This Gorgeous New Resort on Mexico’s Pacific Coast Is the Good Trip for Households With Younger Kids

Susurros del Corazón opened in Punta Mita, Mexico, in November 2022.

Our first household trip didn’t go very nicely. My husband and I deliberate a week-long journey to Copenhagen final August when our son, Luca, was eight months previous, pondering that the climate could be wonderful and that Luca was younger sufficient to simply glide. (Hear that? It’s the sound of extra skilled mother and father laughing at our naivete.) Whereas the primary of our conjectures proved true, the latter didn’t. Between studying to crawl, experiencing main jet lag, and catching a nasty chilly, Luca spent the entire journey utterly out of types. By the top, we have been all sick and exhausted.

Longing for a do-over, my husband and I agreed that we should always maintain our second try tremendous easy and head to a seashore resort. We’d been speaking about getting again right down to Mexico, so I recommended trying out the brand new Susurros del Corazón, Auberge Resorts Collection, close to Punta de Mita on Mexico’s Pacific Coast. We may e-book a direct flight from New York, it could be a measly one-hour time distinction, and I’d heard raves about how nicely the model caters to pint-size vacationers.

On a Thursday in mid-December, simply earlier than the holiday-travel rush, we flew right down to Puerto Vallarta, which serves because the gateway to Riviera Nayarit. After zipping 45 minutes north on the freeway, we pulled into an extended drive that cuts by a lush inexperienced garden and lake. As the trail curled round, I spied a gaggle of workers members ready to greet us on the resort entrance with ice-cold glasses of tepache, a drink made out of fermented pineapple.

“Welcome to Susurros — welcome dwelling,” stated Rodrigo Trejo, who launched himself as our cuate. The title, shared by a group of three concierges, interprets to “good pal.” Within the five-minute stroll to our room,  we swapped tales about the place we’d every grown up and the way we’d weathered the pandemic. I started to know simply how applicable that pal designation was.

I’d been so targeted on our dialog that I hadn’t taken a second to completely respect the resort and its setting — till we entered our room. Designed by Glazier Le Architects, Susurros contains a sublime clutch of 28 rooms, 33 suites, and 30 villas in modern white buildings stretching overlooking the Bahía de Banderas. With Luca in my arms, I made a beeline for the terrace of our second-floor oceanview casita to absorb views of the bay and the Islas Marietas within the distance. Turning again round, I scanned the room — half in search of issues I wanted to maneuver out of Luca’s attain, but additionally to understand the décor components. The ethereal, minimal interiors by Paul Duesing put the deal with Mexican-made crafts and pure supplies like terracotta animal collectible figurines from San José del Cabo in Baja Sur within the entryway, woven basket masks from Oaxaca within the massive walk-in closet, customized wooden headboards from Guadalajara, and a totem of three pillars from Mexico Metropolis.

After freshening up, we determined to seize an early dinner at Casamilpa, the farmhouse-inspired restaurant that fronts a 2,000-foot-long stretch of personal seashore. At 13 months, Luca was a considerably new (learn: messy) eater — to say nothing of his hangry streak, so I used to be antsy about how he’d fare after a full journey day. The group couldn’t have been extra up to the mark. As we sat down and stated hellos, a excessive chair and children’ menu appeared from round a nook, adopted by a deep plate that suctioned to the tray desk and saved Luca distracted for the jiffy it took for his breaded catch of the day to reach.

With Luca feasting away, Prashanth and I have been free to browse the menu from chef Tonatiuh Cuevas, who attracts inspiration from native distributors and the world’s Indigenous Huichol nation. We kicked off our meal with a pair of chili mezcal cocktails (a smoky mixture of mezcal, ancho reyes, lime juice, and grilled pineapple) and the ceviche Fabiana, named for a fishmonger who put his personal spin on the marinated-seafood dish (a mixture of shrimp, scallops, and octopus) by serving it in a heat chile-spiked broth. We adopted it up with the fileted pink snapper, slicked with inexperienced salsa on one aspect, pink on the opposite, and served with merely roasted greens, plus pliant corn tortillas for DIY tacos. The dishes jogged my memory of one thing basic supervisor Jose Adames had stated to me earlier. “We didn’t wish to simply supply burgers and pizza or play music that visitors would hear at dwelling,” he’d stated with satisfaction.

