Punta (de) Mita

Getting a warm sunny vacation in as our local weather turns dreary has become a thing. It benefits the mind, body, and soul. Punta de Mita and Punta Mita were the destinations this year, a return to Punta de Mita after four years. Landing in warm Puerto Vallarta after our direct flight raised the spirits quickly even though we were a bit delayed. We rented a car through Gecko car rentals, a great outfit, and after our airport pick up and smooth check in we were on the road to Punta de Mita. We split our stay at two places with our first at the W Punta de Mita. We stayed there on our last trip and really loved the resort and the beach. The resort is a mix of beach with a tropical forest feel on the property inland. This stay we decided to splurge and opted for the all-inclusive package. We had never tried all-inclusive before. I’m pretty sure we ended up eating and drinking more as a result. The food at the restaurants was amazing; they had a few themed evenings and brought in a local chef on a couple nights with his own tasting menu. Cool thing it was included in our package so we got to sample some amazing food that isn’t normally on the menu. We even got to meet the chef. 

We stayed in a gorgeous, large ocean view suite with a large deck with a plunge pool. Off the shower, outside was a private hot tub and we spent time enjoying both. The resort has been undergoing a renovation. The reconfigured the adult pool to include loungers and a lot of other seating; that didn’t exist last time. They also redid the lobby. They are adding another restaurant which wasn’t done yet and added some new suites and we got the opportunity to tour through one. The newly built suites are amazing and have a completely different vibe to them as the existing suites. The new ones are more earthy toned with natural wood features while the existing fit more of the general W vibe, eclectic and bright. I think their plan is to update the existing suites as well so we may need to go back to check it out or stay in one of the new suites instead. The resort wasn’t overly busy considering a large wedding party was staying there. We were always able to find loungers by the pool. We mostly stayed at the resort for this part because everything was included, but we did head up to San Pancho one afternoon to meet up with a former coworker and his girlfriend who happened to be there at the same time. We did a walking tour of the quaint town, which had a bit of a hippy feel to it, and caught up over drinks at one of the local restaurants. 

Our second location was just a bit further north in the gated community of Punta Mita. Here we stayed at the beautiful St. Regis, also recently renovated. We stayed in a large, well appointed villa with ocean view. Our room had a large shower with soaker tub as well as an outdoor shower which we ended up using mostly instead because we don’t often get that luxury. Our room was well located to the pool, beach, and restaurants. Again it didn’t feel overly busy when we arrived mid week, but we noticed it start getting a bit busier towards the weekend likely because American Thanksgiving was the following week. Even still it wasn’t bad and we always found a spot by the pool or beach. The water here was a bit calmer as the beach was situated in a volcanic rock cove. The beach was still very nice sand but as you got towards the water it became rockier so water shoes were helpful. It was great for swimming. While the resort is right on the ocean, the beach area accessibility is limited due to the volcanic rock. There is a great surfing spot and we saw several surfers catching some good waves each day, making it look so easy that it inspired Z to give it a try. Turns out it’s not that easy especially when you don’t surf often. 

We tried a couple of the restaurants on site and discovered that if you didn’t quite like the menu at one restaurant you could order off another restaurant’s end and still have it delivered where you were eating. That worked well for me when we had dinner at the beach seafood restaurant one evening. Every night at the St. Regis hotels they serve champagne at 6pm and they have a sabrage ceremony and often they will have guests volunteer to sabre the bottle. I convinced Z to give it a try. He wanted to do it but was being a bit shy but he came around and had a great experience. He did it perfectly and as a souvenir he was given the cork. We also partook in a cooking class with one of the sous chefs from the buffet restaurant. We participated with a family from Quebec and made fajitas.  We made the salads and guacamole from scratch and got to form and fry the fajitas too. That part is a bit tricky; I’ll stick to premade ones back home. 

Having a car made it a lot easier to also meet up with Z’s extended family; a cousin who lives there and his parents who spend their winters in Puerto Vallarta. We met up at a lovely Italian restaurant in Bucerias, a half hour drive south. After a delicious meal and a great time catching up, we wandered through the town a bit as never of us had been there before. Since our resort wasn’t too far from Punta Mita town, one night we ventured out for dinner at a quaint restaurant called Tacos & Papas. Located at the end of side road really off the beaten track we questioned ourselves briefly walking along the dirt road trying to find it but when you turn into the property it has a great outdoor seating area and cool vibe. Turns out the owner has a close to local connection with his daughter living on the island. The tacos were so amazing we were kicking ourselves we hadn’t tried them earlier in our stay. Next time. We had wanted to try out a place for ice cream but we were unable to find it and instead stumbled upon a churros stand making them fresh. We couldn’t resist and it was a nice treat to cap the evening off. We also decided to check out a different beach from our resort and drove ourselves to Playa Careyeros, a beautiful white sand beach that stretched for miles with turquoise warm water. This beach is quite secluded found off a dirt road filled with pot holes making getting there a bit tricky. The swimming is supposed to be incredible here, only thing though was there were jelly fish washed up on the shore which means there were more of them in the tempting turquoise water, so swimming was out. We still hung out at the beach for a while at a restaurant called El Barracuda enjoying a couple drinks in their beach loungers. 

There are many walking trails within the gated community in which the St. Regis is located, along with many other hotels and places to stay. The Four Seasons is nearby and one morning we decided to go for a walk to find the “tale of a whale”, a golf hole situated on an island that is only accessible during low tide. To get there we had to walk on the course and got stopped by a worker who said we shouldn’t be  walking on the golf cart path. We told him we why we were there and kept on walking despite him preferring us not being there. When we got to the tale of a whale another security guard started grilling us and telling us we were not allowed to be there. I was very uncomfortable at this point but Z really wanted to get a picture so he sort of ignored the security guard. There was a group of golfers who caught on quickly to the situation and told the security guard that we were guests of theirs to try and lighten the situation a bit. Not entirely sure the security guard understood but we hustled out of there soon as the golfers tee’d off and as in my typical fashion I was annoyed the whole way back on the walk because I thought something bad was going to happen to us for effectively trespassing. In the end, nothing did happen, but still… We had an incredible time just relaxing and soaking up warm sunshine, meeting up with friends and family, and enjoying the delicious food. Until next time!

To travel is to live… life is good.