Four Seasons Punta Mita
The Four Seasons Punta Mita, in the area of Puerto Vallarta, is the top resort on the southern Mexican Pacific coast. The gated, secluded resort has a reputation for offering privacy and amazing service.
New arrivals reach the Four Seasons Punta Mita via a long, winding road and enter a gleaming, understated marble lobby with stone sculptures and a fantastic panoramic view of the ocean. The guest units, most with ocean views, command 1,500 acres on a peninsula that skirts a fine run of beach and flanks a Nicklaus-designed golf course that extends out to an offshore islet.
Guests at Four Seasons Punta Mita have four choices for meals, from the Latino-Chinese fusion restaurant below the lobby to a hip bar serving ceviche. The chef lines up the morning's catch of fish on the beach at the grill and lets diners pick out lunch. The poolside palapa restaurant offers a casual alternative, with regional and California fare and weekly theme nights. For a stunning romantic experience, guests can arrange for private dining on a small peninsula jutting out over the rocks—followed by a campfire. An option for breakfast, lunch or after-game drinks is at the clubhouse on the greens.
The free-form infinity pool at Four Seasons Punta Mita perched over the waves is a huge draw here—so much so that guests used to complain of too many kids and not enough lounge chairs. So a new, adults-only pool area has been added. It doesn't face the ocean, but it offers four pools and a hot tub, all surrounded by private cabanas for rent. These come with Internet access, wide-screen plasma TVs, stocked minibars and stereos. Pool attendants offer chilled towels, face misting, bottled water, fresh juices and fruit kebobs—and they double as concierges able to set up golf or dinner reservations. Day beds have been added on the beach, too.
Use of the expanded and updated fitness center at Four Seasons Punta Mita is included in the rates. The popular spa offers exercise classes and a mix of new-age and Mexican treatments like tequila facial and wine therapy body wrap, as well as some creative offerings with native names attached. A children's section is a new facility.
Four Seasons Punta Mita also provides four lighted tennis courts (two hard, two with synthetic grass), bicycles, snorkeling equipment and kayaks. The golf course, continually hailed as one of the best in Mexico, boasts eight oceanfront holes and a 194-yard par-3 hole on its own little island.
As Four Seasons Punta Mita is secluded guests may want to rent a car when arriving. Alternatively, the Four Seasons Punta Mita does provide a daily shuttle to Puerto Vallarta for a fee. The Four Seasons Punta Mita can also arrange transfers to and from the airport for a fee.
Off the lobby is the Cultural Center, where guests can use the house laptop or peruse the well-stocked library of books and videos of regional interest. The center hosts regular classes on mole sauce, tequila appreciation, and lectures by local artists, Spanish classes and local crafts.
The standardized accommodations in tiled-roof casitas with terraces and balconies are almost double the size of an average guest room. Polished travertine marble floors scattered with area rugs underscore classic contemporary appointments such as pedestal tables, wrought-iron coffee tables, upholstered armchairs, desks, comfortable half-tester beds with duvets and down pillows, and colorful tropical art.
All rooms at Four Seasons Punta Mita feature minibars, coffeemakers, safes large enough for laptops, plasma TVs, plush top mattresses, CD and DVD players, three or more phones with speakers, and high-speed and wireless Internet access for a fee. Glass doors slide open to terraces or balconies with inviting hammocks and views. Baths here are the best equipped in the region, with the usual amenities joined by separate WCs, glassed-in stall showers, deep tubs and heavy marble vanities with dual basins.
The 32 suites at Four Seasons Punta Mita are each the size of an ample apartment and have up to five bedrooms. These have plunge pools and chaise lounges, Bose radios and TVs that rise up from cabinets. Some come equipped with telescopes and outdoor showers.
Exposures—oceanfront, partial oceanfront and ocean view—determine rates. The ground-floor beachfront rooms open directly onto the beach, but like most on the first floor, they have limited sea views because of the landscaping. Those with limited mobility will want to request a room close to the pool and restaurants, as some rooms are a long walk from the main building.
Room service at Four Seasons Punta Mita does a superb job and runs round-the-clock, newspapers come with breakfast, shoeshine is free, staffers offer umbrellas during downpours, and turndown service tends to the little ones as well, with small robes, tear-free shampoo, and milk and cookies.
Four Seasons Punta Mita is a member of exclusive Virtuoso travel network. Book online or contact our Virtuoso Travel Advisor [email protected] for more details.
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