Riu Emerald Bay

Overall the hotel met or exceeded our expectations. [Details]

This resort is huge with 6 pools which means there are tons of options for where you want to spend your time. We never had an issue finding a chair near the beach (tougher around the pools) and never felt crowded by other people. When we felt like going into the swim up bar pool, there always seemed to be room as well. The rooms all face the ocean and are quite clean. The washrooms in the resort and by the pools were always kept clean. The sports bar even played an Oiler game while we were there. All staff were excellent and the beach was great for cooling off. Great experience all around! [Details]

We were impressed by the efficiency of both the check-in and check-out experiences. The staff were friendly and very helpful throughout our entire stay - from the front desk staff (we had a problem with our first room that they immediately rectified) to the restaurant and bar staff. The food was quite good - a lot of buffet choices at all of the restaurants - and was, for the most part, tasty and well prepared. The pools were great! We liked that certain pools were adults-only, and therefore a little quieter. The room itself was wonderful (and I stay in a LOT of hotels traveling for work). You should know that there was no cell reception to speak of (NOT the Riu's fault), although once booked onto the hotel wi-fi we could connect to the internet and sends texts to family back home. At night, pretty decent entertainment worthy of attending. Overall, a wonderful experience, and we would highly recommend the hotel. I would like to add to fellow travellers that tipping is important and much appreciated at these resorts... [Details]

Not enough elevators had to walk down 8 floors to make our check out. At 76 & 75 years it was a challenge. Food not as good as we remembered from before. On the whole trip was great and clean rooms! [Details]

I was very ill as were many others from a huge seafood soup prepared in a giant wok [Details]

Fun time with Grandkids [Details]

très belle semaine. nous étions au 5e étage,toutes les chambres ont vu sur la mer sauf la nouvelle partie qui a mon avis doit être caché par les palmier. 5 piscine dont 2 avec piscine infini et 2 avec un bar intégré(pour adulte seulement). buffet varié et très bon. les restos a la carte sont en fait des buffet sauf le mexicain. les restos à la carte ne sont pas leur force selon moi. resort très propre et personnel accueillant. C'est notre 1ere fois du côté pacifique. Moins américanisé que le côté ouest(cancun,riviera maya). Seul bémol pour nous est l'orchestre local qui joue de 2pm a 7pm a chauqe jours et les vendeurs qui s'installe sur la plage ce qui obstruit la merveille vue de l'océan de nos chaise. Le sable est doux et les vagues très présente(nous ont adore!!) J'y allais avec mon chum et mes 2 filles alors le côté prix était important,nous avions un budget limité. Je dirais que pour le prix payé(5900$ pour une famille de 4 incluant les assurance annulation) c'était très très bien. [Details]

Long review, but worth the read if you are really considering going!

Overall, the resort was fantastic! So many activities with so much food/drinks all around you! Splashpark was one of the big highlights along with so many chairs to choose from. No need to search or reserve a chair early in the a.m. like other resorts.
There are some cons during our stay though which are:
- rooms are a bit outdated. Shower curtains had mold on them!
- it's pretty windy when we stayed there. Chilly wind, not hot wind. I know that's something Resort can't do anything about.
- pools could be warmer then it was. Was pretty cold, so I mostly stayed on the chairs all week.
- there were 2 Mexican bands playing close together, which was annoying and killed the mood. I like the sound of crashing waves, not random music that didn't even sound good. Again, something Resort can't do anything about.
- our rooms were cleaned daily, but our beverages/coffee were never re-stocked. Always had to ask and even then it wasn't always stocked.
- elevators were a headache. Needs to be re-engineered to get it to work properly. Would never stop at our floor.

