Aman Just Opened in Baja, and It Isn't Where the Other Luxury Resorts Are

Aman has opened Amanvari, its first property in Mexico, on the East Cape of Baja California Sur — a stretch of coast northeast of San José del Cabo and well away from the hotel corridor that made Los Cabos famous. Rates start at $4,056 a night.

The resort is built entirely around casitas, standalone guesthouses of 82 square metres each. Every one has a heated pool, a private terrace and floor-to-ceiling glass framing the Sea of Cortés on one side and the Sierra de la Laguna mountains on the other. The design leans on wood and a restrained palette rather than the saturated colour that defines much of Baja's resort architecture.

Dining runs across five venues. Sesui handles Japanese, Arva serves the Italian menu Aman has standardised across properties from Aman Venice to Aman Tokyo, and Luma cooks Mexican over open fire. The Aman Spa includes an open-air yoga pavilion and a contemporary version of the temazcal, the traditional Mesoamerican sweat lodge. Every stay comes with itinerary planning built around the guest rather than a fixed activity menu.

Why the East Cape matters

The site is the more interesting decision here. Los Cabos already holds one of the densest clusters of ultra-luxury hotels in the Americas — Las Ventanas al Paraíso, Montage Los Cabos and Waldorf Astoria Los Cabos Pedregal among them — and nearly all of it is strung along the Tourist Corridor between Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo.

The East Cape has almost none of that. Four Seasons Los Cabos at Costa Palmas opened there in 2019 and has largely had the coastline to itself since. Aman's arrival gives the area a second marquee anchor, and it suggests the corridor's saturation is now pushing new ultra-luxury development further out.