Is there a definitive answer on which hotels and resorts are viewed as the best in Mexico, Central America, and South America?

Sort of. I’ve said before that there’s a lot of hanky-panky that goes on with “best of” readers polls in magazines. Ballot stuffing is a part of the job when you’ve got a vested interest in who wins and people who are on the clock are much more likely to go through those hour-long surveys. Plus some readers are voting for places they’ve never set foot in, on reputation alone.

But if the two biggest travel magazines get the same results on some hotels, AND they’re featured here in Luxury Latin America, well that starts to look like a real trend. Three hits and you’re solid. Here are the hotels that came out on top in this year’s Conde Nast Travel Best in the World survey, Travel & Leisure’s 500 Best survey, and our picks here (follow the links to detailed reviews).

Mexico Top Resorts and Hotels

La Casa que Canta – Zihuatanejo

Four Seasons Mexico – Mexico City

One & Only Palmilla – San Jose del Cabo

Las Ventanas al Paraiso – San Jose del Cabo

Capella Pedregal – Cabo San Lucas

Esperanza – Cabo San Lucas

Ritz-Carlton Cancun

Banyan Tree Mayakoba – Riviera Maya

Fairmont Mayakoba – Riviera Maya

Grand Velas Riviera Maya

Four Seasons Punta Mita – Riviera Nayarit

St. Regis Punta Mita – Riviera Nayarit

Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit

Central America Top Resorts and Hotels

Lodge at Chaa Creek – Belize

Hotel Casa Santo Domingo – Antigua, Guatemala

Four Seasons Resort Costa Rica – Papagayo Peninsula

Top Hotels and Resorts South America

Llao Llao Hotel & Resort – Bariloche, Argentina

Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt – Buenos Aires, Argentina

Alvear Palace Hotel – Buenos Aires, Argentina

Four Seasons Buenos Aires

Park Hyatt Mendoza – Argentina

Ritz-Carlton Santiago – Chile

Hotel Monasterio – Cusco, Peru

JW Marriott Hotel Lima – Peru

Inkaterra Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel – Peru

Obviously it pays to have a well-known brand name and the hotels that have been around for a decade or more have a clear edge. The big surprise for me is how few matches you see for Chile (where the most impressive resorts have been opening) and for Central America overall. Conde Nast had loads from Costa Rica, but T&L hardly any. Expect that to change in the coming years as more readers get out and about in this region.

You don’t see a whole lot of Bentley cars cruising the streets of Mexico, Peru, Argentina, or Chile. If you stay at a St. Regis or Starwood Luxury Collection hotel in one of those countries though, you could be seeing one—from the inside.

St. Regis and Luxury Collection hotels around the world have been transitioning their fleet of in-house vehicles for guests to luxurious Bentley models, such as The Continental Flying Spur. So for your arranged airport pickup or sightseeing drive, you’ll be surrounded by elegance and the smell of fine leather.

If you dig around and find the right package, or get your travel specialist to, you might get this included in the rate for booking a suite or enough days. If not, how much does it cost? Well you know what they say: if you have to ask…

The photo at the top is from the St. Regis Mexico City. Their other hotel there is in Punta Mita, near Puerto Vallarta.

Luxury Collection hotels are located in Lima, the Sacred Valley, and Paracas in Peru; Santiago and Villarica in Chile, and Buenos Aires in Argentina. They also have five gorgeous hacienda hotels in Mexico, all located around Merida and Campeche in the Yucatan.

Book direct with St. Regis or direct with Starwood Luxury Collection.

Despite formidable new competition in Mexico City, Four Seasons remains the prestige address.

Sure, Las Alcobas is an impressive small hotel with great rooms and the ginormous St. Regis Mexico City that opened a few blocks away at the end of 2009 is at the other end of the scale with its 31-story building. Both are places we would highly recommend, so why does the Four Seasons keep attracting the billionaires. CEOs, and power brokers who can afford to stay anywhere?

