El Santuario offers 64 mountainside suites with panoramic views of Lago de Avandaro, Valle de Bravo, Mexico. Each suite has its own private "infinity edge" plunge pool and the sliding glass windows open completely. The materials used in the development of El Santuario incorporate natural elements such as adobe, slate, quartz, river stones, marble, shells, wood, and bamboo.

The world-class European spa also offers spectacular lake views from the treatment rooms as well as a café oxygen bar, boutique, full-service beauty salon, and gym. The "Body & Soul" studio hosts yoga, meditation, tai-chi, aerobics, pilates, and other activities. More than 60 therapies are offered including massages, facials, body and hydrotherapy treatments, a couples suite, and "Flotation Suite" complete with sound therapy.

The resort is a peaceful haven, small and intimate, yet a variety of activities such as golf, boating, sailing, wind surfing, horseback riding and eco trekking to the Pedra Herrada Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary during the nesting months of December through March.

There is one restaurant on premise serving breakfast, lunch and dinner and the food is outstanding, using fresh and local ingredients, some of them only seasonal. The selection is more than enough but you’ll want to try as many as possible. The restaurant "walls" are all glass that can fully open to enjoy the fresh mountain and lake air, but with an enormous open fire pit burning aromatic wood for those cooler mountain nights

Across the lake is the lovely village of Valle de Bravo, a typical Mexican town with narrow cobblestone streets lined with red-tile roofed houses along the shores of the enormous man-made lake, Lago de Avandaro (Avandaro means "dream place" in the Tarascan Indian language). Tropical vegetation, from bougainvillea tumbling over terraces to brilliant flowers in the Plaza Independencia, attracts a multitude of birds. You can close your eyes and imagine you are in Italy or Spain. The local handicrafts are home items made of pine needles, very well made and great prices. The local population doesn’t speak a lot of English, so be prepared with your smile and you’ll get along just fine. It’s a treat to be in an area of Mexico where they don’t have a lot of American tourists.

El Santuario offers a wide variety of spa treatments at very reasonable rates. A 50 minute Swedish massage is $69.00 or a 30 minute reflexology for $39.00. A body scrub or thallasotherapy for $69.00. I found that the manicures and pedicures were expensive, but that is more likely because we can get them so inexpensively in Houston that elsewhere is over priced! The most expensive treatment was the 2 ½ hour body scrub, Sabila aloe wrap and 50 minute massage on the "Spa Pontoon" in the middle of the lake! A treat for couples at a cost fo $177.00 per person.

To get to Valle de Bravo, take a non stop flight to Mexico City, and then transportation can be arranged with the hotel. Continental Airlines has a non-stop flight to Tuluca, Mexico that can shorten the 2 ½ hour ride from Mexico City to about 1 hour. If you return back to Mexico City, consider adding a three-day beach destination with easy access to Cancun, Puerto Vallarta, or Acapulco.

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