Ali and I recently took our first trip to Acapulco, driving our old Duster car from Zihuatanejo. It’s about a 240km drive, taking right at four hours. Overall, it’s a fairly easy drive. Guerrero state doesn’t have a great reputation for being safe, and Acapulco definitely doesn’t have a good reputation as a safe city. So we were interested to see how the drive would be.

The first 50km or so is really just leaving the “greater Zihua” area. That takes a solid hour, as you pass four or five small towns before driving through Petatlan. At about 50,000 residents, Petatlan is the last “big” city between Zihua and Acapulco. From there it’s just a series of towns ranging from 5,000 to 15,000 people. And there are at least a dozen of these towns. So after Petatlan the driving pace picks up just a little bit. About an hour and a half into our drive there’s a cool mirador in the town of Papanoa. It overlooks the ocean and Playa Ojo de Agua. We stopped for a stretch, then drove past the exit for Puerto Vicente, another fun town worth a couple hours visit.

At about the halfway point of our drive we paid 40 pesos and entered the toll road. For a few minutes, at least, the road was really nice and there were no speed bumps. Overall the road was in good shape, but there are lots of speed bumps. The good news is that with speed bumps generally comes opportunities for snacks and gasoline. I don’t think there is a stretch more than 40km without a gas station. Outside one Oxxo quickie mart across from a gas station a peacock was trying to enter to get a refill on his coffee.

50km before landing in Acapulco we passed over the Coyuca River into the town of Coyuca de Benitez. It’s a really pretty town of about 15,000 people, with colorful houses that climb the hill above the river. We drove through town before our final stretch into Acapulco .

So the drive was a little slow, but easy, and on a road in good shape. Traffic wasn’t bad at all, no eighteen wheelers to pass, no major cities to drive through. If you need furniture, a hammock, souvenirs, or a snack delivered to your car, then you’ll pass by a small town offering that. The touristy area of Acapulco was a good time, and we felt safe there, too! Of course we’ll be making another drive to Acapulco in the next year.