Riu Emerald Bay: Everything you need for a great vacation

Pros Clean!!! Great food and choices Friendly and helpful staff Fully stocked room including towels and drinks Easy access to buses and taxis Nice long walking beach and opportunity to play in the waves Plenty of Sun loungers Good choices for pools with activities or quieter poolside opportunities Drinks available poolside from their portable bar service Cons Very noisy resort due to the high ceilings and tile floors presenting loud acoustics in the lobby and hallways. The B [... read more]anda on the beach plays most of the afternoon through a PA system, (which is less loud on the south end of the beach) but still very loud even in the rooms. No fault of the resort just a matter of fact.

Riu Emerald Bay: Fantastic Hotel

The food was above average, hotel was kept clean including pool areas and lobby. This is a 1000 room hotel which is well built and the rooms have sufficient sound proofing . The room was the perfect size , nice big bathroom and closets and good privacy on the balcony with full ocean view If there is one complaint, the elevators were slow and I was on the 19th floor. As well, the mini bar fridge was not always fully stocked. A big shout out to Manuel and Francisco at the main bar lounge, they we [... read more]re entertaining .

Riu Emerald Bay: Done

This was our 5th and last time to riu emerald bay, we where in the new section rooms are nice clean but locals have no respect for the resort and other people as the noise is terrible at night our 3 am take your pick food was still good except alacartes but that's always been like that hit and miss, bands playing on the beach is terrible everyone complains but public beach and locals like it so bands it is so for these couple reasons we will not be back.

El Cid Hotel Marina Beach: Good resort

We are very satisfied with the Cid Marina resort. Very nice and clean rooms, good food and helpful personnel. Way to go. Our daughter stayed there last year and she recommended the hotel to us. She was right.

Riu Emerald Bay: Great Resort

Hotel grounds and the beach were beautiful, as was the ocean view room we stayed in. Staff were great too. General buffets and the snack bar were delicious, but the specialty restaurants were a little disappointing; could only get into two of them, and one was also a buffet, with pretty underwhelming fare. Still very happy with our stay though!

Riu Emerald Bay: Nice Resort

Liked: the location, the beach, the staff, the food. Needed more elevators, and palapas on the beach (Palm trees not providing enough shade), not much insulation between units and floors; heard a lot of noise from the neighbors.

Riu Emerald Bay: Large Beautiful Resort

What a beautiful resort! Considering that the resort was fully booked because of the eclipse, there were never any problems getting into the restaurants or finding a lounger by the pool or the beach. The checkin process was very quick, even with three tour buses of guests arriving at the same time. Dining was superb with great food and friendly staff. The rooms were very nice with a very comfortable bed. The only negatives we had concerning the room was the replenishing of the minibar and liquor [... read more] dispenser. Two of the bottles in our liquor dispenser were empty when we arrived and it took several days to get someone up to replace the bottles. Also, the tap water is not drinkable so large bottles of water are supplied in the minibar. Except our minibar was not replenished until the last day of our stay so we had to scrounge around getting water to use. I guess another maintenance item was the loose and broken tiles on our balcony. But the view totally made up for it!

Star Palace Beach Hotel: Worst resource ever

Please don’t never refer this resort, rooms are old and functional, most of the stuff don’t speak English food was very simple and not good. Drinks limited terrible .star Palace no good.. please don’t refer this resource

Riu Emerald Bay: Lovely Resort with beautiful beach

The resort is beautiful. This is by far the cleanest, best cared for property we have every stayed at. The service was exceptional throughout the resort. Been to several all inclusive properties and the service at this one really stood out be it the restaurants, Bars, housekeeping or just asking someone for directions. They all went the extra to be helpful. It is set a little away from town, but easy access by bus, Taxi, Uber, or Safari cab. It has an absolutely beautiful beach, however ocean S [... read more]wimming depends on Tides and time of year. It does have a strong wave / undertow at times. Lots of pools and a great resort for both adults and families with kids with water slides and dedicated kids playground and activity area. Looking to come back next year with the whole family.

