My Favorite Sayulita Airbnb: An Rose-Colored Beach House in Mexico

05.10.2024 - 00:57 / cntraveler.com

When photos of Casa Rosada starting going around a group chat, I knew it wasn't just any Airbnb.

Glowy in head-to-toe peach, and sitting right on the beach in Sayulita—the small town in Nayarit, Mexico, known for its surf vibes and post-session bars—this rental looked more liked a magazine cover-worthy boutique hotel than your standard keypad-entry Airbnb. The decor, done by Chicago-based interior designer and owner Summer Thornton, is immaculate: an open-air foyer is studded with sculptural terra-cotta vases; rattan furniture and lush plants lend to the indoor-outdoor feel; and sage-green scalloped pool umbrellas feel straight out of a Gray Malin poolside shoot. The services, like an on-site staff, chef and bartenders for hire, and a daily cleaning crew, meant we could stretch out, unwind, and really be on vacation—no divvying up meal duties on this trip. We were headed on a bachelorette to celebrate my friend Taylor, and we wanted to simply enjoy our time together.

We hit book.

Casa Rosada is artfully decorated in warm, earthy tones by Summer Thornton, an interior designer based in Chicago.

In addition to the infinity pool, there are chairs and umbrellas on the sandy beach in front of the Sayulita Airbnb.

I arrived a day later than most of our 11-person group, and the FOMO began the moment my friends' photos started hitting social media. It looked expansive, with a spacious open-air living room that led out to an infinity pool and seemed to spill into the Pacific Ocean beyond. I wondered if I'd misunderstood. Surely that wasn't all for us?

It was.

All five bedrooms are decorated with natural materials like rattan, lush plants, and marble in the bathrooms.

The infinity pool looks out over the Pacific Ocean, with palm trees overhead, and plush daybeds all around.

When I pulled up in my Lyft from the Puerto Vallarta airport, a uniformed staff member opened the wooden door of the Sayulita Airbnb to greet me, before I stepped in to find my friends splayed on the patio's lounge chairs and daybeds. Some were in the pool, sun shining down and drinks, just pulled from the fridge stocked before our arrival, in hand. (Should we order more Modelos? someone wondered. A quick message to the host and we were told they'd be in the kitchen and chilled by that evening.) As I glanced around at a woven wicker bench topped in colorful textiles, and rolled my suitcase toward an outdoor staircase, reminiscent of the Jaipur stepwell, I felt as though I'd stepped into someone's AI incarnation of an aesthetic girl's trip. The flood of DMs I received after posting just one photo of the home confirmed it was what others dream of, too.

Airbnb

The house is a roughly 15 minute walk along the beach to the town, where