We’ve had our first batch of luxury hotels in Belize up for quite a while, but with one nagging omission. We were missing the exclusive private island hotel Cayo Espanto.

Well, thanks to Kirsten Hubbard, who runs the Central America travel section of About.com, we now have a nice comprehensive review of Cayo Espanto.

This is, by most accounts, the best and most exclusive hotel in Belize. It’s a magnet for celebrities who want to escape those nagging photographers and for wealthy tycoons who rent out the whole place and have their own island resort completely staffed. Although Cayo Espanto is removed from all else, you don’t have to go very far out of the way to get to it. It’s located between Ambergris Caye and the mainland of Belize. (But the beach is nicer than you’ll find on most parts of Ambergris.) We’ve got some photos on our site, but the one above is from the resort itself. A view from one bungalow’s dock.

We also added a review of Ka’ana Boutique Resort and Spa, which is in the interior instead of on the sea. For those who want their jungle experience in small doses—and would like to come back to a fancy room with lots of gadgets—this is an upscale alternative to Chaa Creek Lodge, which has far more land but is more rustic.

You don’t hear “luxury hotels” and “Nicaragua” together very often, but there are a scattering of above-average places to lay you head there and we’ve just posted reviews of them. Follow this link for the best hotels in Nicaragua.

Some of them are going to involve a bit of compromise; don’t expect the city hotels to be on par with what you would find in Mexico. The business chain hotels will meet expectations though, especially considering the price, and the hotels in Leon and Granada are in evocative colonial buildings that retain their character.

The real action at the top end of the scale is on the Pacific beaches around San Juan del Sur. There you will find two fine resorts that are on par with what is on offer in nearby Costa Rica, but at a considerably lower rate. These are Palermo Villas Hotel and Resort (pictured above) and the chic eco-lodge Morgan’s Rock.

Check out all the reviews for luxury hotels in Nicaragua.

The latest results of Travel & Leisure’s annual reader’s poll are out and incredibly, there are only three hotels on there not already reviewed in detail in Luxury Latin America. One is a mystery that must be a ballot-stuffing anomoly (Le Meridien Cancun), another is a business hotel that gets so-so ratings from our correspondents (Hyatt Santiago). The other is the Four Seasons in Mexico City, which we were slated to have a review of up six months ago until our correspondent there fell ill. She’s back in action and it’s coming soon–I mean it this time–along with a batch of other fine hotels in that city.

There have been some shifts in the rankings this year though and it looks like a lot more readers have had Mexico on their itinerary (12 of the 25 entries) and Belize got nudged out entirely this time. The Bristol Hotel in Panama snuck in at number 24 though, just ahead of the Fairmont Acapulco Princess.

The interesting move this year was the Tides Zihuatanejo (pictured here) popping into the top-5 soon after its makeover from the already nice Villa del Sol. Peru also made a nice showing this time. Inkaterra Machu Picchu Hotel, formerly known as Machu Picchu Pueblo Hotel, came out of nowhere into the top-10 and Miraflores Park Hotel popped in at 15. See our detailed reviews by following any of the links above, or see the full rundown here on the survey.

If you’ve traveled a lot in this region, give us your take on the results!

After lots of delays and a soft opening where travel writers practically had to don a disguise and sneak in to get a look, Mexico’s first Mandarin Oriental hotel is really truly open. Our correspondent was one of the first to get a good look at the place after all the construction was done and the whole place was open to guests, so go here to see her review of the Riviera Maya Mandarin Oriental.

So what’s the verdict? Like the other Mayakoba properties, this one sits on a section of land that is perpendicular to the water, so only five casitas are actually beachfront and the rest are in the mangroves. There is more land here though so the rooms feel very private and secluded. There’s an obvious Asian influence, both in the minimalist style of the furniture and bedding and the superior service that the Mandarin Oriental chain is known for.

If you’re the type that values a view of the sea from your room above all, this resort is probably not your best choice. If you want to enjoy pampering from an attentive staff and have ample privacy, you won’t be disappointed. Just get ready for some frequent golf cart rides.

See other reviews of the best hotels in Mexico.

I’ve gotten some e-mail comments now and then that we seem to favor small and intimate hotels over the big and brash ones when it comes to which ones we cover in the Luxury Latin America hotel reviews. In a sense, this is a fair observation, because to us the main thing that differentiates a true luxury hotel from one that just claims to be is not how long the amenity list is, but how the staff and management goes about anticipating and meeting the needs of well-heeled, experienced travelers. The smaller hotels tend to focus intensely on service, while the largest ones focus on making it easy for business travelers and conventioneers to get work done.

There are plenty of exceptions, of course, which brings me to a hotel that has nothing to do with Latin America, the Fairmont Banff Springs in Alberta, Canada. I spent a night there recently and came away wishing it could have been three or four nights instead. The place is a maze that takes a day to figure out, but once you get beyond that they really do get almost everything right. Sure, it’s huge and there was a convention going on while I was there, but the staff did an impeccable job throughout my stay, the facilities are really well maintained despite the age, and it’s hard to beat this view out the window, which a majority of the rooms have.

I stayed at two other Fairmonts as well recently and while the others can’t match the Banff Springs one for the wow factor, the chain has a solid operation that’s a clear notch above the far and wide business hotel chains like Marriott and Sheraton. Back in Latin America, the company does have a few resorts in Mexico that we have reviewed:

Fairmont Acapulco Princess review

Fairmont Pierre Marques review

Fairmont Mayakoba review