See also Centro Hotels See also [RVParks]
Charles Hall - 25 Mar 2003
If you insist on a hotel, try the El Azteca, in the heart of the golden zone, across the street from the Playa Mazatlan Hotel. It has a swimming pool and restaurant on site. Not a classy place, but clean, and excellent for the price ($60 US per night, double). I stayed there two nights when I was closing on my home purchase. The telephone number is 913-4477. If you don't have luck with either of those, contact me off this site, and I'll give you other info.
Marlene Santana - 10 Apr 2003
El Quijote Inn
I attended a wedding there for a Canadian couple that spent a month here, and the staff were very very accommodating and really looked after their part of the arrangements well. It is right on the beach in a nice quiet area. I took the "travel agent" tour of the hotel. It was very nice, and they did explain to me that they were going time-share. I hesitate to recommend time share deals anywhere (a throw back from my travel agent days! LOL) , but I will say that I liked the hotel very much. It is more intimate and cozy than some of the huge monster places like the el Cid.
Freeman
I had the opportunity to do a tour of the new Freeman. What a beautiful hotel! It is priced right for hotels of that standard and will like be catering to business groups for conventions. They have two huge ocean view function rooms (one with a dance floor) so is perfect. The roof top pool is just amazing. You will find one of the former waiters from Puerto Viejo tending bar in the ocean view enclosed lounge at the top (floor below the pool) The original layout has been maintained which is really nice. All room rentals include a buffet breakfast as well. It is served in the lobby area and can be eaten out on the terrace. The Freeman is quite a world class establishment for little old el Centro, and given that the La Siesta quoted us $500.00 pesos for a room the other day, the $850 pesos or so at the Freeman would be money well spent - no comparison. It is simply lovely with views that go on forever.
I came across this website and wanted to share it with those of you that have been following the story of the grand old Hotel Freeman here in Olas Altas. These are pictures of the inside of the newly renovated hotel - you can flip back to the main page to see a great shot of the outside of the hotel. Simply click on the photos to see a larger version. It's a beautiful property for us to have here in el Centro Historico.
Hacienda
I agree with you wholeheartedly and absolutely recommend the Hacienda to many clients. As you say, it is absolutely wonderful there! The rates are great, the beach is quiet, the shrimp at the palapa out front are huge and delicious! There is a great hotdog/hamburger stand on the corner in the evenings. They treat the guests like family there, and keep the premises, including the swimming pool spotlessly clean. It is a great little well kept secret. Hey, I always wondered if anyone used that tunnel? Now I know.
Lin Robinson - 10 Apr 2003
Economical Hotels (of special interest to motorists)
Mazatlan has a great many charms, but to many the main ones its relative close access by highway and its low costs. Everything seems cheaper in Mazatlan, especially to travelers used to prices in the Baja and border areas. And it has so many nice, inexpensive hotel rooms that they never fill up except during Semana Santa and Carnival, so car travelers have an excellent chance of finding rooms with no reservations. Better yet, unlike hotels in places like Cancun, these hotels have parking lots and accommodate drivers. Most fly-in package-deal visitors to Mazatlan end up in the Golden Zone strand of high-rise hotels directly on the beach. Golden Zone rooms tend to start at around $90 a night and head up steeply.
But between the Zone and the downtown is Avenida Del Mar, a curving street four miles long with a broad seaside promenade studded with statues, steps to the sand, and small surfside seafood shacks. It's along this stretch, called the Malecon, that you are likely to find bargain lodging without giving up comfort or ocean views. Malecon hotels might require you to cross the street to hit the beach, but they also offer access to cheaper dining and relief from the tourist trap atmosphere of the Zone. Access to the Zone or downtown is cheap and quick: Sabalo-Centro buses pass directly in front. Besides, car travelers can use their hotel pool as a base, while driving to nicer beaches and villages in the outskirts.
Taking the Malecon hotels from north to south, the first is Bungalos Dany, directly across from Valentino's, the white Disney Castle that sticks out into the ocean and marks the beginning of the Golden Zone. It's a motel-style layout with a secure parking lot and a small pool out front. Rooms for one or two people run around 360 pesos on the beach side, 300 in the back. At the current exchange rate of 9.20 Pesos to a dollar that amounts to $32 and up. For 480 pesos (around $52) you get a suite with kitchenette. The shops, restaurants, and discos of the Golden Zone are just a short walk . . . and there's even a Mc Donalds across the street!
Suites Los Fuentes is an odd duck, but could be a great deal. It can't quite decide if it's a hotel or an apartment building, and you can rent here for day, month, week, or the duration. A suite with two bedrooms costs 390 pesos for one or two people (kids are free here . . . so that would also be $42 for the whole family) and include kitchen and parking. The Los Fuentes is situated in a commercial complex that includes a cocktail lounge that is only open at night, and a sushi bar.
The Sands/Arenas may have a bilingually confused identity, but is very popular with Mexican families and excursion groups, probably because they are efficient, pleasant, clean, and friendly. Their double rooms run around 450 pesos, $48 at the moment, and include telephone, cable TV (meaning channels in English), and even air-conditioning. Their lobby restaurant is very nicely set off with stained glass and marble floors. But the most fun is outdoors, where a decent-sized pool surrounded by a large apron with dining shelters is always full of kids having fun. There's a waterslide and even a jacuzzi. Abutting the pool is a fountain that sports bronze statues of dolphins leaping out of the water in front of a smiling statue of Jesus. Walls and hedges cut street noise to the point you can't hear it over the kids.
