The Majahuitas Resort by David Clement Davies

It’s hard to be down in the dumps with a humpback breaching in the middle of your palm-fringed cove just 50 yards away, and spotted dolphins and a manta ray leaping balletically in the turquoise bay. If you like it wild, this eco-minded, solar-powered resort has it in abundance, not least though the vultures circling overhead. The arrival by water taxi from the steaming Boca de Tomatlin, as a saffron sun cracked through the tangled rainforest, was memorable. The problem is the Majahuitas’s mislabelled billing - admittedly with a warning - as one of Mexico’s “Boutique hotels”, which it doesn’t live up to. And, oh yes… the pirates. They arrive daily (except Sundays) on a full- scale replica pirate ship sailing out of Puerto Vallarta and disgorge a hundred life-jacketed sun seekers onto your ‘secluded’ patch of paradise for volleyball and frolics. Although the hotel tries pluckily to fend them off, for three hours as other boats arrive Majahuitas beach becomes the nautical equivalent of Butlins.

The rooms
The eight casitas - with their open-plan sitting rooms, platform beds, rustic furniture and bad nude art - are pleasant if unremarkable. Porcelain tiles announcing ‘no tp in the loos’ fail to soften the hard edges. The emphasis is on exposure to the jungle, so be prepared to lock any food away in the safe from marauding racoons. The night time trail of twinkling candles adds romance, but if you’re not the sort of happy camper to muck in with meals at set times, announced by a dinner gong that rivals Ralph’s conch in Lord of the Flies, this is not the place for you. The edges of the cabins are poorly tended, those solar batteries and the inner workings of the hotel are too much in evidence, and the whole place could do with a lick of paint. With ten years to run on a lease from the local Indian community, a high-minded eco- resort which with work and a little love could have quality and passion again, is running out of sap. The Majahuitas should either stress its wildness and drop its prices, or adapt far more to catering to its guests and not the other way around, to justify its $375 a night, or its claim to boutique status.

Come for
Whales, stars and wildlife
A swim at a local waterfall

Not suitable for
Boutique devotees
The very young and the old

Eating in
The food, all included, is rough, ready and sometimes not bad, while breakfast and lunches are much better than the dinners. Dinners are at a communal table, unless you resist, except for a one night ‘romantic dinner’ on the beach, in a heart etched in the sand.

Best time to come - November