Know Before You Go: One&Only Mandarina (Nayarit, Mexico)
Words don’t do justice to the wild, natural beauty of the coastal rainforest setting for One&Only Mandarina. This resort has much to offer, including stunning pools and beaches, delectable dining at Carao, frequent wildlife encounters, an impressive equestrian center, and a jaw-dropping KidsOnly kids club with treehouse complex and zoo-grade butterfly house. Aside from the resort’s many upsides, we experienced a litany of service issues during our stay — many of which were attributable to the resort having recently opened. And there were a few key things we wished we would have known to better prepare for our visit here.
OVERALL RATING
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Notable
Overview
At-a-Glance
Date of Stay: June 2021
Length of Stay: 4 nights / 5 days
Property Type: Luxury eco-resort spanning coastal rainforest and white sand beaches
Trip Type: Family beach trip
Tailor-made for: Outdoor enthusiasts, adventure seekers, and those in need of relaxation / restoration
Highlights
Spectacular KidsOnly kids club — massive treehouse complex, zoo-grade butterfly house, and amazing staff; unlike any other in the world
Beautiful coastal rainforest setting and wildlife spotting (coatis, butterflies, birds, lizards)
Spacious, well-equipped Villa with large outdoor living area and private pool
Spa facilities — pool, sauna, steam room, cold plunge, and relaxation lounge — and treatments
Dining program, especially Carao Restaurant but also at Canalan
Polo and Equestrian Center
Warmth, care, and hospitality of every team member we met
Good to Know
The service experience was inconsistent, possibly due to the resort just having opened — felt like a constant whiplash between the highest highs and the lowest lows
Be prepared to wait…endlessly…for buggies, for the check, for responses / updates from staff, etc.
All activities are done as a group with other guests — if others are late, you will all be late
Various operational issues due to newness of the resort and onset of rainy season impeded logistics (e.g., unannounced restaurant closures, staffing issues, etc.)
Wildlife outdoors? Great. Wildlife in your Villa waking you up at night? Not so great…
Poor selection and value of wine program
“Complimentary” daily breakfast excluded staff gratuity
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Location & Setting
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Located in the Mandarina resort complex approximately 30 miles from Puerto Vallarta Airport, the setting of One&Only Mandarina has a similar landscape, climate, and vibe as Central America, Hawaii, and parts of the Caribbean, but is quicker / easier to get to from most of the mainland US than these destinations.
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After a short 1h 45m flight from Houston, we arrived at the clean and well-serviced PVA airport. We quickly cleared immigration and customs, exiting past baggage claim and the car rental area, and were greeted by our One&Only Mandarina driver concierge, Edward, who took our bags and walked us to a brand-new Mercedes-Benz V class van parked out front. After loading our luggage and administering quick temperature scans, Edward presented us with sanitizing towelettes, a selection of resort-made treats (delicious) and bottled refreshments. The van was equipped with iPads in headrests, headrest trays (like on an airplane), and WiFi.
On the 1h 45 min drive to the resort (extended by 30 min due to construction traffic; new interstate opening soon is supposed to reduce transit time to approximately 45 minutes), Edward explained to us that “driver concierge” means that guests check in to the resort as soon as he greets us in the airport and he will stay with us no matter what until we arrive at the resort (ex: if guests get sick on the drive to the resort, he would take them to hospital, stay with them, pick up their medication, etc.).
The City of Puerto Vallarta is supposedly relatively safe (according to Edward), with a new Vidanta World, 116-acre beachfront Cirque du Soleil amusement park coming in 2021-2022 with accommodations that can hold 3-5k people. The airport and roads infrastructure is supposedly growing to accommodate that, but this may cause some disruption for a period of time until the city's infrastructure catches up. Vidanta SkyDream, the theme park's gondola system, was already running when we drove by.
As we approached the Mandarina resort entrance, we reached a gated guard stand, had a quick security screening, and were waved through. After a short drive through lowlands and agricultural fields (and the entrance for the new Rosewood Mandarina opening on the adjacent property in 2023), the terrain suddenly shifted to lush, coastal rainforest highlands with winding mountainous roads.
When we arrived at the guest welcome facility, Edward gave us a welcome gift of a small indigenous beaded bag charm and explained that, in the native culture, people believe that everyone has an invisible bag where you carry all experiences with you in your life — and can keep or share what’s in your bag with others — and he extended his wishes that our stay would be a wonderful experience to add to our invisible bags and keep with us our whole lives. Our drive with Edward felt more like an excursion than a transfer and started things off in the best possible way.
