Acapulco rewards travellers with thin wallets: the bay is public, the buses cost eight pesos, and a market comida corrida runs under 80. Skip the Costera hotel prices and eat, ride and climb the way acapulqueños have since the 1950s.
The 1930 cathedral with its blue Byzantine domes and Moorish tiling anchors a shaded plaza of ficus trees, shoe-shiners and 15-peso coffee carts. Entry is free, doors open roughly 07:00–20:00, and morning Mass fills the nave with locals.
A small working beach below the old town where locals swim without paying a peso for palapas. From here the exterior star-shaped ramparts of the 1776 Fuerte de San Diego can be walked and photographed free; only the museum interior charges.
Over a thousand ceremonial masks from Guerrero, Michoacán and Chiapas — tiger masks for the Tlacololeros rain dance, devil faces from Zitlala. Housed in a colonial building beside the fort, usually 10:00–17:00, Tuesday to Sunday.
A concrete open-air amphitheatre carved into the cliff a short walk from La Quebrada, facing due west over open Pacific. No ticket, no minimum consumption — locals bring beer and sit on the steps for the same sunset the hotel terraces sell.
The city's biggest market: pozole verde stalls, tubs of chile guajillo, cheap huaraches and pirate football shirts. Fondas at the back serve chilaquiles or eggs with beans and handmade tortillas for 45–70 MXN including agua fresca.
A run of pastor trompos and cazuela stands where tacos go for 15–20 MXN and a taco de guisado with rice lands under 30. Salsas are self-serve, and horchata or jamaica by the litre-glass costs about 25 MXN.
Rows of hammocks, coconut carvings, silver from Taxco and embroidered blouses. Prices open high for cruise crowds; walking away typically halves them. Free to wander, and the aisles are shaded — useful in mid-afternoon heat.
Enramadas along the old-town waterfront grill whole huachinango or serve pescado a la talla by the kilo, far cheaper than Costera restaurants. A plate of ceviche with tostadas runs 90–130 MXN, beer around 35.
The 1930s-era calm-water beaches where Acapulco tourism began. Sand and swimming are free; only sunbeds and palapas charge. Reach them on any bus marked "Caleta" from the Zócalo for about 10 MXN, roughly 15 minutes.
The full length of the 1955 bayfront boulevard from a rattling city bus with the windows out — 8–12 MXN, no air-con, salsa on the radio. It passes La Diana, Papagayo park and every stretch of bay, an hour of coastline for pocket change.
A 22-hectare park mid-Costera with an aviary, lake, shaded walking loops and a skatepark, reopened after major renovation. Entry is free, generally 06:00–19:00, and there are drinking fountains plus cheap snack stands inside.
The scenic highway climbs to open pull-offs looking down on Puerto Marqués bay and the whole arc of Acapulco. No entry fee, no consumption minimum — the same view the clifftop restaurants charge a small fortune for.