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:

Where are the world’s most expensive hotel suites? On this luxury travel blog I’m usually discussing the scene in Latin America, but since that whole region is a great value, the prices there don’t make the cut.

The Wall Street Journal recently did a big feature story on the Ty Warner Penthouse at the Four Seasons New York City. If you want to book this lavish suite with panoramic Manhattan views, you’d better be loaded. It’ll cost you $35,000 a night. Don’t even think about asking for a discount and forget any party plans: because of all the expensive furnishings, no more than 10 people are allowed in at one time. Read the whole article to see all the expensive features that go into this price. But for a start, there’s a $120,000 chandelier, Thai silk with gold threads on the canopy bed, and an energy-hogging 850 light bulbs.

This is the most expensive suite in the Americas outside Las Vegas. Some there go for an even higher rate, but are frequently given away free to high-rolling whales with an account of half a million or more. Here are some of the other expensive suites from around the world listed in the article:

Hugh Hefner Sky Villa/Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas – Price per night: $40,000

Bridge Suite/Atlantis, Paradise Island in the Bahamas – Price per night: $25,000

Royal Auite/Burj Al Arab in Dubai – Price per night: $19,000

The Ritz-Carlton Suite/Ritz-Carlton, Moscow – Price per night: $13,900

How does Latin America compare? Well the only suite I can find in our reviews that tops $10,000 per  night is really a house: the four-bedroom Villa Cortez at the One&Only Palmilla in Los Cabos, Mexico. It has a top rack rate of $12,000, but that includes a private staff of 12 (with two chefs), the huge private infinity pool pictured below, a big cinema room, a full office, and a prime spot on the beach.

The best suite at the Four Seasons Costa Rica goes for close to $10,000 in high season, but is also a villa with multiple bedrooms.

The top suite is under 5 grand at Capella Pedregal in Los Cabos, Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya, Ritz-Carlton Santiago, and the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge.

For more information on luxury travel and hotels outside of Latin America, see JustLuxe.com

Banyan Tree Mayakoba

When luxury hotels do battle trying to one-up each other, the guests reap the benefits. Some amenities come and go—remember when suites had to have a fax machine? Others become so popular that they get folded into the requirements for AAA 5-diamond awards, like having three phones in the room or a shower stall separate from the bathtub.

According to this story in the Wall Street Journal, the real competition is taking place in the bathrooms. One new development has already popped up in the new St. Regis in Mexico City: a TV embedded in the bathroom mirror. It sounds kind of silly now, but maybe later we’ll be going, “Remember when you couldn’t watch the news while you shaved?”

The article says the Four Seasons group is making these embedded TVs and digital clocks standard in all new renovations and new hotels. You can expect a hotel owned by Kohler to set the tone on this, so they’re not holding back.

The American Club, a resort hotel in Kohler, Wis., owned and operated by kitchen and bathroom furnishings maker Kohler Co., is scheduled to complete the first phase of room renovations May 1. The renovations include revamped showers with multiple showerheads, including an overhead “rain” shower, two body sprays attached to the wall and a hand spray. Some higher-priced rooms include a “flipside handshower” that changes the spray pattern with a flip of the shower head, and one room features a large soaking tub for two people with a tiny-bubble massaging feature and chromatherapy.

You can see my favorite bathroom in this video tour of Casitas del Colca in Peru. Heated floors, big tub, indoor shower and outdoor shower. It barely edges out my second favorite one: the Banyan Tree Mayakoba, pictured at the top.

What gets you jazzed up in new hotel bathroom developments? What aspect is the most important to have?