Checking In: Four Seasons Resort Tamarindo
A beachfront hotel and residences in paradise.
It’s impossible to tuck away a Four Seasons-managed resort and real estate community off the grid, but Tamarindo outside Manzanilla, Mexico comes close—and that’s its appeal.
In a seaside nature reserve on the Pacific, the Four Seasons Resort Tamarindo occupies a Mexico many travellers never visit. While the desert climes or sun-drenched beaches of Los Cabos or Cancún usually come to mind when visiting Mexico is on the menu, Manzanilla combines a more tropical ocean climate with the jungle terrain of an equatorial region. While still warm and comfortable, that blend offers a greater variety of weather and terrain.
Opened quietly in November 2022, Tamarindo provides as private and isolated a luxury experience as any Four Seasons can muster. Miles from Manzanilla’s well-travelled airport and merely in sight of the small fishing villages of La Manzanilla and Tenacatita, the resort feels like its own community in its own world.
The hotel portion includes ocean-view suites complete with their own pools, walk-in tubs, and outdoor showers. Dining options include Coyul, a gourmet restaurant from young celebrity chef Elena Reygadas, and an open air seafood spot, Sal. In addition to miles of reserved hiking trails, the Four Seasons staff maintain a garden to provide fresh regional produce for the restaurant menus. Staff biologists offer tours of that garden for eco-minded guests.
The star attraction for the property is its hidden gem of a golf course. Built as a private, 18-hole track in 1995, the David Fleming design was the playground for its sole owner, his family, and friends until the Four Seasons development came online. Rolling through the hills above the resort, the El Tamarindo Golf Course is an 18-hole, championship-length layout that makes excellent use of natural elevation changes, sweeping from green foothills down to seaside holes with full views of the quiet fishing bay beyond.
An unexpected treat of a round at El Tamarindo is the company of coatimundis—a sort of mix between a raccoon and lemur. They hunt bugs and grubs while players hunt birdies.
Once word of this Four Seasons and its intimate charm gets out into the luxury travel world, El Tamarindo will get more foot traffic. For now, it’s a golfer’s dream, because its working philosophy is golf should be quiet and private. The unofficial on-course policy says players shouldn’t see foursomes in front or behind them, as if they have the course all to themselves.
Tamarindo made big news in the real estate world this winter when the resort announced its first residential offerings. The Phase 1 collection of 25 villas and estate lots will occupy only 3 per cent of the 3,000-acre property. Ownership and management wish to avoid overdevelopment at all costs so the venue maintains its natural, secluded identity.
Each of the private residences is designed by Mexico’s Victor Legorreta, Mauricio Rocha, and Mario Schjetnan. Uribe Krayer and Estudio Esterlina lead the interior design, and Mario Schjetnan is the landscape architect, focusing only on local fauna.
The three categories of homes now underway include Las Alturas Clifftop Estates of 12 5,800-square-foot villas atop the cliffs overlooking Tenacatita Bay. Las Arenas Beachfront Estates will provide six and seven-bedroom homes ranging from 6,800 to 7,200 square feet, with ocean-facing pools, media rooms, and staff quarters. Finally, Las Arenas Beachfront Estates Homesites offer six custom spaces along Tamarindo Beach.
The home inventory won’t last long as the under-the-radar nature of Four Seasons Resort Tamarindo offers a level of exclusivity it’s becoming more difficult to find, even in the world of high-end real estate.
