One&Only Mandarina

One and Only Mandarina accommodations are some of the nicest we have experienced with private villas nestled cliffside into the coastal rainforest with a backdrop of the Pacific Ocean. Clearly an expert design team considered every detail when laying out this luxury resort. Listed among the 2025 World's 50 Best Hotels and a notably premium price tag, we had high expectations and generally they were met thanks to the effort of the hard working individual in spite of some organizational issues that did not make for a flawless experience. Wonderful? Yes. Perfect? No. Booking/Coordination. Booked directly via their website as it seemed best for price and cancellation policy (which is pretty restrictive). Coordination was all done via e-mail and they were very responsive and helpful for dinner reservations, transfer, etc. Check-in. Booked their private transportation which although a bit pricey for the area, a very professional driver and nice suburban. The drive via the toll-way is quick and under an hour and weaves through the costal rainforest which is pretty. As mentioned everything about Mandarina’s design was considered and even the drive onto the property and up to the reception built our excitement about our upcoming experience. Check-in was efficient, friendly, and set a nice tone for a great stay. This resort is very spread-out which on one had is wonderful for seclusion for privacy for each villa but for many of the villas, walking is really not a typical option. Our Villa was over half a mile to the closest restaurant and pool. Just under a mile from the other facilities. That said they are well staffed and quick to provide a ride but that is a dependance that some (ourselves included) may not find optimal. Working to coordinate a closer room during booking may be an option to allow for more walking vice high dependence on a driver. Room. For us, the most memorable and remarkable part of One and Only Mandarina were the villas. We booked Cliffside Oceanview which has a large open space bedroom, huge bathroom with indoor and outdoor shower, and a wonderful terrace with lounge chairs, table, and heated plunge pool. What made us fall in love with the Villa was the enormous sliding doors with breathtaking view of the pacific through the rain forest. The mini-bar is solid, stocked with plenty of booze, some snacks, and limited sodas (although no juice mixer options and the prices are high). One certainly could spend their entire visit in the villa given the views, the plunge pool, and of course room service. The Villas are spaced well apart and looking out our main window and terrace, we could not see other villas or guests. Facilities. Although spread out they have anything you may expect from a luxury resort. They have the two pools (one adult and one family) along with a large beach area which were all wonderful. We enjoyed the adult pool and the beach and the service was solid, the facilities immaculate, and of course the surroundings breathtaking. As an observation, with high occupancy, space would likely be limited which may lead to the dreaded early morning chair grab. Both days that we were at the pool, all seats filled up by early afternoon. There is more space at the beach of course and as I said above…..you don’t even need to leave your villa. We were also told about an additional beach-club nearby that has two additional pools and full service restaurant available for One and Only guests. We heard good things but did not go. As a general comment again…..you need to go back to the room? You will likely need a ride each time. Dining. First, breakfast is served at Alma and is a real highlight with both al a carte and buffet options. Terrific. Although complimentary they charge a 15% service fee based on their compensated value of the breakfast. We often had a light lunch by the pool or at our chairs on the beach and all were very good. As a general comment, quality of food and preparation are in keeping with a high level luxury resort but for our four dinners, none stood out as a remarkable experience. The servers and staff were very well intentioned but many are junior and clearly didn’t know the menu well nor breathe any excitement into the experience. A significant challenge of luxury resorts is meeting guest expectations to perform at a stand-alone fine dining restaurant level within the resort. None of the restaurants really have the full “front-of-house" staff to perform at that level (excepting possibly La Cocina). If I seem harsh, I say, “with a premium price tag comes premium expectation”. But two gentleman that did exceed expectation were the sommeliers Joaquin and Carlos. Well trained in their craft, engaging, enthusiastic, and for us, nailed the recommendations. Solid wine list with varying price point and these guys brought it to life for us. We enjoyed the following restaurants. Alma, their Mediterranean cuisine. Outside dinning next to family pool. Good food, understaffed that day so thready service. La Cocina at Rosewood, Mexican cuisine. Located on the beach, great place for sunset. They had the strongest “front-of-house staff” with engaging recommendations and terrific high-end Mexican cuisine. Carao, seemingly held up as their fanciest restaurant, was our favorite of the four dinners thanks to the food and wine. Situated over the adult pool, it has breathtaking views and solid menu ,the highlights were the ceviche and lobster. Doku. Asian fusion only open for dinner Thursday, Friday, Saturday down on the Jetty beach. Very pretty spot. Our only time the kitchen really missed the mark with overcooked gyoza and extremely over salted Mongolian beef (and I love salt). Overall our dining experience at One and Only varied between adequate and nice so I would argue they should step it up if they want to keep their very high-end reputation. Staff. Certainly the heart of a resort is the staff. Each were friendly, professional, and personally invested in making our trip a wonderful experience. Although I was a little harsh on specifics regarding dining, this spoke more to them being junior or understaffed but not bad at their individual jobs. Like most resorts at this level they have dedicated butlers that will take care of all your needs/requests either personally or via WhatsApp (again becoming industry standard). One very minor comment on their use of WhatsApp; they seem to be using ChatGPT or some other AI to answer some requests really feeling artificial and impersonal. Their “voice” in person seemed very different than their “voice” on WhatsApp. Likely exactly the same “voice” that will be used in response to this review in TA. That said, their mission is to make the visit seamless and seek perfection and that was never in doubt. One notable glitch in our experience was a very late-notice closing of the adult pool for a “private event” at 1400. Word got out to some staff (the drivers) earlier in the day but the actual pool staff did not get word, and then share with the guests at the full pool-deck until 1230, that we would all be kicked out for this event. This is a management fail that I would NEVER expect at such a high-level resort. Of course there are other options but not adults only, and frankly it is not okay to interrupt our day because of a last minute corporate event. If we knew….we would have gone to another option! All staff were very nice but….too late and even worse, circumstantially found ourselves sitting outside our Villa steps at 1430 waiting for our room to be cleaned…….The manager on duty was terrific when he got wind of our frustration but again…..that is damage control when there should never have been an issue to start with. This was a greater organizational management fail and perhaps why their TA rating is slipping for such a highly regarded resort. Tips. Always a highly contested topic and of course a personal decision. They automatically add a 15% service charge to all expenses. There is an additional tip line of course that I assume will also be fully split to all staff. As with most resorts in Mexico, cash is king and we opted to tip our drivers for each ride, some additional cash to our servers, and provided a commensurate tip to each of our butlers at the end of our stay. We never felt they “expected it” and all were very gracious but that is not to say it isn’t extremely common from their guests. If you read this entire review….thanks. This was a very hard review to write because I always want to LOVE our experience and more often than not, especially with such a high level resort, we do. We wanted to totally love our experience at One and Only Mandarina and we really DID enjoy our time there. The truly remarkable accommodations and genuinely invested staff gave us a "very good" experience. The “goods" very much outweighed the “negatives" but I would say our experience with other “Michelin three-key” properties, the negatives discussed above were unexpected and I hope they were either “just bad luck for us” or will be addressed to keep them at the top. I suppose the biggest measure of a review is the answer to the simple question, “Would we go back?” And that is why this was such a hard review to write as my answer is a committed, “Probably”. Thank you very much to the hard working men and women of One and Only Mandarina, you have genuine pride in your profession and it shows!

