Eighteen casitas on a coast most travellers fly straight past. Aman opens its first house in Mexico on 1 August, on the far side of Baja.
The East Cape sits across the peninsula from the marinas and cruise terminals of Cabo San Lucas. The road out runs through low desert that meets the water with little warning. Amanvari stands here, on a stretch of the Sea of Cortés that Jacques Cousteau called the world's aquarium. The name reads as peace and water, and it is the first Aman in Mexico.
The land
The resort sits inside Costa Palmas, a 1,500-acre estate with two miles of swimmable shoreline. Three landscapes meet on the site. Desert runs down to the beach, and an estuary turns the fresh water brackish where it reaches the sea. The casitas take their cue from whichever ground they hold.
There are eighteen of them, small for a resort with this much land behind it. Elastic Architects drew the buildings low and long, in pale stone and dark timber, with glass walls that fold back to the heat. The Sierra de la Laguna rises behind. The water sits out front. Most casitas keep a view of both.
Out on the Sea of Cortés from Amanvari · Courtesy of Aman
The table
Dining spreads across the site. There is a Japanese room and an Italian one, the two kitchens Aman tends to bring wherever it lands. Luma cooks over open fire, coastal plates pulled from the boats and the Baja soil. The Lounge holds the slower hours, between the swim and dinner.
The spa
Amanvari Spa is built around land, ocean and sky, the three things the cape keeps trading between. Six private treatment rooms sit behind it, with a fitness centre that runs around the clock. A temazcal, the Mesoamerican sweat lodge, has been drawn here in a contemporary form. The ritual is old; the room around it is new.
Aman has always chosen distance over noise. The East Cape gives it both the distance and the light.
The Splendid EditPast the casitas, the estate opens up. Guests snorkel and dive the reef, hike into the Sierra de la Laguna, and take boats out from the Costa Palmas marina. The shoreline here stays calm and shallow a long way out, which is rare on a peninsula better known for surf. San José del Cabo airport is forty-five minutes to an hour south.
Aman is selling residences on the site as well, golf villas tied to the resort's service. Reservations for the hotel are open now, ahead of the 1 August opening. Aman rates sit where they always sit, high, and eighteen keys will not stretch far through a season.
Mexico has worn luxury on its coasts for years, most of it loud. Amanvari runs the other way, a small house on an empty cape reached by one road. The water takes care of the rest.
Amanvari, Aman's first resort in Mexico, opens on 1 August 2026 on the East Cape of Baja California Sur. Reservations through aman.com.
Photography courtesy of Aman · Amanvari, East Cape, Baja California Sur