Hotel Playa Mazatlan

Small, charming hotel on the beach

Smaller hotel in the area than most. More of a local hotel that isn't some 30 story hi-rise. The service was excellent...rooms always clean...we noticed that there were always people cleaning the property...everything was well kept. Three pools on the property. Hotel wait staff on the beach was fantastic. Hotel concierge services were very helpful. Met a waiter there, Fernando who lived in San Diego for many years and became an instant friend. Getting to know locals is a grat thing because they can point out special things to do in the area that is off the beaten path. This hotel also had a great on-site restaurant...good quality of food and service.

Unique Quality: Cleanliness, Pools, great views of the ocean and the neighboring Islands (Goat Island). Very pleasant and helpful staff. Hotel is centrally located to Golden Zone shopping and downtown Mazatlan...but be prepared to do a lot of walking.

• Opinion of Price: about average

Hotel Playa Mazatlan Photo: Looking out the hotel room

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In the heart of the Golden Zone.

This is the only place we've stayed since our first trip in 1996. The grounds and all public restrooms are kept spotless. For the most part the staff are very friendly.

Unique Quality: In walking distance to many restaurants and shops in the Golden Zone. Also located right on the beach with a great view. There are 4 pools and a large hot tub/spa, there's also a work out room. The onsight restaurant is great, what a place to have breakfast sitting on their patio overlooking the ocean.

• Opinion of Price: about average

Hotel Playa Mazatlan Photo: Main Entrance

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Highly recommended - skip the show

I'll keep this short b.c the other reviewers describe it very well.
I loved the location and value - it was the right choice for us.
One minor issue: we reserved a single and got a double. Still a wonderful place.

On Friday nights they have a show there called FIESTA MEXICANA which costs $40US/pp. I DON'T recommend it.
It's a total tourist trap. You only get one trip to the buffett (some of the food was out by the time we got there), the drinks are very slow coming. The show is not as authentic as we hoped. No kidding, it started with the staff bringing a bunch of older guests of the hotel on the stage to do the Macarena! We left about 30 minutes into the show. A taxi driver told us later that the show is geared more towards Mexican tourists in the summer and is better then.

• Opinion of Price: less expensive than average
• Related to: Beaches, Budget Travel

Hotel Playa Mazatlan Photo: The pool

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On the Beach

My 1st hotel choice in Mazatlan

I've stayed at the Playa 7 of the 10 times that I've gone to Mazatlan. I LOVE it here. It's right on the beach and close to everything. When I say close, I mean walking distance. The only time I'm ever in a vehicle, is my trip to the market or Senor Frogs..( the drive back..I usually walk there..you know, work up an appietite). You can book every tour you can think of right at the travel desk in the lobby on your own without sitting through a time share presentation. They also offer the BEST, if not ONLY Fiesta in town. Even when I've stayed at other resorts, I went to the Playa for their beach restaurant and Fiesta show. Oh, did I mention that they have 4 swimming pools and a jacuzzi? They also have a kiddie or family pool too and a GAZILLION staff members to take care you. They have one of the larger beach areas with lots of chaise loungers and cabanas. They are EXCELLENT at keeping the beach vendors from bugging you.

Unique Quality: I included all of that information above.

The Grandaddy of the Golden Zone

The Playa was the first of the Golden Zone hotels, and remains everybody's recommendation for lodging value. Back in the 1955 when visionary Scandahoovian Ulysses George got a chunk of isolated sand far from town and built a low-lying motel with one killer stretch of beach, nobody thought much of the idea. Today the Playa is the Grandaddy of the row of hotels that stretch out North of it: there are bigger, cheaper, posher hotels, but there is something very, very Mazatleca about the Playa.
For one thing it is resolutely un-highrise. One of the new wings is 5 stories, but it doesn't project that attitude...it just seems to be a sprawl of bedrooms just off the Pacific with pools everywhere you turn. Those rooms don't try to be anything more than hotel rooms, for the most part. They are comfortable, roomy, and functional without pretention. The idea is that you won't be spending that much time in your room, and it seems to work that way. There are at least three pools, in addition to the larger one out front locals quaintly refer to as the Oceano Pacifico. There is a nice gym that tends towards aerobic kinds of things like spinning and stair-staring, but also has weights and sweatables available. Kids can paint ceramics or take place in organized kid-wrangling programs to get rid of them. There is 24 hour internet available. There are shops, including a knockout furniture gallery.

