Mazatlán
Puerto HistóRico / Centro HistóRico Restaurado · Mazatlán, Sinaloa
A Pacific port in Sinaloa with one of the longest seafront promenades in the world, about twenty kilometres of malecon walked, jogged and cycled by the whole city every evening. Mazatlan spent the 1970s and 80s as a package-holiday town and then did something unusual: it restored its abandoned nineteenth-century centre instead of building more hotels, reopening the Teatro Angela Peralta of 1874 and turning the Plazuela Machado into the best square on Mexico's Pacific coast. Men still dive from a cliff platform into a rocky inlet for tips, the carnival before Lent is among the largest in Mexico, and the shrimp is superb. Cheap rooms, a good market, boats to the offshore islands and day trips to colonial mountain villages round it out. Sinaloa carries a high national travel advisory, so check current state advice, fly in rather than drive, stay in the visitor areas, and avoid highways after dark. Most foreigners never come, which is a pity.
Plazuela Machado, Centro Histórico, Mazatlán, Sinaloa, 82000, Mexico
An open city - the malecón, the beaches and the historic centre are free. ⚠ THE CLIFF DIVERS AT THE GLORIETA SÁNCHEZ TABOADA PERFORM THROUGH THE DAY AND INTO THE EVENING, free to watch, passing a hat afterwards - give properly, as they dive into a narrow rock inlet and must time the swell. The Teatro Ángela Peralta can be visited in daytime hours when no performance is scheduled; museums generally close Mondays. ⚠ CARNIVAL FALLS IN THE WEEK BEFORE LENT (February or early March) and fills every room in the city at several times the normal rate. ⚠ EL FARO IS A FREE BUT STEEP 30-MINUTE CLIMB WITH NO SHADE. ⚠ OBEY THE BEACH FLAGS - this is an open Pacific coast with rip currents. ⚠ SINALOA CARRIES ONE OF THE HIGHEST TRAVEL ADVISORY LEVELS IN MEXICO: check current advice, fly rather than drive, and do not travel highways after dark. ⚠ HOURS AND PRICES NOT VERIFIED FOR THIS FILE.