Kylie and Kendall Jenner swapped their Loewe snow boots for teeny-tiny bikinis, boarded Kylie’s $73-million snack-packed PJ, and headed south to Costa Careyes, a secluded oceanfront resort community and nature preserve along Mexico’s rugged Pacific Coast that has been a private playground for the international glitterati for decades.
The social media mavens, who have over 650 million Instagram followers between them, rented a spectacular, marigold-colored villa situated on a cliff above the emerald ocean for at least $6,500 per night. The siblings in their twenties, along with one of their best friends, spent several days provoking social media FOMO with their plethora of carefully posed photos showcasing the villa’s extraordinary architecture and exclusive location. Sol de Oriente, a bold and eminently Instagrammable clifftop vacation compound, is now available on a more permanent basis for those who are willing to pay $15 million.
In 1968, 42-year-old Gian Franco Brignone, an Italian artist, financier, and real estate developer, flew over a desolate stretch of rainforest and jagged coastline between the port city of Manzanillo and the resort city of Puerto Vallarta. Brignone saw his future in the remote 20,000 acres of land and eight-mile stretch of desolate coastline that he rapidly acquired, despite the fact that there were no roads connecting the land to the nearby towns.
The industrialist and connoisseur envisioned a luxurious hideaway where a global coterie of artists, celebrities, and wealthy bohemians could congregate for inspiration and relaxation. Throughout the years, numerous inventive architects were enlisted to design fantastical, brightly-hued homes that were constructed by experienced local artisans. His objective was to “create a new architectural style with rounded, feminine walls of ‘elephant skin’ stucco, reminiscent of the Mediterranean, but with sky-high palapa-style roofs.”
The antithesis of Cancn and geographically and financially less accessible than Tulum, there are approximately 100 residences of various sizes and several dozen five-star accommodations at a boutique beachfront hotel. Tom Ford, Robert De Niro, Mick Jagger, and Uma Thurman are among the fashion and entertainment elite who have visited the paparazzi-free enclave. The Hollywood Reporter once referred to it as “Hollywood’s best-kept secret.”
Numerous eccentric artworks and installations are displayed throughout the secluded resort, which has fewer than 50 year-round residents, and for the past five or six years, every November, a select few of the world’s boho beau monde have gathered at Careyes for Ondalinda, an ultra-luxury Burning Man-like art, spirituality, and wellness festival.
Sol de Oriente, completed in 1999 and designed by visionary French architect Jean-Claude Galibert in collaboration with Brignone, offers owners and visitors the utmost privacy. The star-shaped main villa, known as The Castle, is topped by a three-tiered palapa and surrounded by a moat-like infinity-edge pool. It features three deluxe bedroom suites and thousands of square feet of open-air living spaces that flow out onto numerous terraces and the swimming pool.
Two ocean-view casitas with a bedroom, bathroom, and patio are nestled into the hillside below the pool, while a two-story structure with another bedroom and bathroom is situated near the cliff’s edge. A long, glute-toning staircase connects the accessory villas to The Castle, but the tower suite is also accessible via funicular, which is less taxing! Extensive staff housing is situated in a separate structure.
Sol de Occidente, a pale-green mirror image of Sol de Oriente, is situated directly across the crescent-shaped Playa Careyitos from Sol de Oriente, a beach that is as unique as Sol de Oriente.
Brignone passed away earlier this year at the age of 96, and his family and successors are now managing and carrying out his vision and legacy for Careyes. Sol de Oriente is now owned by Brignone’s son, Filippo Brignone, and is available at Carolwood Estates through Denise Moreno and Gordon MacGeachy.
