Nothing negative about this resort

This resort was amazing in every aspect. We travelled with our daughter and son-in-law and it more than met our expectations. The rooms are beautiful with a panoramic view from every room. The staff are the most beautiful, accommodating people we have ever met on a holiday. The food is delicious and the drinks are made with premium brand liquor (at least in the lobby bar which is where we went every evening.) There is never a shortage of beach or pool chairs and we were there when the hotel was  [... read more]at capacity. Give it a try.....you won't be disappointed.

Great place

this was our 5th stay at this resort typical riu just great /one beef a lot of locals with many many kids and loud.the staff is a one service ex food and bev are excellent the odd time have to wait for a elevator but on holidays I don't care.

Beautiful resort

The hotel was fairly new, well maintained and an amazing ocean view from all rooms. The staff in the dinning room were all very friendly and accommodating. The buffet had a great selection of different foods and was very good but just like any all inclusive gets a bit boring after a week.

Good value for the money

We thought the hotel was extremely well taken care of, clean and comfortable. Food excellent. A la carte dining lacking. Pool wonderful but not enough notice about big undertow at beach which made swimming impossible.nightlt entertaining ok. Good time.

Fantastic Vacation!!

My husband and I vacationed at Riu Emerald Bay from March 24 - April 3 in a Honeymoon Suite located on the 15th floor which had amazing views! I have absolutely no complaints about this resort. The facilities, grounds, pools and beach are kept in pristine condition, food is plentiful, always fresh and very good and all staff are very friendly and hardworking. Although the resort was at full capacity towards the end of our stay, reservations for restaurants were not a problem, we always found a p [... read more]erfect spot on the beach,(sun or shade), not a line-up at the bars and the elevators were fine. We both had a wonderful vacation!!

Disappointment at lack of Professionalism

We were very disappointed in the inability of staff to understand or speak english, we had many times that we were unable to get questions answered or things solved. The key card for the room door did not work for first three days, it would work once then not again. Each time this happened it meant waiting for 10-15 minutes for an elevator to go back to the lobby, try to find the manager on duty as we had very quickly realized it was pointless to try to speak to most of the front desk staff. The [... read more] manager would reprogram the key card and then it was another wait for the elevator to go back up to get into the room. We had issues with the toilet contin ually running all day and night and the dead bolt stopped working on our door after the fourth day. The evening before we were to check out I inquired about being able to stay in the room until 2:00 as our bus to the airport the next day did not leave until 3:30. I was told that I had to pay an additional 500 pesos each on the spot to be able to check out late. I did try to ask the front desk staff why the charge was so much as check out was to be at 11:00 and I was only needing a few hours more. I was told that they room needed to be cleaned by noon and if they could not do that we had to pay extra. I did tell the desk clerk that I thought that was very funny as we had never had our room cleaned by the maid service each day of our stay until after 3:00-3:30 p.m. To make paying this fee for late check out seem worse, we were told on the bus ride to the airport by a number of people that they were not charged at all for late check out and that it was included i the "upgraded room" we had booked. Others said they were charged anywhere from 150 pesos to 800 pesos for late check out. We were told by our travel agent to take US $$ and that the hotel would change to pesos for us. Imagine our surprise when the front desk staff told us that the hotel does not accept US $$ at all and would only change Canadian dollars. As for the actual resort, we could not swim in the ocean at all the entire stay - dangerous rip tides and jelly fish. A taxi driver told us on a trip to town that swimming at the beach by the resort is never safe and people are rarely in the ocean there. While the pools were lovely and the chairs comfortable the lack of enforcing rules made each day an adventure by the pool. Children were allowed to run and scream continually on the pool deck, for several days we had to put up with adults and children playing with a hard soccer ball in the pool and continually kicking the ball against the wall of the infinity pool. Hard footballs were thrown back and forth in the pool by adults and children. Diving was not allowed but it seemed to be fine for young adults to jump into the pool doing "cannon balls" and splashing people on the deck in chairs. There were many hotel employees around the pool many times during the day but there was never anything said about this type of behavior. Imagine my shock when I was told very rudely at the towl hut that I was only allowed ONE towel per day and that I could not exchange a wet towel for a dry towel ?? REALLY?? thats the one rule that the staff could enforce?? At dinner service in the main restaurant children again were allowed to run without parents seeming to care what they were doing - several times waiters were almost knocked over or had trays of drinks hit by running children. Both adults and children seemed to not care if they dropped food or made a mess, on one occasion we sat and watched a full grown man drop his entire bowl of ice cream onto the floor out of his bowl, after looking down and laughing at the floor he proceeded to walk through the ice cream and go to re-fill his bowl. A maid with a sweep broom and dust pan immediately came and tried to sweep up the ice cream into a pile until she could go to get a proper mop and I found myself telling her how sorry I was that the man was that rude. While there was allot of food available in the main dining room it unfortunaely was the same dishes over and over and almost of the food was prepared ahead of time and kept under heat lamps. It was rare to be able to get something made fresh. Truly disappointing in what was classifed as a 5 star + resort and for the money paid.

