Acapulco's Golden Zone - Acapulco Dorado

Acapulco's Golden Zone

La Zona Dorada, alternatively called Golden Acapulco and the Golden Zone is Acapulco's main tourist area; one saturated with high-rise hotels, bars, discos, restaurants, and tourist shops. The Golden Zone runs between the Avalon Excalibur hotel and the Hyatt Regency or, if you're better with landmarks, between Parque Papagayo and the Naval Base. To it's northwest is Traditional Acapulco embodied as much by working class areas such as Colonia Progresso as it's more famous children, El Zolcalo, La Quebrada, and Caleta Beach. To it's southeast begins the Scenic Highway which will take you on a breathtaking ride (breathtaking for its beautiful views as well as its dangerous winding roads) until you reach Puerto Marques and Acapulco Diamante and the continuing development expanding the city South.

The Golden Zone is a fairly recent development. In the 1950s, for all patricidal purposes, it didn't exist. The economic boom in the U.S., advances in communications and transportation, and what's often called the "democratization of tourism" (a period when middle class for the first time had disposable income and began exploring foreign lands) combined to make the Golden Zone what it is today. A monument to leisure that represents everything that is glorious and terrible about tourism.

Whether you're in the middle of it, off shore in a boat look in, looking down at it from a landing plane, or just checking out the photos online, Acapulco's Golden Zone is one of the most striking panorama's you'll find in our hemisphere, ranking up there with the New York skyline, San Francisco bay and the view from Rio de Janeiro's Corcovado.