Even with all the cons listed, I would go here again in a heartbeat! If you're on the fence to go, just go. You will not regret it. I promise. [Details]

The hotel was nice, lots of pools lots of great staff that were really friendly.
I did however get the wrong room and no one was willing to help out so this will be a bad review. I had called the front desk back in November 2023 before I booked and spoke with an employee to make sure I would get the correct room I was looking at on the website. He assured me the Superior room was the room that included 2 rooms, king size in one and 2 queens in the other with a tub in the bathroom and walk in shower ( ONE OF MY WIFE'S MUST HAVE'S) since this was her Christmas present I wanted to make sure it was all set up for her. I spent over $5000 to spend the night in a smaller bed than I have at home.... I went to the front desk right after check in and they said they could not help. Really a bad start to what was suppose to be a great family weekend. We made the best of it but really disappointed with the room that was not what we were expecting. Nice place just dissapointed they never helped. [Details]

This is a beautiful, clean resort.
Food was good with tons of choices.
Staff was friendly & welcoming. [Details]

The staff were very friendly and helpful. It was a beautiful hotel and a lovely spot. [Details]

Having to use the hotel app to make reservations at some of the restaurants was very frustrating because the app only worked about 25% of the time. Although there are 5 restaurants, they are not all open every day and trying to figure out what was available was annoying. The food was okay, but there was a lack of variety from day to day.

On the plus side, there was never a lack of pool or beach loungers.The beach restaurant has excellent burgers. Ocean views from the tower are spectacular! [Details]

well managed resort the only problem is waiting time for elevator and the noise from the mariachi band whant to be plaing for hours--very onoing the rest is to my satisfaction [Details]

Overall was good but the hotel did have a problem with people getting very sick [Details]

This was the lowest priced 5 star package for the Christmas break. We had 12 people in 4 rooms. I read reviews that complained about dueling mariachi bands, but didn't encounter this. There was maybe one of them that occasionally played, didn't bother me. Some of us spent ample time at either of the 2 swim up bars, the rest were at the other pools, there are a bunch, or at the water park. There is a small kids area water park, and a big water slide area. Both were clean, and fun.
The tower rooms are older, and have an excellent view. We were on the 16th floor, there are 2 elevator towers, the one near us had 4, the other had 3 (i believe) . No long wait for one. We ate at a few restaurants, the Mexican was good, the Italian (a buffet style)needed better organization. People lined around down one side of the buffet, across the end, and up the other to get custom pasta. If they put the food in order, then many would just go down one side. I asked the people in front of the meat and potato area if they could jog to the left a couple feet so I could get some food, as they weren't getting anything from that side. That was the only poor experience of the week. The 3 islands buffet was very good, and phenomenal on New Years Eve , the best prime rib you can imagine, and excellent lobster.
The beach far exceeded my expectations, very wide, especially when the tide was out. We had fun in the waves, but be careful if you aren't very agile. Also make sure you know where the row of rocks are. They are to the right/north side (see picture), and visible when the tide is out. The life guards would use their whistles to alert a couple people that swam over that way.
While at the pool, Pepe's grill had hot dogs, that the kids loved, as well as hamburgers, nachos and fresh toppings. This was open all day, from 10 or 11 am til 5 or 6 pm. Across (20 ft) from it from about noon, the taco grill was open until late also.
The shows weren't great, they could benefit from a best practice trip to Dominican or Cuba for this. There were 2 entertainment venues, one in the base of the tower, the other in the middle of the low rise hotel area. The best shows were the live bands . The best band was Kannon, they were very good. [Details]

Very clean amazing staff. Beautiful. [Details]

Hotel was very nice [Details]

Was Awsome for everyone [Details]

We had a relaxing time, lots to do if you want to do anything but very relaxing by the pools if you just want to do that also. [Details]

We had a great vacation here. The resort is clean, the staff friendly and helpful. We enjoyed the food especially the Asian restaurant. The beach is easy to walk. The biggest draw back are the bands that play everyday in the afternoon. There are 5-6 mariachi bands that play on the beach. Not employed by the RIU and once across the rope on the beach it's public so it's a free for all. In my opinion the RIU should pay the bands not to play to keep their customers happy! [Details]

