• Not recommended for children under the age of 8 years. Children must be swimmers or supervised. Enquire with manager about hazards for small children or toddlers
• NO SMOKING inside bedrooms 
• Reservation requests without deposit will be held for a few days max and are not guaranteed  (reservations on short notice require immediate payment)

• Credit card processing fees are 2.9%. Wire transfers or checks are free of charge. Paypal and Venmo fees paid by guest if applicable
• 20% Government bed tax (if applicable)
• 16% VAT (if applicable)

• If reservation is cancelled within 90 days before check-in, the second payment of 50% will only be refunded if property can be re-leased for the same rate during the same time period. If the rate or new rental duration differs from the original reservation, the refund will be pro-rated accordingly. The initial booking fee of 50% will be applied as service fee and cannot be refunded.
• A  full non refundable deposit is required for the following holidays: Christmas, New Year, Easter, Chinese New Year, Polo Tournaments, OndaLinda and Film Festival
• $500 Damage/Security Deposit, refundable within 5 days after check-out
• 21+ night stays require a $1500 security deposit, refundable within 14 days after check-out

place where you can wake up with the sun and go to bed with the moon and never see a soul, or where you can meet, eat, talk, drink and dance all night and sleep through the days. It’s where you can have an entire beach to yourself and walk barefoot all day or where you can sit at 4-hour lunches with strangers from strange countries who are there for the same strange reasons you are.

Careyes is where you go fishing even if you are not a fisherman or where you can just climb on board a yacht for a ride to have a romantic lunch at Paraiso beach or a deserted island, inhabited only by birds.

Careyes is sexy.

Careyes represents Art and outrageous Architecture, and it is unspoiled and untouched from the building boom and madness of the resort towns. 

Careyes celebrates the Chinese New Year with large bonfires on the beach, it hosts Arte Careyes, a Latin-American film festival, it is also host to the much talked about Onda Linda  music festival (Burningman meets indigenous culture) and it organizes international polo tournaments, it is in the middle of a large wild-life reserve and it features some of the most spectacular homes in the world…

…and yet you will have a hard time finding it on the map…

(November-April), offers beautiful, sunny conditions, but typically has a few more breezes, especially January-March. Nov-Dec is quieter and the water temperature is higher. June, September and October are usually the wettest months and it is not unusual to rain for several days in a row. July and August however could be absolutely spectacular and one should not be deterred from traveling to Costa Careyes in those months. The majority of days could be fair with occasional afternoon and evening thunderstorms and the ocean is beautiful; however beware that mosquitos, which are almost not present in the dry season, love that time of the year as well.

frequenters like Giorgio Armani, Francis Ford Coppola, Uma Thurman and Heidi Klum and Seal, who own a villa here.
A laid-back, word-of-mouth alternative to hard-charging party spots like St.-Tropez or Punta del Este, Careyes is small (there are only about 60 villas, 40 casitas and one hotel) and conspicuous consumption is considered déclassé. There is no marina for yacht envy, nor an airstrip, and not only are there no designer boutiques and glitzy nightclubs, there’s not even a town.
The crowd here tends to be young, or young at heart, wealthy and on the make. During the Christmas-to-Easter polo season — yes, there’s an up-to-date polo facility, a big draw for European and South Americans, lavish dinner and cocktail parties unfold in the villas, which rent for up to $6,000 a night for their infinity pools, sprawling thatched roofs and open-air living areas with steep cliff-side views instead of doors or windows.
The parties often stretch into the wee hours, with well-dressed revelers plunging into the pools, hot tubs or the silk-textured ocean. (The mysterious invitations to these late-night gatherings arrive via the house managers who do double duty as blue-chip social connectors.)

“Careyes draws a very affluent international crowd, but they are more attuned to aesthetics then status. Mr. Brignone developed Careyes as a leisure-class utopia where social standing would be measured by eccentricity and caftans, not big yachts and golf courses.

He discovered the eight-mile stretch of land on a tip from a friend, Antenor Patino, the Bolivian tin baron who developed Las Hadas, the luxury resort featured in the movie “10.” Mr. Brignone commissioned architects like Marco Aldaco and Diego Villasenor to build a handful of brightly painted, whimsical Mexican-Mediterranean-style bungalows. One villa, Casa Mi Ojo, in homage to Mr. Brignone’s missing left eye, has a hanging bridge suspended 90 feet above the ocean that leads to a little island and a huge eye carved into the sidewall with a pupil that doubles as a peephole window.

