Place of the amazing seafood! No, seriously.
When To Go To Mazatlan
Any time is a good time to visit a new destination! However, there are better months than others, especially when it comes to beach destinations. After hours of research, we opted to fly to Mazatlan in the month of November (Nov. 8 - Nov. 12). This means that you avoid the huge summer crowds of tourists, and the extreme heat. While there are still plenty of tourists here in November, you have more space to roam freely and capture that perfect family photo without crowds of people in the background.
November is also right at the end of hurricane season in this area, so be sure to keep this is mind when considering whether or not to purchase travel insurance. We opted to purchase travel insurance just in case! Thankfully it was not necessary. The weather was hot, but it was certainly bearable.
How To Get To Mazatlan
If you are flying to a destination in Mexico, it is always cheaper to fly nationally than internationally. For this reason, we opted to drive down to San Diego and go through CBX (Cross Border Xpress) which would allow us to fly from the Tijuana International Airport to the Mazatlan International Airport.
If you are trying to decide between what airline to use for your vacation to Mexico, I recommend Volaris. Everyone's experience can vary, but in the more than 8 years that I have traveled to Mexico, I have only once encountered a flight delay with Volaris. The Aeromexico airline is known for delayed flights (several hours delay) and I have seen this first hand every time I travel and check the screens at the airport.
Where To Stay
When I travel, I usually don't look for the most high-end or all-inclusive hotel for my stay since I am out exploring by early morning and throughout the day. We selected Hotel Emporio for our stay in Mazatlan - the hotel is not an all-inclusive hotel, however they do offer free breakfast (buffet type breakfast). They had chilaquiles, toast, fresh fruit, cereal, delicious pastries, a variety of juices, scrambled eggs, etc. Something to note is that the hotel rooms are a little run down, and at least while we were there there was construction going on on one side of the hotel which led to unpleasant noise and views. This hotel has a kids pool with a pirate ship, a "relax" pool with lounge chairs inside the pool, the usual pool with shallow and deep end, and a jacuzzi. The pool with the lounge bed/chair inside the pool was not in service while I was there - bummer. This hotel also has a popular venue area for events so it is not uncommon to hear loud music and night and see a party happening in the open hotel air - we witnessed a wedding and two quinceaneras while we were there. The malecon in Mazatlan is really where all the fun is, so ultimately we chose this hotel because it is located right where the Malecon begins. It is right by the beach and is one of the few hotels by the malecon that has it's own access to the beach which is nice. Keep in mind, the malecon is where everything is at - places to buy souvenirs, get pulmonias (taxis to take you where you want to go), buy ice cream and hot dogs, nice restaurants to eat, etc. The malecon lines a large portion of the beach.
What To Do
Mazatlan definitely has an all-day and all-night party atmosphere. If you are looking for a travel destination that is serene, calm, and quiet then Mazatlan is NOT the place. Mazatlan is the home of many very famous Mexican bands, like Banda el Recodo, Banda MS and several more. You can find restaurants bustling with Mariachi-type bands (bandas), live singers, and loud atmospheres. However, there are several family friendly activities that you can enjoy here - it doesn't have to be only bars and nightclubs.
Take photos at the Beatles statue, located in Callejón Liverpool, mimicking their famous album cover. There is also several Beatles posters, car statues, and red phone booths for a great photo op
Take a guided tour of Mazatlan on the blue GuaGua bus (inluding a stop to see the iconic cliff diver). You can find more information about this tour here: https://laguagua.mx/. The pick-up and drop-off location is right next to the cathedral noted further down (Catedral Basilica de la Inmaculada Concepcion).
Take a small boat tour to visit La Isla de la Piedra where you can eat some of the best shrimp plates, ride a horse on the beach, ride an ATV, an even hold an iguana! A round-trip boat ride here costs about $40 pesos round-trip per person, and it takes about 10 minutes to get there by boat.
Take a stroll through the malecon and shop for all kinds of souvenirs. Several statues also line the malecon so it is fun to also walk by and take photos.
Ride a Pulmonia (golf cart type cars for up to three people plus the driver) through the malecon (or anywhere you want to go) or ride on Aurigas (red trucks adapted with seats in the back that can seat 8-10 people)!
Visit the "Catedral Basilica de la Inmaculada Concepcion" cathedral - it is the most beautiful church I have ever seen in Mexico! Swipe through the images below:
Visit Mercado Pino Suárez near the church to buy "Suaves" (their famous homemade type marshmallow treats), or any other souvenirs
Take a Pulmonia ride to El Paseo Del Centenario - you will get gorgeous pictures throughout this trip with beautiful views of Mazatlan and the mansions in Mazatlan
Take a photo at one of the Mazatlan letter signs
Go to Centro Historico (Old Mazatlan) for a relaxing laid back time - it is a plaza with a couple of Americanized restaurants, cafes, ice cream shops, small museums (such as a Pedro Infante museum) and art galleries, and the Ángela Peralta Theater. To be honest, I felt like this was our least worth-while stops in our vacation. Looking back, I would have rather gone to the glass bridge, since there was no real activities here to do other than the small museums. Many stores/restaurants also don't open up here until around mid-day.