Great place!!!

We just returned from 10 day stay at the Riu Emerald Bay. This was our second time staying at the Riu, and we were not disappointed.. The front desk was very helpful, they went out of their way to make our stay comfortable.. Thank you to previous post regarding the mattress topper! 2 nd day we were there we asked for it and what a difference it made.. The waiters were all fantastic !! Martin.never said no to my requests !!! Even if it was impossible to find a bottle of champagne ! He always came [... read more] through ! JR - what a doll !! Truly no complaints.. And for those of you that comment on the elevators being slow... Get over it!! They weren't that bad! Your on vacation ... What's your rush! check out Surfs Up cafe on Saturdays...1-4 live band and tapas .. Off the beaten path on Emerald Bay - cdn owned and operated .. Fun times

Nice Place

Riu Emerald in Mazatland was a great resort lot of guest but they were able to provide lots of pool chairs towels good food and drinks The beach was very nice the swimming in the ocean was a little rough but the unheated pool was refreshing I would go back again

Clean Resort, Good Location

The rooms and grounds were nice and clean! Beautiful hotel. The entertainment wasn't as good as we'd hoped and the grounds weren't very lush, but it's because it seems they've put their money into the food and staff. It was mostly Mexican's vacationing there, so lots of families running around, but still some nice adults areas and a great swim up bar. It's not really a party resort, although there is a disco which we danced at a couple nights. We really relaxed more than anything on the beach du [... read more]ring the day. The beach was beautiful and huge, but the ocean isn't really swimmable because of the waves; if you like surfing though, there was lots of that going on. The Golden Sun district closer to town has more swimmable ocean. The Mexican restaurant in the hotel (Tabasco) we went to one night was a disappointment. Unfortunately the staff were cranky and my husband got food poisoning. The meal itself wasn't great either - the Mexican food in the buffet was much better. The nice thing about Mazatlan is while you can barter, you aren't being super harassed by the vendors. It's a very safe feeling town with lots of cool restaurants and a wicked night life. As far as Mexico goes we'll be back! I think next time we may stay in a condo though closer to the Golden Sun District. We went there a couple nights and found amazing food and cheap booze. 120 pesos for 6 beer at Lucky B's! I recommend Mazatlan wholeheartedly! If you are looking to do an all inclusive, I would recommend the Riu. I would recommend against anything to do with Sun Wing though. The planes are so cramped and dirty. The tours we did through them at the resort were pretty good though. The Old Town Night Out tour is a must. The Catamaran Sunset Cruise was a waste of money. While it was nice to be on the ocean, it's not what you think it would be. You're better off to go fishing or head to the marina and find something else.

