Mazatlan offers two vacations in one: sun and culture on a budget

MAZATLAN, Mexico — For 10-year-old Morgan King of Saskatchewan, a Mazatlan morning starts with a new hairdo from Valeria Lopez, who sets up her mobile salon on the beach near the El Cid resort.

Soft music from a poolside yoga class blends with the whirl of blenders as bartenders whip up the first batch of pina coladas.

Working with a handful of pink and white beads, Valeria braids Morgan's hair while her mother, Lana, soaks up the sun on the beach that fronts the city's Golden Zone of high-rise hotels, bars and restaurants.

A few miles south, a different scene unfolds along the streets of Old Mazatlan.

Guests at the faded Hotel La Siesta breakfast on huevos rancheros while joggers and bikers get their morning exercise along a paved seawalk. Boys in swimming trunks grab their fishing spears and inner tubes and head out into the surf for the day's catch.

Golden or Olden? Most tourists choose one or the other when they vacation in Mazatlan, a commercial fishing and port city founded by the Spaniards in the 1500s on Mexico's Pacific coast.

I sampled both on a recent five-day trip, checking in first at El Cid, a $146-a-night all-inclusive beach resort, then moving downtown to a $50-a-night room at La Siesta, one of the first hotels built in Mazatlan when tourism began developing in the 1950s.

As other parts of Mexico began to draw visitors, Mazatlan developed a reputation as a party destination, more suited to the spring-break crowd than families or those interested in art and culture.

That's begun to change. The rebirth of the historical center as a cultural district is drawing new galleries, restaurants and shops to its European-style neighborhoods. Resorts in the Golden Zone, less showy and built-up than in Puerto Vallarta or Acapulco, are picking up on the trend toward family-friendly vacations.

Both Mazatlans have something to offer budget-minded travelers. With just a 10-mile stretch of beach connecting the two, why settle for just one?

—The Zona Dorada

Built in 1983, El Cid's 393-room Castilla Beach hotel was among the first high-rise resorts developed when Mazatlan's tourism industry shifted north, and the Golden Zone (Zona Dorada) replaced the historical center as the favored destination.

Its orange and green towers, part of a mega-complex of four hotels, a marina and golf course, face a long swimming beach. The entrance fronts on a busy highway flanked by a bikini boutique and a restaurant called Senor Frog's.

My husband and I weren't sure what to expect when the desk clerk snapped on our purple wristbands, a sign to waiters and bartenders that we were on the all-inclusive plan.

Would all the drinks, food, activities, even taxes be included, as promised, with no hidden charges? Yes, it turned out.

"Think of it as a cruise ship that doesn't move," advised Bob Levinstein, CEO of ResortCompete.com, a Web site that searches for the best deals on all-inclusive resorts.

Chances are we could have snagged a room upgrade had we agreed to a time-share sales pitch. But the sun was out and our time was short, so we settled for the resort equivalent of an inside cabin.

The walls were covered in a bumpy white stucco that looked like popcorn. The air conditioner rattled, but the room was large and overlooked one of two sparkling pools.

A flash of the purple wristbands bought unlimited beer, wine and drinks — not the watered-down variety you sometimes hear about — and anything we wanted from an oceanfront seafood buffet and four sit-down restaurants serving Mexican, Argentine, Italian food and sushi.

Slipped under our door each night was the "El Cid News," listing yoga classes, cooking lessons, water aerobics and a Spanish class taught by Fhernando, a young man who doubled as an Aztec dancer at the nightly dinner shows.