As we say in the About Luxury Latin America page, this site is “is for readers looking to get filtered, authoritative recommendations on where amenities and service go well beyond the norm.” So we check out a lot of hotels that are quite good, but not good enough to be included here.

Hotel Secreto on Isla Mujeres near Cancun is one example. This was the first stylish hotel to open on the island, so it got a flurry of press and accolades when it launched in the middle of the past decade. It’s still got 12 big rooms, comfy beds, and the feel of an intimate villa. But one of our regular correspondents, who is also a guidebook writer for the region, says it feels like “more of an upper-midrange place than a luxury boutique hotel.” A lot of services high-end travelers expect (like 24-hour room service) aren’t available and the property is not looking so fresh and new anymore. It’s a nice hotel overall and some investment in refurbishment and a larger staff might bring it to the next level, but for now picky upscale travelers are better off at Villa Rolandi.

Three of our correspondents have checked out Le Rêve in the Riviera Maya, including me, and it too falls into that “close, but no cigar” category. I would gladly spend a long, leisurely weekend with the one I love at this small and romantic beachfront hotel north of Playa del Carmen (pictured at the top), and I’m sure I’d enjoy it—if I didn’t have to pay the sky-high listed room rates, anyway. But it just doesn’t have the level of pampering guest rooms and attentive service you’ll find at the other luxury Riviera Maya hotels we have included. (I wandered around for five minutes before finding someone who worked there when I visited.) The suites facing the beach, with their own plunge pool, are heavenly. Some of the other rooms, though, are pretty minimalist.

It is possible for a small hotel to compete favorably with the big luxury beach resorts—Casa de Mita on the west coast of Mexico is a great example—but it means being dramatically better than everything else around that’s the same size, not just more expensive.

If you are researching luxury resorts in Latin America and don’t find the one you’re interested in listed on our site, it doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with it. But we only include reviews of the “best of the best” in the region, so sometimes we have to pass.

We’ve added two new and notable hotels to our reviews of luxury hotels in Uruguay, both run by the same company. Estacia Vik and Playa Vik are welcome additions to the beautiful coastal region of Uruguay, up the road from Punta del Este in José Ignacio.

This part of the coast is less crowded and you certainly won’t feel hemmed-in at Estancia Vik, which opened in 2009. The ranch hotel sits on 4,000 acres and you can ride horses, hike the hills, go canoeing, or catch a ride to the beach a few minutes away. There are only 12 guest rooms here, all decorated by a noted local artist, and the cuisine—with many ingredients coming from the working farm—is getting high marks. Read the full review of Estacia Vik.

Sister property Playa Vik opened this year and is even more dramatic, with bold lines and art work from the likes of Zaha Hadid and James Turrell. Once again, you won’t have to fight for a deck chair beside the infinity pool.

“The property’s six casas are divided into several sizes, ranging from two to three bedrooms in size. Each casa is distinct in layout and design, but the décor is consistently contemporary, and they all have a fireplace, original artwork and hand-painted floors.”

Read the full review of Playa Vik in Uruguay.

We like to circle back through hotels we’ve reviews in Luxury Latin America every couple of years to make sure they’re still pleasing picky guests and keeping things looking great. Sometimes we’re disappointed, but in some cases I know that I don’t have to worry—as with Villa Ganz in Guadalajara.

Despite having only 10 rooms, this fine inn frequently comes out on top in guidebooks and magazine articles as “the best hotel in Guadalajara” and you won’t get any argument from me on that point. In a city dominated by boxy chain hotels with little charm and historic buildings that have only half-heartedly been restored, Villa Ganz is a standout for its close attention to detail on the aesthetics and its excellent personal service.

It all depends on how you define luxury, of course, but to me—and I hope many of our readers—it goes well beyond chain hotel loyalty point upgrades and who has the biggest presidential suite. When you’re treated like a VIP no matter which room you are in and no matter how many nights you’ve racked up on someone’s computer readout, that’s a mark of a hotel that really gets it.

Villa Ganz gets it, and you’ll feel that as soon as you walk in the door. Book here with confidence when you’ll be in Guadalajara, next week or three more years from now.

One thing magazine editors love to do is highlight some concept that’s been around for years and act like it’s a new trend they just discovered. Thus this May article in National Geographic Traveler about wine lodges in Mendoza, Argentina: Bodegas Open Their Doors.

After years of studying Spanish, I have found this word “bodega” to mean a lot of different things. When I lived in New York City, it meant a little corner food store run by Cubans or Puerto Ricans. In Colombia it’s a pantry. In other countries it’s a bar. The original meaning has something to do with storing barrels in a cellar though, so in Argentina this has led to the word being applied to most any winery. (Not a “guesthouse” as that article says.)

So this article is about places around Mendoza’s wine region where you can stay at the winery itself, or at least among the vines growing outside. Readers of Luxury Latin America know this is nothing new as we’ve featured detailed reviews of the two best wine lodges for years: Cavas Wine Lodge and Club Tapiz (the latter pictured here). Both can give you the opportunity to be smack up against the grape vines and you can set up tasting tours, pruning workshops, winery tours, or grape picking depending on the time of year.

We also have details on another one with only two rooms in this Boutique Hotels of Argentina story.

Whichever place you choose, you will have great views of the Andes range, you’ll eat well, and you’ll drink well. In the ones we highlight, you’ll get plenty of pampering as well and at Cavas Wine Lodge you can get all kinds of vinotherapy treatments—if soaking in wine and getting scrubbed with grape seeds is your kind of thing…

Which luxury hotels in Latin America are readers clicking on the most? There’s nothing slightly scientific about this since popularity can be driven by many things: a write-up in a magazine, a hotel being on TV, or a link from another popular website.

Still, it’s interesting to take a look at which hotels are getting the most interest at different times. Here are the top 11 ones popping up the most over the past month. (Because I hate top-10 lists.)

Flor Blanca in Costa Rica

Bristol Buenaventura in Panama

Popa Paradise in Panama

Infinity Bay in Honduras (pictured above)

Hotel Koralia in Colombia

Cavas Wine Lodge in Argentina

Four Seasons Punta Mita in Mexico

Turtle Inn in Belize

La Lancha in Guatemala

Garzon in Uruguay

Mansion Alcazar in Ecuador

Quite a diverse list of hotels, resorts, and destinations!