While there are fine hotels in Puerto Vallarta and the Nuevo Vallarta area just to the north of the Puerto Vallarta International Airport, the biggest concentration of luxury resorts is located about 40 minutes out of the city. Between Bucerias and Sayulita is a collection of Punta Mita luxury hotels around a gorgeous beach-studded peninsula.
There’s a little confusion around the nomenclature in this area because there’s a technical difference over whether there’s a “de” in the name or not. Punta de Mita is the entire peninsula and a village where locals of normal means live, while Punta Mita is a private development filled with hundreds of homes, two golf courses, and two resorts. Most people who live in the area seem to mostly use the shorter version.
The first two luxury resorts below are “behind the gates” of the private Punta Mita development, without the “de” in the name that the area outside the gates requires. If you want to play at the famous Jack Nicklaus signature golf courses or make use of the private Punta Mita beach clubs in this gated community, you need to either rent a luxury villa that includes those perks or stay at one of the first two hotels here.
There is another golf course by the Conrad though, so that’s a fallback option for swinging your clubs if you’re not staying at the Four Seasons or St. Regis.
Unlike most of the round-ups like this you’ll find online of the best Punta Mita luxury hotels, ours is based on first-person experience. We’ve been to all these Mexican resorts, some of them multiple times, so trust our opinions over what some bot may have generated and read the full reviews to get the inside scoop of the best place to stay for you.
Four Seasons Punta Mita
The Four Seasons Punta Mita is the original luxury 5-star hotel in this area and in many respects it is still the best luxury hotel in the region. It has long stretches of white sand beaches and the amazing infinity pool facing those is joined by an adults-only outdoor pool and a lazy river for the kids. This is the most family friendly resort in the whole region in fact, with all kinds of activities and age-appropriate clubs for those under 18.
Mom and dad will find plenty of fun and pampering here though, with golf, tennis, and bike ride options joining bartending classes, cooking classes, and this spirits of Mexico tasting I attended. There are room options for every desire and family size, from regular doubles with a terrace or balcony up to multi-bedroom villas with a panoramic ocean view. The resort also runs a tented camp if upscale glamping is on your wish list. See our full review of Four Seasons Punta Mita.
St. Regis Punta Mita
St. Regis is one of the 30+ Marriott brands their loyalty members try to keep track of, so you can earn or use your Marriott Bonvoy points here at St. Regis Punta Mita Resort. While the beach here is rockier and not as expansive as the Four Seasons one, the resort makes up for it with extensive grounds, multiple pools, and butler service you reach by WhatsApp to take care of what you need during your stay.
Most of the dining spots here face the ocean and one seafood spot, with the bar housed in a beached wooden boat, is a real toes-in-the-sand option for really feeling like you’re on vacation. With lush grounds, a well-regarded spa, and good bilingual service, this is a solid choice for couples and families. See our detailed review here.
Casita Mia de Mita
If you want something more intimate that makes you feel like you’re staying in a friend’s luxury beach house, Casita Mia de Mita is a terrific boutique all-inclusive hotel located on one of the prettiest beaches around. If you walk far enough on that beach you’ll hit one of the Punta Mita beach clubs and you’ll pass a few multi-million-dollar residences.
The service here is attentive and personal, however, with the staffers being people who have served repeat guests for more than a decade. There’s a nice outdoor swimming pool and swim-up bar, rooms have a strong sense of place, and the included meals are served when and where you’d like. See our Casita Mia de Mita review.
Conrad Punta de Mita
Before the Auberge resort below opened up, this was the new kid on the peninsula. Part of the Hilton chain, this well-designed resort has rooms clustered in buildings that face the Pacific Ocean, in front of and behind a swimming pool complex that’s the stuff vacation dreams are made of. Many of the rooms facing the ocean are suites with a deep plunge pool with a view.
The lobby here has a high wow factor, as does the indoor/outdoor spa filled with trees and vines; it brings the nearby jungle into the resort for a more organic feel. See our post with a Conrad video tour here or check out our detailed Conrad Punta de Mita review with more photos.
Susurros de Corazon, an Auberge Resort
This is the newest resort to open in the area and this long-anticipated Punta de Mita luxury hotel was worth the wait. The interiors are straight out of an interior design magazine—but an upscale Mexican interior design mag. This place may be modern and expensive, but there’s a strong Mexican personality throughout.
Your welcome drink will have tepache as a base, a fermented pineapple drink, with or without the local spirit raicilla. The kids club is called morritos, a Mexican idiom for children, and what might be called a butler elsewhere will be introduced as a cuate here, a Mexican slang word for “buddy.”
The beachfront restaurant and bar are dreamy during the day and night and the white-sand beach here is natural and stunning. The impressive spa had just opened when we visited but we spent most of the time hanging out by the three large infinity pools that cascade down a gentle hillside. Check out our Auberge Punta de Mita review for more. (By the way, in case you were wondering, that name means “Whispers of the Heart.”
W Punta de Mita
If you like whimsy, a sense of humor, and feeling like you’re one of the cool kids when you go on vacation, then book at room at the W north of Puerto Vallarta on Banderas Bay. Enjoy a resort that mixes its metaphors and cocktails with equal abandon.
Here you’ll find paintings of Pancho Villa with a surfboard and Frida Kahlo in beachwear, while Huichol art themes are used with abandon–including a dramatic tiled pedestrian bridge leading from the main building to the beach. The main pool is for everyone, while the adults-only one is more of a lap pool.
Rooms here have the best minibars in the region if that’s your thing, plus there’s a terrific Asian restaurant. The main downsides are that some rooms are quite far from the water, on the other side of a small lake, and there are lots of upsells coming at you for anything besides a basic lounge chair in the sun. This is another chain that’s part of Marriott. See our video tour in this post and a detailed W Punta de Mita review.
Imanta Resort
This last one is the most mysterious of the Punta Mita luxury hotels, a small resort that is more like a rental villa collection than a hotel. Their aversion to press visits and communication with the media seems to indicate that they are trying to be more like a private club for return guests than a hotel pitched to the public. You will find Imanta Resort on some booking sites though and they get raves from the wealthy travelers who want to avoid the crowds.
If you can find your way in, Imanta occupies a gorgeous 25-acre spot squeezed between the ocean and the mountains, the buildings spilling down a hill to a beach club on the sand. Guests rate it highly and it’s an ideal property for a wedding buyout, with only 16 suites and villas. Our review is years old and nobody we know has been inside the gates since before the pandemic, so let us know how it went if you’ve stayed there!
You can search rates for any of these online here. Or click on the links to our individual reviews to see detailed descriptions and photos from the leading resource on high-end travel in Mexico: Luxury Latin America.
