Mexico, Mazatlan, Riu Emerald Bay
Mexico, Mazatlan, Hotel Riu Emerald Bay - Jan 03 - Jan 10, 2025
Having an almost two months
gap between our trips, right after Christmas and New Year’s Eve we decided to
go for a lazy week beach vacation. After some research we settled for Riu
Emerald Bay in Mazatlan, Sinaloa Province, Mexico. In the past we had a very
good experience with Riu resorts plus we always wanted to try Mexico on the
Pacific coast side.
Even though we booked a room with no ocean view, to our surprise we got one with amazing vistas of the beach and the ocean. Actually all the rooms in the main, high-rise building have ocean view, the other side of the building faces the city with the corridors only. But there is a smaller building beside the main one where the rooms will have pool or garden view. The room was very clean and serviced perfectly every day.
The food was one of the best we had in an all-inclusive resort, a wide variety of choices with daily variations of the menu. One evening we booked dinner at Bamboo restaurant with Japanese cuisine which was actually very well done.
Worth mentioning were the drinks offered at the many bars across the resort. During our previous Mexican vacations, the drinks were quite disappointing but here they were generally well done. The bar menu was easily accessible through Riu phone Application and that helped knowing your choices.
On the Caribbean side of Mexico we were very disappointed by the beaches being covered in seaweed, not great for swimming, beach walks and the smell. To our pleasant surprise here the beach had absolutely no seaweed. The resort is located relatively close to one end of the sand beach but if you are like us into long beach walks, here is a perfect place for up to 4-5 km sandy beach stroll, one way. Another plus about the beach here, the vendors were not allowed to enter the resort area so you could have some quiet time while laying in the sun. Both the beach area and the many pools around the resort, had plenty of chairs available all day long, something we never experienced before.
Along the beach and resort it’s quite easy to spot some wildlife, nothing extraordinary for Mexico but still nice to observe. Be aware of the Pacific man o’war “jellyfish” also called Bluebottle, a close relative of Portugese man o’war. We spotted some (the picture with a blue jellyfish-like creature), not as many as in Cuba, just look at it but never touch as its sting is pretty nasty.
One of the highlights of
this trip were the sunsets. Having an ocean view room gave us the choice of
enjoying the sunsets from beach and balcony level.
The resort offers a wide
variety of daily activities, us having a relaxing week in the sun we didn’t attend
too many but the choice is there, dancing, yoga, running, swimming, surfing and
many more, see the daily schedule below
Every evening there were live shows at the resort’s theatres, sometimes in both of the two theatres, starting at 8:30pm and 9:00pm. The shows quality was very good, we attended all of them. The theme of the shows was announced on the previous evening and was also posted at the resort’s information board.
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