Mr. Brignone’s well-heeled European friends, including the Fiat scion Gianni Agnelli, Egon Von Furstenberg and the billionaire financier Sir James Goldsmith came to visit, and soon the word spread. (Sir James bought land down the coast in the mid-1980’s and set up his own private Xanadu called Cuixmala for his extended clan and guests, who included Henry Kissinger and Ronald Reagan. He died in 1997, and Cuixmala is now run by his daughter, Alix Marcaccini, as a 32,473-acre biosphere reserve and an exclusive estate-and-breakfast, where guests like Madonna and Mick Jagger rent out the apocalypse-proof Indian-themed palace, La Loma, for $15,000 to $30,000 a night.)

A few more villas have been added at Careyes over the years, but you still rarely see another car or person on the cobblestone streets that laze past the lushly planted mansionesque villas with names like Parasol and Candelabro. Strolling on the beach one warm starlit night, my traveling companion and I happened upon a dinner given by Ms. Marcaccini. A long table for 40 lighted by torches and sprinkled with bougainvillea and copa de oro had been set up on the main beach by the charming pink and thatched Italian restaurant that’s the nexus of the social scene. Both beach and restaurant are named Playa Rosa.

The guests, a whirl of slender shoulders draped in shawls, clinked glasses of red wine and margaritas in a scene that could easily have been airlifted in from a fashion show afterparty in New York or London. They included the model Jacquetta Wheeler, the English fashion designer Alice Temperly, the actress Minnie Driver and the actor Danny Huston. “Celebrities like it here because it’s private, and there’s no paparazzi,” said Viviana Dean, who is the Public Relations Manager. “People looking for a glitzy, loud vacations tend not to want to come here anyway.”

During the day the best eye candy is at the Playa Rosa beach, which plays out like a jet-set version of “Gilligan’s Island.” Just-rolled-out-of-bed guests begin to show up around noon and lounge on the straw mats strewn about on a lush green lawn shaded by big stately palms. I didn’t see a single pair of designer sunglasses or logo beach totes. Instead the statement tended toward a label-free array of exotic muumuus and wraps that looked like they were from far-flung medinas and bazaars. At lunchtime, groups slipping into and out of English, French, Spanish and Italian pulled up to tables under a shaded patio at the restaurant and ordered delicate salads, ceviche and half portions of risotto….

There are several little rocky islands that are close enough to the beach to swim to. We were told that one had a human nest built by the Sky Cries Mary singer-turned-sculptor Roderick Romero, who fashions elaborate tree houses for clients who have included Donna Karan and Sting. We decided to swim out, but as we made our way through the clear warm water, we were intercepted midway by some handsome men in a Zodiac outboard who invited us for drinks and backgammon aboard their boat…

After a few days, we had stopped being surprised by such idyllic social encounters. It was just another day as usual in Careyes. Julia Chapman, NY Times

His character, imagination and powers of persuasion have allowed him to transform an unspoiled, savage jungle into a multinational community in perfect balance with the area’s marine and land-based life, and in complete har­mony with the local population.

Environmental considerations were paramount from the very beginning of his initiative. The program for the protection of marine turtles succeeded in salvaging around 540,000 eggs, a dramatic improvement in the species’ chances for survivai on these Pacific beaches. The number of trees trans­planted to the area has already surpassed 270,000. Even more important has been the growing environmental awareness among the vast majority of the inhabitants of Careyes and its surrounding areas. Today, Careyes is a community of forty-two nationalities from diverse cultures, races and religions, proving that a global community can prosper without the sectarianism which continues creating irrational human tragedies.

Two of the most important houses in the area are painted in Vatican yellow and Islamic green, and measures are being taken to ensure that no one national­ity will exceed twenty-five percent of the total population, so as to avoid becom­ing a colony of any single country. Gian Franco Brignone’s decision to give highest priority to the protection of the environment and to the development of an integrated community, over and above the usual considerations of profitability, established the ecological and cultural bases for the projects of new generations, who are aware of the environmental dangers and cultural misunderstandings which threaten our planet. 

