Visitors to Acapulco come more to relax and lie in the sun than to sightsee or participate in activities. Because so many Mexican families come here from Mexico City, there are now more activities for the whole family.

Things to Do

Acapulco offers families plenty to do. After a morning on the beach, you may want to stroll the Costera, which has special sidewalks that absorb the heat and make barefoot walking bearable. Or perhaps you'd rather dangle from a brilliantly striped parachute and parasail over the harbor.

You should also explore 400-year-old Fuerte de San Diego (Fort San Diego), which protected Acapulco from pirate attacks during the seventeenth century. You can see a sound and light show outside the fort at 7 P.M. Thursday through Saturday in winter and on Saturdays only during the summer. Admission is $3 per person, with Sundays free. (Open Tuesday through Sunday 9:30 A.M. to 6:30 P.M., 744-482-3828.)

To absorb some of the local flavor, spend some time savoring a tropical juice drink or coffee while watching the crowd from a café on the zócalo after visiting Acapulco's art deco–style cathedral dedicated to Our Lady of Solitude. Built in the 1930s, it has a mosque-like dome and Byzantine towers.

Your entire family will enjoy the Casa de la Máscara (House of Masks), a seven-room museum showcasing masks used in festivals and celebrations throughout the state of Guerrero, located one block from the entrance to Fort San Diego.

If you like the art of Diego Rivera, you'll find a mural he created called Exekatikalli, depicting the Aztec gods Quetzalcóatl and Tlaloc, on the wall outside the home of the late Dolores Olmedo, a long-time friend of the artist, at Inalambrica Number Six on the Cerro de la Pinzona.

From the coves of peaceful Caleta Beach, you can board a glass-bottomed boat to uninhabited Roqueta Island for about $3, where you can feast on Mexican delicacies, snorkel, and bathe in the warm waters of the Pacific.

For the Kids

There are three facilities for children in Acapulco: Parque Papagayo, Parque CICI Marino, and Mágico Mundo Marino. Papagayo Park is a large natural park about halfway between the naval base and the zócalo with fifty-five acres of rides, carnival amusements, a soccer field, basketball and volleyball courts, an auditorium, library, restaurants, swimming pools, three lakes for boating, a skating and cycling rink, a skyway, an aviary, and a small zoo. Admission is free.

CICI Marine Park (short for Centro Internacional de Convivencia Infantil) features whale, seal and dolphin shows (12:30, 3:30, and 5:30 P.M.), water slides, an aquarium, and a wave pool. Admission is $6 per person (open 10 A.M. to 6 P.M., 744-484-8210). Magic Marine World is an aquarium, with a seal show, water slides, and toboggan ride, built on a small island between Caleta and Caletilla beaches in Old Acapulco (open daily 9 A.M. to 6 P.M., 744-483-1215).

Cliff Divers

Not to be missed are the cliff divers of La Quebrada. Holding flaming torches, the clavadistas plunge 130 feet off the La Quebrada cliffs into the whirling waters of a shallow inlet bordered by jagged rocks below. You can see them at 1:00 P.M. and hourly from 7:30 to 10:30 P.M. for about $2 from the parking lot at La Quebrada or $5 from the terrace of the Plaza Las Glorias El Mirador Hotel. The late-night torch dives are the most dramatic.

Bungee Jumping

Dare to experience a once-in-a-lifetime moment and bungee jump from the fifty-meter tower of Hackett Paradise Bungee on Condesa Beach. Before you jump, enjoy the incredible view of all of Acapulco from the platform. (Open 12 P.M. to 12 A.M. weekdays, 12 P.M. to 2 A. M. weekends, 744-484-7529.)

Visit Taxco

From Acapulco, you can take a day trip to the colonial silver town of Taxco. Today, silver shops outnumber grocery stores or drugstores. There are said to be more than 100 in Taxco, along with stores selling imaginative work in tin and brass. Yet it's the town's colonial charm that will enthrall you. So magical is its spell that Taxco has been declared a national monument — not a cobble may be upturned without bureaucratic permission.

You can see the main sights in town — the Museo Platería, Museo Guillermo Spratling, and the Casa Humbolt — as well as browse some of the many silver workshops, within several hours. To learn about the history of the Taxco silver industry, visit the small Museo Plateria (Silver Museum) before you browse the studios (open daily 10 A.M. to 6 P.M.). During the 1920s, William Spratling helped Taxco revive its ancient sil-vermaking craft. He collected examples of area archaeological pieces that are now displayed in his former home (open Tuesday to Saturday, 9 A.M. to 6 P.M. and to 5 P.M. on Sunday, 762-622-1660). At the Casa Humbolt, you'll see exhibits of art from the colonial era (open Tuesday to Saturday 10 A.M. to 3:30 P.M. and to 3 P.M. Sunday, 762-622-5501).