Riu Emerald Bay: Amazing resort

Stayed at RIU for the first time, haven't been to a better place ever. Great service both room and hotel in general, clean pools, nice bars with entertaining bartenders, huge variety of delicious food, everything was on point. 5 stars, hands down!

Riu Emerald Bay: very nice

The hotel is kept very clean. We had a problem with our safe not working, that got fixed after 2 service calls. Food was decent, only disappointed that the extra restaurants were also buffet style. No more service per table. Would definitely go back.

Playa Mazatlan: Great resort

This resort was beautiful place to stay and I had a great time. The shows and a la carte restaurants were excellent. One thing people who go should know though is most people, both other tourists and staff only speak Spanish and if you are an early morning person the pool doesn’t open till 9 and the gym 7.

Playa Mazatlan: Great Resort

We went for one week all inclusive with teenage children. Overall was a great experience. Pros - very clean, friendly staff, safe, great beach, no lines ups for food or drinks, loved the location, beds and pillows were comfortable, the pools were great! Cons- no activities for adults or children(the teen club had pool tables that were covered the whole week, no games going on except bingo the one night) the shows are dinner and a theater so you can't just go and watch you have to make reserva [... read more]tion and eat 3 course meal inside, the food is very authentic( very few western choices) and all the signs at buffet are in Spanish. Most of the staff don't speak English..very hard to communicate. No hot tub.

Riu Emerald Bay: Wasn’t overly impressed

The resort is nice, however, we had booked three rooms on the bottom floor all together. When we arrived all three rooms were scattered on three different floors. They couldn’t accommodate us with the rooms we requested until the next day and even then it wasn’t what we had booked. The adult pool bar was so cloudy and gross we skipped it and went to the other pools. Water and coffee was never replenished in our rooms (even though it says in the room pamphlet it’s stocked every two days) 4  [... read more]people out of our group got food poisoning and were laid up for two days. Couldn’t get any reservations for the restaurants. The food was average.

Riu Emerald Bay: Great family getaway

Traveled to Riu Emerald Bay on Nov 24th with wife and 2 young grandkids. Transfer and checkin were seamless and we were given a room in the new 4 storey building. The room was great but would have appreciated one that was not facing the air conditioning cooling towers as they run all day and are noisy when patio doors are open. Otherwise resort drinks and food were great, staff were helpful and beaches were awesome . And got those taking young kids the kids club was great with ball pits, dedicat [... read more]ed kids water slides and care workers . Yes we would go again .

Riu Emerald Bay: Lacks in a few areas

The Riu Emerald bay is a beautiful resort but it lacks in a few areas. Our bed was hard and well used, a the two chairs in our room were plastic covered and not comfortable at all. We couldn’t watch tv as it was all in Mexican, and it took until the last day after asking everyday to have the tequila in our room replaced as it was empty when we arrived. Children were frequently yelling in the hallways and the room next to us was smoking on the deck the whole time they were there, even though we [... read more] called the desk to complain

Riu Emerald Bay: Sorry to complain

The hotel was first class. The staff were amazing. A great variety of food. Wonderful Mexican dancers at the show! However the local loud repetitive music on the beach by 3 different bands at the same time playing different songs for 6 hours straight was unbearable. We could not sit on the beach, we could not sit on our balcony or have the balcony door open as all you could hear was tubas and drums for 6 hours and when that was finished, 2 hours of bad karaoke or bad audio video music began.

El Cid Hotel Marina Beach: Fantastic place to stay

This resort was a 10/10 for me! Fantastic food, beautiful pools, lots of great drink choices and our kids loved the slide and rock jumping pool. We can’t wait to back! I saw lots of bad reviews about the beaches but they were fine for us. The resort works so hard to make them as good as possible.

El Cid Hotel Marina Beach: Life changing trip!

I have never been more at peace then being at this resort. Everything was so amazing! The staff are so friendly and so nice. There are so many places to eat to choose from and they are all 5 star in my eyes! The pools and ocean were a straight paradise. This trip brought my girlfriend and I so much closer together because they made it so easy and enjoyable there. I SERIOUSLY recommend it!

Riu Emerald Bay: Breath taking long clean beach, you notice the very faithful RIU employees hard at work early a.m. and p.m.Peaceful, serene, many diversified families, security presence

Immaculate, clean, rooms/beds get cleaned everyday, friendly/helpful staff at Riu, grounds are immaculate, surrounded by nature, overall very clean, many activities happening during the day and night, never a dull moment, buzz everywhere

Riu Emerald Bay: Nice Resort

For the price we paid for this trip, it was a great value. The food could be better. Got tired of the same food over and over. My friend got sick in the last 3 days of the trip and is still sick and we have been home for 2 days now. Not sure if it was the food or drinks that caused it. We do question the ice (is it made from bottled water) and question when food is rinsed/washed, is bottled water used. Also is the food cooked in bottled water? The servers we had during our stay were fabulous.  [... read more]Our favorite was Hesau & Victor. They were very attentive. It was a very clean resort.

Playa Mazatlan: If you don't mind noise...

The worst thing about this hotel is not their fault. Mariachi bands show up for almost the entire afternoon. 3 or 4 or more bands playing different songs at the same time LOUDLY!! It's absolutely intolerable.