Playa Mazatlan: Not a peace full place

Spent two weeks with horns blowing, loud speakers playing, from about noon to eight in the evening, The beach area is the loudest area ,we tried to get away and find a quiet area it is almost impossible . The pool in the interior has music so loud it travels through the resort , we were trying to find a peace full location , so we would leave the resort just about every day. I realize the beach is a public area and your culture likes music but what we experienced was to much .It ruined the bea [... read more]ch area, also the people selling stuff was a nuisance, so the beach area was very annoying . We came all the way from Canada to enjoy a beach and were very disappointed. On the good side the staff were very friendly and help full . We changed rooms to find a quiet area and found that both rooms were clean and well kept. i would not recommend this resort based on our time there .

Riu Emerald Bay: Good Resort

This resort is a great place to take your family. The pools are very clean and are not too full. They do a great job at cleaning the bathrooms and rooms. The food selection in the restaurants is also amazing.

Pueblo Bonito Emerald Bay: Beautiful Resort!

This was a beautiful resort. Even though there are quite a few rooms spread out, it was very quiet. Service was amazing (especially Philippe at the pool by the Bistro). Just a couple small suggestions: - they should have 1 more restaurant for variety - they should make sure the timeshare people do not go into any of the restaurants and disturb the patrons while they are eating (we had this happen once where we stood up to leave from our table and the timeshare person was sta [... read more]nding right beside our table to ask us if we are interested and kept on us about attending a meeting) - i would also recommend a print out of the room service menu (too difficult to try and get it on the website). Other than these items, the place and staff were amazing! We will definitely come back.

Riu Emerald Bay: Great Resort

We had a great time at this Hotel Resort. The food was good. Lots of fresh fish and sea food in the buffet. All kinds of things for kids to do. There was one kids show and two adult shows a night. Hotel was very clean. They where always cleaning every where. Nice to see that. The staff in the buffet, restaurant and around the whole resort where some of the best we have seen. Very friendly and help full. It was a great mixture of young parents with children to elderly people like my self all h [... read more]aving a fun time. Thank You

El Cid El Moro Beach: met expectations

first off I was hit with a $115.00 US funds charge at check in, a lot of other people were charged, but for some reason the four people I was with were not! scam maybe, never got a straight answer, people at front check in were difficult to understand. The buffet was ok, definitely not on the healthy side of food choices, but was ok. room was nice and cleaned daily. lounge and pool area was good with great service. location was great as well with bus or taxi service easily available. overall it  [... read more]was a nice place to stay.

Oceano Palace: Had what we wanted

The main needs of this vacation were beach, sand, pool, drinks, food. This fit the bill as the cheapest, direct flight for both my wife and I from BC and my brother and his wife from SK. A RIU this resort is NOT but we knew that going in. We knew the food would not be great, it isn't in the buffet. It's adequate for one visit maybe two but after that too limited and too repetitive. We chose instead to visit one of the smaller restaurants and either the Luna, Pacific Tower or Star Palace from br [... read more]eakfasts and select one of the dinner options each evening. Through that dining experience which was good we met Ramon. What an exceptionally pleasant, knowledgeable, hardworking and catering man. We asked to use the one dining room that was closed to play cards in. It was hard to find a quiet place to get away for that kind of activity. He said absolutely and turned the lights on for us and even asked us what we would like to drink. He even made the drinks, which were all exceptional, himself. Each evening then we asked for dinner that would take us to Ramon. He gave us special treatment and made us very welcome each evening for dinner and our card games. He served us drinks through the evening even while he was managing the dinners. The last evening he made me a dirty martini that was very excellent. Four olives!! If we were to decide to go here again we would choose the Luna Palace to stay in as it is a bit more laid back, nice pool and quieter. Not fault of the hotel but bands play on the beach and are extremely loud. The hotel was also fully booked with local families and associations or teams so very busy. We never were able to use the main pool but the Pacific pool was a good alternative and we stayed on the beach under a Palapa.

