Ixtapa, but progress
has been slow. Nothing like the fast pace of Cancun. It still is a very quiet and
relaxing place to spend a week escaping the snow. This trip we were particularly
impressed with the friendliness and courtesy we received from almost every person
we encountered during our stay. We just can't get over how nice people were to
us. And it was definitely not faked.
In a previous review of Pacifica Club, we questioned how they could possibly have an
RCI Gold Crown award. Well, my influence with RCI is obviously underrated, as Pacifica Club is Gold Crown no more.
(Now rated RID) But losing the Crown may have been a positive thing, as Pacifica has, in our opinion, taken many steps in the right direction by
improving the facilities and overall experience. Pacifica Club is an older
resort and many of the rooms, furnishings and appliances had started looking a
bit worn and in need of replacement. What exactly was better this
trip? The first thing we noticed was
the reception desk. The building has been remodeled, check-in was quick and efficient and nice smiling young ladies have replaced the surly, couldn't care less,
don't bother me guys that used to work there. Next surprise was the unit we were
assigned to. It was a studio unit, sleeps four, but very roomy for just my wife and
myself.
We were very pleased with the accommodations. The villa was in excellent repair, obviously recently painted and refurbished. The furnishings were in great
shape, a newer 20 inch television, decent mini-kitchen, spacious bathroom, hair dryer, toiletry items, and a comfortable king size bed. An additional Murphy type fold
down bed is also provided but we had no need to check how comfortable it was. They now provide a lock box in each villa closet, another tremendous improvement
over our last visit. A map of the resort is now provided in a book in the room. Housekeeping services were excellent and everything was kept clean and neat.
Everyday we were surprised to see what different "towel animal" our housekeeper would leave on our bed and
some were simply amazing.
And of course we can't say enough about the spectacular view of the Pacific
Ocean, the entire length of the beach and hotel zone right through our glass patio doors and from the outside
terrace. A couple of cheap plastic chairs are available on the terrace for
sitting out to enjoy the view. Pacifica has also added a schedule of daily activities, a list available each
day, which include the usual water aerobics, beach volleyball, soccer games and various games with prizes. Transportation to and from the beach was quick and
efficient using the incredibly neat Swiss made cable car. On Wednesday night, they held a lobster buffet and
Mexican show at the beach restaurant. The show was pretty poor but the lobsters
were good and all you could eat for about $20. The only problem was that they ran
out of a lot of the buffet items and were very slow to replace them. We had dinner
one evening at their fancy "El Faro" restaurant and would rate it pretty good. We
experienced a great view of the beach right from our table, elegant service and
the food was pretty good.
Our only continuing complaints involve the lack of channels to watch on the TV and the unpurified drinking water. They do provide a large bottle of
pure drinking water, which is more than most do. We must give credit to Pacifica for their efforts in
bringing this resort back to a decent operating condition. We also heard and saw
continuing efforts to revitalize Pacifica with new air conditioners being installed and
other repairs. Based on our experience, we would not hesitate to visit Pacifica again.
And Ixtapa-Zihuatenejo is a greatly under rated destination which gets better and
better each time we go.
Here are some photos we took while visiting
Click on the thumbnail photo to see the full size version.
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