Pueblo Bonito Mazatlan Beach Resort — Hotel in Sinaloa

I will share the good and the bad. Not much bad I can say about this place. Really only one thing was concerning to us. The good: The resort is a smaller boutique all inclusive hotel on a gorgeous beach. My husband was a little disappointed in the fact it was small because they didn’t have any bars where you could just belly up as they say. It was very cool at night, often cold which is surprising in March in Mexico so to have an indoor bar to listen to some live music would have been nice, but there wasn’t. The restaurants and food were for the most part awesome which is also surprising for an all inclusive. The breakfast buffet was incredible and that was the only buffet they had for the meals. The rest was order off the menu. Cilantros is beautiful! Pescado’s was pretty good but it’s outside so it was cold. There is no swim up bar which online shows there is a swim up bar. Apparently they took it out during the recent renovation. It worked out fine tho because service around the pool by Juan and Noe and others was quick and timely. Patty at the front desk, was so kind and gave our 3 rooms upgrades. All of which had great views, a kitchen with fridge, full size coffee maker(bring your own) and a separate bedroom. Our room was the master suite which also had two bathrooms. There is one drawer in the room for your clothes otherwise everything gets hung or put on some shelves. There are two pools and we stayed by the one with a few activities-water aerobics, bingo, and volleyball. There was also a hot tub that wasn’t very hot or strong but it sufficed. It was walking distance to Panchos across the street if you wanted to venture off for a meal or La Cantrina. Both had great food. La Cantrina had live music some evenings. There were about 3 beach bars you could walk to as well. One of them being Diego’s, which has a beach bash every Tuesday afternoon from 2-6. It gets very crowded so you need reservations. Apparently it’s all country music and a lot of older people. We noticed that about Mazatlan at least in Feb/March that it’s definitely an older crowd. 65/70 and above was the average age, it was a little old for us. We ventured off one night to Plaza Machado to Casa 46. I thought it was a nice restaurant and the food was pretty good. It’s a $15 cover per person and that includes all your food and drinks. Friday and Saturday nights is pretty lively in the square with vendors and music. (Not our kind of music). We also went to the Golden Zone where there were several bars/restaurants and a lot of live music. Search out Rex the band while you’re there. Amazing!! There’s a calendar of Mazatlan music online so do a search for that.

Now here’s the problem… Arturo the gentleman who sells fishing trips around the pool. He convinced our group of 6, 3 men and 3 women to purchase the $700 trip which was more than that with the taxi, fishing license, and tips. He presented it as a beautiful boat with a tanning deck on the front, a beautiful bed down below to lay down, and a nice bathroom. Pick up some box lunches from the hotel the morning of your trip and they will put them in the cooler along with our drinks. Well we got to the boat at 6:30 and got in only to find there was no tanning deck, the below deck was absolutely disgusting. The bed was covered in fishing poles, filthy pillows, life jackets etc. The bathroom was disgusting with no way to flush the toilet. And there was no cooler for our boxed lunches, so by the time we got around to eating them they were soggy and inedible. I understand that fishing boats aren’t great and we’re in Mexico, but this was completely misrepresented to us as a beautiful boat. We never left the dock until after 8 and we were back by 1. We were told it would be 8 hours. The guys did catch two marlin but the captain and the deck hand kept them after we were told that they could be thrown back. Kind of hard to throw them back when you spear them in the side and kill them to get them on board. Very disappointing! You would think Pueblo Bonito would have...

Edited for clarity and to update --- Unfortunately, some unpleasant experiences, with hit or miss customer service, and very good food!

When we arrived, the rate that we contracted was almost not honored due to a misunderstanding that could've been easily clarified if the lady at the front desk had listened and had had the willingness to understand our request. Also, we arrived late, after a long trip from Northern US, and when we mentioned how tired we were, she passively aggressively inquired as of why we were so tired (then clarifying that she thought we were visiting from nearby).

We then asked to talk to the front desk Manager, who was REALLY helpful, clarifying that some booking agencies are not very clear with what they offer. In the end it was a clarified, but I was expecting a better welcoming!

In addition, I'm a US citizen, but I speak Spanish and am Latina. In order for the hotel to allow me to pay with US dollars, for some reason they need to see my passport so that I prove that I'm American... (we use US dollars everywhere without needing to prove anything, and when I gave them my driver's license, they said it was not enough). Then my mother, who is Mexican, was not allowed to pay with US dollars. In the end we didn't even have to pay anything in cash, due to the misunderstanding that was resolved just a few minutes earlier. It seems that Mexicans are not allowed to pay with US dollars to prevent money laundering. It was awkward, but I'll take it that this is their corporate policy.

