Ok I would hav to disagree with cjguru on some of his remarks, but he was correct on others. I am an RCI member and upon check in I asked for a Ocean Front room and was given Room #1152 which was in a perfect location--ground floor at the end of main building next to main restaurant. Yes the frige is very small but was adequate for what we needed it for, but defintalty bring a small ice chest for most of your drinks so you can use the frige space for food. We cooked a lot of the days (bring your own food becasue markets in town are limited on some things like FLAVORED CREAMER!). Also the bed....yes very firm, but ours had one of those foam egg crate type toppers that made it fairly comfortable. Now the pillows are another thing---BRING YOUR OWN PILLOWS, their pillows were like sleeping on a sack of potatoes. Our room was cleaned everyday (except noticed they didn't sweep the floors everyday because you could feel sand) and were left with cute towel figures. Even washed our dishes when we had a few left unwashed, since I tend to always do my own dishes.
We loved all the activities they had during our time there, water arobics, black jack, Loteria, night beach party, etc. And the beach!! Truely beautiful!
And don't know about the timeshare part because we declined their offer to do it.
Our only bad part was getting a ticket in the speed trap as soon as you cross the Lukeville border crossing---BEWARE! It's a trap--they say it's 10MPH---come on, your car will barely move at 10MPH.
All in all it was a great vacation--will bring the kids next time.

OK so let me start with the good:

Puerto Penasco and the people in it are awesome. You never feel in danger and they are all super polite (with 1 exception of a guy trying to sell us something and us saying no).

The beach at the Mayan is better than Sandy Beach. Yep, I said that correctly, it is better. No reefs to speak of, plenty of tidal pools, sand and sandbars and the shells (if you have kids it is important) are much more abundant...

The staff at the hotel was all super nice and polite...

Now the BAD.

Apparently as an RCI trade they give you the "extra" rooms. Well, in their definition that means:
-Older room
-Beds harder than the tile floor. We literally slept on the couch because the beds were so hard... not that the couch was comfortable, but it was better than the bed.
-Tiny, minuscule fridge that has the door to the freezer ripped out of it so you can't store anything you brought with you. We understand that they want to make money, but wait till you hear their prices...
-Construction quality of the place is horrid. The indoor pool is falling apart, the stucko on the outside of the buildings is falling, all the sidewalks are cracked and chipped, the tiles in the elevators and the rooms are cracked, the safety bar on the patio is loose, all the paint is chipping off (even in their lobby), the main fountain when you walk in is broken and the water is smelly/fungusy... on and on it goes. You need only look around at any point to see that zero maintenance has been done on the facilities. Oh! and the elevators were shaky at best. Just my 70 lbs child getting on it made it shake... scary. The wind one night literally made the building feel and sound like it was going to crumble.
-Prices... OMG. Imagine a bottle of sunblock that still says "safeway" (generic) brand on it. Now imagine it being 7 times the cost you would expect to pay for it at Safeway... same goes for the buffet which was more like 2-3 times what I would expect. **on a positive note: the EcoFun stuff like bird island excursion and banana boat rides are priced well and very worth the money.**
-Location. They are 20 miles from town, so the cool shrimp markets (best shrimp in the world) and the old port and restaurants are a haul to get to. Even still: that is where we went to eat after making the buffet mistake the first night and you really can't go wrong there in town,it is all priced right and all delicious, even the roadside stands.
-Flies. Not just houseflies... biting flies. Biting flies that actually hurt when they bite you and leave bloody holes in your flesh. The interesting part about them is that they only seem to exist AT the resort and if you walk just half a kilometer up the beach you can enjoy your time without them eating you. We seem to have been the only family that figured that out though so many people were pissed about the flies.
-Nothing for tweens/teens to do other than the beach.

I do want to say that this review is about the resort only and not the vacation. We had a marvelous time on our vacation and it might be one of the best ones we have had as a family... but that is due to us going in to town to eat and us doing things outside of the resort for the most part. When we go back, and we will, we will stay at one of the Sandy Beach resorts and will never return to Mayan. As an FYI: My wife and I have stayed at Los Palomas before and it was amazing all around.

We are Mayan Palace owners at Puerto Penasco and have been vacationing there for 8 years. This is our home away from home and we are truly treated as family. Everyone is so pleasant and welcoming, they go out of there way to help in any way. This resort has an amazing quite beach which makes for a wonderful place to relax . An absolutely awesome golf course for those avid golfers looking for a challenge. There are lots of activities for kids and adults and great food.
Yes, it is about 20 min. from downtown, but we go for the relaxation and to enjoy the resort, not hang out downtown.