Villa La Perla enjoys an ideal position within the swanky Los Sueños Resort area. It’s within walking distance from the villagey, restaurant-lined marina, and from a residents-only beach club whose palapa huts provide shade along a stretch of white sand. Yet the villa is also sufficiently elevated, within the Altamira neighbourhood, to offer ocean and marina views from its outdoor verandas – and close to La Iguana’s jungly championship golf course.

La Perla has been built in Spanish colonial style with red-tile roofs, plenty of columns and, inside, dark-wood beams. Those top a cathedral-sized great room whose features – a bar; an L-shaped sofa; long dining tables – delineate living and dining areas. Through an open archway, the kitchen has a granite island counter and a wine store among multiple appliances. Three of the four ensuite bedrooms – each of which has bathtubs and adjustable air-conditioning – are found around this main villa, with the more private fourth occupying a separate guesthouse with its own kitchenette.

Outside, palm trees big and small flank the private pool, hot tub and sunbeds. A smaller dining area for six enables al fresco meals, as does a barbecue. That terrace is great for watching boats, and especially magical come sunset. If you’d like to take to the ocean yourself, leave the villa to your housekeepers and ask your concierge to arrange sport-fishing charters or diving or snorkelling outings.