As we watch the Americas—including the Caribbean—dominate all the track & field sprints in the Olympics, let’s take a break to check out some luxury travel news for the region.

In Brazil’s biggest city, a much-needed subway expansion is finally in motion. They’ve got a long way to go to really ease congestion though. Their metro has 71 kms of track for 19 million people compared to 200 kms for Mexico City. Even Santiago’s is 40% bigger. A planned Line 4 extension will add five more stations though to the recently opened stops. Alas, not in time for the 2014 World Cup though. See the full article from the Economist here: Not yet fit for a metropolis.

Mexico tourism is on track to set a record this year for both the number of visitors and overall revenues, based on how the first six months went.

Luxury retail spending was down 26% in the second quarter of this year, after a smaller decline in the first quarter. Affluent households have previously been the bright spot during this recession, but while they still seem to be traveling, they’re not plunking down as much on handbags and watches.

Magazine publishers are crying the blues as well. As more readers and advertisers gravitate to digital, paper is suffering. “Vogue, Vanity Fair, Lucky and Allure all experienced double-digit declines for Condé Nast” says this article and most others were lucky to have “only” a single-digit decline for the first half of the year.

Argentina’s import restrictions are hitting the Buenos Aires luxury market hard. All the red tape and bureaucracy have led to permanent or months-long closures of stores from Calvin Klein, Ralph Lauren, Cartier, and Ermenegildo Zegna. We can only imagine the effect this is having on hotels as well if they’re trying to import French toiletries or the latest electronics.

We don’t cover troubled Venezuela on Luxury Latin America, but congrats to fencer Rubin Limardo who won the country its first gold Olympics medal in 44 years.

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.

Like most markets that were closely tied to the U.S. housing market, the central Pacific Coast in Costa Rica went through quite a downturn the past few years. Investors who previously could depend on rapid appreciation saw their home values level off or fall. In some cases they fell quite a bit.

Situations like this always create opportunities for new buyers. They key is getting the timing right. Buy too soon and you’ll lose out too. Wait too long and you can overpay by a hundred grand or more.

Some Latin American markets seem to be stabilizing and even rising as the economy slowly picks up and more retirees head south.

Could this be the time to buy on Jaco Beach or get a hillside villa with a panoramic view in the Manuel Antonio region? Or further afield in Quepos?

See what the luxury real estate agencies in the region have to say in our latest luxury real estate round-up: Costa Rica: West Coast Property Boom Redux.

Punta del Este has long been the see and be seen hotspot in South America. In no other beach area do so many of the rich and famous from multiple countries gather to take a break from their roles as captains of industry,  fashion, and entertainment. We just posted a detailed round-up of real estate in Punta del Este, Uruguay.

For a long time those numbers were limited, but as much of the world has gotten richer—especially in the bottom half of South America—the number of people wanting to stake out their spot in this location has taken off. That has made a hot real estate market even hotter. Numbers are bandied about like “$5 million in sales per day” (I’ve seen higher reports in some magazines) and “sales up 110% since 2010.”

We’ve seen this kind of fast appreciation before in Latin America and often it hasn’t ended well. In some places prices have gone through a correction (Panama City, Roatan, Ambergris), in others they’ve fallen off a cliff (many coastal Pacific retirement communities). The difference in Punta del Este is that much of the new buyer money is not coming from the U.S., Canada, or even Europe. It’s coming from increasingly wealthier Brazilians, Chileans, and Argentines who look at real estate as their only good inflation hedge.

So while this market has some typical signs of a bubble, it doesn’t look like it could pop anytime soon. Many of the prime beach properties in Jose Ignacio are owned by old money families with no intention to sell. Even if you’ve got a few million dollars to spend, your options depend on knowing someone in the know who can access the unlisted listings. A large number of the buyers are from developing countries on the rise. Uruguay’s residency, tax, and banking laws are some of the most attractive in the world. In an area where every house and villa is occupied in high season, the rental market is excellent.

And what’s the alternative? Brazil may have better beaches, but there’s nowhere else on the continent where so many power brokers and tastemakers (and their families of course) mix it up on vacation.

See our full story on luxury real estate in Punta del Este.

For many of our readers, the words “luxury” and “good value” are not mutually exclusive. When you get a special experience in a fantastic place, the upgrade is often worth it.

Some people obviously have more money than they know what to do with though, so they have to buy the most expensive option available, whether it makes any sense or not. (How many “space tourists” are doing it for bragging rights?)

Outside magazine recently mentioned in an Antarctica section that the PolarExplorers company can enhance your Antarctica experience for a mere $40,500 per person. It will fly six in your group to the South Pole for a champagne toast. For another $12,000 you can ski your way there the last 12 miles. We assume for that price you’re getting real champagne at the end and not Argentine bubbly.

Looking for the priciest hotel suite where you can spend the night? You’ll have to head to Europe for that, where CNN says the Royal Penthouse Suite in Geneva’s Hotel President Wilson is $65,000 per night. By the time you’ve spent a week there you’ve gone through enough to buy a whole house—even in Switzerland.

Something tells me that last record won’t stand once word gets around the Persian Gulf. Someone is probably drawing up remodeling plans as we speak so they can charge 100 grand a night.

If you could spend $40,500—or $65,000—in Latin America during your travels, what would you do with it?