This was our 30th trip to Mexico, 2nd to Mazatlan and first to any RIU.Travelling as 4 adults in 2 ocean view rooms in the tower section. The resort was very nice. The grounds were tidy and the furnishings were in good repair. The food was nothing fancy but we enjoyed it and found something we liked at every meal. We preferred the Malecon Buffet over the other two as the food area was easier to navigate and the dining room had a classier feel to it. We did find it cumbersome to book the a la cartes through the app and only managed to get into Tabasco once and not the Bamboo. Lining up at 7am to make a reservation was not for me. The food at the Tabasco was nice enough, with the appetizer and desert being self serve and the entry served at the table.The rooms have great views and the cleaning staff is prompt and thorough. Pools are clean and this resort has the most lounge chairs I've ever seen. And they are all in great shape and comfortable. No need to reserve but still many do so if you have a preferred location it would be necessary to get up pretty early to reserve it. Bars are efficient and there were no lines to get anything anywhere. Drinks were made differently at each bar but were OK. The beach is clean and picturesque and although a little cool the ocean is clean and swimmable. The elevators are slow and skip your floor quite regularly. Everyone commented on the unpredictability of the elevators. A lower floor would be a good idea. We walked 9 floors regularly to get around. Overall the resort suited our needs. The WIFi was strong pretty much everywhere. Although on arrival guests are told where they have to go to smoke, the park at the entrance, people smoke everywhere. On the balconies, in the pools, at the bars, on the beach, while standing under the no smoking signs.
The big negative, surprise!, is the battle of the bands on the beach from about 2 pm to well after dark. I understand that some people enjoy this but based on the reception of guests this week most do not. It is the one thing that made our trip less enjoyable and yes I realize this is happening outside hotel property. The hotel has posted signs asking guests to not “contract” these Bands as they disrupt everyone's enjoyment of the property but that seems to be the only effort being made to address this. Surely working with local authorities and community partners would help arrive at a reasonable solution. One band playing for an hour to add something to the guests experience is understandable but 4 or 5 bands playing different amplified music, 50 feet apart is just noise. Some bands seem to have talent. Others clearly did not. You cannot get away from the noise and it goes on into the evening. For this reason alone we will not be returning to this Tie and probably Mazatlan itself. [Details]

Very Pretty, Clean resort. The food and booze was on lower scale. Everyday the food was the same. [Details]

Salmonella poisoning during our stay made it the worst vacation imaginable. Having to get IV fluids and IV medication upon returning home, not to mention being holed up in the room for multiple days, has turned our vacation into a nightmare. [Details]

I have visited this hotel multiple times and have found the hotel staff, rooms, and guests to be exceptional. However, the entertainment provided could use some improvement, and the food served is nothing out of the ordinary. I did enjoy the music played by the bands on the beach, but when four or five of them played simultaneously, it became a bit overwhelming. This mainly occurred in the later afternoon, but you can avoid this by sitting farther away from the center of the beach. The gym was the most disappointing aspect of my stay. While I am not a gym enthusiast, I do like to lift weights and stay in shape, especially when indulging in all the delicious goodies offered. Unfortunately, the gym needs significant improvement, as many guests struggle to use the machines and free weights. It wouldn't cost much for a big hotel like REB to make improvements to their gym. Despite this, I still enjoyed my trip to this hotel, and overall, it is a great place to visit. [Details]

Overall great resort. We stayed in the new section and it was beautiful. It's a little bit of a walk depending where your room is but it wasn't too bad. The food was just OK depending on your tastebuds. Almost impossible to get a reservation for the a la cartes. We were able to do the Mexican but not the Asian. Mexican was really good. The snack bar is decent, cause who doesn't love munching on French fries all day! The kids waterslides are awesome, my 3 year old loved them. The bigger waterslides are great too but you cannot have any bracelets you can't remove and no piercings, so some of us were not able to utilize those which kinda sucked. The sand and beach are beautiful, sand is buttery soft. The mini fridge in the room does not seem to get restocked so you just have to phone front desk if you need more water. Internet access is great pretty much throughout the whole resort. The pools are nice and clean. Overall cleanliness is good. Great family friendly resort, lots to do. [Details]