El Cid Resort Castilla: Excellent view older hotel, A la carte were excellent, buffet not so great.

Older hotel. Room musty smelling. We did have ocean and pool view which was beautiful. Gets lively on the beach Saturday and Sundays. Pool entertainment staff were very nice and fun. Buffet was not great. A la carte we’re excellent. The Japanese restaurant forgot to bring my daughters main course she did have appetizers so it was not a huge deal. Bring your own drink cups and water bottles. They don’t clean the plastic cups very good at the bars as they reuse the cups. I Had a few drinks tha [... read more]t I could not drink as the cup was dirty from previous person. They told us that we had to pay for water that was brought to our room but when we checked out they did not charge us. Main lobby bar staff were excellent. Bathrooms around hotel very always clean would of like to have seen more cleaning of tables and chairs.

Riu Emerald Bay: Great family resort!

This was a grand resort. Quite large and had lots of amenities. The main hotel is tall structure, however we stayed in the new addition. No beach views, but the room was great and spacious. Pools were well maintained and beautiful. We could get a spot most days after breakfast. Food was good, no complaints. Bamboo (asian resto) was by far the best! highly recommend making a reso. Given the size of the resort, I was surprised there wasn't more food options. 2 breakfast buffets, 1 lunch bu [... read more]ffet and 1 lunch poolside taco/hamburger bar, and then dinner was 2 buffets, 2 reso restaurants and an Italian type restaurant but not requiring reso. the best part of the resort was the people who worked there. They were all very nice, accommodating and willing to help whenever needed. beach was very nice and well maintained. We went with toddler, and it was very family friendly! Things that could have been improved: - check in was fast, but sloppy. not personalized and they didn't tell us how to get to our room. we wandered 1/2 hour until we figured out we were in the new addition. -the hotel map should have more details on it (room blocks).

Riu Emerald Bay: Busy and noisy

In terms of cleaning this is one of the best hotels we stayed at . It is however very large, busy resort . Lots of families with kids , even the adult pools were always packed and all afternoon there was a Mexican band playing on the beach . The quality of the food in the restaurants was not the best . Expected a lot better

Riu Emerald Bay: great beach

resort needs a face lift, showing it's age Bring Mexican money with you or exchange at airport. Exchange rate at resort not very good and ATM is not reliable Food is not that great. Great beach, although there are a lot of cig butts

Playa Mazatlan: Great resort with amazing view

A wonderfully sprawling resort that had roughly 7 pools and 3 jacuzzis. The 4 of us (2 couples)had an amazing time and greatly appreciated the wonderful service by the staff. Although few spoke little English we still managed to get by and enjoyed the authentic feel. They helped me celebrate my husbands birthday with special thanks to the breakfast staff and later to the dinner staff and matre d at the le veranda restaurant. A couple of things to be aware of: the constant music by the mariachi b [... read more]ands in the beach all day and even into the night there was noise filtering in from surrounding properties. Other than that we enjoyed the variety offered at the buffets and I particularly welcomed brushing up on my Spanish. Be sure to check out the wonderful coffee at George’s cafe. Thank you Carlos for the wonderful tasting lattes and Americanos we would have before breakfast. All in all a beautiful resort overlooking the beach with amazing views of the water. Thank you to kerri at tripcentral for arranging this for us and a a special kudos to her as well for being there when we needed her. I had so many questions which she quickly addressed and she was there for us when our flight was cancelled for our return trip. We can’t thank you enough for making our vacation worthwhile and taking of us from start to finish. I’ll definitely be booking with tripcentral again.

Riu Emerald Bay: Nice stay

This was our 2nd time at the resort. We had two weeks and found it a bit disappointing. The resort is clean and the rooms were nice. Comfy beds. We had to call each day for coffee for the coffee machine, Also. the fridge was not restocked every second day as suggested.We did get water bottles from the lobby to take up.We did leave a tip for the room and although the bed was made the toiletries were not replenished. Or the fridge restocked. The food at buffet was good, fresh but always the same.  [... read more]The a la carte is just a smaller buffet. And the reservation system does not work. We just walked up each night and got a table for 4. The pools and beach are nice. Clean and loungers are not a problem anytime of day. The vendors are good but the dualing mariachi bands are annoying and play from 3-7 or 8 . Very annoying and the hotel does nothing about it. It’s so loud and annoying!!!! We will not be back. If you go do not do the city tour. Take a cab. Better to do it yourself and save your money. The servers we got to know were great! But we tipped well. Makes a huge difference. Check out Lionso’s down the beach. Great food, music snd happy hour! Prices are amazing and portions are big!

Riu Emerald Bay: Not as good as last time

Mariachi band on beach everyday fro 230 to 700 very annoying. Ruined whole trip. Could not sit on beach or on balcony or even have windows open while they were playing everyday!!! Food very repetitive and there were not 3 a la carte restaurants. Only one and it was terrible. Every restaurant seemed to serve same thing. Nice setting and room but could use a bit of work. Phone and drink dispenser and coffee maker did not work. Water not restocked had to ask for it everytime we needed it. Night clu [... read more]b not open as far as we could see. Drinks not the same as last time. No fresh fruit in them just syrup.