Story & Photos by Barbara Beckley
Chic. Artistic. Serene. A stay at the Casa Velas boutique hotel is everything that makes Puerto Vallarta the toast of the travel world. A refined hideaway like those built shortly after Liz joined Richard during his filming of the 1964 movie “Night of the Iguana,” and catapulted this coastal village to international fame.
HIDEAWAY HEAVEN
Entering Casa Velas’ gates I’m surrounded by Spanish colonial elegance, overlooking a golf course – not the beach. Even better because this adults-only (ages 18 +) all-inclusive enclave has its own private beach club a minute’s free shuttle away. I’m not sharing the sands with hundreds of others. I’m relaxing on an exclusive beach for Casa Velas guests only. Lounging in a lux daybed on the sand or sunning beside or in the infinity pool enjoying cocktails and gourmet fare from the private bar and café. Perfecto!
Author Barbara Beckley enjoys a heavenly day at the Tau Beach Club.
Opened in residential Marina Vallarta in 2005 on the private 18-hole Marina Vallarta Golf Club (designed by PGA pro Joe Finger), this hacienda-style property is unique. Rising only two-to-four stories on lushly landscaped grounds, it offers 80 suites, most with plunge pools and/or Jacuzzis, from 614 square feet to the 5,564-square-foot Presidential Suite; the full-service ABJA Spa, a lux pool with swim-up bar, AAA Four-Diamond Emiliano restaurant serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and the exclusive Tau Beach Club.
Best of all, serious Mexican art! Opening the door to my ground floor Grand Class Suite (No. 104), I was thrilled to see the original art of Sergio Bustamante, Mexico’s top contemporary artist (and my favorite), greeting me from atop my king bed.
A delightful match to the Italian marble bath, sunken lounge area, charming patio, and private plunge pool directly – I mean right on – the golf course! Truly the best of Puerto Vallarta elegance. And there’s more! The hotel is just minutes from the cobblestone streets of Puerto Vallarta’s historic Romantic Zone for shopping, sightseeing, and dining. But why hurry?
Turns out guests spend much of their time enjoying the hotel and amenities including myriad wonderful – and useful – activities like the tequila tasting, mixology and tortilla classes I took, and top-drawer entertainment. All conveniently listed in the weekly activities sheet. No surprise the repeat guest rate is a whopping 80 percent, General Manager Enrique Sinencio told me. An incredible and telling statistic.
What could equal Bustamante art for me? My first night’s Tequilla Tasting on the Lobby Patio and dinner at the Tau Beach Club! Talk about tasty and scenic. First, guided by Casa Velas’ tequila expert Erick Manlio, I mastered tequila’s “big three”: distillery-to-glass Tequilla Blanco for a strong – make that white lightning-like – taste. Reposado, aged in oak from two months to three years for full flavor but still packing a tequila punch. And genteel Anejo, comparable to fine whiskeys, aged in oak for at least a year to deliver a smooth, rich flavor. Insider tip: Manlio recommends 1800 Anejo, a 200-year-old Mexican brand specializing in Anejo aged in French oak for up to eight years!
Finishing my tequila, I admired the beautiful Marina neighborhood homes on the two-minute shuttle ride to the Tau Beach Club. The shuttle departs the lobby every 15 minutes, leaving time to appreciate the sweet turtles and gigantic koi in the lobby and patio ponds.
Casa Velas is elegant – but it’s also fun. Entering the indoor-outdoor beach club, I joined 10 other journalists beside a faux hedge emblazoned with neon lights reading “Ring for Ferrari,” and a small golden bell. Okay… I rang the bell. Out popped a human hand holding a glass of champagne. Cheers!
Perfect to toast the sweeping view of Banderas Bay. And continue sipping at dinner in the club’s view-filled restaurant space. Yummy house-baked rolls with spiced butter led the menu of regional favorites including fresh tuna ceviche, center cut ribeye with mashed potatoes and marrow and mezcal gravy; and roasted fig dessert with piggie-shaped pastry. Each paired with fine wines.
Sunlight flooding my suite was a welcome wake-up call. Dangling my legs in the plunge pool, I nibbled on cheeses, sipped coffee – and looked for golfers on the greens, and iguanas in the trees. Nope, too early. Just garden serenity to start my day.
Fitting, since my first activity was a 50-minute Harmony Massage at the ABJA Spa! Sauna, the steam room with eucalyptus inhalation, and a pressure shower, made a relaxing prelude to this treatment, designed “to re-energize and de-stress my body, and bring inner peace to my mind,” explained my masseuse. “Soft, medium or deep,” she asked of my manipulation preference. “Deep,” I replied. A smart choice that left me feeling relaxed, revitalized, and light on my feet.
