i just spent two weeks at the oceano palace and enjoyed it
very much.the staff are very friendly & polite and will usually
help you if you need.the food was not great & got very thyring
after 2 weeks. room i had was excellent 4th floor with great view
every thing worked good in the room.thier was some sewer smell
in the bathroom but i've stayed in 5 star hotels in mexico and had that smell.the two complaints i have was the alcohol they used
in the drinks was very cheap brands & if you wanted to up grade
they charged you. also if you needed to cash travellers checks
they would not do it or give change to smaller bills or coins which
is to bad because we needed smaller change for tipping. the location of the hotel was great with several good restaurants close by. the bus stop & taxis were just outside.

The rooms aren't the best thing ever, but they are manageable. The worst part is definetly the bathroom. They are not well kept and in desperate need of attention. Best solution would be to go all out and just remodel it. The beds are super comfy though! Moving onto the views... I recommend only ocean views otherwise you get stuck with a dark and gloomy room facing the parking lot and small gift shops (not in the best state either).
The food.... oh the food! From the very beginning it doesn't seem very horrible. In fact, it presents itself well because of the super staff. Later in your stay, you will realize the food is always the same, and eventually your stomach won't be able to digest it well. I don't think the chefs are all that sanitary nor are they creative. The beach is probably the best beach in that area. The water isn't all that clear, but it doesn't stink and it obviously maintained by the staff. They are no logs, no weeds and no rocks. Although I wouldn't advise you to swim when its windy because it's almost certain a sharp rock with cut you.
The bar is open till 11 but thankfully, the location of this hotel allows for furhter partying. Overall, I had a great vacation, whether I thank my friends for that or the hotel... I don't know. Maybe it's a combination of the two...?

This is a fabulous property located on a fabulous beach. We visited through Christmas and it was awesome. Don't get us wrong . . . this is a very basic hotel, but the rooms are sparkling clean and the staff very accommodating and friendly. We were on an All-Inclusive plan . . . booze was good, but the food was low grade. The hotel needs some updating, but overall, we loved it! . . . We'll be back!!

Yes, I did get a great price the first time that I stayed here ($745.00 all inclusive with plane fare for one week) but no doubt after reading the reviews I did have words of conceren with my travel agent. She told me that others have been there as well as herself and she said it was nice for the price. So I gave it a chance.

This is not a new resort by nu means but I do not drive a new car. This place was a Cadilac in its days for sure, early 1960,s or so I was told. I did also see houses down there where the inside of the house was a dirt floor with stone walls and people lived there. Mazatlan is four hundreds years old and a million people. You can travel blocks along the main roadways and hardly see a set of stop lights. These people do tail gate but I did not see or hear one highway accident. It is kind of like cow boy days but with vehicles. Back to the motel thoughts.

Pretty much you will read that the workers do work hard to please everyone. They do for sure have a very nice staff of employees. I do believe that the workers are just poor average people tring to feed there families. Down there they are few poor people.

As for food, I pretty much ate always at the motel and had no complaints. I did have barbecue lobster across the street. It did cost almost $30.00 and that was without a tip. Personally I never tip less than $3.00 a meal home. In Mazatlan I tipped $3.00 every meal and I was treated like a king. I tiped the maids $2.00 a day for cleaning my room and making my bed and $5.00 a day at the bar. At home before I had left I picked up at the bank $200.00 worth of $1.00 bills $50.00 worth of $5.00 bills for tips only. I never had one hot meal come to me that was not hot. The meat was thin and thin meat just not have the flavor for sure. I did like the hamburgers, you add to them yourself. They do have a great fruit plate. If like you like salads then you are in heaven. They do have greens down there. I also did like the Club Sandwitch. Also, I really did like the Mexican chip dips that they make from scratch. I would also tip $3.00 to have Club Sandwitch and chips and variety of dip brought up to my because they close the restuantant at 10:00. and I stayed up latter. The bar would stay open as long as someone wanted to drink and when I drank I would tip $5.00 a day and they were very happy. I really did like the pineacalatas, MM MM MM. Tueday and Wednesday are the cheapest day to go on tours. For $25.00 on a big ponntoon boat I seen dolphins and then stayed on an island where they offered free horseback riding, which most people did do. This took five hours. We had a free meal and free drinks also. Another time, right at the motel beach , for $40.00 I went sail boating for two and half hours and walked on an island that was covered with lava and seen an assortment of creatures as well as some pelicans from Canada and green ringneck mallard ducks from Minnesota.

I just came back last night from Mazatlan (December 22, 2007) and you see just one day later I am already thinking about going back.

This last trip, another guy at the Oceano and I were talking about these reviews and both of us are kind of country guys and not to fond of alot of people crowed in the same area, so we both agreed that the reviews are really in our favor.

I really think that the motel is wonderful and I do like that it is not crowed but they need customers to stay in business so I though that I would add my two cents. I just hope that not too many show up. Well, for sure it can not be too bad because locals do stay there. It is said that the best shows have the longest lines but it has also been told to me that Mazatlan has been a well kept secret for years and I do hope the same the Oceano Palace and that I am not ruining it for myself.

I did see a critet (?spelling) on the sidewalk as I was walking into the motel last night but I never did see anything else for both the times that I had stayed there. I stayed two different times and one week both times. Oh ya, my safety chain on my door did break on me (I forgot it was connected) and it did take most of the day before it was replaced but it was livable. I am a Master Plumber and my plumbing worked good in my motel room. I took late showers (they do still allow smokeing in public places) but I do uderstand that it would not be something new for a building built forty years ago in Mexico to have a one pipe system with no recirculating line so I just adjusted to conditions at hand. I turned on the hot water in the shower for probably ten minutes or more before I needed to take a shower. My room was on the fourth floor for both trips and never did I not have hot water. I did have off both of my balconies a great view of Bird Island and the rest of the beach. During the last trip one time both elevators were not functioning. But, they have a third one as as spare in another part of the building, so they walked me too it. I do use a cane, so up four floors would not be good for me.

My room did have a safe and I do think all the others do also. For the cost of $2.00 per day and I did not worry about my camera, passport, tickets, money,ect..

So, if you are a person who does mind tipping for meals and drinks at an all inclusive motel, you will be more than likely treated like royality by a bunch of happy people. For me the Oceano Palace is a beautiful old granite stone building inside and out and is cleaned everyday. Early in the mornings I see workers mopping the floors. Walk through it and you will not find beach sand along the stone floors yet it is adjacent to the sandy beach. It took a lot of man hours to build that building and I do like to look at the different stones and just ah at the craftmenship. I just told my brother that I am already planning on going back this coming January.

I did discover that down town mazatlan (El Centro) has a better prices for silver than the beach. Both open and closed taxi should be fifty pecos ($5.00) quanta pecos El Centro (how much to down town) then say, sequenta pecos, and that may be misspelled but you are telling for only $5.00 or you will have the bell boys get a taxi for you. They do charge a different price for locals than they do for touists. I guess that is life.

I did talk to a Canadian that had his teeth bleached while in Mazatlan. I was impressed on how much better his teeth looked. The dentist is a professional. He does it himself and is listed in the yellow pages. His first name is Edwardo and his add in the yellow pages also states that he speaks english. I called him from the front desk and he set up a time that day for a free inspection at 6:00 P.M.. He stated that I was a good canidate for bleaching, and for $150.00 and about one hour latter I had whiter teeth, both uppers and lowers. I do like it.

Time for to go!

Have a good day everyday people.

Bye Bye