Very picturesque, and oh so relaxing! The pools are so nice, and each has its own bar and snacks,…read morebut like a lunch menu, think fajitas and quesadillas. The rooms are large and comfortable. The employees are all nice and friendly, quick with a smile! The private beach is awesome! Again, it's own bar and snacks (burgers, quesadillas....) and a waiter named Javier....doing an amazing job! Kudos!

My stay is so awesome and restful The personal is so helpful…read moreand polite I love it here at El Cid Marina I ll definitely will come back next year for another All inclusive stay here! I also chatted with Tim Kaminsky the manager: friendly and informative about the hotel, and the activities! Omg: for lunch I ate a smoked marlin (fish) ceviche on a mini tostada: honestly I think it was the best meal I've ever had here so far It was so tasty and fresh Kudos for that dish

We have been coming here since 2017, at first I wasn't sure but I said sure, when we got there…read more. WOW I was completely amazed at this resort, on our first day it was amazing the food at the restaurant was out of this world...very delicious, the employees are fabulous & very hard working. In 2019 while we were there, had an emergency, by this time we were spending 2wks there by the end of the first week we were supposed to change rooms but the front desk went out & beyond, the management said we can stay in that room. I was so grateful This place is one of the best resorts in Mazatlan, if you ever wanted to do tours & such...go down & talk to Rudy he is awesome, if you bring children they do have fun activities during the day...in the morning they have exercise in the pool, in the afternoon bingo every day (that's fun) happy hour 2x a day except on Fridays 3x a day, they have a wonderful massage area..hopefully next time we come down they will have the volleyball up in the pool & singing (karaoke) back up on Friday Nights (I sure missed that) Trust me you won't be disappointed on this resort, lots of stuff to do around town..either by bus or taxi

A wonderful resort where happy hour comes twice a day, because one just isn't enough. Soccer,…read moretennis, volleyball, foosball, pretty much the Olympics of all activities. It wasn't all inclusive, but this place felt like home for the week. Worth every peso and then some. Glad I was able to enjoy with family and friends. Will be coming here again.

Mix feelings about this hotel because it really holds a special place in my childhood memories but…read moreI gotta say it wasn't as GRAND as I remembered. The GOOD: Staff is really attentive. They go above and beyond to make sure you are taken care of. Location: very centric and everything is within 5-10 drive Pools: Both pools are big and they have enough lounge chairs around. The pool staff were also fantastic. Plenty of Palapas at the beach for everyone The buffet at Las Palomas never disappointed. Kuddos to Gonzalo and Freddi. Great service. Angelo's restaurant- delicious and good wine selection. Kuddos to our server Alejandro Ibarra. He was great. Casa 46- delicious upscale food with beautiful views of the centro histórico The BAD: The common areas needed more up keeping. one of the nights there was so much trash around the pools (Shame on guests for leaving so much trash out) but that clearly shows you that they are understaff if they cannot keep with picking up leftovers cups and cans. The food at Cilantro's restaurant was mediocre. The service at the bar was great but not at the dining area; took too long when there were hardly any people. No transportation to the sister hotel Emerald Bay. They gave us some BS about being out of contract with their transportation company; however, if you signed up for the time-share breakfast then they would provide you transportation. Alcoholic beverages: ALL the alcohol is clearly watered-down. You could never taste the alcohol and I never got a buzz after several drinks (I would even ask for doubles) The only time I had good drinks was at their sister location, Emerald Bay; I am assuming they don't use watered down alcohol at this location because this is were they host their 'time-share' meetings and they need to impress the guests. They require you to sign a contract before check-in that prohibits hiring La Banda on the beach, even though Neto Coppel posted multiple videos on TikTok saying he would allow bands to play there (because the beaches are public!). It's frustrating because the contract states that if you're caught, they can remove you from the premises

The beach is amazing and so are all the servers. It is a but run down, but still beautiful. The…read morebeds are a bit on the hard side. Not what I am used to when stating at a pueblo bonito resort. My complaint is mostly with the suite service. It would take forever and I was on the premier all inclusive and they charged me service charge twice because I ordered pizza and a steak. The problem is the food is not always the best when I ordered service and yup. I only tasted the pizza... it was not good. So glad I had ordered the steak.

