Riu Emerald Bay - All Inclusive

I had the most absolute fun at this resort. Everyone was friendly, and pretty much minded their own business. I was a little nervous after booking this hotel, and reading the reviews, but I am convinced those people were not too happy with life. The hotel was huge, and it accomodated all of its guests well. I never felt like I was crowded or out sourced by the "locals" as so many other reviewers put it. You definitely get your moneys worth. The food was ok. It wasn't authentic Mexican food, but there is a restaurant at the end of the beach called Playa Bruja that is to die for. it was moderately priced, and very good. Also if you get tired of eating tacos and burritos there were a few other bars, and restaurants a little farther down the strip than Playa Bruja. Roy's (which had a great brunch on Sunday) offers free calls home, and free wifi with the purchase of a drink or entree!!! I had an amazing time, and came home with an amazing tan! Only downfall was all of the pools were 4 feet in Maximum depth.

nothing bad to say about the place just need to be carefull whit what you eat!

We had a great vacation, weather was perfect, kids had a blast, food was good, hotel was very clean and the staff couldn't be nicer. Mexico is just a great value right now.

We thoroughly enjoyed our trip to this resort, especially considering we paid less than $2000 with airfare for a 7-night trip. The property is fairly new and very well maintained. There are multiple pools, which is great as some are adult only and less busy. What was also nice is that the hotel had a private area on the beach. Those of you who have been to Mexico before know that this is key as it keeps the beach vendors at bay. We didn't have an issue getting a reservation for dinner, as long as we went down to the guest services desk before 10:00am. The food was average for an all inclusive, but the Mexican food was very good, as you would expect. I'm not implying that the food wasn't good, just that it isn't four or five star cuisine. The drinks were great. I was expecting very cheap liquor, but it was decent. For instance, their vodka was Absolut. Not the best, but it isn't Wolfschmidt either. The staff was great. Everyone was very attentive and polite. The one thing I will admit, however, is that previous posts were correct about the local customers. I read some posts about the locals being "bused in on the weekends," and assumed that these posts were being over-dramatic. But, the day before we left, I literally watched 13 buses full of locals drive up and unload what the security officer later told me was about 900 people. I had no problem sharing the property with the locals, but if that is something that will bother you, this isn't the resort for you in the summer months (I was told that the season for locals to stay at the resort is during the summer months and that in the fall, winter, and spring, the resort is mostly American and Canadian tourists). The one other downside, speaking as someone who has been to Mazatlan before, is that the economic downturn really appears to have hurt the Golden Zone area. A lot of shops and restaurants were closed. But, if you want a great place to eat, be sure to go to Pancho's, which overlooks the beach. It was great, and only about $9 for a platter of food. Awesome. One final thing--If the resort is fairly busy, the elevator system is non-functional. There are 6 of them for a 20+ story resort, and each only holds 10 people at a time. There also appears to be no rhyme or reason as to where and when they stop. You would be on the 10th floor and watch elevators go from floor 1 to 20 to 8 to 16 and never stop. I couldn't figure it out, but it made me absolutely crazy! Also, the locals didn't seem to understand the concept of a line when it came to the elevators. If you are used to riding the subway in NYC, you'll be just fine. If I did it again, I would get a room on one of the first five floors and just use the stairs. All in all, we enjoyed our stay and would return to this resort in the future, should we travel to Mazatlan again.

Being with RIU for 6 years this was a perfect vacation and the staff was excellent. There are trying and do such a great job- give them credit.

The hotel´s 24 hours all inclusiveis really a great deal, it makes it up for the location of the hotel which is really far from downtown mazatlan (around 25 dlls trip in a cab). nevertheless the treat and commodities are terrific and it is a wonderful experience if you travel with the desire to take a good rest

Excellent relation price-benefits. All the things that you can need, you have it at the moment.

In general, this is a nice newer property with good facilities. The food and drink at the all-inclusive were better than average. The staff was pretty friendly, the bartenders good and fast. Lots of chairs at the beach an pool. I think we were there at a lighter week so there were no crowds for anything. The only negatives were: 1) The elevators - unbelievably bad. It took 15-20 minutes to get to our room. I can't imagine a busy week. They need to do some serious re-pr0gramming of the elevators 2) The boogie board shack staff was really unfriendly. They seemed to be in a bad mood the whole time.

We spent a lot of time reading reviews on Or bit z and Tr ip Ad vis or before heading out and were very surprised when people knocked various aspects of this resort. The Long and Short: Family of 5 - Mom, Dad, 12, 10 and 10 y.o. boys. Stayed in a single room on 9th floor with 2 twins and a cot. It was 'cozy' but workable. View - awesome. Responsiveness - Excellent. 4 calls to Front Desk (xtra pillows, extra towels/shampoo, clean room after we left DND sign on by accident, noisy neighbor) all handled within 5 mins. Food - Lots of online complaints about buffet. Was not your Sunday High End Mother's Day $30 a plate fare, but certainly ram the gamut of choice. Easy 8 stars plus. Drink - non-stop, and mostly top notch. Tips, while appreciated, did not really seem to affect performance. Pools - chilly, but we spent most of our time at the beach anyhow. Beach - awesome sand, GREAT wave action (some undertow, but nothing to really worry about unless far out) Location - pretty isolated, but that's what we wanted. Cool walks to both sides and a nearby rest. and strip mall to satisfy wanderers. Wi-fi - down first couple days, but after that no issues and pretty quick on iPad. Night Life - they had a show each night, but after full days at the beach and walking, we were in bed by 9 most nights. Occupancy - we went Monday to Monday, and found the weekdays at about 40% full. Weekend hit and it seems to be an attraction for the locals (fair enough) and ran up to what I heard was 80%. This is the only time it felt 'busy' and pools/elevators were affected. Overall, we had a great time and would highly recommend to anyone. We paid just over 4 grand for 7 nights from Vancouver. *Final note* My 12 y.o. and I did a parasail with on beach operators (Bad Boyz?) and the knot they tied undid in high wind when we were about 300 feet up (high enough to easily see down onto the roof of the 22 storey Riu). Fortunately we were far enough out, and the wind was right, that we only ended up with a hard ocean landing. Emphasis on the hard. They were kind enough to refund our money. I'd recommend keeping a close eye on that knot should you go with these guys.

The hotel was beautiful and the staff were very friendly, but the food was disappointing. We were expecting better options on the buffet. The seafood was delicious but there weren't that many choices and we only got shrimp one night. It got old eating the same thing every night. The restaurants that you can make reservations for were just OK. We had fun at the disco but only go there in a group because it was a little sketchy. Heard a horror story about something that happened to a girl the week before we got there, so never walk to your room alone. It would have been more fun if the activities for the guests were better. The swim-up bar was the main attraction. Not much to do on the resort for those under eighteen.