After spending a few days in Zihuatanejo and a couple of days in Ixtapa I wondered whether there might be a really quiet little beach community anywhere nearby. Not that I didn’t like Zihuatanejo or Ixtapa; they’re both great in their very different ways, it’s just that I really fancied hanging out on a beach with really few people in a more relaxing atmosphere. So I asked the locals, and the immediate and unanimous answer was ‘Go to Playa Troncones!’, so I did. It’s about forty kilometers north of Zihuatanejo and you can get there by taxi, or by bus and then a local ‘colectivo’ (much cheaper), or if you are feeling flush and want to explore all the local beaches then renting a car in Zihuatanejo or Ixtapa is no doubt the best option. In my case I took the bus and the ‘colectivo’ and it was fine. Troncones was just what I was looking for; a small beach community set on a beautiful, long white-sand beach (three miles long), with a great, laid-back, slightly bohemian ambience and very few people.
Ixtapa Zihuatanejo Beach Paradise
I’ve done that trip twice now; the first time I did it wrong, the second time I did it right. From Uruapan the first time I had an old map, no information, and a devil-may-care attitude. I ended up driving for nine hours in my faithful Chevy through some of the most uninhabited countryside I’ve ever seen until I got to Lázaro Cardenas late at night. The landscape was certainly beautiful, but the last few dark hours battling with hair-pin bends through the sierra with one headlight was scary and exhausting. Such heroic efforts deserved a better prize than Lázaro Cardenas. The second time, better informed, I took my still faithful Chevy down a beautiful highway called ‘Siglo XXI’ to the coast just north of Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo. That second trip took about four hours and was one of the most beautiful drives I’ve taken. I set off at dawn, a solitary Chevy speeding through the lush mountains and alongside beautiful lakes where you could make out little fishing boats. The highway is in good condition and the toll minimal.