We booked an all inclusive vacation for 4 and paid for the insurance. However, 15 days before, we…read morehad a death in the family and wanted to back out. Turns out, the insurance is only good up to 30 days in advance, which is ridiculous. Because before 30 days, you could easily reschedule things. They promised that they would refund if we sent a photocopy of the Death Certificate to prove it. We did that and still they did not refund the money as promised. Instead they insisted we take another equal vacation within 12 months. In which time they could sit on our payment? Then, gain the interest instead of us having it in our bank account -when we have many funeral expenses at the same time. We could have sold it to someone else.If we knew there were going to shell game us like this...These are not nice people.

Went to go eat at their buffet restaurant since I remember it being delicious at one point - passed…read moreon the buffet since it looked like cafeteria food and one person in our party tried it and hated the taste of it. A la carte wasn't better , we waited an hour for honestly one of the worst foods I've had in Mexico - ordered a club sandwich which was the best good item out of all of it . El cid combination is so dry and the rice and beans had no flavor. Tacos gobernador hard pass as well . Service was great only reason why it wasn't a one star The vibe is very retired tourist but at least it has a nice view

I came here with my girlfriend back when we were visiting Mazatlan. We did not want to stay close…read moreto all the drunks in Zona Dorada, so we opted to stay in this fine boutique hotel on the other end of the malecon (boardwalk). The hotel is indeed a nice hotel, albeit a bit older. We parked along the street, and walked in. Check in did not take long, we got our key and walked up to our room. The lock gave us some trouble, as it was older, but we were able to get it open. The room itself was decent, and it had a spacious balcony. We were hungry, and we decided to order some room service. The food from room service was pretty good, from which I ordered a breakfast dish of eggs, chilaquiles, beans, coffee, and lemonade. This place had a spacious bathroom and shower, which was great considering how hot and humid it was outdoors. So where this place went wrong was our last night here. We came back to the hotel relatively early. Since I was not sleepy, I stayed up to work on my laptop while my girlfriend slept. Around 3AM, I head someone trying to open the door. I stood maybe 5 feet from the door, and an older man wearing an employee shirt but no nametag was at the door. He was more startled than I was. I asked him what he wanted, to which he responded that he was checking to see if the room was empty. I was not buying it, but I decided not to wake up and freak out my girlfriend. The following morning, we complained about this to the front desk. They claimed to go over the camaras and not see anyone outside our room at that time. Right away, I knew this was an attempted inside robbery, and we decided to check out that very morning. Unfortunately, the people at booking.com were not able to get us a refund, but we were not going to stay in a place that has people trying to rob us then cover it up. The property is nice, but I can never forgive them for this. I don't recommend staying here. But if you come here nonetheless, I would not bring many valuables and lock up the ones you do in your luggage while you're out or sleeping.

If I could give Casa Lucila 10 stars, I would…read more We stayed here on our recent trip to Mazatlan - and to be honest, it was by accident. We planned a last minute trip and all the resorts were sold out. Luckily after hunting online for boutique hotels, I came across this gem. Yes, everything does happen for a reason. This place is phenomenal. Everything from the check-in, service, food, rooms, view, rooftop pool and drinks were spot on. A family owned boutique hotel, Casa Lucila offers a small intimate vibe where you can zone out, relax and not have to deal with the tourist nonsense that you might experience in the Golden Zone. We took advantage of the rooftop small infinity pool on a daily basis and ordered lunch poolside everyday during our stay. The hotel is small, that most of the time you'll feel like you're the only guest staying there - which may seem weird at first, but honestly - it makes you forget about all your worries and helps you relax while your vacationing. I could write a novel about how awesome this place is, but the pictures and reviews speak for themselves. If you can fork up $200+ a night, it's beyond WORTH IT. And, I'd highly suggest drinking and eating here - the food at this place is 10x better than what you might find at local vendors or restaurants. Thank you Casa Lucila for a memorable trip to Mazatlan. Can't wait to refer EVERYONE to your hotel, and I can't WAIT to come back. =)