RIU EMERALD BAY

We stayed at the hotel January 6-January 13, 2015. The weather was perfect and the beach was very nice. The hotel staff were very hardworking, always mopping, picking up and cleaning the resort. All the rooms have a great ocean view. There was ample food choices for all guests. The only negative comments we have is the Internet service is incredibly inconsistent and painfully slow. This was a great value for a vacation

Very nice

Very nice but beach too rough and should have coffee pot in room although the food was excellent and lots to choose from been there before and also good resort for childred took my grandson and he had a blast

Poor service

After coming back from the Riu Palace in Puerto Vallarta let me just say we expected way more. The hotel itself was clean and nice and the food was good but what we missed most was the service. The restaurant staff was poor at best, friendly but non existent. Most. Mornings we got our own coffee and juice and rarely did we see anyone cleaning our table. Getting a drink at the pool bar was all up to you. No pool side service. Let's just say we saved a lot on tipping

Not bad not bad

entertainment is average; hotel is nice and clean; staff is very friendly and really trying, however lack command of English considering a big number of English speaking guests; food is excellent; some bar tenders are a bit judgmental but very fast; property is relatively small; vendors are on the way to the ocean....always in front of your eyes...; no hot water in peek time; toilet bowls need more water to flash properly; no festivities on the beach, programs plus self serve dinner;

Get what you pay for!

The hotel was so so. Check in was seamless and fast however but the airport home was a mess and they took us 4 hours early and there was a food cart only passed security that charged 14 American for two bags of chips and a beer. That was the worst exit of a country ever terrible, terrible, terrible waiting 3 hours with no food or drinks but from a cart and with a pregnant friend traveling with you not a healthy situation. Please warn people to eat before security. The hotel was Good for families [... read more] not good for young people at all. Very quiet maybe ok for couples but alot of kids and locals. The hotel was so quiet everything was shut down and sooooo quiet by 10 pm! Services in restaurants and bars sucked and they certainly catered to the local patrons. Canadians were always last to be served even when standing in line with tip money in hand ! Food was horrible!!!! there was variety but not great quality... I ate pasta for dinner for a week. The al a carte restaurants were awful as well. The Italian one was only a buffet and a worse buffet than the normal one! And most nights they were closed, reservations were only taken in days they give you. Night shows were boring and the drinks were not great either. Coffee was disgusting!! I have stayed in many riu hotels and this was not what a riu standard I have seen. Late night snacks were meat and bread buns left in a fridge all day and molded fruit! there was also a sexual assault on the beach of a fellow Canadian that was sad and disrupting to say the least, hotel staff did what they could to help so at least that. But all and all the view and beaches were spectacular and a great little market and restaurant was near by was a great reprieve from hotel food but everything was actually super expensive to our suprise so it's good we paid so little for our trip! If it was more than 1000 I think I would have been severely disappointed for sure, however we got an amazing deal and we got away and had a nice relaxing vacation. So for 880 all in including everything I can't complain too much! :) lol definitely checked off the bucket list and won't be back to mazatlan. But a good experience and met alot of new friends that we are still talking to daily.

Great resort!

Food was great! Hotel was clean! Staff was awesome! Pools were good and my son really enjoyed the kids club riuland. The shows were good every night. We stayed during New Years eve and the meal was AMAZING! I was very impressed. The biggest disappointment was the Tabasco Mexican resturant. We did. It enjoy it. We were expecting a bit better menu but that's it.

RIU EMERALD BAY TRIP, NOVEMBER 25, 2014

This was our third trip to Riu Emerald Bay and once again we had an amazing trip!! The rooms are great and the service & staff are always great!! The resort is still as well kept as when we first went there in 2010. It has not aged at all. Sometimes a few years later we've noticed other resorts have gone down hill but not this one. We also love to walk down the beach to the coffee shop & the little souvenir stores just minutes away. We always feel very safe there!

Great hotel!

Clean, great location, great view nice staff and good food. Elevators were a bit slow during certain periods but overall a great experience. Great balconies and a nice beach. Would definitely go back.

Wonderful resort-would definitely visit again!

The room was very clean!! The staff friendly and accommodating. A well maintained pool area. Great variety of food every day. There was a variety of entertainment the week we were there which was nice at night. Overall we were quite pleased with the Rio and would go back for sure. You can't beat the price we got it for.

Good deal

good deal...get a room on the lower floors and take the stairs. otherwise the elevator waits can be annoying. The food and service is very good. Beach is nice, beautiful rocks and a sunset second to none.

Everything there is all top notch

We have been to this resort 3 times in the last 4 years and it has been a wonderful experience each time,the beach,the food, the rooms. It is all great. We fully recommend this resort. When we travel to Mexico this winter we fully intend to go to a Riu resort.