When it comes to golf destinations in Mexico, the Puerto Vallarta region is one of the most popular. So in the name of duty, I played 36 holes on my recent visit there and have a round-up of the other options. See the full article here: Golf in Puerto Vallarta and Riviera Nayarit.

With two Jack Nicklaus courses and some stunning sea views, the Punta Mita peninsula is the prestige spot to play. It’s only open to hotel guests, villa renters, and residents. Others are closer to the string of hotels around the Marina or Nuevo Vallarta. More golf courses are on the way further north, closer to Sayulita. We’ll keep you posted on those as they spring up in the future.

Many luxury travelers recoil at the thought of staying at an all-inclusive hotel, thinking of it as a vacation factory with routine buffet food, indifferent service, and ho-hum rooms. There is such a thing as a luxury all-inclusive, however, and in Mexico the best examples are three notable Velas properties: two in the Puerto Vallarta region and one in the Riviera Maya region.

I had the pleasure of revisiting Grand Velas Nuevo Vallarta last week and was just as impressed as I was a few years ago. If anything, the operation has improved, despite the challenging tourism environment the past year and a half in Mexico. The staff is polished and bilingual and the rooms are some of the most impressive of any resort in the region. At all the upscale Velas resorts the food is a big draw. I wasn’t able to eat at Frida, Piaf, or Lucca—all AAA 4-diamond a la carte dinner restaurants—but in this resort even what I sampled at the lunch buffet was amazing, especially the fresh seafood, ceviche, and quality wine from Chile. And no need to rush down to snag a poolside lounge chair in the morning: just reserve what you need through the pool concierge. When you arrive he’ll get your reserved chairs ready, bring water or whatever else you need, and even furnish a loaded loaner iPod if you want.

Casa Velas, situated next to a golf course (but with its own private beach club), is a more intimate affair. With only 80 rooms and no buffet meals at the restaurants, this feels like one of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World that it is, but everything is wrapped up in one price, including excellent meals, bottles of wine, and top-shelf liquor. The Presidential Suite pictured here may be the best bargain in the whole region: $1,200 for two plus $300 for each additional guest. It sleeps up to eight in its four spacious bedrooms with private bath and there’s a huge terrace with a plunge pool. The rate includes not only meals and drinks, but a stocked bar, a round of golf, a private dinner, and a spa treatment.

Meanwhile, for the other coast, I snagged this dessert photo from this OMG! Yummy blog post on a stay at the Grand Velas Riviera Maya. I can confirm from experience that the food is spectacular there—easily on par with any a la carte restaurants in the region.

With tourism in Mexico still way off from the level it was before the cable news networks started acting like the whole country is one big Ciudad Juarez, the Grand Velas hotels are frequently running deals that make them an undeniable value. All all-inclusives are not created equal and these are a in a different league altogether.

See more luxury hotels in Puerto Vallarta and Punta Mita.

I’ve been spending time in the Puerto Vallarta region of Mexico this past week, checking out some new luxury hotels (more on that later) and checking in on some old favorites—like the stellar Four Seasons Punta Mita.

This iconic Four Seasons functioned as a world on its own at the end of the Punta de Mita peninsula before the St. Regis opened up nearby last year. It’s still clearly the best hotel in the Puerto Vallarta region, however, and though the St. Regis has a great beach and access to the same two stunning golf courses, it can’t quite match the service level and the dramatic location you see in that photo at the top.

Once you get past the prices, it’s hard to find fault with any aspect of this operation: great facilities for kids (including a lazy river pool), a revered spa and adults-only pool to escape the kids, consistently excellent food in three restaurants, and plenty of organized and free activities each day. One family we met there had been staying for two weeks—and they were nowhere close to getting bored of the place yet. Management is continually tweaking, adding, and improving the facilities.

I’ll be updating our Four Seasons Punta Mita review soon to reflect additions and changes, but meanwhile here’s another photo to enjoy, putting you on the beach:

I’ve posted some info on here before about the ongoing soap opera that is the Yellowstone Club World Blixseth couple, a man and wife that have led a boom and bust life more dramatic than any reality TV script Bravo could throw together. The latest news from the Wall Street Journal has a Mexico twist: wife Edra Blixseth is putting their Los Cabos home up for sale at a list price of $12.88 million.

If you’re interested, it’s a two-acre oceanfront estate with 10,000 square feet of living space inside (six bedrooms) and another 7,000 feet outside.

She was awarded the house as part of the couple’s knock-down, drag-out divorce proceedings, but she has since declared personal bankruptcy. This Los Cabos home pales in comparison to their one near Palm Springs, CA. That listing has “excess” written all over it. The Journal described “a fountain with jets whose sprays rise about 80 feet and a private, 19-hole golf course of about 240 acres. The roughly 25,000-square-foot main residence is decorated with several ceiling murals and has a prayer room and separate wings for guests and children.”

My personal background on all this is that several years ago I was reviewing the property called Yellowstone Club World Tamarindo that was part of their vacation club, located in the Costalegre area a couple hours south of Puerto Vallarta. The lackey general manager pointed to the Blixseth yacht moored off the shore and told me how rich the owner was, that he was a billionaire who traveled the world and was pouring money into the resort to make it the best in Mexico. If you’ve seen the new Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland movie, picture this guy as one of the Red Queen court helpers with pasted on large ears. I could tell then that something was not quite right, but the resort looked great so I moved on.

Thankfully the resort and excellent golf course were quickly bought by someone else and both are still great, as simply El Tamarindo, but there’s no Blixseth yacht in the harbor anymore…

“Central America” and “great golf courses” haven’t exactly gone together like chocolate and peanut butter, despite all the opportunities for scenic vistas and locations next to the sea. Mostly this has been a matter of economics since the local demand wasn’t there and the stream of upscale tourists wasn’t dependable enough.

In some places the situation is improving though in the lands south of Mexico and La Reunion outside of Antigua, Guatemala is a great example. We just posted a review of La Reunion Golf Resort in our luxury Guatemala hotels section. Even if you’re not a golfer, how about that view in the picture here? If you’re a golfer, can you think of any other place where you’ve teed off having a view of four volcanoes? Nice.

“Its designers, Pete and Perry Dye, gleaned inspiration from the Mayan Solar Calendar, which consists of 18 twenty-day months. Each of the course’s 18 holes is named after its corresponding month on the Mayan calendar. The 19th month, Wayeb, is a five-day month dedicated to rest and contemplation and so makes a fitting name for the bar and restaurant. Facilities include a driving range, putting green, chipping green, practice bunker, and pro shop. Incidentally, Pete’s eldest son Perry Dye recently spent the last days of 2009 on vacation at the resort with his family and nailed a 178-yard hole-in-one on the course’s 12th hole.”

This review was from the author of the Moon Handbook Guatemala guidebook and Living in Guatemala. See our interview with Al Argueta for more.