The Best Hotels in Acapulco

Forty-five stilted villas cling to the cliffs of Punta Diamante, each with its own heated infinity pool cantilevered over the rocks and wall-to-wall glass that makes the Pacific feel like a room feature. The Southeast Asian design gets a regional inflection from clay-tiled roofs and local materials, so it reads less like a transplant than a considered edit. A Forbes Four Star and a Michelin Key. The high-rises across the bay provide the view; this place is the alternative to them.

High on a hillside above Acapulco Bay, Las Brisas is a resort that has been pink since before pink was a statement: the casitas are pink, the jeeps shuttling guests around are pink, and the private plunge pools outnumber the rooms by roughly one to one. While the bay below fills with megahotels, this place holds its altitude and its discretion. Honeymooners fill the villas and, by design, almost no one ever makes it down to the famous strip.

Guests check in at street level, then descend stone steps through manicured gardens to reach the suites below, which sets the tone nicely. This all-suite luxury resort on Punta Diamante skips the colonial kitsch in favor of marble floors, sculpted headboards, and Hermès bath products in every bathroom. Most suites have private balconies over the bay; some have plunge pools. A hilltop restaurant and a palapa seafood spot at the beach club mean you may never leave, which is rather the point.