If you go to mexico, learn to order your drinks in spanish. Who cares if kids are playing in the pools or mexicans come in on weekends. If you dont like mexicans go to cuba. I found my Riu experience to be awesome. who even complains that the riu only had dos eques in the bar fridge. I dont drink often but when i do i drink dos equis. I will see you soon riu.....

We stayed at the Riu Emerald Bay the first week of November 2012. Booked through iTravel2000 a couple of months earlier, it looked by far to be the best deal on their site.

Our stay began on a Friday, we arrived mid-afternoon. Just my wife and I were travelling. The place was VERY full, much to our surprise. As we later found out, bus-loads of the local people (with their children) arrive for weekend stays each week on Friday. The pools, dining areas and common areas were a buzz with youngsters running around, noise and very little of the relaxing atmosphere that we had expected upon arrival.

This unfortunately carried on until later Sunday when the buses left. We spent most of the weekend in town to avoid the noise on the hotel grounds. It reminded me of years ago when I would take our kids to the outdoor public pool on a hot summer day; there'd be lots of kids running around, splashing, screaming and laughing. It was to be expected back then, but it certainly was not the reason we booked a trip to Mexico now.

Between Sunday afternoon and Thursday of our week stay the atmosphere was better, but still far beyond a levels of noise and child activity that I would consider tolerable for anyone vacationing as adults-only like we were. It wasn't at all what we had imagined it to be.

Food was consistently good, not outstanding, but full of variety for every taste. The bars always had plenty of alcoholic beverages to serve, with a great selection and prompt service. Two of the three 'a-la-carte' reservation meals we booked actually turned out to be buffets, only one was a served 'sit-down' style meal. This was disappointing, as it resulted in all but one meal for the entire week being buffet-style, which we got very tired of.

The room was adequate, bed wasn't comfortable as it had a plastic sheet covering the mattress. I guess they do this because of the number of children staying at the hotel. Nonetheless, it makes for a less comfortable sleep, even with the airconditioning turned up higher.

The staff were first-class. They were prompt, courteous and always available to assist. We met the hotel manager and were impressed with his thorough hands-on style of running his establishment. He could be seen throughout the day ensuring that the food services, bar services, cleanliness and customer service levels were consistently maintained. Every gratuity we left during the entire week was well deserved by the staff.

Mazatlan is hurting. In the gold zone, we were the only patrons in a popular restaurant at lunch time one afternoon. We walked by several more restaurants with only the staff waiting for anyone to serve. I'm not sure if the season was too early or what, but it was notably vacant on most of the streets where we'd expected to see many tourists. The old town was busy, but very few tourist-types could be seen walking about. We were two of only four people that rode the local bus from downtown back to the RIU for the entire 45 minute trip.

To wrap this review up, I will state that the Riu is a shiny, new hotel with lots of amenities and a terrific staff. It has over 700 rooms, so when busy is VERY busy. The local people vacationing there on the weekends have larger families and bring many children with them. If a relaxing holiday in Mexico is what you are looking for, then the Riu may not be a good choice for you. If you want good value and don't mind the noise and business, it'd be a reasonable selection of destination. For us, we won't be returning because it doesn't provide the peaceful atmosphere that we desire on a holiday.

We (Me, My Husband, and 21mt old daughter and sister in law) stayed at the Riu Emerlad bay from November 2nd-9th 2012. And we cant wait to stay at another Riu soon, the service we received all week was beyond amazing.
Check in Was the fastest ive ever had, they had a representative from the hotel come and meet you in the bus and give everyone all hotel information we would need while others give us our bracelet. Once this was done we walked into the hotel and we were greeted with a drink and directed to the lobby bar for our room keys and were free to go. so easy!!!
Rooms were nice and simple and had everything we needed.The pillows were a little hard but thats just a personal prefernce We didnt ask for a crib for our daughter during booking but there was one there waiting for us when we got there. We were just planning on having her sleep between us so that made things much easier. We were on the 14th floor and the view was amazing!! We never waited longer than 2 minutes for an elevator so I am not sure what the other riviewers are talking about when refering to the long elevator waits.
Food was good, we ate at two of the a la cartes and we were able to make our reservations for the entire week when we went to the sunwing orientation - Bamboo was a buffet style a la carte and was amazing. lots of options! and Tabasco was also very good. We ate at the buffets the rest of the time and we always left full. There are so many choices and the Ice cream was amazing!!! Try Mr. Lionsos Down the beach, great seafood and mexican food and mexican athmosphere.
Beaches were nice but we didnt get to spend much time there cause the little one was scared of the ocean! Pools were nice a little cold in the morning but once the sun warmed them up they were perfect its just too bad that the pool with the swim up bar is adult only. would have been nice to be able to use this feature.
I really have no complaints about this hotel. everything was great!!

We just came back from a one week stay at the resort and we're very disappointed. We have been to about half dozen other all inclusive such as Cabo cancun varadero and punta Cana and this one was our least favorite one. Everything that is said below is true. This hotel is nowhere near a 5 star but more of a 3 on a good day when it's not full of locals. This hotel primarily caters to locals and right now I am not even sure why sunwinng offers this package. All announcements are in Spanish and majority of staff struggles to speak English. Elevator waits can be pretty bad when the locals are in the hotel Thursday to Sunday. Food is the worst we had in an all inclusive. It's heavily recycled and they only change one item a day which they then cook up on the third day and serve again. Some dishes they didn't even bother to warm up. There was no decent seafood which was a bit of a shocker for me. There is no poolside service and the nightly entertainment was pathetic. Most of the staff were friendly and the building was well maintained but that's about all the positive I can say. So spend your money elsewhere and go to another hotel. If you still want to book this hotel keep in mind that it's a 3star hotel on a good day and that's Mexican standards. Oh and kids are in every pool screaming and jumping around so forget about a relaxing swim. All the Canadians were hanging out at the beach where it was quiet.