To you, what makes One&Only Palmilla so special?

It’s an intimate, knowing sense of our place. We are essentially in the middle of the desert –a small jewel hidden at the end of a cape. Because what we have here is completely different to what surrounds us. If you take a drive around the area, or even coming from the airport, you’ll see how different we look. It’s the green, lush Mexican style that we have. The other reason it has that understanding of place is it’s not designed purely as a resort –but was actually designed to be a home. It has that history, with the hacienda style, that makes it unique. It is in the service too -it feels intimate, personal.The people who work here are what makes it feel like home. I have only been here almost two years, but you get to know colleagues who have been here at least 15 years. For them it is their home. It's about them coming to their second home, which is One&Only Palmilla. They make a lot of it. I can’t imagine it without people, it would still be beautiful, it's the people that make One&Only Palmilla.

Can you see One&Only Palmilla of the past in the place it is now?

Yes, especially in the Hacienda building –you can imagine it in the 1950s. You can see it from the entrance driving towards our Porte Cochere, following the steps down to a magnificent structure of the “main house”, the heart of the resort, which still very much resembles the original designs.I feel that in the Chapel too. It’s a remarkable building but even more remarkable when you imagine how it was used. As a chapel for the owners, but also the service staff. The arches, the architecture –it really brings you back to a different time.

Meet Andrea Martinez