A Summer Escape to Careyes – Mexico

By definition, Careyes isn’t a town. There is no church or school, no true town center – but rather an expansive and stately collection of ultra lux homes and vacation rentals that play host to celebrities and influencers year round.

And yet there is no ‘grand’ and exorbitant feeling in Careyes. At least not like you would find in, say, Vegas or Monaco. There are no gold plated staircases like you might see at the Ritz in Paris. There’s a certain lack of – pretension.

Instead, here, isolation is the ultimate luxury.

In fact, currently the main way to reach Careyes is to hop on a plane to Puerto Vallarta and then drive an additional 3 hours south. It’s enough of a trek that most people won’t make it. At least not to a relatively undeveloped beach area that is quite devoid of beach clubs, bars and even restaurants.

But that’s quite intentional – you don’t come here to be seen, rather you come here to truly get away. And during our 5 day stay at Casa Tauro in Careyes, I’m happy to say we saw no one else on the property except the hotel and house staff. We had an entire bay in the Pacific Ocean to ourselves.  Doesn’t get more lux than that, if you ask me.

I can see why privacy is such a commodity here.

We started each morning at Casa Tauro with a selection of fruit and cooked-to-order eggs with literally whatever else you wanted them served with. Sausage, bacon, or chorizo? No problem. Pancakes or waffles instead? You got it.

No request was too big or too small. The house staff even seems to take note of your preferences and do their best to anticipate your needs. Our first night there we made it known that we really like spicy salsas, so they made sure that after that the spiciest toppings made their way to the table for every meal.

If you opt for their all-inclusive food option, you’ll be fed three times a day. And fed well.

They never serve the same thing twice – unless by request – so we delighted in having a novel experience every meal. The chef also made it a point to confirm our choices day of – in case there was a fresh catch he wanted us to be aware of. Seafood lovers rejoice!

When booking the property you can either rent out a solitary room or an entire villa (2 or 4 bedrooms). Each villa has it’s own infinity pool and beach access, which makes them both very private.

Technically you’ll share the beach with any other guests of the villa, but with only six rooms you’ll find it hard to run into someone. We rented out the 2 bedroom Puma suite and never saw anyone else.

In between feedings we tried our luck at kayaking in the ocean and paddle boarding. Turns out the mountains surrounding the bay are not just insanely picturesque, but they also keep the water quite calm most of the day. It’s a surprisingly calm swim for this side of Mexico.

Besides going for a swim or doing water sports, you’ll also have options to book a private boat tour, a beach picnic, horseback riding, massages on the beach (!). The list goes on.

And of course, there’s the best part of the property: a completely private beach and pool area to lounge the day away.

In the end we only ventured off the property once: on a quick boat tour to see the dolphins just outside the bay and to take a dip in the ocean near a hidden beach.

And truthfully, despite the isolation, you could easily spend a week here. As long as you bring enough reading material and tequila (the property is BYOB). We actually found this to be to our benefit as it’s cheaper to stop at a grocery store and buy everything yourself. We used Puerto Vallarta Transfers and they happily added a grocery store stop on our way in.

Otherwise be prepared for a lose cell service – knock out on a beach lounger – lose power for a few hours – scream when you see a lizard in the living room – drink wine until midnight with your friends – kind of vacation.

It’s in stark contrast to some other beach hotspots (read: Tulum), but I think that’s its biggest appeal. I can only hope it stays that way.