The Anachronistic Mom's
Travel Notes: Mexico

I'll start this with questions:  I'm looking for a great place to visit in Mexico, on the West coast, which combines beach time with culture.  A good place for a 3 year old.  Sigh. I'm not quite there yet.

Oaxaca Coast
This is pretty cool. Check out this map of the Oaxaca coast.  I have just gotten referrals to some places on it, and we're considering going there.  Here is a wonderful forum with comments from people who have visited this area.

La Paz
The seaside shack dining at the furthest beach was some of the best food we had, also a little place on a side street - ''La Fonda'' - it was also quite excellent. We hired a local boat owner a couple days to take us snorkling and to Espirito de Santos. He sits in his boat in
the mornings near the pier along the Malacon, just in front of the ice cream shop (great ice cream). He'll take you to swim with the sea lions (awesome!!) and other nearby sites. We also walked to the Ibara family pottery shop and the weavers, both were very interesting to see - for kids too. We toured a couple museums and a church, but nothing of too much note. THe public market is fun to see - few English speakers there. Oh, that said, we didn't speak Spanish, but got along just fine. Either the other knew enough English, or was willing to work through the gestures to figure out needs.

-------------------------------------------
Club El Moro is a great family friendly, inexpensive hotel on a beautiful property in La Paz. It is run by Ricardo, and he and his family live on-site. It is an ideal location from which to explore La Paz and the surrounding Baja area (Todos Santos is nearby and is worth visiting). They are quite good at helping to set up various activities for their guests, and their staff also speaks English.  They have many repeat visitors from all
over the world.

Yuppie Mexican Hotels
I was searching Small Luxury Hotels of the World the other day (I love that chain) and found the following hotels:

Villa del Sol in Zihuatanejo, Guerroro is located on the Mexican Riviera, 150 miles NW of Acapulco and 12 minutes from teh Ixtapa-Zihuatanejo International airport. 

We also are interested in Hotelito Desconocido, and La Casa De La Marquesa in Queratoro, and Villa Montana in Michoacan.  By the  way, I was once told that "all of the men of Michoacan" are working in California because there are no jobs there.  I hear that it's beautiful.

Beaches

to be provided.