Enjoyable. Everything was. Good [Details]

We'd visited this place fourth time and we loved to go there but this time it was a disappointment. There used to be organized outside events with barbeques every day and this time we didn't have a single one. To book a restaurant was impossible task this time even though we knew what they are but wanted to try something different. Buffets had become quite boring with repetitive and poor variety of food and often too overcrowded.
We gave 2 stars this time only. In comparison RIU Palace Pacifico in Puerto Vallarta we had visited earlier this year we gave 4.5 stars it was way better there.
Mazatlan is a capital of shrimps in Mexico, is it? We haven't seen any but variety of them every single day in Puerto Vallarta. We're not picky I'd say but it got worse unfortunately.
Will be looking for a different location. [Details]

Overall we had a great experience at the RIU. The food was absolutely awesome and the beach is really nice and large. The grounds are spacious and have a lot of palm trees. The rooms in the main building were dated and could use updating. The “two bed” rooms are actually two double beds pushed together to look like one big bed and are very tight for 4 people. The elevators are terrible and we usually lost patience and took the stairs as we were on the second level. Unfortunately our view was not good as our balcony was on the same level as a adjacent roof, and there was constantly cigarette butts and garbage falling down from the higher balconies. The staff was great and the place is clean. The water slides are fun for smaller and larger “kids”(must be 4' tall for the big slides and yes they check) The ocean is rough in this area and not good for swimming. There is however life guards on duty during the day that were very vigilant. [Details]

Riu Emerald Bay in Mazatlan is a beautiful, well-maintained resort on a gorgeous beach. But it has two critical downsides: 1. the crowds, especially on the weekend, make the vibe more like Grand Central Station in New York at rush hour; 2. the food is like in a dingy, low-end cafeteria - poor quality, minimal selection, and repetitive (not just day to day, but also breakfast to lunch to dinner, and from the buffet to the la carte restaurant).

Those two downsides will make us never come back to this resort (or maybe even to any RIU). [Details]

While not my favorite style of resort (high-rise hotel vs villa-style), there are many pros to this particular location.

PROS
• Close to Mazatlan airport (was about a 45-minute drive door to door).
• Everything on the resort was close together – no need to go very far (good if you have little kids or need to go back to your room often)
• Many pools to chose from (both kid friendly and adult only)
• Pools were very warm, accessible and spacious
• 2 water parks (adult and kids) for something different to do
• Small park with swings and slides for kids
• Kids Club looked to be very well organized and kids were having fun (we didn't actually use the service, but observed a few times)
• Friendly service in the main buffet (got us milk for the baby, fresh fruit for our travels back, etc.)
• Good food selection, including an entire section of authentic Mexican options every meal
• High chairs at buffets
• Nice beach
• Could always find seats on the beach (but not always in the shade

CONS
• Everything on the resort was close together – can't really “get away” and meander/wander/explore (not a lot of variety in vibe)
• Main pool was very busy and challenging to find a seat, unless you reserved early in the morning
• Water park water was freezing
• Only 2 a-la-carte options (therefore difficult to get a reservation)
• Night entertainment started quite late, so young families couldn't enjoy anything
• Not nearly enough latin music playing (other than Mariachi buskers on the beach)
• Public beach with lots of vendors selling their products/services (but they weren't THAT pushy in my opinion)
• Could not swim in the ocean. It was way too cold and wavy. They never took the red flag down to say it was safe.
• No ‘do not disturb' signs for your room to not have it cleaned
• Maids were SO LOUD – screaming down the hall at each other, dragging heavy furniture across the tiled floors (this was a concern at nap time)
• (because of the hotel style building) it was quite loud in general with people coming ad going late (again, a concern because we had a baby)

OTHER/Cannot Report On
• Indoor kid play-place closed (due to Covid)
• Didn't eat at any a-la-carte restaurants
• Didn't see any night entertainment
• Upon arrival we did try to upgrade to a room with a separate bedroom from living space. No luck. We ended up putting our daughter to sleep in the provided crib in the large washroom. It worked ok. [Details]