Pueblo Bonito Mazatlan Beach Resort: Nice and Relaxed

The Food was really good and instead of running buffé they have a couple of no reservation needed restaurants and also an Italian where reservations are needed. 2 Pool areas both fairly quiet, If you are looking for a party tyoe resort this is not the place, nobody bugging for Timeshares or anything which we appreciated. Gym was really small, but okay since I seemed to be the only one using it. Overall a really good experience, went to the bigger resort where you also have access, huge and did n [... read more]ot care for it at all even though most people may like this style better. Non Alcoholic beer Heniken Zero they had up until the last day, when they started to say it was not included in the all inclusive package, when I explained I had been deinking the same all week long, and was not charged additionally anyways. I would go back as I prefer the smaller style resort.

Riu Emerald Bay: Great resort for kids

We traveled to the Riu Emerald Bay for a week in February 2024 with our two kids aged 5 and 8. Overall, the kids had a great time, even though we did find the resort lacking in a few ways. We stayed in the tower with a beautiful oceanview. The tower rooms are very dated and in need of an overhaul - small, uncomfortable beds, chairs on the balcony were cheap plastic patio chairs - which was an issue since we hung out outside each night after the kids went to bed. Also no light on the balcon [... read more]y which made evening time a bit more challenging. The food was plentiful and overall decent. My kids didn't have issues finding food to eat. The a la carte's are not easy to reserve - we only got to Bamboo once, even though that was by far our favourite. If you have any dietary issues - this may not be the resort for you. I'm lactose intolerant and don't eat pork and found the available options to me to be extremely repetitive. Kids club was good - lots of diverse activities that mine enjoyed. Having the indoor ball play area was helpful the days we had rain. The large slides were a hit for my eldest, but user beware - I'm not sure this would pass a safety inspection in Canada. Beautiful and huge beach, but waves can be very rough with a strong undertow. Our package was supposed to include babysitting for an added fee. Very disappointing to arrive and learn this was not in fact offered by the Riu.

Riu Emerald Bay: Pretty good with some flaws.

Grounds For the most part, the resort was very clean. There was always staff cleaning different areas of the resort. Rooms The rooms are a little bit older, but they were very clean. The beds were somewhat comfortable and the AC was strong. When being assigned room, you should hope that you get assigned to a room closer to the ground level as it takes a really long time to take an elevator down to the lobby. Every day, I just walked down from the 8th floor to the lobby. Food The [... read more] food gets quite receptive after a few days. The food tends to be overcooked and it tasted average at best. Nothing really blew me away. There are only two restaurants where you require a reservation to dine in (Asian and Mexican). In my opinion, the Mexican restaurant was quite horrible and the Asian restaurant had decent food. However, for both the Asian and Mexican restaurants, they either were fully buffet style (Asian) or the appetizers were buffet style (Mexican). The other 3 restaurants were buffets along with a grill near the pools. The non-alcoholic drinks tasted quite diluted. Pools They had an amazing waterpark that is fun for both children and adults. The resort has around 7 pools. The pool near the buffet was less popular and tend to attract a lot of seagulls and birds. As a result, it led to a lot of seagulls defecating in the pool. Otherwise, the other pools looked relatively clean. Service The service from the staff was amazing. Everybody was extremely friendly and polite. The RIU app was easy to use and enabled us to make reservations at restaurants, request a refill in our minibar, or request refills to amenities such as conditioner and shower gel.

Riu Emerald Bay: Amazing Resort

Rooms, food & service was fantastic. Maids were amazing & waiter’s. Great bartender’s. The only downfall is that the entertainment needs to be improved. They need at least a Michael Jackson impersonator. They also need the head of entertainment to speak better English. P.S I’ll never book with Trip Central as my agent told me & emailed me a visitax form that cost me for 2 $58.71 US dollars. I then find out I didn’t have to purchase it. Not for Mazatlan, Mexico. Trip Central said it was my fault. [... read more] I reached out to the Mexican government & they will honor this if I visit a city that needs this visitax form.

Playa Mazatlan: Beautiful resort.

It's extremely mobility friendly, even off the resort. One of the cleanest resorts I've been to. Public bathrooms were immaculate. They also have garbage cans everywhere so the hotel remains clean. Staff were wonderful and always helpful. We had an ocean view room, the area is beautiful but bands play on the beach which can be very loud. Of you want quiet, take a pool view room. The buffet is like other buffets. Variety is there but it's a matter of taste. There's always something to eat. We enj [... read more]oyed it there.