Hotel Cielo Rojo Rating: 3.0 Pearls

San Pancho, Riviera Nayarit, Mexico

With about a thousand residents and not much to do but go to the beach, San Pancho is a hideaway town, and the airy, three-story, 10-room Cielo Rojo, three blocks from the beach and tucked into a side street just off the main street, is a great place to get away to. The design is clean and simple, with traditional Mexican materials and artwork (including vintage Mexican movie posters), and a blending of the indoors and outdoors in the lobby and open-air restaurant.

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San Pancho is a shady, green town, with countless flowering vines and trees that create a sense of peaceful seclusion. The wide, clean beach is even more tranquil, with its panoramic views of the sea, vivid sunsets, bird-filled estuary, and nearby jungle-draped hills. Sports enthusiasts of all stripes can find their mojo here, with a drop-dead beautiful 9-hole golf course, only recently opened to the public, a serious polo field that attracts well-heeled locals and visitors from all over, and occasionally good surfing right in town (plus plenty of other great waves within a half hour's drive).

And then it gets dark and everybody goes to bed: There is no nightlife to speak of, and the town generally shuts down by 10 p.m. That's when the party-seeking people head south, three miles down Highway 200, Mexico's Pacific Coast Highway, to Sayulita, where the bars stay open later.

• 45-minute drive (a $50-$100 taxi, depending on the exchange rate, season, and driver) from Puerto Vallarta airport; shuttle service can be booked through the hotel
• 1-hour, $5 public bus from the airport
• 5-minute walk to beach and adjacent bird-filled estuary
• 5-minute drive to Sayulita, a slightly larger town with more nightlife, street life, and surfing
• 1-hour drive to Puerto Vallarta
• 20 miles of paved road and 10 miles of dirt road to Alta Vista, a fascinating, under-visited archaeological site with natural swimming holes in a clean, free-flowing creek

Every room at Cielo Rojo is unique, with vintage and modern art, patterned Mexican throws on the beds, terra cotta tile floors, and attractive handmade concrete shelving.

• Bathrooms have tile showers (but no tubs) and handmade concrete vanities with painted ceramic sinks.
• The beds are on the hard side and are not so comfortable for those used to softer mattresses.
• Good reading lights by the beds, but no desks or writing surfaces
• Chairs and benches in the rooms are all hard
• Bottled water is provided, and necessary. Some Americans get sick from Mexican tap water.
• Small town Mexican sewer and septic systems can not handle waste paper. Instead, it goes into a waste bin by the toilet.
• Bathrooms feature locally made organic soap, shampoo, and body oils.
• There are no TVs or electronic devices of any kind. The idea here is to get away from all that.
• Almost all rooms have air conditioning.
• Daily housekeeping and turndown service

• Tiny dipping pool with water feature is pleasant to look at, but not really meant for swimming, especially in the high season when the adjacent dining room is busy.
• The eclectic art collection, which includes folk art, contemporary paintings, photography, vintage Mexican movie posters, and other visually stimulating bric-a-brac, most but not all of it Mexican, can be seen throughout the hotel's rooms and public spaces.
• Hotel boutique offers a colorful selection of clothes, jewelry, and other items from all over the world, displayed in and around the small reception area.
• Hotel sells specially blended house-brand organic tequila, whole grain tortillas, and vanilla.
• View full list of amenities

• The high-end, open-air restaurant focuses on local and organic food, serving only vegetarian and seafood dishes. It serves three meals a day in high season, and dinner only May through October.
• Meat-eaters need not worry. San Pancho has excellent restaurants in every category, from high-end continental dining rooms to cheap but great street taco stands -- and they are almost all within walking distance of the hotel.