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Property & Grounds
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One&Only Mandarina consists of 104 freestanding villas and treehouses (plus 54 residences) dotted along 80 sprawling acres of cliffs, beaches, and dense canopy of Nayarit’s coastal rainforest. In addition to the accommodations, the resort offers 6 dining options, a One&Only Spa, 5 pools, 2 beach clubs (one with a swimmable white sand beach), a spectacular KidsOnly kids club (fully-supervised), a polo / equestrian club, meeting / event facilities, and an adventure course.
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The resort accommodations and amenities span the length of the property and are connected via a seemingly endless series of steep, winding paved buggy / walking paths throughout the resort. Buggies are constantly driving around but the paths are walkable / joggable if you're up for a hike.
Notably, One&Only Mandarina is a luxury eco-resort focused on land and water preservation and sustainability — for example, there are no single use plastics, and biodegradable materials are used for anything disposable (like straws and wrappers). The entire property is designed to blend in and extend the beauty of its natural surroundings as much as possible. There is abundant jungle flora and fauna, and kids will love the wildlife spotting (especially the “naughty coatis”, as our kids called them).
Rainy season (June-October) here can be quite disruptive to the resort amenities, activities, and operations, and while rain typically occurs in the evenings, it can sometimes last all day. During our stay, we saw how a large tree had recently fallen on and destroyed one of the Treehouse accommodations (thankfully, no one had been hurt).
When we arrived, we were greeted by Patricio, the Director of Operations, and taken to a beautiful tree overlooking a reflection pond, followed by an overview of the property using a scale model outside the sales office, capped off with a welcome drink of choice (champagne, tequila, signature mocktail, and lemonade for kids) while having a private check-in experience in the welcome lounge.
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Room
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After checking in, we took a buggy ride to our 1-Bedroom Villa Banderas (314), and were given a personal tour of the Villa, followed by a sage smudging ceremony in the Villa — including a personal sage smudging for V, who was delighted.
The modern, fully-equipped Villa was perfect for families with young kids. It was relatively close to the Kids Club, Alma restaurant, and the fitness center / spa, and the room configuration and amenities were ideal.
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The 1-Bedroom Villa Banderas was equipped with the following:
• Living room with sofa bed, sitting area with entertainment center and flat screen TV, bar, skylight with electronic cover, a half bath with shower, with sliding glass and screen doors to the outdoor dining area
• A large indoor dining area with seating for 6
• A spacious master suite with King Bed, cordless phone, desk area, freestanding flat screen TV, sliding glass and screen doors to the outdoor area overlooking the pool
• Master bathroom with large soaking tub, double sink vanity, separate toilet, separate indoor shower and outdoor shower (divided by a glass door), One&Only toiletries, and large closets and drawers for two
• Large, private outdoor living complex with another dining area and seating for 6, two lounge beds with an umbrella, and a heated plunge pool, which the kids loved
The Villa had a great HVAC system and was fully tech-enabled, with plenty of TV channels available for rainy days, including premium channels, with Spanish and English programming for kids and adults.
There also appeared to be the ability to create a larger Villa with a connecting room configuration with room 313.
The primary downside of the Villa was issues with noisy crabs and gigantic spiders getting in the room at night, we were told, due to rainy season. We left no doors or windows open ever, but they just kept finding their way in. Prepare accordingly.
The Villa also frequently lost power, usually just for a few moments; but, when this happened overnight, the thermostat reset to a high temperature and the fans turned off, which caused M to wake up in a sweat and have to reset everything.
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Service
💛💛💛+
While the team at One&Only Mandarina was exceedingly warm, gracious, and hospitable at every turn, the resort’s inconsistent service experience reflected its newness and growing pains. Our transfer and arrival experience with Edward (pictured) was an absolute highlight and set the perfect tone for the stay.
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One of the most frustrating aspects of the service experience, especially for families with young children, was the constant waiting: waiting for buggies because the resort is not walkable for young kids, waiting for the check because there are no signing privileges and service is not included (even with free breakfast), waiting to be served at a restaurant because they are understaffed, waiting for a response to a request, etc.
Beyond the constant waiting, we experienced a litany of other service and operational issues during our stay, which we will refrain from listing in their entirety here. After a highly problematic in-room dinner on our last night, which was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back, we finally requested to speak to management on our day of departure to walk through all the issues we experienced during our stay. Rodolfo, our dedicated butler (who took over for our original butler, Guillermo, midway through our visit), came by to personally apologize, inquire about (and apologize for) dinner and all the other issues, and he later sent chocolate-covered strawberries and a bottle of wine which was a very thoughtful and unexpected gesture.
