For your lunch time salivating pleasure, here’s a three-course lunch presented from the poolside restaurant with a view at Four Seasons Punta Mita in Mexico. This is the Ketsi restaurant, overseen by Richard Sandoval. (I probably don’t have to tell you that it was all delicious.)

First course: smoked swordfish tostadas

Grilled red Snapper with chili morita Sauce, mango salsa, sweet corn tamal

Dessert: a heavenly Mexican chocolate tart

See more about the beachfront seafood grill (Bahia) and Aramara Asian restaurants at the Four Seasons Punta Mita dining page.

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:

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.

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!

Mexico’s Fonotur government agency is legendary in the tourism industry. When it decides to turn an isolated stretch of beach into a row of tourism factories, look out! Their record includes Cancun, the Riviera Maya, Ixtapa, and Nuevo Vallarta—for a start. On deck right now is Playa Mujeres, the area north of Cancun and confusingly named considering there’s an island—Isla Mujeres—a triathalon swim away.

Which brings us to La Amada, the first luxury hotel to open in this area that will probably soon be filled with cookie-cutter condos and all-inclusive beach hotels. Get there now while the getting is good and you’ll have the beach all to yourself. La Amada didn’t take their pioneer position as an excuse to slack off, however.

La Amada isn’t groundbreaking in its style, but it feels modern without being forced. It smartly incorporates most of the hallmarks of luxury resorts established in the last decade or so. This covers smaller details, such as multiple shower heads and quality street-brand amenities (L’Occitane de Provence, in this case), as well as structural ones: there are separate blocks of two-story family suites with plunge pools, and of course there’s a grand spa. (And fortunately, it skips some of the sillier fads, such as aggressive aromatherapy in public spaces.)

For now though, or correspondent says, it’s the stretch of sand that almost feels decadent after the erosion problems and crowds that a visit to Cancun entails. The isolation could get old after a while, especially considering the lack of other dining options nearby, but for a real getaway near a major international airport, this is hard to beat—especially considering the reasonable rates.

See our full review of La Amada in Playa Mujeres.