We visited Mazatlan for a day as part of our Holland America Oosterdam Mexican Riviera cruise in April (see cruisecritic.com review). The Inn at Mazatlan in the Dona Dorada/Golden Zone is a nice place to sit overlooking the beach (also very large pool area) , have lunch at their inexpensive to moderately priced outdoor restaurant and enjoy the atmosphere. Within 2 blocks are several blocks of shops and cafes if you want some variety. The inn is a $5 taxi ride from the centro historico (worth visiting for the cathedral, market 1 block away, and the peralta theatre on a square with several nice cafes about 5 blocks from the cathedral,and a 15-minute ride to the cruise pier.

Bought our vacation through Cheaptickets and I had stayed there in 1985, so wanted to visit again. My husband and I had not been to Mexico together, we got a great deal and ventured on down there.
The Inn was as I had remembered it, beautiful grounds, great staff (spoke English, so made it very nice). Extemely accomodating and met our needs. Gave us a choice in our room we choice lower and then were moved and upgraded because of mistake in our booking. Ended up with a Junior Suite, so had a kitchen, air conditioning leaked on us as we cooked but okay other than that, Oh did have some bugs that showed up on the counter but believe because of tropics sometimes need to realise that can be. They came in and sprayed everytime we asked.
Fantastic location, great poolside service, could not believe same wonderful man selling prawns at the beach wall was the same from 1985! Highly recommend purchasing from him, he even peels them for you, great buy, fresh and absolutely delious!
Are going back again next month, hope to run into some of the same people that had timeshares there, will rent scooters and bomb around Mazatlan this time since we somewhat know where we will be going. Wonderful city! Great beaches and we also enjoyed the island for snorkeling and Stone Island for a day.

This was our first visit to The Inn on an RCI trade. First impression was that the grounds are meticulously maintained and very beautiful. Unfortunately our room was not. It obviously was not one of the renovated ones and was very shabby and dark. When we mentioned our dissatisfaction with our room to an employee, she totally ignored us. We spent most of our days poolside since there are no chairs on the beach which is what we prefer. We found it very crowded and cramped but made the best of it. The Papagaya Restaurant is wonderful and we ate breakfast there several times, dinner once. We did a little exploring and went to the top of the new tower. Wonderful view but I don't think I'd want to stay any higher than the 10th floor. We would stay at this resort again but only if we had better accommodations.

Three weeks at this property and not any complaint other than it was too short. The staff is absolutely exceptional making you feel like they actually want to serve you and really do care.
Food is average (breakfast buffe is especially nice) albeit a little on the pricey side for Mexico, especially the drinks. Great location convenient to restaurants, transportation, grocery ...you name it.
The beach is fine and one of the two pools is very spacious with a huge waterfall cascading from a rock formation.
Most units have kitchens and you can actually buy fresh shrimp from a guy at the beach entrance each morning and boil or cook it the same day it was caught. Wow!!