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The bays and river valleys around present-day Zihuatanejo supported Indigenous communities long before the arrival of Spain. Archaeological evidence from the Costa Grande records settlements involved in fishing, farming, craft production and exchange along Mexico’s Pacific coast. The region was associated with several cultural traditions rather than a single uninterrupted political state, and later Indigenous groups included Cuitlatec communities. Objects recovered from coastal sites, including ceramics and figurines, are interpreted in the Museo Arqueológico de la Costa Grande. These remains establish a long relationship between people and the sea, while also showing that the area formed part of wider cultural and commercial networks across Guerrero.

After the Spanish conquest of central Mexico, the Pacific coast became strategically important for maritime exploration and trade. Zihuatanejo’s sheltered bay was used by vessels travelling along the coast, and in the sixteenth century the area became associated with expeditions seeking routes across the Pacific. The most celebrated episode was the departure of Andrés de Urdaneta from the nearby Pacific coast in 1565 during the Spanish expedition that helped establish the Manila galleon route. Zihuatanejo itself remained a small coastal settlement rather than a major colonial city, with local life based largely on fishing, agriculture and limited commercial activity.

For much of the colonial and post-colonial period, Zihuatanejo developed at a modest pace. Its bay provided a natural harbour for local fishing craft, while inland communities cultivated tropical crops and maintained connections with other settlements in Guerrero. The town’s low-rise form and waterfront economy endured into the twentieth century, when fishing, small-scale commerce and seasonal visitors shaped its identity. The surrounding Costa Grande also experienced the wider changes affecting rural Mexico, including improved roads, migration and the gradual expansion of tourism. Zihuatanejo’s present-day waterfront, with working boats alongside restaurants and promenades, still reflects this layered coastal history.

Ixtapa emerged from a major tourism-planning initiative in the 1970s, when Mexico’s national tourism authorities selected the area for a purpose-built resort. Unlike organically developed Zihuatanejo, it was laid out with hotels, apartment complexes, a marina, golf facilities, landscaped roads and protected open spaces. The planning aimed to concentrate resort development while retaining beaches and environmental areas along the coast. Ixtapa’s growth transformed the local economy and brought international tourism infrastructure to the region, but it also created a distinctly different urban landscape from the older fishing town across the bay.

Ixtapa and Zihuatanejo are now commonly presented as a single visitor destination, although they retain separate characters and administrative histories within Guerrero. Tourism, fishing, hospitality, crafts and services form the foundation of the local economy, while nearby villages and natural areas broaden the region’s cultural and ecological setting. Zihuatanejo continues to centre on its bay, waterfront and traditional commercial streets; Ixtapa remains defined by planned resort infrastructure and broad beaches. This contrast is central to the destination’s identity, allowing visitors to encounter both a modern Pacific resort and a long-established coastal community within a short distance.