From the time we arrived at the airport and greeted by our driver we were impressed. The property itself is absolutely gorgeous, lush jungle. The treehouse villas are well maintained with five star amenities. All of the restaurants on property had a great selection and food was delicious. The spa was one of the best we have ever experienced. Avi at the front desk was so helpful and friendly. We had great conversations with all of our buggy drivers, but our favorite was Gabriel. Highly recommend a visit to this property and we would for sure plan a future trip.

Truly an amazing 4 day stay at The One & Only Mandarina earlier this week. It was our second visit there, with our first being during Covid back in ‘22. It was as spectacular and awesome as we remembered. The property, the restaurants and the staff were all fantastic. Special shout outs to: - our hosts Wendy and Ernesto who took such great care of us and all of our requests. They truly made our stay so relaxing and enjoyable. - the two terrific fitness trainers, Ricardo and Jonathan, who put us through very fun and challenging personal training sessions - our waiters, Antonio, Geraldo and Jorge, at Treetop, Chukkers and Carao respectively. All 3 were attentive, efficient and friendly making our dinners there enjoyable and memorable. Just an overall outstanding experience at this five star resort!

I've been to many resorts in Mexico and O&O was incredible. The setting was in the jungle with villas overlooking the pacific ocean. The amenities were top notch. We loved the spa as well as the restaurants!

This place is fantastic, beautiful and one of our favorite places we have ever been. The only reason we did not put excellent is because the privacy of the tree house we had was not private at all. There was a road that ended right outside our balcony where the staff was constantly parking golf carts to service other villas. They felt right out side all the time and there was little to no screening either.