During checkout, we spent almost 30 minutes with Serge, the General Manager, discussing both the notable staff commendations and problems we experienced. He asked us to send him the full list of issues so they could address, which we did, along with a long list of staff to commend for their excellent service.
The highlights of the guest experience included the arrival and welcome, Carao Restaurant, Allora Restaurant, the Spa, KidsOnly, and the Polo and Equestrian Center operated like a well-oiled machine.
The guest experience elsewhere on the resort was hit-and-miss, though we hope most of these issues should be ironed out after the resort has more time to operate at normal capacity.
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Dining
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The resort's overall dining and cocktail program was great. Enrique Olvera, perhaps Mexico's most well-known chef, is the resort's consulting chef, with Carao shining as the crown jewel of the resort's dining options. All dining venues featured locally-sourced ingredients and products, including from a farm on the resort where produce for Allora is grown. The wine program, however, was not great (no vintages shown on wine list, limited selection and availability of listed wines, and a steep markup).
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The resort offered 6 dining options:
• Alma - serving breakfast, lunch and dinner, and a poolside menu
• Jetty Beach Club - casual Mexican beachside dining serving lunch and dinner (relocates to Papalillo during inclement weather), and a poolside / beachside menu
• Allora - a trendy open-air Italian restaurant at Canalan Beach Club serving lunch and dinner
• Carao - clifftop fine dining, serving dinner only
• Treetops - adults-only bar and lounge adjacent to Alma pool (beautiful, but didn't get a chance to try it)
• In-room Dining
Alma offers indoor open-air and outdoor dining with live music during dinner service. We ate here most frequently since this is where complimentary breakfast is provided for guests (all included, including mimosas, except gratuity for staff gratuity, which was very odd). While Alma breakfast service starts at 7am, it is a la carte menu only 7-9am, then buffet and a la carte menu from 9am onward. During inclement weather, there is limited seating available at Alma, especially at breakfast.
We had an excellent lunch one day at Allora at Canalan Beach Club consisting of gourmet wood-fired pizzas, local beers, and homemade sorbets -- the service team here was great.
We also had lunch at Jetty Beach Club (relocated to Papalillo event pavilion due to weather) on our last day and the food and service there was also excellent.
Carao was the absolute highlight, and we had dinner here twice due to the restaurant's exceptional food, service experience, and atmosphere. Jennifer took care of us both evenings we dined there and she and the rest of the Carao team were truly outstanding. No kids menu here but they prepared special dishes based on kids palates. Everyone left dinner happy and eager for a return visit.
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Family Services & Amenities
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The resort is extremely family-friendly, even though the majority of guests are typically adults without young kids (there were only 6 kids during our stay, but 35 kids arriving the day we left -- a new record for the resort). The KidsOnly kids club is unreal, covering 42,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor facilities including a treehouse complex and zoo-grade butterfly house. The indoor facility has all the standard kids club trappings, plus a PS4 with VR headset (G and V loved playing Fruit Ninja), but outdoors is where this place shines.
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The resort's family services and amenities include:
• KidsOnly kids club (for kids ages 4-11) -- truly remarkable and one-of-a-kind
• Family-friendly room configurations
• Kids welcome amenities - lemonade, mermaid tail backpacks with ball caps, and wooden crab invitation to KidsOnly
• Kids menus available at most dining venues
• Family-friendly pools, beaches, and activities
Brigitte Broch, the award winning art director of Moulin Rouge, Romeo + Juliet, and other Hollywood films, designed a massive, Swiss Family Robinson-style treehouse complex for KidsOnly with swinging bridges, nets, ladders, towers, and water wheels.
There is also a zoo-quality butterfly house with an onsite biologist (Luis, who was wonderful with the kids), playhouse with slide and swings, gardens, mini-amphitheater, bamboo maze, sand area, and water pump play area. Norma, Erica and the whole KidsOnly team took amazing care of the kids and families.
G and V spent two half-days at KidsOnly, having begged us to go back after their first half-day there. They loved the beach but they LOVED the kids club. The kids club offered daily scheduled activities, but the programming was mostly tailored to the kids' ages and interests, and the daily weather.
