Paradise Pound

MEXICO'S SWANKY PALMILLA RESORT

The 21-mile stretch of soft, white-sand beaches along Mexico's Los Cabos corridor is capped, at the southernmost tip of Baja California, by the exclusive, lush enclave Palmilla. In 1956, Don Abelardo Rodriguez, the son of interim Mexican president General Abelardo Rodriguez, developed the area by building 15 guest rooms, and ensured privacy to visitors such as John Wayne, Bing Crosby, Lucille Ball, Ernest Hemingway, and President Dwight D. Eisenhower by making the hideaway accessible only by yacht or private plane.

In 2002, Sol Kerzner, whose One&Only Resorts include jaw-dropping vacation properties on Mauritius and in the Maldives, Dubai, and the Bahamas, purchased the resort and then closed it down for an $80 million renovation. This month the expanded Palmilla reopens on 250 acres. Everywhere you look are whitewashed walls, travertine floors, painted tiles, wrought-iron accents, and terra-cottacolored marble. There are two pools—the original, surrounded by flowers, and a new, seductive, infinityedged one atop a bluff, from which you can watch the sun set over the Sea of Cortez. There are three dining spots; two have been designed by Adam D. Tihany, who masterminded the interiors of N.Y.C.'s Jean Georges and Le Cirque 2000. One of them, C, is the latest restaurant from world-renowned chef Charlie Trotter, who will also oversee the room-service menu. The spa, the 27-hole golf course, and the natural reef for snorkeling, diving, and deep-sea fishing are ranked among the finest in the world. And the best part is—thanks to the Transpeninsular Highway, built in 1972— you can now get there even if you don't have a GIV or a Chris-Craft. PUNCH HUTTON