On the roughly 40 minute drive from Puerto Vallarta Airport to one of W Hotels’ newest properties, stucco buildings and roadside vendors slowly fall away. The resort’s gates seem to be built into the lush, green landscape, and when they open, you enter a beachfront oasis that somehow both oozes serenity and buzzes with excitement.
The bright, vibrant colors at every turn make the property feel like a playground. Upon walking through the front door, your feet will hit an intricate blue and green walkway leading through the hotel’s living room and bar and out to the pool, where it becomes a raised platform offering an out-of-this-world panoramic view of ocean, mountains and terraced rows of luxurious suites mirrored in a spectacular reflecting pool. Local artists from Sayulita—a nearby town home to both native Huichol artisans famous for traditional beading and shabby-chic surfers who stitch lace dream catchers and silkscreen images of Frida Kahlo on bags, shirts and beyond—crafted much of the décor adorning the suites and common areas.
On weekend afternoons at the pool, you can lounge with a drink in hand watching the water thump in time to the bass blaring out of the DJ booth, but it’s also only mere steps to where the Pacific Ocean peacefully serenades a near-private stretch of sand. Or, a quick bike ride—lime green beach cruisers are ripe for the taking throughout the property—brings you to the Away Spa, a destination for massages, facials, manicures and more built around an utterly majestic fig tree.
When it comes to which suite to sleep (and party) in, we asked General Manager Brian Seagrave for his recommendation.
The most requested room:
The E-Wow, which is the Extreme Wow suite.
What makes it so special?
It’s right on the beachfront. When you talk about suites—often times we describe them as presidential or royal suites or whatever, but this is sort of different. It’s really designed as a social space. It’s designed for having fun, having a party, having your friends together. It isn’t really set up with couches and a gigantic television set like if you were using it as a living room. It’s for entertaining. There’s a dining table that’s also a catwalk, for when it gets later and everybody starts having a bit more fun or whatever, dancing on the table.
The rate:
It depends. This time of year it’s going for $8,000. When you get it at the higher season it could go up, but now it’s about $8,000.
Celebrity guests:
We have had Hollywood actors. Some of them that are in high grossing, currently-in-cinema movies.
Your personal favorite:
The jungle suites.
Because…
When we’re opening a hotel I tend to spend a lot of time there—I’ve been living in a jungle room for a couple of months. I just really like the way the foliage and the vegetation comes right in on the room. It’s shaded and cool. Obviously I live here, so I see the ocean every day, so looking at it from my room is not my first priority. I just really like the feeling of being right there in the jungle.
Fun fact:
One of the five restaurants here is called Venazu. That’s a contraction of “venado” and “azul”, which means blue deer. Long story short, when you’re taking peyote to do a vision quest during Huichol ceremonies, the ultimate vision that you get is a blue deer. It’s legendary. So that was the inspiration behind that, and we do very authentic Mexican preparation there.
