One&Only Palmilla

In 1956 Abelardo Rodríguez, son of a former president of Mexico, built a small lodge of fifteen rooms on a rocky point between San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas. There was no proper road down the peninsula, so his guests, many of them from Hollywood, flew in to a landing strip on the property. Hotel Palmilla was the first luxury hotel in Los Cabos, and One&Only Palmilla, San José del Cabo, is the house that grew out of it.

History

The lodge traded on marlin fishing and privacy for its first decades, with film stars and American industrialists among the regulars. Ownership changed over the years and the hotel expanded along the point. In 1992 the Palmilla Golf Club opened beside it with the first Jack Nicklaus course in Latin America, which gave the corridor its reputation as a golf destination. Kerzner International took on the property and, after a renovation that rebuilt most of the resort, relaunched it in 2004 as One&Only Palmilla, the brand's first address in the Americas. In September 2014 Hurricane Odile struck Los Cabos directly and the resort closed for a complete rebuild, reopening in April 2015 with new restaurants, a new spa layout and reworked rooms.

Architecture and design

The buildings follow the Mexican hacienda tradition: white walls, terracotta roofs, bougainvillea, stone paths and fountains, stepped down the slope of the point towards two beaches. The oldest part of the resort, around the original lodge, keeps a small whitewashed chapel on a rise above the sea, which has become the resort's emblem. The gardens were replanted after Odile and the resort now reads as a village of low wings rather than a single block.

Rooms and suites

There are 174 rooms and suites, most with ocean views, arranged in wings along the point and the beach. Each has a terrace or balcony, and butler service is standard across the resort. Villa One, a four-bedroom villa with its own pool and staff at the tip of the property, is the top category and has housed heads of state and film stars.

Dining

SEARED is Jean-Georges Vongerichten's steak and seafood restaurant, serving grilled meats and fish from the Sea of Cortez. Agua by Larbi, run by chef Larbi Dahrouch, cooks Mexican dishes with Mediterranean influence on a terrace above the ocean. Breeze is the beachside restaurant for lunch and casual dinners. A tequila and mezcal programme runs through the bars, and the resort offers cooking classes in its herb garden.

Wellness

One&Only Spa is laid out as a series of private garden treatment villas, each with its own courtyard, plunge pool and outdoor shower, plus a fitness centre and a yoga garden. Two main pools serve the resort, one of them reserved for adults.

Weddings and events

The chapel is the centre of the wedding business: ceremonies in the small white church above the sea, followed by dinners on the lawns or on the beach. The resort hosts a large number of destination weddings each year, many for couples from the United States, and has planners on staff. Meetings and incentive groups use the function rooms and the restaurants' private dining spaces, and the golf club next door is the usual addition to a corporate programme.

Location

Punta Palmilla lies on the Tourist Corridor between San José del Cabo and Cabo San Lucas, about 20 minutes by car from Los Cabos International Airport. The beach below the resort is one of the few in the area where the Pacific swell is broken enough for swimming, which matters on a coast where most hotel beaches carry red flags. The Palmilla Golf Club's 27 holes adjoin the resort, and the shops and galleries of the San José del Cabo art district are a short drive north.