Ms. Groombridge and I stayed for 4 nights in the Tower Suite at the new Rosewood San Miguel, and since I hadn�t seen many reviews or photos before we went, I�ll provide a detailed write up here.

Front entrance:

Courtyard:

Public space:

Dining

This is the area in which this resort truly excels. The breakfasts in the main restaurant �1826� are just sensationally good � locally sourced ingredients of the highest quality, applied to quintessential Mexican dishes, such that the chicken enchiladas were the best I have ever tasted. We requested a dinner on our terrace one night, and the chef went out of his way to tailor two separate menus: one for me paired with 6 dairy-free courses for Ms. Groombridge, including a cre brule that required them to experiment with many different dairy substitutes in order to find one that would produce acceptable flavor. The most successful of all the public areas of the resort is the rooftop tapas bar Luna, which has the best sunset views in town, looking out over the entire hillside on which the historic centre stretches, with the unapologetically pink Parroquia church gloriously astride the ridge a kilometer or so away. The service in the restaurants is the best we encountered in the resort, everything you could want and expect from top restaurants worldwide.

Luna TapasBar on Rosewood's roof:

Restaurant "1826":

Service

Despite our having booked one of the top suites, we found the service entirely impersonal throughout, and the one of the concierges, clearly inexperienced and inadequately trained was particularly weak, offering to book us tickets to a cultural event, and forgetting to do so, and then also forgetting to reschedule our return transfer despite committing to do so. We had to resort to much more follow-up and reminding than should have been required of us to make sure our arrangements were, well, arranged. Housekeeping provided a daily bowl of fruit as well as some sort of hors d�ouevres�I�m not sure if that�s because we were staying in a suite or if they provide that for all guests. Housekeeping was fine, other than us discovering that here was a layer of sand in the bathtub when we checked in to the room, preventing use of the bathtub the first night.

Spa

The massage I had was one of the least inspired I�ve had in the past year. Ms. Groombridge was similarly nonplussed with a pedicure, but had a good facial. The facility has a shared relaxation room, and the heated, lavender-stuffed neck pillows they provide to aid relaxation prior to and after the treatment are really a pleasure. There are also small sauna and steam facilities for separate genders in the changing areas.

Pool

lacks the drama of the sexy/curvaceous one at Las Ventanas and the Mayan-tiered monumentality of the main pool at the Rosewood Mayakoba. It consists of approx 8 cabanas (first come, first served) lining a rectangular pool, with a children�s pool and two small pools on a separate level. It faces the high, flat walls of the resort complex, so there�s not much beauty of scenery or architecture to absorb, but the service is good and it�s works fine as a place to enjoy sun, shade, sleep, and water on a hot day. It�s perhaps too much to have expected a more dramatic and aesthetically satisfying pool at an urban resort, where there is less of an opportunity to capitalize on views of ocean, lagoon, or mountain . . . but I was disappointed by the design nonetheless.