Finally!

Baby and I have FINALLY decided on a place to jet away for the July 4th holiday - ACAPULCO! Back in the day (I love that saying), Acapulco was supposedly "the place to be" but had suffered some downslide in tourism in the last few decades. It still ranks as a big spring break destination (as ALL Mexico cities tend to be), but seems to be picking up more general tourism steam lately from what I've been reading. So far, our flights look good (so cross your fingers for us), and I'm hoping the rain clears away by then. Yes, it's been raining like gatos y perros out there the past few days (like that spanglish?).

As I've been doing my standard OCD routine of scouring for all destination info and insider info on the location, I was able to come up with some great things. I decided not go with an all-inclusive (AI) plan as it was strongly suggested not to do one by locals, frequent visitors, and Aca aficianadoes. Apparently, unlike Cancun and Puerto Vallarta, there is more to do and see in Aca outside of your hotel/resort so hiding out at your hotel loading up on drinks and not-so-good food is a waste of your vacation. I was a little nervous about the decision not to go AI in Mexico, but the other travelers from Tripadvisor's Acapulco discussion forums were quick to ease every concern by telling me where to go and what to expect. My log-in is "travelflip" if you ever go on there.

I was told where we are staying, Emporio Hotel Acapulco, is right in the center of everything and a walk away from really good cheap restaurants and all the beachfront bars. Now that's what I want to hear! The more and more I thought about doing the AI, the more I thought it wasn't going to be the best bang for our buck seeing that one day we'd be away from the hotel at a gorgeous beach/village 30 minutes away from the hotel so that would be a waste of lunch, dinner, and drinks for the day. We're also not big drinkers except for maybe one night of our trip when it's just me and Baby (occassional beer here and there, but no typical weekends in Houston...haha), so the boozing it up wouldn't be beneficial. And I forgot to mention, we're a 50-cent and 5-minute bus ride away from the Wal-Mart there if we want to buy snacks and stuff we would actually like rather than whatever we'd be limited to at the hotel. Wal-Mart is taking over the world, I tell ya!

Anyway, here are a few things I'm looking forward to:

• Pie de la Cuesta - the beach/village mentioned above
• La Quebrada - Infamous cliff diving
• A massage at the hotel spa
• Just lounging by the pool with Baby and doing nothing!!!!

I'll be sure to tell you peeps exactly how it all turns out. I'm sure I'll love it, but if I don't... I'll be sure to tell you how much I hated it. Luckily, I have a few more days to fine-tune my itinerary ;)