The following morning started with one other proof level: a pot of contemporary espresso, spiked with cinnamon within the native fashion and delivered proper to our room. Prashanth and I poured ourselves a number of cups on the terrace as Luca sat close by, inspecting the embroidered wool whale that had been ready for him after we arrived. After breakfast at Casamilpa — chilaquiles for the adults, fluffy pancakes for the tot, and conchas throughout — we made our option to a non-public cabana on the household pool. Flanked by the relief and grownup swimming pools on both aspect, it’s distinguished by toddler-friendly shallows and waterfall options constructed into the wall. We gingerly inspired Luca to dip his toes in, whereas one other trio of Individuals with a barely older son splashed across the far aspect of the pool. Behind us, a mother and college-age daughter made their option to the grownup pool’s swim-up bar for cocktails.

Whereas the blokes lingered within the cabana, I headed to an power therapeutic session with a neighborhood healer named Azucena Medina. The total 31,000-square-foot spa, Onda, will debut within the coming months, however my Cielo remedy made good use of one of many property’s spacious suites. Combining components of conventional therapeutic massage and reiki remedy, Azucena took stock of my physique, methodically working my muscle groups to unblock areas of trapped stress and fatigue. “You’re a mom, proper?” she stated quietly in my ear. “It’s really easy to get swept up in every thing and neglect that you’re sufficient. However you might be doing sufficient. You’re a good mom. companion. daughter.”

I felt myself getting weepy. By some means, she had tapped into my interior monologue and pinpointed the anxieties that had been working by my thoughts on an limitless loop for the previous yr. I took a deep breath and bit my lip as she inspired me to take a sequence of deep breaths. When our hour was up, I gathered myself and exited the room.

“How do you are feeling?” requested Medina.

“Lighter,” I replied. “A lot, a lot lighter.”

That night, we’d scheduled an early wine tasting, so we left Luca within the care of Janeth Pérez Sandoval, a member of the Los Morritos youngsters’ membership group — and a mother herself. Prashanth and I strolled right down to the seashore because the solar began to set and located a non-public desk decked out with glasses and a large unfold of native meats and cheeses. The Mexican Wine Membership expertise is designed as an introduction to the nation’s wine areas. Our sommelier, Luis Fernando Villega, defined that we’d pattern 5 totally different wines and circle three phrases from the given lists to explain the aroma and three for the mouth really feel. On the finish, we’d tally up who had essentially the most appropriate guesses. Prashanth and I exchanged a aggressive look. Recreation on.

We ended up tied, score-wise, however the true enjoyable was in discovering new-to-us producers, together with Puerta del Lobo. Situated in Querétaro, which Villega dubbed one of many nation’s most fascinating appellations, the winery sits about 90 minutes southeast of San Miguel de Allende (or three hours north of Mexico Metropolis). Glowing wines are a specialty of the area, so we tried a 2020 brut, which I cherished for its excessive acidity and delicate honeycomb notes.

After repeating our new breakfast ritual at Casamilpa, with Luca swapping his beloved pancakes for scrambled eggs and me buying and selling chilaquiles for a huitlacoche-flecked omelet, we spent the morning on the seashore. We zig-zagged alongside the almost 2,000-foot-long stretch of sand, dodging the cool waves that crept up the shoreline and watching a pair of visitors studying surf the beginner-friendly waves. Once we ducked again beneath our umbrella, a bevy of sand toys have been ready for Luca to play with.

For lunch, we grabbed a desk at La Boquita, the property’s extra informal bar, and ordered the total slate of tacos: shrimp, grilled fish, rib eye, and gringa, an al pastor riff with melted cheese. The mother and daughter we’d seen the day prior struck up a dialog after Luca popped his head over the bench to wave hiya. Because it turned out, the Atlanta-based duo had booked their women’ journey after the mother had spent per week at Susurros after it opened in November 2022. “And I’ll be again once more in March,” she admitted, with amusing.