You can stay at the Playa for under $100 a night. It's as Mazatlan as it gets. It's a deal. PLAYA WEBSITE

Unique Quality: But mostly, if predictably in a place called Playa Mazatlan, the big deal is the beach. You step out onto a stretch of sand you can walk for miles, waves that are the perfect size and attitude...neither too far nor too close to the Valentinos point break. Hobie Cats or kayaks take you straight across to the unpopulated beaches of the Three Islands. Any way of laying around on the beach can be handled expeditiously. The Playa is a fifties beach bum, essentially.
But there is no need to take off for the slavering maw of the Golden Zone nightlife district once the glorious sunset fades. Lots of locals come to the Playa for entertainment. Grownups, that is. Springbreakers and twits are, thankfully, better accomodated elsewhere. The seafront restaurant is a mecca for romance, actually. It's a huge place that seats hundreds, probably the biggest stand of tables within yards of sand in the whole town. And the cooking is way above average, with prices that are quite reasonable compared to most of the hotel places along the strip. But mostly what the Playa offers at night is tropical romance by the hibiscus-full. The center of the restaurant is open to the stars, and contact dancing is encouraged by the sound of waves, the warm tropic bouquet, and the highly experienced bands that can cook our salsa or meld bodies with sensual bossa nova or Santana instrumentals. On Sundays, the view of the stars is augmented a little...a fireworks show lights up the skies and stitches the beach with "castillos" or sparkle, dazzle and Ole!

• Opinion of Price: less expensive than average

Hotel Playa Mazatlan Photo: It's the Beach, silly

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Beautiful Spanish-Colonial Hotel

The Hotel Playa Mazatlan is a beautiful, air-conditioned hotel on the water, with a very pleasant open-air feel and arrangement. Good service, purified water, and a good restaurant and snack bar. The breakfast buffet is great!

We stayed in a room with a big balcony overlooking the water. The only downside to this was that we could hear the music from the waterside bar in the evenings, until midnight or so, but after the first night (when I was exhausted) this wasn't a problem anymore since we were staying up that late anyway, and we just enjoyed it.

Unique Quality: As far as I can tell, Hotel Playa Mazatlan is one of the few hotels in the Zona Dorada which isn't some generic-looking building. It actually looks like it belongs in Mexico, with its Spanish-Colonial architecture and Mexican decorative details. I hate that high-rise, chain hotel look that gives you the creepy feeling like you could be anywhere. When I'm in Mexico, I want to know it! : )

Feista Mexicana - this show is offered a couple evenings a week, featuring Mexican folk music and dance. We were going to check it out, but the line was so long we skipped it!

There are three heated pools. We swam around and relaxed in one of them one evening and were the only people in that one - like having your own private place.

• Opinion of Price: more expensive than average

Hotel Playa Mazatlan Photo: tiled stairs at Hotel Playa Mazatlan

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A Pleasant Hotel on the Beach

Although we stayed in this hotel in 1988, it is still a popular resort. Even today the American Automobile Association (AAA), a U.S. travel club, often uses the Hotel Playa Mazatlan for its group tours. Four miles from downtown Mazatlan the Hotel Playa Mazatlan is on the beach in the Golden Zone. Surrounded by shops, nightspots, and miles of white-sand beaches this is a good place to relax, play in the sun, and explore from. The 413 rooms are colorfully decorated with tile floors, dark-finish wood furniture, and have balconies or terraces that overlook pools, gardens, or the ocean. Satellite TV, air conditioning, and purified water are included in your room. Besides the beautiful beach and ocean to play on, the Playa also has a swimming pool available for its guests nestled into a garden setting. As you walk within the grounds of this hotel you will see small waterfalls, pools, fountains, tropical gardens, and the Pacific Ocean and off shore islands. We found the hotel staff to be friendly and helpful. Here you can also arrange off-site excursions such as sport fishing and diving, recreational and sightseeing tours, or rent enthusiast with sports equipment.
In January 2003 – April 13, and April 20 – 25 the price for rooms ran from $90 U.S. dollars to $185 U.S. dollars per day. For April 14 – 19 the prices ran from $113 U.S. dollars to $205. A 17% tax would be added to this.

Unique Quality: You will enjoy the outdoor open air setting of the hotel’s La Terraza Playa Restaurant and Bar, as well and the La Playita Snack Bar, which will serve you juice, freshly prepared snacks or lunch including sodas, juices, and tropical cocktails beneath the palapas or on the beach.

• Opinion of Price: N/A
• Related to: Family Travel

Hotel Playa Mazatlan Photo: Swimming Pool at the Playa

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Playa Mazatlan

About $100 for ocean view.

Unique Quality: Best beach, great resturant, helpful staff and clean comfortable rooms.