Four Seasons Punta Mita yacht (Photo by Brad A Johnson)

This was one of my favorite sunsets so far this year. I snapped this shot aboard the private yacht of the Four Seasons Punta Mita in Mexico's Banderas Bay, just north of Puerta Vallarta. Way too much tequila was consumed that day, but all in all it was a fairly perfect outing. I mean, just look at that view. Now imagine yourself barefoot. On a private yacht. With tequila, guacamole and tuna ceviche.

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The adults-only pool at Grand Velas Riviera Maya, Mexico (photos by Brad A. Johnson)

Grand Velas Riviera Maya is one of the finest resorts in North America—and for the price (not exactly cheap), it’s an astonishing bargain. I’ve made this declaration before, yet my enthusiasm is frequently met with skepticism. “But Brad,” the naysayers counter, “Isn’t Grand Velas one of those all-inclusive megaresorts? How could it possibly compete with, say, the Four Seasons in Punta Mita or Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos?” 

Right. Good question. Those are indeed incredible, exclusive resorts with independent vibes and polished service, whereas Mexico’s all-inclusives are typically mass-market, inauthentic, herd-minded tourist traps with awful food and nonexistent service. So isn’t comparing Grand Velas with the likes of Four Seasons and Rosewood a case of apples and oranges? Um, no. Not at all—because Grand Velas is different. Way different. Grand Velas is a game-changer for the all-inclusive concept. 

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1. Pop-up restaurants are so last year. Up now: pop-up hotels! (Terminal U)
2. What really happened on Air France flight 447. (Popular Mechanics)
3. Changing trains at 200 mph without even slowing down? (Been Seen)
4. Hold on! This new plane will fly 4x faster than the Concorde! (Terminal U)

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Coral Grill at Viceroy Riviera Maya (Brad A. Johnson)

Truly great Mexican food is oddly difficult to find in Playa del Carmen, the hub of Mexico’s beautiful Riviera Maya. You can find a great (or at least very good) Italian restaurant on nearly every corner and inside most hotels (a story on that coming soon). But Mexican? The good stuff’s here, but the best places aren’t so obvious. These are the Top 10.

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Fairmont Mayakoba (Brad A. Johnson)

Mayakoba Resort near Playa del Carmen in Mexico’s Riviera Maya has just won two of the world’s most prestigious honors for its commitment to sustainability and responsible tourism. 

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A new beachfront villa at The Viceroy Riviera Maya (Brad A. Johnson)

The Viceroy resort (formerly called The Tides) near Playa del Carmen, Mexico has just unveiled its brand new beach villas and a fresh new look throughout the property. The revamp also include a new beachfront restaurant and new menus. (The resort is owned by the Viceroy Hotels group, which recently sold the original Tides in Miami, so makes sense that the group would want to reposition the brand.)

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Sian Ka'an in the Riviera Maya (Brad A. Johnson)

Anyone who traveled to Mexico's Riviera Maya 20 years ago (before it was ever called the Riviera Maya) will fondly remember the bucolic beauty (and perceived remoteness) of this part of the Yucatan peninsula. Well, guess what? There's still a part of this ancient Mayan land that is just as peaceful and blissfull as it was back then: the Sian Ka'an biosphere. 

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Tres leches from the upcoming menu at The Restaurant at Las Ventanas al Paraiso (Brad A Johnson)

Worldwide exclusive: Las Ventanas al Paraiso in Los Cabos has been serving so-called "Baja Mediterranean" cuisine (a term it coined) at its signature Restaurant since the resort’s inception in 1997. But come January, that not-quite-authentic approach will be jettisoned in favor of a new, more genuinely Mexican menu inspired by regional classics (still incorporating the finest local ingredients), thus creating a far more authentic sense of place and local culture at the resort.

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Texas Meets Yucatan-style tortilla soup (Brad A. Johnson)

I challenged the chef—and I won.

Well, sort of. Las Ventanas al Pariaso in Los Cabos offers a program called Challenge the Chef. To be honest, it’s not exactly what I thought it was going to be when I first heard about it. Initially I thought it was going to be a head-to-head competition, and I thought to myself, “Bring it!” More specifically, I was thinking of tortilla soup. I’ll pit my tortilla soup against anybody’s, even the chef of a five-star resort in Mexico.

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Rosewood San Miguel de Allende (photo by Brad A. Johnson)

It is an hour before midnight, and a large crescent moon has risen above San Miguel de Allende. The clangs of a church bell mark the hour, but silence soon returns to the Mexican city's historic core. Suddenly, the whinnies and snorts of horses and the clippity-clop of hooves slapping against cobblestone streets signal the approach of a band of vaqueros. The ranch hands, at least a dozen of them, from perhaps three different generations, in sweat-stained straw hats and scuffed boots, pull up to a bare-bones saloon with swinging wooden doors. They tie their horses and one ancient-looking donkey to a railing that has been used for thi s purpose since the Wild West days. A 12-piece mariachi band strolls over from the town square, a half block away, to greet the men with a song. Twangy guitars set a quick rhythm. Trumpets blare. An accordion joins the melody.

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Casitas Royale, Riviera Maya, Mexico

No hidden taxes or fees? No shocking drink tabs? No tipping at every turn? Plus all the food you can eat, included? The idea of all-inclusive pricing sounds almost too good to be true. But it’s only worth it when the food is truly great and the service makes you feel like a star. That's rare. Here are four of my favorite Mexican resorts in the Riviera Maya that truly get it right, offering excellent à la carte dining (where you’ll actually want to eat all day) and first-rate service with an all-inclusive price tag.

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San Miguel de Allende

I love the sunset in San Miguel de Allende. I shot this photo of the San Miguel skyline from the rooftop bar of the new Rosewood San Miguel just as the sun was beginning to set over the city.

Maria Guadalupe outside her food stall in Acuna, Mexico. (photo from Kiva.org)

A few years ago I became involved with Kiva, an amazing organization that changes the lives of hardworking people all over the world. It’s a micro-loan program that offers life-saving financial aid to people who otherwise can’t quality for or simply don’t have access to typical bank loans. I first became aware of Kiva after seeing micro-loan billboards along the roadside in Uganda en route to the Impenetrable Forest, a gorilla preserve in the rugged, remote mountains bordering the Congo.

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I’ve just finished watching a the sunrise from the beach in Playa del Carmen. The coastline at dawn here is always eerily silent, the quietest it will be all day. For a few hours at most, no one is stirring. The dozens of bars and restaurants that line the shore appear abandoned, like a ghost town. My lounge chair is wedged into the sugary white sand just out of reach of the crashing turquoise waves. The sky is an infinity of blue, and the sun’s rays merely lukewarm, like an oven that’s just been turned on but which hasn’t yet had begun to warm up. A seagull circles overhead, effortlessly floating in the breeze like a kite, and I wonder if he, too, is merely half awake.

A small wooden fishing boat powered by a small outboard engine sputters across the horizon then turns toward the shore and heads straight for where I’m lounging.

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I’ve just come back from a business meeting in Oaxaca, where I had an amazing lunch just outside of town in the village of San Martin. The entire community came together to put on an incredible feast of chiles rellenos, grilled chorizo, and two types of quesadillas, one of which was crafted from homemade blue-corn tortillas, squash blossoms and Oaxaca’s famous string cheese; the other made with white flour tortillas cooked over wood-burning coals. This was by far the best meal of the visit (which also included the supposed best restaurant in town, but that meal turned out to be somewhat disappointing.) 

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