Pros: family feel, great food, awesome friendly staff, spacious rooms, nicely kept property, onsite mini mart, decent workout facility, onsite laundry.
cons: restaurant/bar closes really early, could use more activities, mazatlan as a hole isnt my favorite city, ocean waves not safe for swimmng, expensive restaurant/drinks, airport drive is long and depressing, they have the same themed dinners/nights every single year, one year after another. MIX IT UP.
I take my reviews very seriously. My family has stayed here every May for about the last 10 years, taking an occasional year off here and there. I wil keep this direct and honest. If you want honest answers please direct message me, I would be happy to tell you. I have honestly been here about 15 times.
First off: If you are too cheap to go to Mexico during the desireable travel season, DO NOT BLAME MOISTURE, HUMIDITY, CRAPPY WEATHER, RAIN, ETC. on the hotel or their staff. They work their tails off to make sure you have a pleasant stay, doing so with a smile on their face 99% of the time. Resorts that are open year round have to do their maintenance sometime. Spend the extra money and visit in moths outside of June/July/August/September/October It is called hurricane season for a reason and there is an even bigger reason for the discounted rates. FIGURE IT OUT. I just got back from Puerto Vallarta and stayed at a All inclusive place 2 years old. Same thing during the hurricane months reviews...complaints of mold, mildew. Funny when i went in December, it was perfect. YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR. I would like to see you buy a house there and keep it 100% dry when the moisture in the air is thick enough to cut with a knife.
2nd: Acoomodations: The rooms could probably use some updates but to me they are great and very spacious. If you want to hang out in a room all day long why go on vacay? I personally go for the beach and outdoors. The grounds are well kept and the crew works very hard to keep everything manicured/green and looking fresh.
3rd: Activities: This place needs to step up its game as far as activities are concerned. Not much catering to the young adults 20-40 age range. The bingo is fun (if you are 900 years old) The 2 happy hours a day is a nice touch, but,darts??? meh... its ok. At least they give out prizes for its winners. At the all-inclusive I was just at, I got a t-shirt that I left there b/c it wasnt worth keeping. I suggest coming up with some new ideas to get people involved and having fun. Its obvious they wnat you to pay fo the activities from the activities desk which are beautiful and fun, but are not cheap.
4th: Food" Palapa restaurant is probably one of the best restaurants I have ordered food at in MZT. (BESIDES ANGELOS) Palapa has the best shrimp, fajitas, guacamole, salsa, always fresh. Our family buys lobster from Gustavo off the beach and the hotel restaurant prepares them for us for our annual lobster/champagne brunch. The waitstaff is awesome and always friendly. Just dont talk to them like they are your servants. Because they arent. Be nice, get to know them. They are great people. (paco, martin, mario, ismael, etc) all wonderful and have all stayed there for years and for a good reason. They all remember our family and our names everytime we visit. Makes it a nice feeling every time we go back. The shrimp are huge too. Drinks are also strong. Regardless, if you get something you dont like, just kindly ask and they will make it right.
5th: The Town of Mazatlan: Meh?... is it my favorite mexican city? No way. Is it probably more authentic than Cancun and some of the more commercialized cities, yes. The ride from the airport is rediculous. What genius decided to put the airport 45 min away. Not a good idea. There are not many attractions here but most of us stay at the hotel 80% of the time. I would recommend like i mentioned Angelos, it is fine dining in pueblo bonito, not the emerald bay one. 5 min cab ride from Torres.
In closing. We go here because it is part of our vacation international time share. My dad likes it. he knows what he is getting when he comes, we all do. We spend a lot of money there. It would be nice to see some upgrades though and some more fun activities that could be done on site. Would I have gond 15 times if it wasnt for family retreats... absolutely not. I personally like to try new things. But I do enjoy this place as their theme is "welcome home" and that is what it feelsl like to me, a 2nd home. Which says more than a lot of the over sized huge mega resorts read more