Riu Emerald Bay - All Inclusive

Hotel is beautiful and the staff was great. My room was on the llth floor, very clean with a great view. The hotel was about a l0 minute walk from Cerritos point. An RV park is located here and a little strip mall with some resturants and some tourist gift shops. Even a massage place that we got massages at for $l7 for a relaxing massage and $20 for a deep tissue, and other spa services. Don't expect it to be like a state side massage that you'd pay $70 for but it was good. Well worth the price. Across from the strip mall is Ginger's Bilingual Horses. A hour horse back ride on the beach and through a small coconut plantation is $30. A nice ride of walking and cantering with the horses. We took the bus to town. Buses are marked where they go and cost 7 pesos. Not exactly a deluxe ride but gets you where you need to go. The food is almost all buffet style which after the 4th day gets a little boring. There's plenty of choices and lots of variety. If you can't take the buffets any more there are quite a few resturants in the strip mall and also a place called Lionso's right on the beach down from the hotel. My only complaint about the hotel is there is no adult only pool. I don't think kids should be floating around the pool bar. I realize its hard for the staff to say anything to guests about their children but when your sitting at the pool bar and little children are floating around, or splashing its not a relaxing place. I'm a Gramma so don't think I don't like children but I think they should stay in their own kiddie play area with their parents and the hotel does have a childrens pool. This was my second stay at a Riu prior to this was the Riu Vallarta and the same thing was an issue there and they even said one pool was supposed to be adults only. The staff works really hard and deserves to be tipped. We didn't see any tipping going on over the weekend when the locals came in. I'd love to see a Riu Adults Only. The staff for the kids club looked like the kids were having a great time. The staff was A-l as far as I was concerned and from the waiters and bartenders to the house keeping staff.

Hotel was great! Wonderfully peaceful to lay on the beach, or under a bungalow in the shade. Listen to the waves all day and night! Food was great, drinks were great. I read a lot of people say the drinks are watered down, but I've never had a stronger amaretto and diet in my life! I had to add soda! Great bloody mary's on the beach too. And margaritas! Would definitely go back!

My son got a better deal through you same flight same stay Room was clean but noisy paid for an upgrade to a ocean view all rooms are ocean view over all treated well and the trip was a success. Thank you.

This hotel is in a newer area of Mazatlan, away from the Golden Zone and a great place to relax if you dont want the party atmosphere. There are some good and bad with this hotel. Overall, the Riu has 5 star facilities with 3 star service and food. Good:Location (if you are ok with just relaxing and not going to the bars)Buffet food (this is also a bad- see below)All-inclusiveVery clean room and facilitiesGreat poolsSecure and safeWhile I am not a big fan of hotel entertainment, at least they had professional dancers and singers. Bad:Some staff were nice but others not so much. Seemed to be nicer if you spoke spanish or were local. For some reason, the female staff were rude and the male staff were much nicer. To give an example, upon checkout I had to wait 20 minutes for someone to help me and I was the only one in line. There were two women off to the side that completely ignored me and finally a dirty look to the manager got someone over to help.Noisy- thin walls. The family rooms are right above the disco. Loud music every night until 2am. One morning a guy was singing in spanish at the top of his lungs and at 6am for 30 min right outside our room (which was right off the lobby) and no one told him to stop.Restraunts were not 4 or 5 star quality. Reservations were VERY hard to come by but were never more than half full and you had to get them at 7:30am and wait in a large line. The steakhouse was the only one worthwhile and it was only ok. The Mexican place (Tobasco) was horrible. The Asian themed place was ok but everything was way too salty.All the drinks were served in TINY cups. By the time I got from the bar to my seat the drink was generally gone. While this helped by not having any drunk folks around, it was pretty annoying.We apparently went after Easter which is the local spring break. LOTS of locals who tended to be rude with loud children. The others we met were very nice and there were others from central america where were great as well but the locals did not have a lot of respect for others. The hotel staff also had a tendency to serve them first at the bar and look right by you if you didnt have a dollar in your hand. I suggest going in the off season when the local are not the majority of the guests.One final note. [...]

We traveled March 27th-April 3rd 2010 . I read the reviews and expected some issues with the elevators and the food. Both of these were disappointing but knew that going into it . The Bambo was a highlight but was very hard to get into . We had to book it 2 nights ahead .There were a lot to choose from at the buffet but the quality was lacking . At the restaurants the food was to be served like any normal restaurant but since the place was fully booked they decided to do them buffet style also and was a very poor quality food the same you could get in the normal buffet The Riu looks like a 4 star resort but looks are deceiving ! The staff is always cleaning the common areas but didn't do a very good job on the rooms the floor seamed to stay dirty . There were major issues with the water , from no hot water to very little or no water to the worst of all brown water in the shower . The Riu's answer was they had no answer and there was nothing they could do . I could go on and on complaining but i wont . The Riu was very disappointing and will not stay there again . They offered us nothing except some excursions that were fully booked and couldn't use . Told us we could contact the main office but not to expect anything .

I spent 4 days with my girlfriend and some friends and it was awesome. Location is wonderful, beautiful beach, nice swimming pools, friendly staff, clean rooms, lots of food, lots of drinks... We never felt like leaving the hotel to look for fun.

The staff were friendly and courteous! We enjoyed the pool!The restaurants had good food and great service

We loved the activities workers, they really make sure all the kids and adults have fun...especially the teenagers. Woody was great! We also loved the bartenders..[...]. Among others. They were all great.

Very Clean well run Hotel.. Excellent food and drinks, unfortunately too many children running freely and making the swim up bar unaprochable. Also the nightlife could use a little boost.

Great beach volleyball. Take the bus for 7 pesos to town. Walk the beach north and south - great sand and views. Do the city tour - worth it to get some great history and see key sections of city.