The Four Seasons Tamarindo Resort on the Pacific Coast of Mexico was a decade in the making, but it was worth the wait. It took that long between the initial talks and the first guest check-in to complete the road to the bay, build the structures by the ocean, build the cliffside suites, finish all the interiors, hire a staff ready to interface with luxury visitors, and a million other things that had to fall into place in this remote location in Costalegre.
Fortunately, the golf course was already in place, the remnant of a resort complex one bay over that’s now a second beach with watersports and eventually will have residences.
The end result is nothing short of spectacular, so the first impression from arrival to the lobby to arrival at your Four Seasons suite will be jaw-dropping. It’s often the little things, the special moments that really take a vacation from “nice” to “amazing” though, so we wanted to highlight some facets we couldn’t get to in our full Tamarindo Resort review we posted recently. Plus we wanted to take you on a video tour of the property.
Check out the video below and scroll through the surprises and experiences that make the Four Seasons Tamarindo such a delight.
Pacific Ocean Views From Every Vantage Point
As you’ll see from our video tour below, nearly the whole time your eyes are open at this oceanfront resort you’ll be looking at something interesting. There are very few suites that don’t have an ocean view and you’re looking out at the water from two of the three restaurants, the bar, the lounge, the lobby, and all the swimming pools. Come take a look:
While the beachfront suites are quite nice and give you easy access to the sand, the cliffside units have a more dramatic and panoramic view, looking out at cliffs and rock formations that the waves are crashing against. At certain times of the year, you might see whales swimming by.
Abundant Nature Surrounding the Resort
It takes quite a while to get from the main highway to the Four Seasons Tamarindo and that’s because you’re riding through thousands of acres of jungle. Then beyond just the vast property that this resort owner has, the jungle continues on in both directions along the coast. There is so much wild room to roam here that five of the six wild cats found in Mexico have been spotted in Costalegre, including jaguars.
I didn’t have time to keep deep into the wildest parts, but I did head out of the lobby area with local naturalist Paco to take a long walk in the woods. This is one of the regular activities offered to guests and the naturalists try to cater the nature hike to the abilities and desires of the guests. If there are birdwatchers, the walk starts earlier. If there are hard-core hikers, there are longer options with some elevation.
My guide pointed out a variety of native plants in the area and emphasized that the owners have made a point of not planting trees that are not endemic to the area, such as pine, coconut palms, or eucalyptus. They also leave the dead trees in place to provide homes for the animals. “That dead tree only had two holes a few months ago,” he told me as we looked at a big barkless trunk with four holes in it. “There are owls or other birds living in there, like an apartment building.”
We spotted some tracks in the mud. Paco explained that the animals often use the paths and service roads to move more quickly than they can through the vegetation, so it’s common to see tracks from wild cats or coatis. In the trees we could see trogons and parrots, plus it was easy to hear the noisy chicken-like chachalacas.
The Chocolate Tree Welcome Gift
Speaking of dead trees, if you book the right suite at Four Seasons Tamarindo, you might find a very unusual item there when you arrive. It looks like the trunk of a dead bonsai tree, one that has been twisted by the constant winds of the coast. On closer inspection though, it’s not bark, wood, and moss you’re looking at, but rather edible chocolate and spun sugar.
The tree may not look like dessert, but it’s delicious!
Fermented Beverages Workshop at the Bar
Four Seasons Resort Tamarindo is a long way from anything else, so they aim to make sure guests don’t get bored by offering all kinds of classes and activities. Besides the nature hikes above and the cooking class below, you can also find included classes for yoga, pilates, stand-up paddleboarding, coffee extraction, and more. Only a few activities require an extra charge, like a bike tour, photo workshop, or boat tour.
I was intrigued by the Fermented Beverages Workshop on the schedule during my stay and bellied up to the bar to check it out. I thought we might be talking about beer and pulque, but instead I learned a lot about native non-alcoholic fermented beverages that you find in different parts of Mexico.
I don’t know how I’ve never heard of pre-hispanic tepache because in the weeks since, I’ve heard people mention the beverage three times. It’s a delicious pineapple drink made from the peelings that usually get tossed. They’re placed in a jar with brown sugar water and after five days or so, you get a carbonated drink that won’t get you drunk. (It’s a great base for cocktails though and I enjoyed a mezcal one at the end.) You can mix in other fruit too, as long as it’s not acidic. I’m ready to make some now.
