The best part of the Mayan Palace vacation at the end of December and into January was the long, very private beach with amazing shells for collecting. We made a point of walking several miles every day, and during low tide we were rewarded with many treasures from the sea. At the MP, however, we encountered issues such that we will not return. One major problem for us was the extra charge for the use of any facility (tennis, fitness room, pool tables, internet/computers, ice for ice chests); it felt like being "nickeled and dimed" to death! Luckily we were not asked to pay to use the indoor pool. (Outdoor pool is not heated during the winter--quite a shame, especially since it's so beautiful.) Another huge drawback was the use of cheap hollow core doors that the MP has between rooms, leading to the hallways, everywhere! You can hear your neighbors' conversations, and I'm sure they heard our intimate times--not quite what you'd want from a luxury vacation hotel. The gurgling sink every time the toilet was flushed was an interesting feature to our room, too. Hard beds, smallish rooms, unusable balconies added to our disappointment, if not displeasure. Nonetheless, the front desk personnel and the housekeeping staff were all wonderfully accommodating, respectful, and gracious people within the rules and limits of their parent company. The property is located quite a distance from the town (at least 35 minutes by car), but we made the trek once and enjoyed it immensely. There are great bargains, lovely artifacts, and enjoyable encounters to be had among the townspeople.

We are Mayan Palace owners and decided to visit Puerto Penasco because we could drive there.

The Drive: Absolutely zero problems! We were stopped on the USA side of the border twice after leaving. We were stopped once on the Mexican side of the border during a drive from MP to Puerto Penasco by federales. The federales were very polite, looked at our IDs, and wished us a happy vacation.

The Mayan Palace: The beds were actually comfortable.... but we did ask for the egg crate toppers to be put on. The beach was AMAZING. The tidal variations are extreme.... about a mile between high tide and low tide. If you enjoy beach combing and shelling this is the place for you!!! My favorite part of the whole trips were walks during low tide. Food at MP was expensive as always, but we ate breakfast in our room most days. We rotated between staying on property and being lazy for a day with traveling into Puerto Penasco to explore and eat on alternate days. The indoor pool was great as it was a bit chilly during Thanksgiving to use the outdoor pool. We enjoyed water aerobics and volleyball.

Timeshare: We decided to attend the presentation to hear about the "updates." We were rewarded with discounted massages and a credit to our bill. We turned down the offers of paying $10 grand to eliminate usage fees because their financial illustrations assumed that the member would not actually use the time share for vacation. That is not the case with us. We are happy that the MP still has such a high exchange value when we use RCI. We can usually book 3 week long vacations using the MP week points. We asked our timeshare presentation guy where the locals eat in town and he gave us a few GREAT recommendations.

Puerto Penasco: The town was small and easy to navigate.... but we speak enough Spanish to read road signs and hold simple conversations. We took a fishing trip where the fish bit the hook as soon as it hit the water. We gave away MANY, MANY fish to the fishing guide's family and took the rest back to the MP to fry and to make ceviche. We ate at Mary's which had great quality seafood and offered a beautiful overlook of the bay. We walked the streets as well as the beach in town. The vendors are aggressive, but if you can speak enough Spanish to say "No gracias, senor" and then make a little small talk with them, it is not a bad experience. The town is not up to the standards of Cancun or Playa, with quite a few unpaved streets.

Overall impression: Visit here if you want a quiet, relaxing time and enjoy walking on the beach. A car is very useful because the town is about 25 minutes away, but if you speak no Spanish the driving could be a bit harrowing.

We had booked a 2 week (Dec 17 - Dec 28) stay at the Mayan Palace with our friends through their RCI time share. So, there were 8 of us in total (4 adults & 4 children). We had a shuttle take us from Phoenix to the resort and were anticipating a wonderful Christmas vacation. Unfortunately, the weather was not very nice (around 17 Celsius on average and very windy). This caused us to spend most of our time indoors. The lobby, spa, gymn, restuarant, and pool areas of the resort are nice; however, the rooms are quite cramped and the decore is dated. We had a kitchenette that consisted of a bar sized fridge, micro wave, and a 2 burner hotplate style stove (no oven). There was also a small kitchen table and couch/TV area. Adjoining this room was a bedroom/bathroom with a king size bed and on the other side a bedroom/bathroom with 2 queen size beds. For some reason there was no heat in the kitchen/living room area or in the one bedroom. A worker came a few times to fix it, but it never did work. The other thing we found annoying was the "wind tunnel" hallways. One always had to make sure to hang onto your room door when going in and out, so it wouldn't slam. The extremely windy hallways in the resort made it a very chilly walk to get anywhere especially when coming back from a swim in the indoor pool (no change rooms to get back into your clothes after a dip, so everyone's lips would be blue by the time they got all the way back to the room). There were hardly any other people at the resort, so they weren't running the buffet which our children would have been able to eat for free at. Instead we were charged full price for meals off the menu. Since we didn't have a vehicle at our disposal we had to pay quite a lot for a trip into town ($35 each way for the 8 of us). We also needed to be careful about how many groceries we bought due to the small refridgerator. Like someone else had mentioned in their review, there was a fee to use the gym ($10/wk), internet, and washer/dryer ($5.50/use). A pina colada cost $8. I think that they definitely charge more for food/drinks as you are kind of screwed if you don't have a vehicle since it is so far from town. Couldn't go in the outdoor pools as they were freezing. In the end, we ended up leaving after only being there one week. Might have stayed for the full 2 weeks if the weather was better as the beach was amazing.

Great building, confortable rooms and nice mexican design the problem is that after October and till February the weather is really cold, so as the swimming pool... ypu don't want to swim in the ocean either.
The hotel is 35 minutes away from the town (where the action and fun is)