Smith reviews: awesome eco-retreat Cuixmala on the Mexican coast
Posted by Lucy on January 1st, 2009First things first: Happy New Year from Mr & Mrs Smith! Here’s wishing you a travel-happy, free-roaming, sunshine-drenched, world-exploring, high-flying, far-reaching 2009…
Every time we publish a new hotel write-up by Mr & Mrs Smith, we’ll let you know here on the Smith Travel Blog, so you can keep pace with our team of travel spies and style insiders on their global roams. We visit every property in our hand-picked hotel collection in person, and we anonymously review each one to make sure they meet our sky-high expectations.
And this review’s kinda special – not only because it’s our first of 2009, or because it’s by our blog friend and cocktail connoisseur Will Beckett (he behind Hawksmoor, in turn behind the best steaks in London) – but because it’s of Cuixmala, the Goldsmith family’s astonishing retreat in the middle of a Mexican nature reserve in Jalisco. Way to kick off the new year!
So, without further ado, here’s a snapshot from our ‘Mr & Mrs Smith’ reviewer stay there:
Mrs Smith and I arrived late at night and (I cannot lie) I was in a foul mood entirely of my own making, following a ludicrous decision to visit San Miguel de Allende the day before – a mere nine-hour drive away. I intended to be unimpressed: what kind of eco place has an airstrip anyway? Why wasn’t I in the $15,000 a night room? That kind of thing.
The manner of arrival at Cuixmala didn’t help, as I was completely unprepared for it. As we arrived (turning off a long, winding road to discover a four- by 10-inch ‘46km’ sign was the only indicator of location) we were met by two members of the Policia Federal, complete with enormous handguns, bullet belts and clip pads. Having taken our names, Policia #1 offered to lead us to our casita, and herein lies the cause of my confusion – we weren’t ready for the sheer size of the domain we were entering. To get from the front gate to our casita was a seven-kilometre drive, at the end of which I was at my lowest.
From then on, things started to look up. The staff at Cuixmala instantly made me feel better – providing a wet towel and cold margarita on arrival and amply feeding us. I finished up the evening in a better frame of mind, but with a nagging doubt this was not going to be everything I had hoped it would be. It didn’t really feel like the kind of place that might cost $15,000 a night to me.
Morning came and changed everything. From the moment I opened the bright-blue shutters of our whitewashed casita I understood. Out of the window, in immaculate early morning light, I saw an indescribably picturesque expanse of palm trees and animal-filled fields, all leading to a pristine beach and, eventually, the Pacific. All that, just for us…
Now read the full review of Cuixmala on the Mr & Mrs Smith site (and find out more about reviewer Will Beckett)…
Happy New Years, Smiths. May 2009 be full of all sorts of awesome eco-lodges, remarkable resorts and heavenly hotels.
By Spot Cool Stuff
On January 1st, 2009