Naviva – Edge of the World, Four Seasons Punta Mita

A few days in the humid heat of Punta Mita to explore all that is new in the Americas! Sneak peek of the amazing Tent resort affiliated with the iconic Four Seasons Punta Mita. This five-star property has always been our client Number One go to for years and now there is another reason to visit!

Naviva Tent Camp is mere minutes from the hotel, but it feels miles away from civilization! A nature retreat featuring 15 luxury tents nestled amid 48 forested acres on a private peninsula overlooking the Pacific Ocean, the unrivaled adult only Naviva experience creates an environment that allows guests to mingle or isolate and absorb the sights and sounds of nature, undisturbed in a jungle oasis.

Naviva Four Seasons Punta Mita

“Naviva is an ambitious new resort concept that offers highly individualized service and innovative design bringing guests closer to nature than ever before,” says Vince Parrotta, Four Seasons President, Hotel Operations – Americas West. “With the debut of this exceptionally personalized retreat, guests will interface one-on-one with knowledgeable guides during thoughtful experiences that embrace the culture and character of Mexico.” Hiking, fishing, stargazing, yoga, meditation or just plain sitting quietly with a book and catching your breath and balance. Disconnect or if you must, the Four Seasons resort is a golf buggy away, Naviva is only for their registered guests, hotel guests don’t have access, this is a private commune with nature!

With only 15 luxury tents designed by Luxury Frontiers – all with private plunge pools – Naviva is one of the smallest Four Seasons resorts in the world. The Resort’s transformative approach and certified Naviva guides come together to create a high-touch, yet unassuming adult-only experience, the name translates to “love of life or living things.”

Naviva, Four Seasons Punta Mita

The natural setting is wild jungle, interspersed with massive boulders, cascading waterfalls and of course, the sparkling Pacific a stone’s throw away. One does feel like you are sitting on the edge of the world, the horizon extends forever…a fishing boat may bob on the waves or in winter your view, will include whales passing by!

Naviva celebrates the bond we have with nature through the combination of natural materials utilized in the overall design – an architectural approach which suggests and connects people to natural surroundings. On arrival, guests are immediately immersed in the outdoors, meeting their guide on a cocoon-inspired bamboo bridge overlooking a deep forest ravine. The bamboo bridge has small platforms jutting over a mini canyon waterfall, the end of the roof line suggests a curved Frank Geary copper rooftop. It’s petite, but quite majestic.

Nature is the host here,  each stand-alone luxury tent features spacious indoor and outdoor areas that seamlessly blend together, allowing guests to take in the sun and smell the ocean breeze along with indirect connections to nature with textures and fabrics that mimic natural patterns found in the surrounding environment.

Naviva, Four Seasons Punta Mita

Luxury Frontiers designed the spaces of each tent with an open-air living room and separate bedroom flowing to a private plunge pool and expansive deck with a hammock and outdoor shower. Luxurious in feel, yet not fussy.

Authentic Local Experiences with a Sense of Place are offered to guests. Daily life at Naviva is tailored to the desire of each guest with certified Naviva guides. Unscripted Naviva experiences such as sampling small-batch Mexican coffees, stargazing, and joining in sunset rituals, are among spontaneous activities for guests to pursue at the exclusive Resort.

Guests can also enjoy Signature Naviva experiences that bring the character, heritage and expertise of local talent and tradition to the forefront, such as visiting award-winning local artist Jose Juan Esparza at his private home and studio, nocturnal forest bathing, sound therapy and breathwork.

Journeys for the Mind, Body and Soul. Deviating from traditional hotel wellness offerings, Naviva offers a series of intimate spaces including two spa pods tucked away in the lush forest, a traditional Mexican temazcal or “house of heat,” an outdoor gym, a serene jungle oasis at the Alma Pool and a private 575-foot expanse of pristine Pacific beachfront – a calming place to practice yoga or mindfulness.

Each area promotes human connection to nature by immersing guests in tangible and intangible aspects of the environment, such as a half-day retreat in one of the cocoon-like spa pods that were inspired by the seed of the local Ceiba tree and provide cocooned refuge, allowing for shifts in internal energy. All holistic rituals at Naviva harness the healing properties of indigenous ingredients, from regenerative reishi and hydrating snow mushrooms to natural gemstones and colored clays found throughout Mexico.

Naviva also gives guests the opportunity to focus fully on their physical wellbeing. Workouts at Naviva include cliffside yoga sessions at Risco Terrace, scenic hiking and running trails, and strength training in the outdoor open-air gym overlooking the Pacific, where guests can incorporate existing formations such as boulders and trees, connecting to nature with every stretch and every breath.

