History of Hacienda San Angel
When Blonde and Brunette recently visited Puerto Vallarta we decided to take Richard Burton up on his Valentine’s Day gift and stay at Hacienda San Angel. We are not romantic sisters (or romantic in general) but Richard Burton apparently was as he gave this lovely building to his wife Susan Somebody-or-Other in 1977.
Legend has it that Burton fell in love with Puerto Vallarta when he was there filming on location for The Night of the Iguana in the mid 1960s. The movie’s popularity suddenly catapulted Puerto Vallarta from a drowsy fishing village to a new playground for the rich, famous and scandalous. A local newspaper, “Siempre“, in the 1960s proclaimed that the newcomers/heathens be thrown out as; “our children of 10 to 15 are being introduced to sex, booze, drugs, vice, and carnal bestiality by the garbage from the United States: gangsters, nymphomaniacs, heroin-taking blondes.” Apparently they thought those were all bad things or that they shouldn’t start until one was 16.
Somehow it seems as if Hacienda San Angel managed to remain serene and, true to its name, angelic throughout those turbulent times and into the present. It is now a luxurious boutique hotel and, to our dismay, we did not witness any of the improprieties alleged by Siempre. (Not all blondes are “heroin-taking”.)
Property Features of Hacienda San Angel
The property’s 20 suites each have a view; mountains, city or Banderas Bay. Blonde’s was overlooking the church (which made sense as she has long overlooked church) and had a beautiful balcony where breakfast was served each day at no extra charge. There’s something about getting out of bed, opening your balcony doors and regally summoning someone else to place a beautiful breakfast in front of you that is, indeed, luxurious. It really beats hitting “snooze” 6 times then grumpily getting out of bed to go zap some oatmeal. Not that we know anyone that inelegant.
The rooms are individually air-conditioned, have free wi-fi, vaulted ceilings, marble floors and pitchers of cold drinking water. Light sleepers may want to bring an eye-mask as the interior courtyard and the layout of the rooms off of it makes the rooms fairly light even at night.
Each item on the entire property has been individually and lovingly chosen to create a tasteful yet eclectic style of decorating with 18th and 19th century antiques from around the world. You keep noticing intriguing little things everywhere you look.
You may also notice some very cute little white dogs that appear to be from this century. The property’s current owner is an animal lover who rescues dogs from local shelters.
For us a property is not a luxury property unless it has a pool and Hacienda San Angel has three pools. None is large – there won’t be any Olympic tryouts here. One is on a rooftop, and two are indoors. We fell in love with the blue-tiled pool that had occasional blossoms floating in it. It was a perfect temperature to cool down in after a hot day in town and was big enough that you could swim modest laps.
The staff is the perfect combination of invisible when you want them to be and right there and helpful when you need them. We particularly enjoyed Mauricio who remembered our preferences, entertained us and seemed to be capable of doing anything that needed doing. (We did not mean for that to sound dirty – it just did.)
Hacienda San Angel as a dining or event location
This is the perfect property for a romantic getaway or a smallish wedding or anniversary dinner. There is the highly regarded rooftop Hacienda San Angel Gourmet restaurant complete with striking sunset views, excellent wines and attentive service. You can also see the very brief nightly fireworks display in Puerto Vallarta from the rooftop.
Even though we are not (generally) hounded by paparazzi we really enjoyed the quiet seclusion and “civilization” of Hacienda San Angel.
In town Puerto Vallarta is fun and lively but we seem to be past the point in our lives where we can be described that way past 9:00 p.m.
If you’re planning to whisk someone off for a getaway, observing an important milestone or occasion, want privacy or just want to improve the odds that you’ll finally get lucky on vacation, we recommend a stay at Hacienda San Angel in Puerto Vallarta.
FTC Disclosure: We were the guests of Hacienda San Angel so we tried to behave better than usual. Tried. Well, kind of tried.