Cabo San Lucas, with its large marina and bay where the Sea of Cortes meets the Pacific Ocean, is home to exciting nightlife and a variety of resorts. JW Marriott debuted this year with the 300-room JW Marriott Los Cabos in the 2,000-acre Puerto Los Cabos master-planned community. This year the SLS hotel brand announced its entry into the market, with a 200-room SLS Lux Hotel and 250 residential/SBE club membership units scheduled to open on Medano Beach in 2017.
Cancun is one of the largest resort areas in the world. Its location on the Caribbean makes it ideal for surfing, sailing, diving and boating. A range of resorts line the beaches, including the Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort, the Paradisus Cancun (formerly the Gran Melia Cancun), the 348-room Hard Rock Hotel Cancun and the 274-suite Nizuc Resort & Spa Cancun.
Mexico’s largest inhabited island, Cozumel is a resort well known to divers around the world due to the 25 reef formations that enable divers of all skill levels to enter into a world of coral and colorful fish. Cozumel is a popular cruise port, as well. Tourism officials have charted an action plan focused on conservation and protection of natural resources.
Puerto Vallarta, protected by the second-largest bay in the American land mass, Bahia de Banderas, and surrounded by the mountains of the Sierra Madre Occidental, is a town that owes its charm to its blend of colonial and cosmopolitan features. Marina Vallarta, the largest sailing port in Mexico, is rimmed by deluxe hotels. Two years ago, Puerto Vallarta and the neighboring Riviera Nayarit began to be marketed jointly as Vallarta Nayarit.
The Riviera Maya, an hour south of Cancun along the Caribbean coast state of Quintana Roo, is home to sprawling all-inclusive resorts. Playa del Carmen serves as the starting point for tours, trips to the Mayan ruins at Chichen Itza and Tulum and visits to Mexico’s ceynotes, which are underground rivers and springs.