I think your expectations are unrealistic on several fronts.

That's just it: That 1950s heyday when you took the champagne flight to Acapulco with Elizabeth Taylor, John Wayne, and Frank Sinatra is long gone. Those people are long gone. Puerto Vallarta, Los Cabos, and Cancun have eclipsed Acapulco. It isn't as well served by flights as it used to be.

LAX is not a United hub. If you want to fly somewhere on United, you're going to be routed through IAH.

$600 RT to a Mexican beach resort over Christmas doesn't strike me as bad. That's about as peak-season as you can get.

Looks like a nice hotel. I have heard about their restaurant, and it gets good reviews.

If you do go, make sure to have lunch at the little hole in the wall restaurant on the corner just across from the cathedral. It's called El Campanario, nice food in a typical local restaurant. The comida corrida lunch is always good, I like the shrimp fajitas. http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restauran..._Vallarta.html

A really great time to visit PVR is Dec 1-12 when the Guadalupe festival is going on. Parades and lots of street activities every night.

If Hacienda San Angel is booked up, you might try an ocean view room at Hotel Playa los Arcos for something right on the beach.

I like Acapulco for the same reasons as the OP.

You could fly to Mexico City and have a wonderful drive to Acapulco by rental car.

Christmas holiday season is a popular time for Mexican families to head for the beach as soon as school lets out for winter break. So no matter which beach city you head to you'll want to ensure you have made lodging reservations well in advance if you have a particular hotel in mind.

The Tres Estrellas de Oro bus line runs very comfortable deluxe service multiple times per day between Mexico City and Acapulco (also Ixtapa/Zihuatanejo).

Try Volaris via TIJ
 

Volaris has a non-stop, red-eye flight from TIJ to ACA. I just checked XMAS 2014 flights are they're ~$185 USD one-way, all-in. Leaves TIJ at 1:40 AM and gets into ACA at 7:09 AM.

Volaris has a shuttle service from San Diego or you can leave car on the US side of the border and take taxi to TIJ airport (~$15 USD).

I agree with others though; ACA has been eclipsed by Cabo, Vallarta, Cancun. Careyes (south of Vallarta) is where the 1950's vibe still exists.

Having spent considerable time in Acapulco during the fifties into very early sixties, I'd recommend staying away, particularly for Christmas or "Semana Santa", when it experiences huge crowds, high prices and significant services shortages due to being inundated by people - many who leave filth and garbage everywhere, are rude and worse.

Go to old Zihuatanejo (ZIH, serving the more modern and crowded Ixtapa) and stay at the classic Casa Que Canta.

Unfortunately, prices jump on or about December 15, as México enters high season and the Department of Tourism authorizes nationwide price hikes that may exceed 30%.

I have booked for Christmas similar vacation. Flying on delta from Gsp to mex for 35000 miles each and then taking a bus from Mexico City to Acapulco and it is 45 $ each one way or you can rent a car too

This is an old thread, but for my trip to ACA next week Saturday, I have to overnight in MEX, from MIA. So I decided to spend two days in Mexico City both ways, 2/2. There is only one UA flight out of Houston, which would have made for 15 hours of travel. So it it much easier/cheaper to fly to MEX and use another airline/bus service to ACA. It is so sad, that in 2020, the city is so hard to get to. Even within Mexico, there are not that many flights, from other parts of the country. Such a once glamorous, rich city, now just forgotten about!

I am going to Acapulco next week, through Mexico City. You need to fly to MEX and stay overnight both ways. I am doing 5/4 nights in both cities (Mexico City 2/2). I think this is the best option, yes your hotel is amazing, it was even featured on "Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous" in the 1980's. I am staying at the Acapulco Princess Mundo Imperial: this is the hotel, where Howard Hughes stayed before his death.

Just to add here, AA now runs service a few times a week direct DFW-ACA, bringing the number of direct US routes to 2. Interjet (codeshare with AA), Aeromexico (codeshare with DL) and Aeromar (codeshare with UA) all run multiple daily flights from MEX. Coming from NYC, very easy to make same day arrival. I would have thought the same from MIA. But the days of directs from NYC are sadly long gone.

If time is of the essence or one does not want to have a long layover in MEX (such as mentioned above) one should consider Toluca Airport (TLC) for getting to ACA - Interjet has 4 flights a day to Acapulco. Fly to MEX then get to TLC.

While not terribly convenient (particularly with baggage that must be checked) it is also not difficult and may well take significantly less time than waiting in MEX. MEX is about 33 miles from TLC and normal drive time between the airports is 45 minutes to one hour.

The bus service Caminante has direct service between the two airports for about $10US per person including checked baggage.

In addition, at one point Volaris and Interjet offered shuttle service between the two airports for their passengers and might still do so.

TLC's history is very strange to me; it's almost the antithesis of "build it and they will come." Around 2000 it was an ugly airport with few redeeming qualities for pax except for location (next door to all the major manufacturing in Toluca and 30 minutes from Santa Fe, the financial center of CDMX) and ease of getting in/out. But it was international and CO/UA and a number of other airlines had a variety flights and the FBO services seemed strong. My favorite part was getting delicious milanesa or Cubano sandwiches from the very nice old lady in a super small kiosk, literally a hole-in-the-wall, just across from the CO desk. Enplanements were around 200k. Then an enormous capital improvement campaign was completed with new terminals, aprons and the first (only?) CAT II ILS in Mexico increasing capacity to 6m; passenger traffic grew exponentially to 4m. But then around 2010 both Interjet and Volaris fled, shifting their hubs to MEX and GDL and now the only int'l flight is to Caracas and enplanements are around 500k. The most likely reason is because fees were jacked up to pay for the improvements but this causes a vicious feedback cycle. Perhaps the delay of the new airport in CdMX and the opening of the new rail line between Toluca and CdMX will change their fortunes cause I really miss the convenience of TLC.

It looks like the AA flights run on Tuesday and Saturday and are identified as "seasonal." I'm sure they'll come to an end, oh, say, around Easter? UA does something similar, seasonally from IAH.

You are correct, they are seasonal.. Volaris tried an LAX (or Oakland, I don't remember) route to ACA a few years back, and it lasted all of 4 flights, never to return.....I hope AA has better luck. I am seeing higher demand from obviously NOTB passengers on the MEX-ACA routes I am seeing. More resorts/AIs being opened is insulating the nervous tourist from the perceived troubles in the city. So hopefully the demand grows

I'd like to see Acapulco make a comeback too.