Estate Taurus

Estate Taurus takes its name from the bull, and the house carries some of that weight. It stands in Kupuri Estates, the most private of Punta Mita's addresses, inside a peninsula gated against the rest of the Riviera Nayarit. The design is deliberate and unapologetically solid, and the Pacific is there in front of it, changing all day.

Four bedrooms and an additional suite, five bathrooms, room for eight. The extra suite is the useful one: a door of your own for whoever needs it, grandparents, a couple arriving on a later flight, someone who keeps different hours than the rest. The gourmet kitchen ends up being the room everyone gathers in, whether or not anyone is cooking.

The private pool holds the ocean view, and most of the day happens within a few steps of it. Mornings are slow by default. Someone reads. Someone swims. Between November and March the humpbacks pass along the coast, and the conversation stops for a while when they do. The six-passenger golf cart waits by the house for the afternoons that ask for movement, toward the beach clubs, the courses, or nowhere in particular.

Premier Golf membership comes with the estate. It opens both Jack Nicklaus Signature courses, including the Pacifico's hole 3B, the only natural island green in the world, reached by boat when the tide allows. The practice facilities, the clubhouse and Punta Mita's private beach clubs are included as well.

Air conditioning and high-speed WiFi run quietly in the background, which is where they belong.