Memorable Meals and Moments Overlooking Coastal Seascapes. Rustic luxury is brought to life overlooking the coastal seascapes of the Pacific at Copal, the heart of Naviva. More than simply a restaurant, the shared space is designed to evoke the feeling of being in a living room and kitchen of a private home, inviting guests to gather for games, reading, conversation, ideas, and music. Handmade games such as backgammon and a foosball table fashioned from reclaimed wood by Mexican artisans are available for playful competition.

At Copal Cocina, guests can feel the live cooking energy of the open-air kitchen, which is at the center of the space and features all natural open-fire cooking methods with traditional BBQ pits, wood-fire grill rotisseries and wood-fire ovens. Bountiful sea catches and seasonal produce are the inspiration and foundation of fresh daily offerings.

Faraway Feeling, Yet Close to Home. On Mexico’s Pacific coast, within the Riviera Nayarit, Naviva is located at the northern tip of Bahía de Banderas on the same peninsula as Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita. Just 45 minutes from Puerto Vallarta International Airport, this self-contained paradise is nestled within a 48-acre cliffside forest.

Luxury tents include all meals and snacks at any time of the day throughout the Resort, 24-hour in-tent dining, pool and beach service, all beverages including premium wine and spirits, one 60-minute spa treatment per guest, community activities, mind and body classes, Unscripted Naviva experiences, guide planning and in-tent amenities. Signature Naviva experiences, rare or specialty-ordered beverages, additional spa treatments, private classes or training, and airport transfers are available for an additional cost.

Naviva, Four Seasons Punta Mita

Naviva guests also receive full access to the adjacent Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita, located just five minutes away. The Resort features ten restaurants and bars, two golf courses, three pools, two beaches and additional spa and fitness facilities. 

I’ve visited and I have a favorite Tent, near a massive Ceiba Tree, the deck hangs on the edge of the Pacific and the soaking tub has unobstructed views of the sparking sea and the winter whales.  Rustic Luxury abounds. Opening December 1, Festive stays are available. Begin the New Year composed, calm and centered.

Thank you Four Seasons for the fun day escape to Naviva and for the images!

Highly Recommend!

If Travel Has Taught Me Anything

Racism is a state of mind. I have met people of all colors during my travels and all have enriched my life immeasurably. It is time America. It’s beyond time. We must stop making our prejudice and biases about skin color a factor in our judgement and decision-making. The pandemic certainly highlighted inequality throughout the world and the last two weeks of protests have certainly compounded the realities of deep injustice in our communities.

Travel is a way of learning, you are out of your comfort zone, you meet people of different cultures, colors and religions. We all want to believe we are unique. And in a way we are. There’s no one who loves taking photographs of every new experience or has an aversion to spiders and a passion for exploring. I’m unique. But when it comes to what really matters, we are all so much alike.

We want to be accepted, we want to succeed, we want to matter. It may look different to a riad owner in Marrakech or a fisherman in the Marquesas, than it looks to a hoodie wearing techie or the button-down corporate type, but we all want to succeed..

We all want to feel loved. Everyone wants people to understand them, wants a community that they belong to, everyone wants acceptance. These needs can live in mansions, apartments and in small village huts in a jungle. These needs don’t discriminate based on skin color religion, language, or nationality or orientation.

You see the world in a new way, when you see that people are more similar than they are different. When they rejoice, you rejoice. And when they hurt, you hurt. Why is this such a challenging concept? Each individual success is a collective success in every community. We grieve for the families who have suffered the injustices of racism.

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad / Roughing It

Egypt wall art
Bangkok, Thailand

The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.. Albert Einstein.

Sayulita, Mexico. wall art by local village children “hug someone maybe it’s what you need”
Tree Art Auberge du Soleil, Rutherford

“America belongs to all who live here and call her home; of every color and background; that is central to what makes America great. those who believe otherwise are (in my opinion) other then American…” Leland Lewis, Random Molecular Mirroring

Native American gathering, Stanford University
Cairo, Egypt

Inspired by the words of Martin Luther King Jr., “With patient and firm determination we will press on until every valley of despair is exalted to new peaks of hope, until every mountain of pride and irrationality is made low by the leveling process of humility and compassion; until the rough places of injustice are transformed into a smooth plane of equality of opportunity; and until the crooked places of prejudice are transformed by the straightening process of bright-eyed wisdom.”

Tahiti
Bhutan Farmers market

“You cannot claim you treat everyone equally If you are judging others by their ethnicity.”  Charles E Hudson

Rajasthan, India

“I wish I could say that racism and prejudice were only distant memories.We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust…We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.”  Thurgood Marshall

Amman, Jordan

“Discrimination does not ‘make America great.’ It makes America weak.” DaShanne Stokes

The Great Rift Valley, Kenya
Sayulita, Mexico – Wall Art by local village children

What makes us different? Well, besides our skin color and our nationality and maybe our religion, nothing. We all want the same thing, we all want to have success in America. Herm Edwards