The Acuario is pretty much a generic motel, on the downside of *lived-in/ but not quite *shabby/. No frills for 250 pesos single or double. (By the way, for the real bargain freaks who don't mind a purely Mexican hotel, there is also the Perla, a block back from the Avenue. Rooms here start at under $15 and run up to around $25 with TV and AC. It would have a nice ocean view if only somebody had thought to put in the necessary windows. Anybody comfortable with this level of accommodation and price, by the way, should look in the Playa Norte area (south of the Fisherman's Monument), where hotels like the Del Rio and Mexico are under $10 a night. Best is the Lerma, commodious, English-speaking, with a large secure parking lot-the best budget hotel in town.
Hotel Lerma Simon Bolivar 622, Mazatlan, phone (69) 81 24 36
Pictures and more pictures Between the Perla and the Del Sol is the famous, if not ubiquitous, Senor Frogs restaurant and, for the sports-minded, a batting cage where kids or aging ballplayers can step up to four levels of pitching machines. The Del Sol itself is a frequent choice of people who are going to be around awhile, but don't want the bother of rental contracts, or those who want a place with a few amenities right across from the beach and an easy bus ride to downtown or Golden Zone. The basic room is 380 pesos, but the suite, at a hair over $50 comes with two beds, telephone, cable TV, air-conditioning and a kitchenette.
The Playa Mar is a bit of a bargain for families or people who want to stay awhile. Their rooms start at $350 for a double – around $38. But that's a room with two beds, a little refrigerator, and a dinette set – a sort of mini-suite. Rooms have telephones and color TV, and in the back by the parking lot is a very cute pool with a little bridge over it and picnic shelters around the apron. Pool-front rooms are probably better than seafront ones, actually . . . they are quieter, shadier, and give handy access to the pool from their porches.
The last of the Malecon hotels is the Cabinas Al Mar, where a single room is just $200 pesos a night, doubles at $400. So around $20 for a couple. And you can upgrade to an apartment with kitchenette (and all the savings on meals and drinks that come with it) for only $600 a night, around $65. The Cabinas is a humble "efficiency" type place, but has a secure parking lot, and even a teensy pool.
Before the Zone, before the Malecon, was Olas Altas, a curved cove by the historic district, just blocks from downtown and the central market. The two old hotels there are well-known to bargain hunters, who can be seen on their ocean-view patios or body surfing on the beach. When the Belmar was built in 1918, it was the most elegant thing on the coast, but these days it's grandeur is faded and a bit scuffed. It still has the position across from Olas Altas Beach, still has the polished tropical hardwood paneling in the halls, still the huge hardwood front doors and traces of the old wooden artwork. But these days it can seem a little gloomy to some. To others, it's a fun place and a major bargain. Don't worry about the ping-pong room or the old rocking chairs, or the tile pool with its bridge and fountain, don't sweat the creaky elevator or flaky service...just take a sea view double on one of the upper floors, and walk in past the gleaming old hardwood doors and closet. Don't bother with the cable TV or the two comfy beds. Just step out on your balcony and look out over Olas Altas, with the hills and islands flanking the view. Then tell yourself that you are only paying only $28 a night for this. If you insist on two king beds, and a refrigerator take a suite for only $50 and change. Secure parking lot, too.
Two blocks down, the La Siesta is another Mazatlan tradition that has been shuffled aside by "progress". It's better kept and better run than the Belmar, at similar rates. The Siesta gets a mix of young people and older travelers who have been coming back for years. Sometimes these prices get bumped up a bit during high season, and of course the peso fluctuates, but the Malecon and Olas Altas will always be top value in hotel rooms, especially for those arriving by car.
Lin Robinson - Dec 12 2003
THE PLAYA MAZATLAN
Sometimes the classics get overlooked–and the Playa is both classic and classy. The first of the Golden Zone hotels, it's still the coolest and one of the best deals. It's grown considerably from the fifties motel, but it's still lowlying, gracious and right slam on the beach. Walk out of your comfortable room onto the sand or head for one of the pools. And all at a fraction of the price of big highrises further out. It's also got some excellent restuarants, dining and dancing under the stars on the wide terraces, and fireworks to put that special touch on a romantic evening. Mazatlan has grown a lot in the last forty years, but it hasn't outgrown the Playa. For more details, reservations, etc, check their WEB SITE Lin Robinson - 10 Apr 2003
STONE ISLAND– The Twin Towers Hostel/Island Paradise
Well, it''s not exactly a hostel, but it''s not exactly NOT a hostel. Lots of people think of it as a community, a Robinson Crusoe place on a tropical beach, where life is about as cheap and carefree as it gets. You can camp, or stay in the unique hammock-floored rooms, or just laze around like a cat. Cooking is communal (though there are plenty of restaurants around). You can beachcomb, swim, do arts and crafts, kick back at bonfires, or meditate at the Zen Center next door. This place is an experience you''ll remember for years. Check their website: Twin Towers . . . A Tropic Island Of The Mind For anybody who likes it cheap and laidback, but a little comfier than the Twin Towers, there are actual rooms (with actual hot water) for rent further up the beach where the road from town hits the sand. Ask for Trini and Isabelle's place. Great location on the beach, great price, great folks. Speak English, French, and Spanish. See the website for Stone Island Beach Cabins Blue Pacific Suites Motel with efficiencies Located across street from beach south of Marina. I stayed there May of 2003. Good price of under $30 a day
RV Park on Stone Island
There is an RV park on Stone Island called Tres Amigos. It has a full range facilities, requires reservations and the road getting to the park can be pretty rough at times. For more information about the Park or the condition of the road call 914-14-44 or 914-04-51 and visit their web site: Search for: Stone Island Tres Amigos RV Park.
David Shafer March 27, 2005