YUM – TAKING IT TO THE STREETS
Good thing about being light on my feet. Since I was on them a lot that evening – walking through Puerto Vallarta’s oldest neighborhoods on Vallarta Food Tours’ “Street Taco Tour.” Sure, anyone can recommend the best restaurants. But the top street taco stands and local cafes – many dating to Liz and Richard’s time? That takes a true insider – like our guide, Miel Garcia.
Vallarta Food Tours’ guide Miel Garcia shares the inside scoop.
Informative and so enthusiastic, Miel led us to eight corner stands and local-favorite restaurants in the Romantic Zone and Downtown Puerto Vallarta. With her guidance we learned the secrets of Puerto Vallarta’s foodie scene. Her tips? “Always check that the salsa is house made. It isn’t a good stand or restaurant if the salsa is store-bought,” she said. And surprise! PV’s food stand culture is very territorial. “Sort of like the mafia,” Miel said. “You don’t want to compete on someone else’s corner.”
Miel met us at Lazaro Cardenas Park in the Romantic Zone. Once a parking lot, now, thanks to activist residents, it’s a beautiful park, filled with creative art, she explained. Then we were off! Crossing cobblestones, up and down sometimes steep curbs, and around darkened corners to discover the unexpected.
Barbara’s favorite: Smoked Marlin Taco
We joined the line at Tacos de Cabeza El Chulo, whose owner-cook turns cow cheeks into sought-after tacos. Savored the seafood enchiladas and crab tortillas with garlic, onion, cream, whole milk, and wine that transformed Mariscos Cisneros from a cart to a family restaurant. Watched churros made fresh, and tasty, by the same family in the same spot – under a corner streetlight – for 45 years! Sat down to smoked marlin tacos – my favorite – at Mariscos La Tia Nana café open since 1975! And ended the evening at a stylish bar opposite an auto shop two blocks from the beach, specializing in Mexican wines, tequila, and cocktails like my classic “Paloma,” with tequila, grapefruit juice, simple syrup, and Squirt pop.
SURPRISES GALORE
Fun in the sun at the Tau Beach Club was on the next day’s agenda. Why the name? “Tau” means “sun” in the indigenous Huichol people’s language, Sinencio explained, “and Puerto Vallarta boasts 2,500 hours of sunshine a year.”
The sun was shining bright for our “Tortilla Making Workshop + Mixology Class,” one of many free activities at the private club. I aced Mixology, making a marguerita with ease. Tortillas? Not so much. I couldn’t mimic Chef Sandra Fabiola Macias Cordero’s dramatic transformation of a tiny ball of dough into a paper-thin eight-inch tortilla with one whack of her tortilla machine.
But she surprised me – in a good way – with “corn vs. flour.” I order corn because corn, a.k.a. maize, originated in Mexico. Flour is a gringo choice, I thought. Wrong! Flour tortillas are Mexican, too! Jewish folks fleeing the Spanish Inquisition brought flour to Mexico for matza, Cordero explained. And the rest is history.
Note to self – and first-timers: ALWAYS read the activities sheet! I hadn’t. But luckily, I walked to dinner at Emiliano early. Otherwise, I would have missed – major surprise – the Sunday-only Circ du Soile-style “Mini Circus” performance on the restaurant patio. An amazing 40-minute show featuring four nimble acrobat/jugglers entertaining with balls, hoops, and jaw-dropping balancing acts! To a backdrop of illuminated gardens and twinkly stars.
A prelude to my most welcome dinner surprise. Olives! As an appetizer? Who would have thought? A ramekin heaped with house-made olives marinated with herbs de Provence, lemon, and olive oil. Absolutely fabulous. Followed by Sea Bass Carpaccio with lemon, extra virgin olive oil and dash of Morita chili. Mushroom Risotto with Grana Padano cheese flakes and white truffle oil as my main. (Although the Rack of Lamb with thyme juice, and ratatouille; and Rib Eye with Dauphinoise potatoes, grilled asparagus, and bearnaise sauce were tempting.) And Vacherin, a French iced cake layered with ice cream, sorbet, meringue, and cream, for dessert. Incredible.
My last day brought a slew of surprises. Again, I hadn’t checked my hotel activities sheet, and was taken aback – in a good way – by a saxophonist entertaining at breakfast. Who has a sax player at breakfast!? Not only that. He was playing cool Brazilian jazz – my favorite sounds. A good omen, I decided. So, I took a final stroll through the grounds, looking for iguanas. “Yes!” Two, three, four were lounging high in the trees. And a darling green guy by the pond. I also met a lovely Canadian woman who’s been spending two weeks a year for 10 years at Casa Velas. “It’s so relaxing and friendly,” she said.
And the final surprise. Rolling my suite case onto the open-air hallway, I saw a little red tabby kitten smiling at me from beneath the hedge. There had been no cats before. The “spokeskitten,” a friend suggested, “bidding me farewell for all the felines who live safely and discreetly on the property.”
I’ll go with that. After all, Casa Velas is purr-fect.
