Villa Marlago

Villa Marlago is in El Encanto, inside the gated peninsula of Punta Mita on the Riviera Nayarit. Tropical gardens surround the house and set its temperature, in the literal sense and the other one. The tone is gracious rather than formal, Mexican in its details, and easy to settle into within an hour of arriving.

Five bedrooms and six bathrooms take ten guests. The rooms are unhurried in scale and the décor is warm rather than styled. A fully equipped gourmet kitchen is ready for the way your group actually eats, whether that means one proper dinner or a series of small unplanned ones. Terraces open off more than one side of the house, each with its own hour of the day.

The private pool sits among the gardens, and the gardens make the argument for staying. Breakfast on one terrace. The shade of another by two in the afternoon. Dinner outside once the light goes. Days here rarely need a plan, and the ones that do tend to end back at the pool anyway. Concierge service is there for whatever you want beyond that: excursions, in villa service, the arrangements you would rather not make yourself.

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

Air conditioning and high-speed WiFi are here when the day calls for them, though the gardens tend to win.