We had a nice stay unable to find beach towels and over crowded to use the hot tub but other than…read morethat people super nice staff friendly helpful bellhops

We came back and found out that the service has done down. El Moro and its sister Castilla now…read morecater pretty much to the locals and Spanish speaking customers. People can purchase day pass or non-meal tickets. Consequently, there are more and more local customers. Worse yet, if you're in a millionaire member club, you have a different area to check in/out. All others (Platinum plus, Platinum...) are treated the same as non-member. You're just a commoner who has to check in/out like everybody else. No special treatment anywhere which makes one wonders about the value of being a member. The workers seemed overworked and were not smiley. Many of them don't speak English. On the other hand, if you go to the smaller El Cid Marina resort, things are much better. Maybe because it's father or El Cid does sell day pass there, we did not run into the same situation. Foods and service are much better. It's small, quiet and could be boring for some of you. However, there is a free shuttle to go to the other El Cid resorts. We probably will stay there and take the shuttle to the El cid club to play tennis and pickle ball. Won't go back to El Moro.

I'm giving this review 3 stars, because the staff here work very hard and there is staff that have…read moregone out of there way to make our experience better. However, we were highly disappointed with the front desk management staff. Several things were brought up and after speaking to a manager, our issue was downplayed with no real solution. The Customer Service and Customer Satisfaction is just not there as a priority for management. I don't see any benefit in discussing the details here, but we are following-up with Riu directly. The rooms are as clean as they can be, meaning the staff does what they can with what they have to work with. The linens and beds need to be updated and the rooms need an upgrade. The food is also not the best in comparison to other all-inclusives, but I suppose it's o.k. for the price, as this is one of the more affordable all-inclusive hotels. The location was great, the beach front view was spectacular, the pool areas were fairly well maintained, but our main complaint was with the cleanliness of our room. We've stayed at other Riu locations and have been satisfied, but we were disappointed with our stay at this location.

This is a review on the Riu and NOT the staff. One more time, this is about this Riu, and not the…read morewonderful staff. This is my second time staying in a Riu (my first was in the Dominican Republic)and I've got to say that this one was pretty disappointing. Arrival: The airport is about 30 minutes from the resort & shuttles are only available to guest who book directly from them and not a third party, such as Expedia(like we did). We ended up paying about 500 pesos for the Taxi ride, and all of this was scheduled once we landed at the airport. We arrived to the airport and were met with a drink, we opted out and were given a beer instead. Check in is at 3, but we were on a red eye flight so we arrived around 10am. We were assigned a room but not given access to it because it wasnt ready(which we totally understood), instead we were given our wristbands and told that our suitcases would be safely set aside and looked after(we were not the only ones, there was a wall of suitcases set aside). At this point we were able to use the pools, grab food or drinks or just walk around. We decided to nap on the beach since we flew all night, and around 1:30 I went up to ask if by chance our room was ready, and I was told it wasnt. We were both really tired and asked if we could just be moved to a different room that was already cleaned & they did(again, staff is amazing). We stayed in the original hotel, not the addition that was later built on, so our room was pretty basic, but it was really clean and had an amazing view from the 9th floor. Our stay: We found out very quickly that this resort is more kid friendly than it is for adults. The evening shows began at 8pm. First 1 hour of Riuland which is for the kids, then 1 hour of the usual musical show for the adults/families. This meant that everything basically shut down at 10pm after the shows ended. Out of our entire week stay ONE night there was a live Norteño Grupo that began at 10 and ended at 11 but this was the only day, even though the app said it was a nightly thing, it never happened again. Like the other Riu Ive stayed in, there was a 24hour sports bar that you could go to, but that too is always full of kids taking up the pool tables or running around the bar. This left only ONE MORE OPTION in the entire resort, bar El Cerro that is located in the lobby. This bar is huge, and quiet. Usually just adults, no music or real vibe, and it closes at 12am. The bartenders in El Cerro bar are really entertaining so we continued to go in there whenever we were at the resort during the evening hours, but sadly we were told this bar is only open during half the year and closes during summer months, huh? Conclusion: I STRONGLY advise anyone who is coming to Mazatlan for a real MEXICAN experience to NOT stay at this Riu. The pool music is always dance/techno music, guest would bring their own speakers so they could play their own spanish music, and the live bands and vendors that are on the beach are kept at a distance by a roped fence. The bandas on the beach have to stop by 10 it seems, because thats usually when you couldnt hear them anymore. Our stay was really disappointing & it had ZERO to do with the staff.