Truthfully, I couldn’t blame her. Susurros had all of the shine of a brand-new resort, however the hospitality, meals, and experiences had the polish of a resort that had been working for for much longer. I believe that comes from guaranteeing each side of the property demonstrates a deep sense of place. One of many folks tasked with making that occur is Koa Fernandez, the resort’s experiences curator, who has been creating the resort’s programming and inspired me to attend that night’s cacao ceremony, a ritual that weaves collectively songs and tales drawn from Mayan traditions.

Because the 4 of us in attendance that evening sat across the communal IxCacao altar sipping the ceremony-grade cacao, healer Gina Cordova invited us to take turns providing intentions and sprinkling seeds and flowers to finish the association. At numerous factors, she paused to find out every individual’s nahuatl, or spirit totem. Mine was kej, or the deer, a guardian whose traits embody management and loyalty.

“You have got a deep love inside you,” Cordova informed me. “It’s your guiding power, however it’s essential to nurture your self to nurture it.”

Her phrases resonated deeply and as soon as once more jogged my memory how a lot of the previous yr I’d spent in pure survival mode. When it got here time to shut the session, Cordova requested us to shut our eyes and mirror on gratitude. I bowed my head and thought again over the previous few days. Our first household journey had been so consumed by logistics, like determining schlep every thing we would have liked and squeeze in sightseeing between Luca’s all-too-short naps. This time round, we’d been capable of chill out and experience all the brand new experiences he was having. Gratitude felt like an entirely inadequate method of describing that feeling.

By our final full day, it appeared like Luca had been elected mayor of the place. The pool attendant we’d met on the cabana remembered his identify. He blew kisses to the workers as we walked as much as the hostess stand. We soaked up the nice and cozy climate with one other morning grasp on the seashore and tried coaxing Luca to splash within the crisp waves one final time. He nonetheless wasn’t a fan, however the Southern Californian in me refuses to surrender hope.

Earlier than grabbing one other spherical of tacos at La Boquita for lunch, I popped by Sombrero del Alma, a recurring pop-up from native artisan Mariana Ortega, the proprietor of Mowi Hats. A number of instances a month, Ortega arrives to customise handmade felt and straw hats she sources from Indigenous communities in Mexico and different components of Latin America. “I work with Montecristi ladies in Panama to design them, and I get beading from the native Huichol folks right here in Nayarit,” Ortega informed me. “My predominant objective is to assist as many roles as I can. Proper now, I work with six communities, with about 10 folks in every.”  (An emphasis on sustainable sourcing can also be current in Fashionkind, the boutique from Nina Farran and Sophia Bush, which was set to open simply days after our departure.)

Though a part of me was desirous to hit up Loteria Night time at La Boquita (who doesn’t love a little bit bingo?), I used to be interested by one other exercise I’d seen on the schedule: Fashionable Ancestral. So whereas Prashanth put Luca down for the evening, I wandered right down to the seashore. In a quiet outcropping, tucked away from the swimming pools and Casamilpa, I discovered a half-dozen blankets and comfortable chairs clustered in a semi-circle round a crackling hearth pit. Positioned on the entrance was Bart Kropff, a Dutch expat who leads this music-meets-meditation sound bathtub each Sunday at nightfall. I hunkered down in one of many chairs and settled beneath a heavy blanket as Kropff started looping layers of flute, saxophone, and synthesizers to create an otherworldly track.

The hamster wheel in my mind habitually resists shutting off, so I used to be shocked to seek out myself misplaced within the observe Kropff created. At numerous factors, he got here round to play his sax straight in entrance of every individual, shut sufficient for us to really feel the vibrations and, surprisingly, lull me right into a state of precise leisure. After I met Prashanth for dinner and a non-public raicilla tasting about an hour later, he even commented on how atypically calm I regarded.

Our final morning got here all too shortly. Luca, the early worm to my evening owl, was up and desirous to greet the day at 7 a.m. sharp, however oddly sufficient, so was I. Not solely had our little crew been capable of spend some much-needed high quality time targeted on one another, however I’d been capable of carve out house for myself, too. Driving away, I remembered what Cordova had stated about making room in my schedule for extra issues that really feel restorative. It is probably not a full trip or perhaps a therapeutic massage, however a weekly taco evening with the fam? Yeah, that I can decide to.

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