Things I did not do during my trip, but would also be great things to do:
Visit the Aquarium
Take a trip up a flight of hundreds of stairs to get to the glass bridge
Go to a Venados baseball game (their home team)
El Quelite rural tour
A boat ride to Isla Venados
What and Where To Eat
Now we get to the good stuff! Eating out at Mazatlan can get expensive depending on your budget - in fact most people that we encountered in Mazatlan were complaining about the price of food. For three adults, we would usually end up paying about 1,500 pesos total per each meal (breakfast, lunch, or dinner). Mind you, the food was totally worth it and I would like to go back to Mazatlan someday just to get a taste of the delicious seafood here once again.
Food you for sure should try while here is:
a bottle of ToniCol soda (Mazatlan's exclusive soda) - you can purchase these at almost any liquor store along the malecon
Pescado Zarandeado - a delicious fish filet plate popular in Mazatlan
Camarones A La Diabla and Camarones Al Coco - Mazatlan is the largest exporter of shrimp, so the shrimp you eat here is always fresh
Ceviche and Aguachiles - again, the seafood here tastes so fresh, and they have such unique flavors in the sauces that they mix in
Food places I recommend hands down:
Las Palmeras on Isla De La Piedra - this little food hut had by far the BEST shrimp plates. We ordered a plate of Camarones al Coco, a plate of Camarones a la Diabla, 2 cokes, 2 coconuts with fresh coconut water, and 1 piña colada an our total came out to $555 mexican pesos. Not bad! These shrimp plates were by far the best we ate in all of Mazatlan. I want to go back to Mazatlan just to eat these again! We arrived here by coincidence - you take a quick 10 minute boat ride from Mazatlan to this island, and once we got off the little motor boat they offered us a ride (for a small cost) on an Auriga to the beach side of Isla De La Piedra. I recommend accepting this ride, because it can be a little bit of a walk and you may get lost if you decide to go on foot. Once we got to the beach side, they informed us that they had a deal with this food hut and if you chose to eat here (you didn't have to), you would be assured a table with chairs, access to their bathroom, and shade for the duration of your time here as long as you bought food from them (the amount/total cost of the food you purchased didn't matter). I recommend this because otherwise you will be stuck laying in the hot sun. It may look questionable when you get here, but the food is really good!
El Muchacho Alegre/Gusto Al Gusto - this restaurant belongs to the famous band Banda el Recodo. They have live bands playing here and people get up and dance in the aisles - it is a very fun and happy environment. If you are lucky, you can sometimes find Banda El Recodo themselves playing here. They also have a small souvenir shop inside. It is located along the beach and was honestly such a fun dinner experience (although loud, of course).
Los Arcos - this is a fancy restaurant which serves really amazing food. We went here to celebrate my husband's birthday and he still dreams about their banana cheesecake. It is a little further north from Hotel Emporio.
El Sinaloense - this restaurant was the first one we went to when we arrived to Mazatlan. We ate dinner here and ordered their pescado zarandeado, their grilled octopus, and a coctel de camaron y pulpo (a shrimp and octopus cocktail). The food was really delicious here as well. As with practically all of Mazatlan, it was really loud here due to the bandas playing, which made it a little difficult to hold a conversation and hear what each of us was saying.
Places I definitely don't recommend:
ANY street tacos - I had tacos at a couple places throughout Mazatlan and they all tasted terrible. Definitely do not eat street tacos at Mazatlan because you will be disappointed!
La Pata Salada - for all the hype around this place, it really fell short of expectations. You are harassed by vendors here at all times, and it REEKS of smoke from everyone smoking here. We had shrimp fajitas and a shrimp cocktail and the shrimp was overly cooked and dry with hardly any flavor. The service time was also horrible - it took forever to get our meals served. Oh, and there were like 3 different bandas playing by the beach area tables all at the same time, making it noisey and hard to really appreciate any of the music.
How To Get Around Mazaltan
Pulmonias and Aurigas are Mazatlan's taxis. However, pulmonias can get pricey if you use them to take you everywhere you want to go. We opted to mostly use Mazatlan's public bus and we really had a good experience using it. To leave and get back to the hotel zone, you'll want to use the bus with the name "Sabalo-Centro" - it costs 11 pesos per person and really goes through almost the entire tourist areas. We used this public bus to get to El Muchacho Alegre, La Pata Salada, the motor boat pick-up area for Isla Mujeres, the cathedral, el Centro Historico, and Mercado Pino Suárez by the cathedral where we purchased souvenirs and suaves. If you ask the driver to let you know when you get to a certain place (your stop), they are usually pretty good about letting you know where you need to get off. The buses have air conditioning, and you can flag the bus down pretty much anywhere as long as you raise your hand up on the side of road once you see one approaching. You can see this (slightly dated) bus route map to get a better idea of where the Sabalo-Centro bus runs: https://mazatlantoday.net/pdf/mazatlan_city_bus_map.pdf
When I was preparing to travel here, I had a really hard time finding a tourist map of the tourist areas in Mazatlan so I could plan my days. Apparently, there really is no such map out there. For that reason, I have made a general tourist map of Mazatlan (with the help of Google maps) with most of the tourist places I mention above marked, to help guide you in your vacation planning:
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