It is the last aspect which has brought Careyes to inter­national recognition and fame, as something unique not only to Mexico, but perhaps in the entire world.

inhabit this jungle paradise; the purples and vermilions are as dazzling as the birds of paradise and ginger lilies.

Architecturally, the villas are as audacious as their exterior tints and seem to sprout from the vertiginous cliffs as organically as the lush vegetation.

At the beachfront restaurant where the conversation is in half a dozen languages, Gian Franco Brignone, his white hair and caftan flowing, chatted with a bikini-clad beauty and a dashing young man in mud-covered polo clothes. Thirty-five years ago, Brignone [update: Brignone recently died at the age of 93, roughly 15 years after this article was written] had the foresight to buy a swath of rain forest and sandy coast along 13 kilometers, or 8 miles, of this deserted stretch of Mexico’s Pacific coast between Manzanillo and Puerto Vallarta, in the state of Jalisco, even though no road connected the towns. This luxury development now consists of 60 villas, 40 smaller casitas and a 48-room hotel.

An artist and entrepreneur from a Turin banking family, Brignone came to Careyes on a tip from Antenor Patiño, the Bolivian tin baron who developed Las Hadas, one of Mexico’s first luxury resorts. Brignone hired a plane and flew over Careyes’s dramatic ramparts, which rise steeply out of the sea. Then he packed up his family in Paris and moved.

His son Giorgio Brignone, who runs the Careyes real estate operation and its polo club, said: “My father wanted to go to a country that had good weather all year round, a place with a stable political system that was close to an important market. Europe was a little narrow for my father, because he had a broad imagination.” Inspired by Gloria Guinness’s Acapulco villa, which featured curved stucco walls and open-air living areas, Brignone pieced together his Careyes aesthetic. He combined elements of Mexican modernism – specifically the vivid colors and interplay with nature espoused by Luis Barragán, winner of the 1980 Pritzker Architecture Prize – with his own European sensibility and eye for detail. The first house – the eight-bedroom, bright blue Casa Mi Ojo, with its dramatic hanging bridge suspended 30 meters, or 100 feet, over the crashing waves and connecting the house with a private island – was a collaboration with a Barragán disciple, Marco Aldaco, and set the standard for future Careyes residences. If the Careyes house has signature details, they are the infinity pool, seemingly suspended over the sea, and the open-air great room. The windows have shutters, but never screens, and frame breathtaking views. The floors are made from hammered concrete and marble chips, and much of the custom furniture is built of the same “elephant skin” stucco as the walls. Cabinetry is carved from local woods to look like Moroccan moucharabie screens and to allow the air to circulate throughout the rooms. “My father made a marriage of Mediterranean and Mexican architecture, mixing the European sensuality with the Mexican daring, colors and openness,” Giorgio Brignone said. “And in doing so he enriched both styles. This became the Careyes style – a very human architecture, which has been copied up and down the coast.

” There is also a slightly tongue-in-cheek list of 27 emotional, spiritual and practical qualities that the founder expects Careyes homeowners to possess. These include living in the present, respecting the heritage of Mexico, being polyglot and having committed most of the seven deadly sins, especially sloth… Initially, life in Careyes was hardly what such sophisticates were used to; there was no phone service until the mid-1990s. Kari Ardissone, the wife of the former inventor and plastics tycoon Alberto Ardissone recalled driving down the coast to a little town and waiting in line with Henry Kissinger to use the only phone for miles…

Describing the huge appreciation in value at Careyes, Giorgio Brignone said: “We originally sold the land here for $2 a square foot. Now it’s $20 a square foot. Originally four- or five-bedroom villas in Careyes went for $600,000 and now they are $2.5 million.” “But the people who bought didn’t buy for the investment,” Brignone added. “They bought for pleasure and it ended up being a good business.” Some Careyes villas cost even more. The twin 930-square-meter ochre “castles” – as Gian Franco Brignone calls them – positioned on promontories on either side of the bay, are for sale at more than $10 million and rent for $5,000 a night. Built in 1996 by Brignone and another Barragán disciple, Jean-Claude Galibert, Sol de Oriente and Sol de Occidente are named for the directions that they face. Each has eight bedrooms and a 930-square-meter infinity pool that surrounds the house like a moat.

