Hacienda Mallet

All guests must register with the Casa de Campo Concierge office, and for a small daily fee ($30 per adult per night & $15 per child per night), are granted access to resort areas and amenities. Casa de Campo Resort facilities and amenities include golf courses ($), the fitness centre ($), racquet center ($), restaurants ($) and bars ($). Contact Rental Escapes for more information about pricing.

Set the table outside at Hacienda Mallet and pour the drinks yourselves — the trip where dinner happens at home, not at a restaurant. Four bedrooms sleep eight in a hacienda estate in Vistamar, with an included cook handling all the meals. The fit: a small-group trip of golfers and partners, a family who came for the walled grounds and the outdoor pavilions, or two couples on a long weekend who chose hacienda over the modern statement villas.

Mornings start at the primary suite's outdoor shower garden, river pebbles underfoot and the sky open above. Breakfast is at the open-sided pavilion by the pool, the fairway just past the palms. The pool runs alongside with a jacuzzi at one end. The glazed lounge pavilion sits opposite for shade when the sun is high, cathedral beams of dark mahogany overhead. By sundown the BBQ is on at the dining pavilion and the long table runs the length of it for dinner.

Hacienda Mallet sits in Vistamar, an established golf neighbourhood at the southeast edge of the resort. Altos de Chavón is a short cart ride for dinner above the river, with Dye Fore in the same direction for the cliffside round. Teeth of the Dog — ranked the Caribbean's top course by the World Golf Awards — and The Links are a short drive the other way. The Marina is a short ride for the evening on the water, and Minitas Beach is a short cart ride for the sand day. Book Hacienda Mallet when the trip is built around the walls, the pavilions, and the meals at home, not a beachfront villa with constant turnover at the next plot.