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Activities
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The pools, beaches, spa, and equestrian center are the resort’s featured activities, but there are a multitude of activities and excursions on offer (see full resort activities and brochure for more), most of which are oriented around outdoors, adventure, and wellness. Note that all resort activity/excursion bookings are shared with other guests unless otherwise noted, which means you may be waiting until the rest of your group arrives if any group members are late.
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Some of the notable activities include:
• Two beach clubs (one with a swimmable beach) and five pools (three of which are family-friendly)
• Beach / ocean activities - surfing, kayaking, paddleboarding, snorkeling, scuba diving, boating, fishing
• Land activities - hiking, biking, e-biking, nature trails, and excursions/tours
• Cooking / food experiences
• Polo and Equestrian Center - horseback riding, equestrian and polo lessons
• Sports courts - tennis, archery, sports fields and courts
• Adventure course - zip-lining and aerial stairs
• Wellbeing / fitness activities (see next section)
Alma Pool and Jetty Pool and Beach Club were the family favorites. We spent one afternoon at Alma pool and two afternoons at Jetty Beach Club. Plenty of seating at Jetty Beach, two great pools for families and kids. Beach equipment available includes kayaking, surfing, bodyboarding, snorkeling.
Canalan is not a swimmable beach given the high current (and crocodiles), but is good for surfers and offers gorgeous scenery and boardwalks., and the Canalan pool is family-friendly. The night we arrived, the tide had come all the way up to the Allora restaurant at Canalan (which had never happened before) so all the beach beds, umbrellas, and chairs had been removed.
The Polo and Equestrian Center was a highlight. Fabiola and Alejandra, and two horse trainers, took the kids on horses (English saddles) around the covered arena and then out onto the polo field. Then, Alejandra, took us to see the first foal born on property, Mandarina, who was 2 months old. Kids can also get equestrian lessons, polo lessons, and horse feeding and grooming experiences here.
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Wellness
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The entire resort is designed with a focus on wellness, fitness, and spirituality. There are also healthy food options on all menus.The resort offers a plethora of wellness focused activities and amenities:
One&Only Spa, located in a natural volcanic rock garden in the heart of the rainforest - an adults-only afternoon spent at the spa was a highlight of our stay
Wellbeing in nature experiences
Fitness center and classes
Ancient healing experiences
Spiritual journey experiences
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The Spa and fitness center complex have outstanding facilities:
• Yurt-style, individual spa treatment rooms
• An open-air covered relaxation lounge area designed around a massive tree
• Adults-only Spa pool with jets and waterfall shower
• Separate men’s and women’s sauna (multi-level with rose tinted skylight), steam room (starry night sky with small skylight), cold plunge pool, outdoor shower, and ice towel station
• Covered aura deck for yoga / meditation
• Mud bath
• Temazcal (indigenous sweat lodge)
• Tata Harper skincare products and special wellness journeys
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Wow Factor
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Similar to the service, the wow factor vacillated between a 1 and a 5. There were many amazing and memorable (in a good way) things about our experience, but also many frustrating and disappointing things, and some basic things that just seemed sloppy / not well looked after. For example, the communal sunscreen at Alma pool was in a dirty-looking jug and stored in a messy open cabinet where anyone walking by could see.
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Value
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The resort offers many things to do included with the stay, and the KidsOnly kids club, beach clubs, and spa facilities (even if you don’t book a treatment, you can still access these) added much to the value factor. The price point of our stay at One&Only Mandarina was about the same as it was at One&Only Wolgan Valley when we stayed there, having booked a very similar room; however, the value at One&Only Mandarina did not seem to go as far as it did at One&Only Wolgan Valley between the gratuity not being included in the “free” breakfasts, the overpriced wine, and the widely varying service experience at Mandarina. That said, the value will likely increase considerably (although, perhaps so will the prices) once the resort works through its growing pains.
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Overall
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While the location and property, Villa, resort amenities, activities, kids club, spa, and fine dining were outstanding overall, because of the rocky service experience and operational issues, we would probably not risk our time and money on a return visit unless we could somehow be sure that the majority of the service and operational problems we consistently experienced had been ironed out. The resort has all the potential in the world, and we met so many wonderful team members who put their heart and soul into their work so the resort can succeed, so we are hopeful it will get there with just a little more time.
Rating Legend*
💛💛💛💛💛 Exceptional
💛💛💛💛 Notable
💛💛💛 Standard
💛💛 Substandard
💛 Unsatisfactory
*All ratings are relative to similar-class properties