Well, there’s an air of exclusivity here and a level of service that’s hard to top. The staff is used to serving rock stars, presidents, and CEOs, so the bilingual staffers know how to serve them well. Inside the fortress-like building, guests can feel ensconced in a special hideaway that’s removed from the madness outside. It’s why the restaurant is still the place to go to broker power deals or political compromises. It’s why “I’m staying at the Four Seasons” is still the choice phrase to utter if you’re trying to show potential business partners your company is a success.

I’ll be updating our review of Four Seasons Mexico City shortly and adding a couple more photos, but really there’s not a whole lot that has changed in the past few years. Very little needs to change: this is a timeless classic.

We feature three kinds of travel reviews on Luxury Latin America: the best luxury hotels, interesting luxury travel tours, and Latin American real estate that appeals to foreigners buying a vacation home or retirement home in Mexico, Central America, or South America. In the latter category is a piece we put up a couple weeks ago: Real Estate in Punta Mita.

Punta Mita goes by two slightly different names, so it’s a little confusing. Punta de Mita (which sort of translates to “arrowhead”) is the peninsula region in general, located between Puerto Vallarta and Sayulita in the Riviera Nayarit region. Punta Mita without the “de” is the private development within that region. It’s anchored by the Four Seasons, a St. Regis resort, and two golf courses designed by Jack Nicklaus. Plus there are plenty of different real estate developments for those who like it so much they don’t want to leave.

That feeling is understandable as this is one of the prettiest and most dramatic coastal locations in Mexico, plus the golf experience here wins plenty of “best of” accolades on a regular basis. Don’t come to this area looking for a bargain though—one software mogul has built a house here that supposedly cost $36 million, give or take a few mil—so you’ll be in the company of people who can afford to buy exactly what they want. Except for a few condos and townhouses, prices are listed in seven digits.

This is perhaps the most prestigious resort living address in Mexico. See the full story here:

Luxury Real Estate in Punta Mita, Mexico

Ask a group of luxury leisure travelers or entrepreneurs what there biggest pet peeve is with luxury hotels and a majority will spit out one thing without having to think about it: getting charged for wireless Internet access. Yet like airlines that know they’re pissing off their customers with fuel surcharges and baggage fees, the big luxury chains keep at it anyway because they’re addicted to the additional revenue. Corporate travelers pay it without blinking because it’s not their money—the company is covering it. So in hotels with lots of business travelers, the hotel chains figure the aggravation to some is less painful than giving up the revenue from others.

HotelChatter just put out its annual hotel Wi-fi report and it’s still uglier than one would expect at the high end chains. Four Seasons, Mandarin Oriental, and Ritz-Carlton are still charging a fee universally. In some of the markets we cover, that would seem to put them at a clear disadvantage. While Four Seasons Mexico City and the Starwood chain St. Regis hit up every customer for Internet access, Las Alcobas , Habita, and Condesa df do not. The Ritz-Carlton Santiago makes you pay extra to check your e-mail. The Aubrey does not.

And if lovely Casitas del Colca in Peru can include Internet access in the rates, even though they rely on a satellite signal, surely those hooked into city cables can manage. It’s included in the rates at some of the best hotels in Latin America, like Banyan Tree Mayakoba in Mexico, Turtle Inn Belize, Faena Hotel + Universe in Argentina, and Cliffs Preserve in Chile. Even Royal Palm Hotel on the Galapagos Islands includes it in the rates.

As these examples show, the hotels in Latin America are way ahead of the pack in treating Internet access the way it should be treated—like hot water. It’s an essential part of our life now, for better or worse, so treating Wi-fi as some kind of special amenity is just ridiculous. Installing and maintaining a system is a cost of doing business, the same as supplying air conditioning or new flat-screen TVs. If Red Roof Inn and La Quinta can manage to make it work cost-wise, surely the Four Seasons can.

It’s time for them to free the signal and stop acting like it’s 1999. If you agree, look beyond the international chains and try an independent or domestic chain hotel. As the examples above show, they’re more likely to be run by service-oriented managers rather than hamstrung drones answering to bean counters a continent away.