We stayed at the Playa Mazatlán for 3 nights and it is a beautiful hotel. Upon check in, you'll…read morereceive a wristband for the resort. The staff seemed nice (we speak Spanish so I am sure that is helpful). This is one of the older hotels in Mazatlán so it does look older, not many outlets in the rooms. It would also be nice to have a mini fridge. We had an ocean view room and there is an option at checkout to add the fridge to your room for I believe $5 a day. Our toilet clogged during our first or second night around 10 pm. We called the front desk and they sent someone over immediately to fix it. Like other reviews mention, you can hear music all night coming from the neighboring Oyster Bar. If that bothers you, I don't recommend booking an ocean view room. The noise was our main gripe with this resort. We did not pay for the all inclusive package as we knew we would be venturing into town to eat but did receive the breakfast package. We had breakfast here once and were not impressed. There is a line to get into the restaurant and the food was nothing special. We didn't do the all inclusive so we had to pay for any drinks we got from the bar. The prices were fair and the mango margarita with chamoy is delicious! Since the hotel is situated on the beach, beach access is a breeze. There are chairs and umbrellas for hotel guests. Some people set out towels to try to save seats but from our experience, there is someone who works at the hotel who tries to seat everyone which is nice! We used the clothing laundry service while we were here and all clothes came back clean and ironed within 24 hours. We did call to confirm that they would be bringing the clothes before we head out for the day and we paid in person when they brought us the clothes. The pools are great! There's a lot of them, the property is quite big. There is a nice heated pool over looking the ocean. There is also a man made cenote that you can swim in. This resort is pretty family friendly so there are a lot of kids but no kids are allowed in the heated pool. The heated pool does get pretty full though since the other pools are pretty cold. I do wish the pools stayed open later. I believe they close at 9pm and there is a security guard who makes sure no one takes a night swim. For transportation, if you'd like to take a pulmonía into town, there is usually a few waiting just outside of the resort. Also when we left, the bellhops helped us call a taxi to the airport. This hotel is well situated and you can walk to the malecón and neighboring shops easily. Some reviews mention not receiving fresh towels or bedding during their stay. We requested fresh laundry on our first day and it was never an issue. You also receive 4 pool towel cards that can be used for the pool or the beach. All in all, our stay at Playa Mazatlán was cozy and beautiful. The main issues are the music all night and the food.

Horrible customer service -- every request felt like a problem for them. I asked for an invoice at…read morecheckout, and they said they needed Mexican documents just to provide a receipt! Completely unreasonable. The buffet food was terrible -- bland, tasteless, and nothing was good. Even the beer tasted watered down. The hotel itself is outdated, which I could overlook because of its age, but the poor service and awful food made the stay unbearable. I would not recommend this place to anyone.

The lobby was quite warm, which made me wonder about the rest of the hotel. I decided to stay at…read moreanother hotel instead. I wish I could have stayed at Sunviva. I had heard some great things about that hotel, but when I arrived and found the lobby too warm, I had to go to another hotel. My partner needs a cool place to stay because he had heatstroke before. I didn't want that to happen again.

There was a band playing past 10:50 in the evening at a resort known for being situated on a quiet…read morebeach, this was a surprise and inappropriate..The band was very loud, it effected guests ability to rest and enjoy a quiet evening on the ocean. Party's and bands are not "bad" but guests pay a reasonable amount to enjoy the entire resort, and to expect a lower amount of noise late into the evening is not unreasonable. The business failed to post or warn guests of this late night band/party. My family and I believe the Inn failed in being a good host to "all" it's guests. Why not start the party sooner so that it is over by a reasonable time. Management should be respectful to all it's paying customers. Provide info, post it and let patrons know when they check in. Management at the Inn failed in this. For this I would recommend doing research before booking here. Maybe the are other more respectful resorts?