They don’t do much with kombucha here in this tropical climate but I also tasted tejuino, a fermented drink made from leftover corn batter masa that you make tortillas or tamales from, plus brown sugar (the hard Mexican kind is called piloncillo), salt, and lime juice. It’s especially popular in nearby Colima, where people are selling it on the street throughout the day. Some recipes add anise and cinnamon.
An Aguachile Cooking Class
In the video above there are some short clips from the cooking class where we made Aguachile Negro with Chef Angel. Its not really black, but it gets that name from the tiny peppers in it that turn black when roasted. Our chef emphasized that there are multiple recipes for aguachile, just like there are for similar ceviche, depending on personal taste for what you want to add to the seafood, lime, onions, and some kind of chilies. Those ingredients are the base, plus the seafood and lime juice need to mix first for the “cooking” part so you’re not eating raw seafood.
One of my favorite restaurants in Puerto Vallarta serves probably a dozen different varieties of Aguachile and we mixed it up ourselves, doing three different versions by adding different ingredients in the end. We got a printed recipe to take with us and got a behind-the-scenes tour of the spacious Four Seasons Tamarindo Resort kitchen, with different sections for different types of dishes and desserts.
The Return of El Tamarindo Golf Course
Back in the ’00s, El Tamarindo was a legendary quest kind of place, one you visited if you were looking for bragging rights with your golfing buddies back home. Unlike the Los Cabos golf courses or the ones around Puerto Vallarta, this one takes some real effort to get to. The grounds are an hour north of Manzanillo, which means changing planes in Mexico City for most visitors, or close to four hours if you’re coming down from the international airport at Puerto Vallarta.
Now that the Tamarindo golf course is back open to the public and there’s a hotel to stay in between rounds, this new resort should be on the list for any serious golfer. It’s not some forgiving “resort course” either. It’s easy to lose your ball in the jungle, to hit a tree that’s been there for 100 years, or to get swallowed up in the many sand traps placed by course designer David Fleming.
About half the holes have some kind of ocean view and as you can see from that shot above, some of them are really breathtaking. Otherwise you’ll be surrounded by nature and the only sounds will be chirping birds. Some of the cart paths go through wild forests before coming out on a tee with a long fairway in front of you.
Sustainability at Four Seasons Tamarindo
Back when we first launched Luxury Latin America in the late ’00s, it was hard to find a luxury hotel that gave more than lip service to sustainability and the environment. The argument was that luxury travelers would complain if they weren’t offered bottled water, throwaway tiny toiletries, and air conditioning in every public space.
Soon after that though, Four Seasons Costa Rica showed that most of those arguments were b.s. by pushing guests to fill up reusable water bottles and accept toiletry dispensers that didn’t have to go into the garbage at each checkout. Thankfully most other high-end resorts are coming around, realizing that wealthy guests aren’t necessarily selfish guests. They care about climate change and ocean pollution as much as anyone, maybe more.
The owners and managers here have embraced that ethos throughout the property. I was kind of surprised that there weren’t any solar panels in this remote location, but in most other ways this Four Seasons has embraced sustainability. Those poolside cups above look like what you’d get from Starbucks, but they’re actually reusable and get washed. Out of the frame is a big refillable dispenser of quality sunscreen that’s free for guests to use.
There’s a jug of purified drinking water in the room and if you need a water bottle to go, for the golf course or a hike perhaps, the resort uses a brand that’s in paper cartons, not plastic. There’s not much single-use plastic to be found anywhere on site, in fact, and the golf carts making the rounds for transportation and deliveries are rechargeable electric ones. The golf course and garden areas are watered with processed gray water and many of the public areas are cooled by ocean breezes.
The culinary director is also overseeing an organic farm down the road on the property, currently 35 acres, and growing everything from microgreens to mushrooms to agave (eventually they’ll have their own tequila to bottle). There are currently 90 ducks, 1,000 chickens, lots of pigs, and sheep, plus 17 kinds of fruit trees. The goal is to produce a high percentage of their own food so it doesn’t have to be trucked over from the other side of Jalisco. See more about the ranch here.
There were plenty of other things we loved, like swinging in a hammock on our balcony, enjoying delicious dishes from a menu designed by celebrity chef Elena Reygadas, and hearing stories from the interesting bilingual staffers, but this post is already long enough…
See our full review of Four Seasons Resort Tamarindo on the magazine side.
