The new $350 million Dorado Beach, A Ritz-Carlton Reserve opened in December,
replacing the iconic Dorado Beach Hotel, which closed in 2005.
It's the second of the Ritz-Carlton's Reserve brand, which targets the ultra rich.
The hotel consists of multiple low-rise, contemporary buildings.
A series of walkways built over sunken gardens lead from the arrival pavilion to the infinity pool and the ocean beyond.
A lily pond fronts the arrival pavilion at the Ritz-Carlton Reserve.
Guest rooms are elegant, but not fussy.
Some have private plunge pools; all have outdoor showers.
Rates range from $1,499 to $6,498 a night in high season.
All 114 rooms are on the beach and have floor-to-ceiling glass doors that bring the outside in.
Free-standing bathtubs and outdoor showers are featured in all the rooms.
Mi Casa, conceived by celebrity chef Jose Andres,
serves locally sourced food with a Spanish twist,
such as Iberico ham with guava and oysters pina colada.
Don't call him a bartender: Mixologist Tony Saldana concocts a libation in the bar of Mi Casa,
the resort's signature restaurant.
"A bartender mixes drinks. A mixologist creates cocktails," he says.
Bottoms up: An $18 Knickerbocker with 8-year-old Bacardi rum, Cointreau,
lemon and lime juice and house-made raspberry syrup.
The "apothecary portal,"
through which guests enter the resort's Spa Botanico,
evokes an earthy mood with its oversized baskets of dried herbs.
"We call it a museum for the senses," says spa director Jennifer Wayland Smith.
Spa Botanico consists of 22 structures set on five acres.
Custom-made furnishings are from Thailand.
The spa has multiple gardens and relaxation rooms.
Treatment rooms include a couple of treehouses for massage.
A Thai massage mat in a treehouse treatment room.
Naturalist Richard Forde leads a trek into the resort's dipterocarp forest.
It's one of the activities offered through the resort's Jean-Michel Cousteau's Ambassadors of the Environment program.
A number of new upscale and luxury hotels have recently opened or are under construction in Puerto Rico.
They include a $220-million makeover of the Condado Vanderbilt Hotel.
The island's first luxury hotel, built in 1919, closed 16 years ago.
Its restaurant and lounges are open for business and the hotel is expected to be completed by fall.
A room with a view: The Condado Vanderbilt's signature 1919 Restaurant faces the ocean.
Michelin-starred executive chef Juan Jose Cuevas presides over the kitchen at the 1919 Restaurant in the Condado Vanderbilt.