The following day, I requested 4 pool towels with my 4 pool towel cards, and I was told that I had not returned a pool towel that I took out the previous day. But well, I did not take any towels the previous day because I had arrived in the evening, and we didn't even touch the water after we arrived. I explained all of this, and he said that it was probably the previous guest who hadn't returned the towels, and that was the end of it. Yet, another clarification I had to make this time, and a couple more times later on.

The following day, an attendant in one of the pool restaurants told us that they had been watching us since the previous day because they said we were abusing our all-inclusive package. We had to explain that we are using two rooms, 5 adults and 3 kids. Again, it was clarified, but it felt weird and intrusive.

A couple hours later, my mom ordered a burger while waiting for us to be done swimming. I was with the kids, and when we were done, the burger was still in the works (after a long wait), so we went to the room for a quick shower, as the kids were really cold (pool water was cold, Winter weather was windy in the high 70s low 80s). In the meantime, they brought the burger to my mom, and she decided to eat it with us in the room, so as she was standing up to bring the plastic-wrapped plate to the room, they asked her to stay and told her she had to eat the burger over there.

The app is outdated, so the menus for room service cannot be accessed from there.

We usually stay in another large membership-based resort when we visit Mazatlán. This time we stayed here to try something different (the all-inclusive was what attracted us). Note that the all-inclusive is a very good value; it does have many surcharges for some menu items, and there is a small surcharge for in-room delivery (it's an almost negligible surcharge, which was nice). Food service is very slow, but food is REALLY good!!!

In the end, it seems they don't have a standard of top-notch customer service. Some of the attendants were very professional and courteous, but some were unfriendly or...

Me and my fiancé recently stayed at Pueblo Bonito Mazatlán for our traditional end of year trip. I would never stay at any of their hotels again!!! To start with the front end upgraded us to a larger room, so we thought sweet. As we entered our room we were like it’s nice with an awesome view. As we start looking around and it feels like a large room empty room with a couch, table, lamp and tv (big blahh). OH, THE BED FEELS LIKE YOU ARE SLEEPING IN ROCKS. My fiancé is like where our bed and it ends up being at the back of the room where you can hear all the outside car noise. To be honest it felt like a motel, then my fiancé noticed that there was no mini fridge. Like how that can be it must be hidden but nope there is no mini fridge. Their reasoning was “this is an all-inclusive hotel there is no reason for one when everything is included”. I stood there like that makes no sense, but then he told me every time we want to order room service, we have to pay $4. Like making it make sense, like if you want water at 11 PM, GUESS HOW MUHC I HAVE TO PAY. When we ordered they forgot this and that. No napkins etc. I told the front end that I might as well go a block away at Oxxo and buy one for less than a $1. Oh, wait then the next morning, me and my fiancé just wanted coffee and some pastries to take to our room. The lady at the only restaurant that service half ass breakfast tell me “You cannot take any pastries, but I can take those throw away cups with coffee or order room service”. I told her that I was not going to pay $4 for coffee and pastries, that this made no sense. She went on to give me an attitude and offered me some napkins to take two pieces of pastries or that I can put them in a cup. I was upset that I told her “You offer me a napkin for a $600+ a night that I am paying”. Then I went to the front desk and got the same attitude and a “YOU CAN WAIT FOR THE MANAGER THAT GETS HERE AT 9 AM”. I did not bother at that point because I knew no one would help in any way or form. The staff at the main pool bar were helpful and the drinks were good. The food quality and variety let’s just say was nonexistence at the resort. For breakfast I would just get your basic eggs, potatoes for the single day they had them and sausages which you had to ask for. The other restaurants let me not even start because I ate more turkey club sandwiches than anything. Oh wait if you do not return their cheap towels they will charge you $25 each when they are $2 max. Oh they forgot to mark ours as returned and the guy made it seem like he was doing us a favor and checked them in. They charge you $600 a night yet try penny pinching every little thing they can. I WOULD STAY AWAY FROM THIS PLACE OTHER THAN THE VIEWS NOTHING IS “BONITO” ABOUT THIS RESORT. LET ME JUST STOP HERE JUS TERRIBLE...