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…

When we first sent someone to review the best hotels in Brazil, the Mofarrej business hotel in São Paulo didn’t come close to making the cut. Now completely revamped as the Tivoli Mofarrej São Paulo, it has a different face and attitude to show off.

“Although in theory, the São Paulo Mofarrej has been around for some time—it spent more than 25 years under the aegis of both Sheraton and Gran Melia–the hotel had the recent good fortune to land in the hands of Portugal’s Tivoli chain. After spending seven months closed for (much anticipated) renovations, the new and very much improved Tivoli São Paulo Mofarrej reopened in February 2009 to great acclaim. Within months it joined the exclusive Leading Hotels of the World club and was named by the Quatros Rodas guide (Brazil’s equivalent of the Michelin) as one of the top hotels in the country.”

We don’t automatically add hotels that have paid to be part of the Leading Hotels of the World marketing group, but it’s a good sign, as is the addition of a spa run by Banyan Tree. Since our contributor Michael Sommers lives in Brazil and is a guidebook writer, his endorsement tipped the scales and we’re happy to add this rejuvenated hotel in a great location to our reviews of the best hotels in Brazil’s capital. See our full review of  Tivoli São Paulo Mofarrej.

I took a break from posting updates from my May trip to Los Cabos, Mexico in May, but here are some highlights and photos from another spectacular resort there: Esperanza. This is an Auberge resort, so combine a French name for inn with a Spanish name for hope and you don’t have to hope to get a good room at the inn.

There are a lot of terrific spas to sample in Los Cabos if that’s your thing, and this one ranks at the top in lots of polls, even as the best spa in Latin America from Travel & Leisure. It incorporates the natural elements of the area—water, light, and the sea—in a restful environment and uses an array of local products for the treatments themselves. (Think desert clay, mango, papaya, sea salt, and grated coconut.) There’s a grotto, a steam cave, cascading waterfalls, and a shady open-air lounge.

All I know is that the masseuse that gave me a rubdown got out all the kinks I had built up from being hunched over a computer keyboard way too much.

Esperanza resort itself is a 57-suite hotel, but with a 60-villa owners section as well, which explains why it looks bigger than you would think. This is the place to go for dramatic views instead of a sprawling beach in front of your room: it’s perched on a cliff overlooking waves crashing against the rocks of “Whale Point.” You are right over this point while dining in the main restaurant. Here’s the catch of the day. Hungry?

Everything looks fresh and new at Esperanza since the spa and suites got a major upgrade at the end of 2007. If you want to really spash out, there’s a 2000-square-foot penthouse with close-to-perfect views. Naturally, it comes with its own elevator, private butler service, and a hidden hot tub and lounge chair on the deck. (Hint: you might want to send the butler away if you’re going to use those au natural.) It goes for $6 grand a night, but with occupancy falling off the nearby cliffs lately, I’m sure you can get them to at least throw in a few spa treatments in the his-and-hers massage area…

I’m going to be running a series of posts on resorts around Los Cabos this week, next up with the impressive Cabo Azul Resort & Spa. First up, here’s a video tour of the pool complex, bar, and restaurant on a typical sunny day. Scroll down afterward to see a few photos.

Cabo Azul is a popular hotel for upscale destination weddings and once you see where these take place, no wonder. What they call a “wedding chapel” here is an amazing open-air church where the bride, groom, and guests have a view of the sea and palm trees during the ceremony. (If you’re Jewish, they’ll yank that cross out of the way and there’s a Star of David up above—an equal opportunity room.) On the roof is a reception area with a panorama of sea, sand, and pool.

I didn’t spend the night there, but our reviewer who covered it before did. I did have the breakfast below there though: does this make you salivate or what?

See our full review of Cabo Azul Resort and Spa.

One of our correspondents was just working on a guidebook for Costa Rica and has been keeping up with new hotels that have opened or stepped up since our first round of reviews. So we’ve been making additions to our luxury hotels in Costa Rica, including two new entries for the formerly blank Arenal Volcano area.

Making a big splash in the area is the opening of The Springs (pictured above), a striking villas-style hotel on a hillside, boasting its own hot springs, access to a river running through the region, and this:

“Secluded, exclusive, and architecturally stunning, The Springs is blessed with truly outstanding views of Arenal Volcano’s awesome and almost perfectly symmetrical lava-streaked cone, around which every superb vista in this fine hotel has been constructed.”

Follow this link for a full review of The Springs, which at press time was not completely finished. For now you can get in on opening rates.

Previously the hotel and hot springs complex known as Tabacón had the high end of the market near Arenal to itself, which from everything we heard and saw meant, “We don’t have to try very hard.” So we were hesitant to recommend the hotel, even if staying there did save you the exhorbitant admission to the hot springs (currently $45 at night or $70 for an all-day pass with lunch).

Fortunately, an ongoing renovation is more than just window dressing and the reported $2.5 million budget has been spent wisely. The lowest-priced rooms should still be avoided, but at least they now come with upgraded tech goodies.

“The most luxurious Superior Rooms do not offer Arenal views (four new suites, to be built in 2009, will combine these expanded amenities with panoramic volcano vistas), but are instead surrounded with primary rainforest, a wonder to behold from your private porch or enormous marble hot tub that dominates the impressive suites. Expansive and elegant, with handmade wooden furnishing, beautiful lighting and modern entertainment systems, these rooms render the resort truly world class.”

See the full review of Tabacón Grand Spa and Thermal Resort.