Mexico in November: The Staffed Villas Still Open in Punta Mita and on the Riviera Maya, as of October 9
As of this morning, October 9, we have confirmed with the owners which of our staffed houses on the Pacific peninsula and on the two bays north of Tulum still have November dates. What follows is that list. Nothing else. It will be shorter next Friday. Mexico in November has stopped being a shoulder month in our inbox. Virtuoso reported on August 27 that November bookings and sales across its agencies were up seventy per cent on last year. Our own November enquiries for Mexico arrived in September this year rather than October.
Two rules before the calendar. Where a line reads “confirmed”, the owner or the house manager told us by Thursday the 8th. Where it reads “ask”, the house had a hold on it that may or may not clear. And Los Cabos is not on this page by design; it has two pieces of its own this month, and the November calendar there is a different conversation.
Why Mexico in November fills now, and what the seventy per cent means for you
Three things happened at once. The sargassum season on the Caribbean coast ended on schedule, most years by late October, and the Soliman and Tankah houses began taking November families in August. Thanksgiving falls on the 26th, late in the month, so the American holiday week and the first pre-Christmas week run into each other with no gap. And the Pacific side had its best October in our records, with Punta Mita houses holding dates for returning guests that would normally have been released by now.
So the usual November pattern, a quiet first fortnight and a busy last ten days, has flattened. Our advice this year is the same for both coasts. Take the first fortnight if you can. It is the only window with a choice of houses left.
November 1 to 14: the window with the most houses, on both coasts
Punta Mita in the first half of the month is the quietest the peninsula gets between now and Easter. Casa Tesoro has seven bedrooms above its own private beach, a chef, house manager, driver, butler and waiters on the staff list, and a three-night minimum. First and second weeks: Estate La Sierra in Kupuri, five bedrooms for twelve with a chef for breakfast and lunch, is the house we quote first to a family of eight to twelve who want to walk to the Kupuri sand. Forty-five minutes from Puerto Vallarta airport, both of them.
On the Caribbean side, Hacienda Caracol on Soliman Bay has ten bedrooms for twenty-four, a chef from eight to six and a three-night minimum outside the peaks. Villa Amaite, eight bedrooms for twenty-two on the same bay, keeps a chef until eight and a butler until eleven, four nights minimum. Week of the 7th: Ninety minutes from Cancún by the villa’s transfer. Tulum in November is the month we push families to, and the first fortnight is why. Mexico in November, on this coast, means flat water inside the reef and a chef who is not yet tired.
Pacifica Estate, beachfront in Punta Mita with seven bedrooms for fourteen, carries a four-night minimum in this window and seven in the holidays. Thirty-five minutes from the airport. The shortest transfer on the peninsula.
November 15 to 25: the week before the holiday, and the houses that go first
Owners of the larger houses hold the ten days before Thanksgiving for guests who take the holiday week as well. Punta Pacífico 7, nine bedrooms in Pacífico Estates with housekeepers, chef and butler, can be taken for the week of the 15th on its own. Its listing is clear that from the 22nd the minimum rises to five to seven nights. Bella Vita on Tankah Bay has eight bedrooms for twenty, a heated pool and a butler until eight, with a four-night minimum in this window.
Our honest reading of this window: a family that wants six nights starting on the 18th can still have a nine-bedroom house on either coast this week. By the 23rd of October we do not expect to write that sentence.
Thanksgiving week, November 22 to 29: five-night minimums and a short list
Thanksgiving in Mexico is now a fixed week in our calendar, and the minimums move with it. Bella Vita’s listing sets five nights over the holiday. Punta Pacífico 7 sets five to seven, Villa Amaite moves to five to seven in the peak periods, Hacienda Caracol goes to seven. Below are the houses with the holiday still open as of the 8th.
In Punta Mita, Casa Tesoro for the 22nd to the 29th. It is the house we would put a group of fourteen into for the holiday, because the private beach below the terrace is where the dinner ends up. Punta Pacífico 7 for the same week, at the seven-night minimum.
On the bays, Bella Vita for the five nights from the 24th. That is the booking we would make for a family with a grandparent who needs step-free rooms, since the ground floor has them. Hacienda Caracol for the seven nights from the 21st.
