One&Only Mandarina
This exclusive resort on Mexico’s Pacific coast offers gorgeous treetop and cliffside villas overlooking the beach and backed by tropical rainforest. Throw in personal butlers, an expansive spa, four open-air restaurants and plenty of nods to indigenous culture, and you’ve one of the most exciting hotels to have opened in Mexico in years.
One&Only Mandarina is set on a spectacular stretch of coastline in Mexico’s Riviera Nayarit, less than an hour south of Puerto Vallarta. If you’re looking to escape to a jungle paradise then you’ve hit the jackpot here. The whole resort is hidden among 33 hectares of stunning coastal rainforest, overlooking the Pacific and surrounded by the verdant Sierra del Vallejo mountain range.
Floor-to-ceiling glass walls and huge, sliding balcony doors frame the forest and the sea in the 104 villas, which sit either in the treetops or right on the cliff edge. Both treehouses and cliff villas come with terraces and private plunge pools and feature local Cumaru wood, polished concrete floors and furniture and artwork sourced from Mexican designers. Those looking for the best views should book a Panoramic Ocean Treehouse, while families and bigger groups will love the larger Grand Villas, which start at one bedroom and run all the way up to the two-storey, three-bedroom magnificent Villa One, complete with private cinema, wine cellar, spa and infinity pool.
The fine-dining Carao restaurant is one of three in the resort and offers modern, Mexican cuisine in an elegant setting on the hotel’s highest peak. Mediterranean-inspired Alma is more causal in style but no less stunning in its setting. While the Jetty Beach Club rounds out proceedings with fresh-off-the-boat seafood and Mexican light lunches.
Thankfully, there’s a long list of activities to help counter all the eating and drinking. Highlights include watching humpback whales on their seasonal migration, exploring either of the two beaches, swimming in infinity pools suspended above the cliffside, learning to play polo, hiking through the rainforest, and taking yourself off to the One&Only Spa, where options range from meditation practices and healing-flow yoga to Tata Harper treatments and classic massages.
