We spent the first week of january at the PBM resort and thoroughly enjoyed our stay. We had a studio with a kitchenette which was very comfortable. The beds were extremely comfortable.The resort is obviously not new, but it is spotlessly clean and well maintained. We were lucky enough to have an ocean view room, and enjoyed watching the sunset from our balcony. The resort was very quiet, we never had any problems finding a good spot by the pool. Mazatlan seemed much quieter in general this year, probably due to the tourist warnings. The airport was nearly empty when we arrived , and we didn't even have to dodge the timeshare sales people this time! I have to say that at no time did we feel unsafe.
One of the perks of staying at PBM was thst it was within easy walking distance to several good restaurants. Panchos is right across the street, and we had two excellent meals there includung fresh red snapper. they brought the whole fish to the table for our inspection before cooking it. Delicious! We made the trip down to Chili's pepper for lunch a couple of times as well and had fresh shrimp fahita's and Pacificos with a fantastic ocean view. Of course we had to go to Gus Y Gus one evening and have the coconut shrimp as well, but we took one of the Pulmonias for 50 pesos. It was a bit chilly, but a lot faster than walking! We had breakfast at the resort each day, which was very affordable and the omelets were delicious. We were not as impressed with the dinners we had at Cilantros. They were rather pricy and not as tasty as what we could get at any of the area restaurants.
We took the free shuttle from PBM to the Emerald Bay. While I have to admit that the PBEB is beautiful, it is also enormous. We decided it would have taken us all week just to figure out where we were going. The really big difference was the beach. The beach at PBEB is very rocky and not near as nice as the one at PBM.
The highlight of our trip was a whalewatching expeditionOnca Explorations. Saol Herrera was our guide and was very knowledgible and friendly. We were fortunate enough to see five humpback whales that put on quite a show for us. Large pods of bottlenose dolphins refused to be ignored and put on quite a show as well. We also saw one sealion sunning himself as well. The trip was well worth the money.
This was our second trip to Mazatlan, and we would go again in a heartbeat!
Room Tip: The pasta night is not worth the money.
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC