One & Only Palmilla Resort

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Style: Contemporary Classic

Atmosphere: Secluded

109 Rooms

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The original Palmilla Resort, in its incarnation as a 1950s hot spot, played host to the A-listers of the day — people like Bing Crosby, Ernest Hemingway, even Dwight Eisenhower came here for a taste of the still-exotic, still-unspoiled Baja California. Today, after an $80m renovation, the Palmilla is under the wing of Butch Kerzner's One & Only group, owner and operator of other VIP resorts like Mauritius' Le Touessrok and Le Saint Géran.

Naturally, then, the beautiful people are back — and in keeping with the times, today's VIPs tend to be younger and more photogenic than Ike or Papa Hemingway. Tom Cruise famously swam with the whales at the resort's grand re-opening, and John Travolta held his star-studded fiftieth birthday here.

They come for the seclusion, above all. Though parts of Mexico are grotesquely overdeveloped, this stretch of coastline between Cabo San Lucas and the quaint town of San José del Cabo is a throwback to Mexico's good old days. And sometimes a little competition is just what a resort hotel needs to recapture its former glory — in this case, the storied Las Ventanas del Paraiso happens to be just down the road.

Palmilla is built on a promontory above the ocean, with easy access to the sublime beach below, right on the tip of the Baja California, where the Pacific meets the Sea of Cortez. And the resort itself is first-class all the way; the service rivals any in the Western hemisphere, with personal butler service to all rooms. The facilities indulge in the same kind of overkill — the guest rooms are stylish and supremely comfortable, with flat-screen satellite TVs set amidst tasteful, contemporary Mexican décor.

Add to all that a restaurant by Chicago celebrity chef Charlie Trotter (designed by star architect Adam Tihany), a Jack Nicklaus golf course, and a sprawling indoor/outdoor spa and fitness center, and you have just about everything a VIP guest could ask for. Of course you don't have to be Hollywood royalty to enjoy the Palmilla star treatment — a few nights here and anyone would feel like a friend of Travolta.

How to get there:

One & Only Palmilla is a 25 minutes drive from San Jose Del Cabo International Airport, and the resort is a 20-minute drive along the Carretera Transpeninsular Number One Highway.