My husband and I and our 11 year old daughter recently visited Mazatlan in Mexico and had a fabulous time. We stayed at the El Castillo Hotel - part of the El Cid group - on an All Inclusive basis. The staff could not have been more helpful or courteous and the room and food were excellent - there are about five or six different restaurantsin the hotel eg Italian, Mexican, Argentinian etc. so you can choose what type of food you would like. The cabaret was very professional with a differently themed show every evening - far better than you would expect from the usual standard of hotel entertainment. The hotel decor was beautiful and the maids cleaned the room every day. There were loads of trips to choose from and these could be booked at one of the units within the hotel's shopping mall (not massive but everything is there that you would need). The weather was fantastic and everyone was very laid back. We had such a wonderful time that we're going back again next year!!

El Cid Castilla was terrible. They first took 45 mins to check us in. There was no one else in line that was strictly our check in time. We went to our room, it had not been cleaned and was right over the pool renovation. We immediately went to reception to talk to the mgr. He begrudgingly moved us to another room. This room the AC was broken. We called maintenance who couldn't fix it. The crowd was pretty much local tourists. After 2 nights at the Castilla, we moved to the partner hotel El Cid Marina. It was an add'l $30 a night which was significantly cheaper than what we had seen for pricing on any web site. We had a glorious time at the Marina!!! I would book the Castilla and check availability at the Marina and know which day you can move over via the shuttle.

Stayed at El Cid May13-17. Booked at the Castilla (all inclusive), due to the pool being renovated, we received a free upgrade to the Moro (connected sister hotel). The rooms were amazing, two separate bath rooms (a tub that holds all four of us, 2 adults 2 kids), living area with a murphy bed, and a big bed room. Panoramic ocean view from 2 sides of the rooms.

Mazatlan being the shrimp capital of Mexico, Shrimp were plentiful at all of the resorts restaurants even the buffet , and the size and amount offered were just a delight. At all of the A la carte restaurants, the Chilean wine were excellent. We ate at all of the resaurants, the food was great. Making reservation requires a little patience.

The main pool area was spacious, plenty of chairs, it has water falls, diving cliff, and two water slides. (kids were in heaven). Beach was okay, it's the typical Pacific ocean beach, dark sand, dark green water, lot's of vendors( but, not aggressive).

Nightly entertainment were almost professional level, learned from talking to the day time activity staff, the performers only function at the resort is the nightly shows, unlike other resorts, the daytime activity staff also doubles as nightly dancers/performers. Make sure to check the show time, it's around 8:00 pm, unlike other destinations, the show always starts later. Kudos to all of the daytime activity staff as well, they kept everyone entertained through out the day.

Over all, I must say we had a great experience at the El Cid resort, Can't understand why anyone would bad mouth the resort. 90% of all Mexico resorts offer time share option, if not interested, simply say no and move on, we were not treated any different than others.

All of the staff works very hard, as my experience from traveling all of the world over the past 21 years (being an airline crewmember), if you treat people with respect, you will be respected. Don't act like some hot shot foreigner visiting their country and expect to be treated like royalty.

Don't hesitate on booking a stay at the El Cid resorts; with everything we’ve experienced, you’ll be glad.

We were there at the end of March no construction going on.
I'am not sure what some people are looking for, but this
hotel has good food, great Entertainment,great pool,
and nice beach. The staff is mostly friendly. If you tip good
they will treat you like royalty.
we are a family of four and had a great time.
this is our 2nd time to the el cid and we will be back agian.