These are the accommodations that have been favored by Giorgio Armani, Francis Ford Coppola, Silvio Berlusconi and Stevie Wonder. Residents say Careyes is seductive. “It’s a place where you can have a dinner party with fantastic people every night or run off to a deserted beach and feel the power of the sea and the nature,” Kari Ardissone said. “The closest gas station is one hour away. There’s no Sam’s Club. You still have to be a romantic, daredevilry kind of person to love it here, CNN notwithstanding.”

Exit the airport and follow the road for 1.9 km. Turn left at the T-junction (2nd cross street) onto Lic Miguel de La Madrid Hurtado, follow…the road for 3.8 km and merge to the left onto Carretera Federal 200. Stay on the main road for 16.4 km passing through the towns of Cihuatlán and Melaque. Turn right at the T-junction at the end of Melaque, continuing onto #200. Follow the road for 1.1 km and then turn left onto the same #200 (this is easy to miss since the main road seems to go straight). There is a gas station on the right side slightly passed this intersection. Fill up your car since this is the last opportunity for gas before Careyes and then backtrack a few yards onto the #200. Continue to follow Carretera Federal 200 for 53.5 km until you reach ‘Careyes’. The entrance to Careyes is on the left passed KM53 (Kilometer stone marker 53). Enter the cobble stone road and after about 0.5 km you will arrive at a big wooden gate with a guard.Follow instructions you received with your confirmation.

Exit the airport and follow the signs to Puerto Vallarta on Carretera Federal #200. Stay on main road through the entire town of Puerto Vallarta for 15.1 km. After you pass the old town…and cross a bridge, turn left on Basilio Badillo, go 2 blocks and turn right onto Cihuatlán – Puerto Vallarta/Insurgentes/Carretera Federal 200. Pass a gas station on your right (make sure to fill up your car, last gas for over 100km) and continue to follow Carretera Federal 200 for 163km (about 2:15 hours). The best way to find the entrance to Careyes is to look at the Kilometer stone markers on the right side of the #200 road. Once you get to KM54 (after the town of Chamela), you should slow down and look for the road sign ‘Careyes’. The entrance is about 300 meters after the sign (and before the KM53 stone marker). Enter the cobble stone road, and after about 500 meters you will arrive at a big wooden gate with a guard.Follow instructions you received with your confirmation.

Coscolina – Cafe, Bar and Eatery in the Pueblo.
Sandwiches, Soups, Cappuccinos, Ice-cream. Comfortable in-door and outdoor seating, games and a bocchi ball court. Great hang-out all day. Bring the kids

Lilo Beach Club – at El Careyes Beach
Beautiful Day- and Nightclub recently under new management. Available for special events.Open for lunch and dinner depending on Season. Check Concierge
Rotating chefs and food choices.

Punto.Como – at the Cultural Plaza next to the art gallery.
Relax and watch a silent movie while getting to know the “locals”
Mexican food, Steaks and incredible Pizza
. Full Bar.
Open every day for lunch and dinner

Casa de nada – at Teopa beach (10 min drive)
A small low key place in the sand. Great young ambience, good music, very creative decoration, indoor/outdoor. Our favorite place in Careyes
Fresh fish, Pastas, Guacamole, Quesadillas and other Mexican fare. Full Bar
Irregular hours and days. Check with concierge

Pueblo 25 – at the Pueblo
Great world food, changing chefs every season. Owner Marco. small, you must make reservation. Not always open, call for info through the concierge

can hold about 10-12 people. Captain Crunchy will take you on great tours along the coast line or to swim and snorkel spots; Paraiso Beach his one of our favorites. Great place to have an idyllic lunch, picnic-style. All the fish caught during your trip are yours to take or you can give them to the restaurant to have it prepared for dinner. Often you will see whales, turtles and dolphins.

is Chamela, which offers easy waves, ideal for long boarding and paddle boarding. Further north is Chalacatepec, a 45-minute ride, with about 20 km of dirt road, which offers waves of diverse size depending on the time of the year and swell. To the south of Careyes, only 20 minutes away, is Arroyo Seco, a hidden pueblo which offers superb left and rights on to different beaches. Artemio Rosas owns Cristianos Surf school and offers classes, guided day trips and some rentals.

For guests, who wish to chase bigger waves, overnight trips further south to Ticla, Michoacán may be organized. We strongly suggest to rent a 4-wheel drives and bring your own boards.