Turkey is the same conversation on both coasts. Ordered through the house by the last week of October, because a twenty-pound bird is a special order in Puerto Vallarta and in Playa del Carmen alike. We confirm the holiday dinner and a second, Mexican dinner at the same time. Two menus, one shop.
November 30 to December 15: the fortnight nobody books, and the rates that show it
After the holiday the houses empty for two weeks and the Christmas minimums have not yet started. Most listings quote standard rates and standard minimums until the 18th or 19th of December. Pacifica Estate, Estate La Sierra and Villa Amaite across the first fortnight of December. Whale season on the Pacific side begins in these weeks, with the first sightings from the Punta Mita terraces most years in the second week of December. If the school calendar allows it, this is the fortnight we recommend to a couple or two couples who do not need the holiday. Quiet houses. Full staff.
The Riviera Maya north of the bays, for the family that wants a town
Riviera Maya in November is the same sea and the same clear water forty minutes further up the coast, with Playa del Carmen’s restaurants and shops in reach for a family that does not want a week of pure bay. We hold a smaller set of staffed houses there and we have left them off this week’s list because the owners confirm on a different day, so the lines above would be a day stale; ask, and we will send the Thursday answer.
One difference worth knowing before you choose: the Playa side is thirty minutes closer to Cancún airport than Soliman and Tankah, which matters on a Wednesday-before-Thanksgiving arrival, and it is louder on a Saturday night, which matters with teenagers. The bays win for small children. The town wins for a group of adults. Most of our November families this year have chosen the bays. Not all.
Seventy-two hours with our concierge, from the first message about Mexico in November to the signed contract
Day one, within the hour: you tell us the dates, the headcount with ages and the coast. We check this page’s list against the owners’ calendars again, because the list changes between Fridays. By the evening you have three houses with their minimums and the staff hours beside each.
Day two: the owner confirms the hold, the contract goes out, and the chef’s questionnaire goes with it, asking what the children eat and who does not eat turkey. Day three: deposit, signed contract, transfer booked from PVR or Cancún with car seats requested, and the hold becomes a booking. We have done it in a day when a family asked; three days is the rhythm that leaves no loose ends.
Two things we will not do. We will not hold a house without a name and dates, because the owners stopped allowing it after last Christmas. And we will not quote the November weeks from memory. Every date in this piece came from a message on Thursday the 8th, and next Friday’s version will say which have gone.
Getting there in November, both coasts
Puerto Vallarta airport is thirty-five to fifty minutes from the Punta Mita gates depending on the house, in the villa’s own vehicle or a transfer we book. Traffic on the coast road builds after the 20th. Cancún is ninety minutes from Soliman and Tankah, 109 to 110 kilometres by the listings’ own figures. In the week before the holiday the immigration hall at Cancún is the slow part, not the road. We book the transfer for the scheduled arrival plus an hour and we tell the chef to hold the first dinner.
For the broader question of which month suits which coast, our guide to the best time to visit Mexico covers the full year. The Punta Mita villas and the villas in Tulum with a private chef each have their own page, with the Soliman Bay and Tankah collections listed by bay. Our overview of luxury villas in Mexico is where this page will point once November has passed.
Concierge note. On October 2 a family of ten from Chicago asked us for “anywhere warm in Mexico in November, the week of the 15th, with a chef”. By the 5th they had chosen Villa Amaite for the casita. By the 6th the owner had confirmed, and on the 7th the chef had their list, which included a four-year-old who eats only quesadillas. That booking is why Amaite reads “ask” rather than “open” for the 15th above. Someone else’s week was taken while this page was being written, which is the point of the page.
Three questions we are answering this week
Is November in Mexico warm enough for the beach, on both coasts? Yes, and Mexico in November is warm on both of them for different reasons. Punta Mita runs in the low to mid eighties by day, with the humidity gone by the middle of the month. The bays north of Tulum sit a degree or two warmer, with the sea at its clearest after the sargassum season. Rain is a possibility in the first week on the Caribbean side, most years, and rare after the 10th.
Which coast still has the most choice for Thanksgiving week? As of October 8, Punta Mita, with Casa Tesoro and Punta Pacífico 7 open at the holiday minimums. On the Riviera Maya the five-night block from the 24th at Bella Vita is the one we would move on first.
Send the dates, the headcount and the coast, and within the hour we will tell you which of these houses is still open today, not last Friday. Request a Tailored Selectio.