Find our Inspection team's official review of One&Only Mandarina here. Below, one writer shares his personal experience learning the sport of kings at one of Mexico's most luxurious hotels.
An hour north of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where the Sierra de Vallejo mountains climb down to the Pacific Ocean and thick jungle crawls right up to white sand, a stretch of pristine Bermuda grass is clipped short in a neat 10-acre patch.
If the polo field at the Mandarina Polo & Equestrian Club is out of place topographically, it’s hand-in-white glove in terms of style, an ultra-luxe amenity for guests enjoying a world-class experience at the One&Only Mandarina hotel next door.
Nearly every weekend from November to March, fans of the ancient sport of kings saddle up to compete against the club’s pros. Guests of the hotel are invited to watch, as teams of three race and spar over a plastic ball the size of an orange.
A match – under house rules, the highest score wins after four periods – is an exhilarating display of athleticism and elegance. As part of an itinerary at the One&Only – one of just three properties in Mexico to hold the top Three MICHELIN Key distinction – it’s a reminder that the best hotels find ways to stand out.
“It’s the most addictive sport you're going to find,” says Gustavo Mejía, a former elite Mexican player who joined the club as its manager in 2020. “We've had people go back home and become polo players themselves.”
For those so intrigued by the spectacle, an hour-long lesson can help even the most zenned-out vacationer pick up the basics.
In December, Dorado, a 16-year-old kind soul, was my partner for an introductory outing. Owned by one of Mandarina’s pros, he has played matches at the highest level in Mexico for years, but on this bright afternoon, was content with a beginner, guiding me gently as I practiced my swing.
A lesson begins at the stables, a simple concrete structure designed by Tucson-based Studio CABAN that’s checkered with sunlight pouring in from panels running its length. The club’s horses – they have more than 50, including Corleone, a handsome chestnut who posed with Kendall Jenner in a Vogue spread this summer – are a mix of thoroughbreds and American Quarter horses, endowing them with high speeds and the ability to turn on a dime.
First, an outfit change helps set a mood. In a small back room lined with Argentinian-made saddles, Manuel Rogelio, my instructor, hands over white jeans and a polo emblazoned with the Mandarina logo. Knee-high riding boots and a maroon, short-brimmed helmet complete the look, a tony prep school aesthetic that feels sepia-toned even cast in the mirror.
With a history dating back to Persian classical era nobility, and its most recognizable players today in line for the British throne, an air of grandiosity hangs over the sport. Indeed, there are few pastimes as inaccessible, with a 1,000-pound beast the main locker room requirement.
But as Dorado and I amble back and forth up the field, dribbling the ball a few yards at a time, a sense of familiarity and comfort emerges.
Under Rogelio’s instruction, I am learning the offside forehand, the most common swing in a game that can see expert riders twisting, contorting, and straining out of their seats. The stroke is a simple arc: With his right hand – all players use their right regardless of dominance – the rider swings his mallet back and brings it down like a pendulum. Good contact produces a crisp, satisfying cluck.
Down my forearm and into my palm I’m reminded of tennis and a measured, firm grip. With the weight of the swing – and Rogelio’s direction to follow through – memories of the golf course come to mind.
Still, according to Mejía, the foundational skill of polo is horseback riding, and balance is the most transferable competency.
“If you are participating in some sport that requires balance – say skiing, wakeboarding, or snowboarding – you have to have a lot of control of your body. That's going to help you be a better rider. And the better rider you are, the better polo player you can be,” Mejía says.
Since the club opened in 2021, guests aged seven to 70 have signed up for polo lessons, with repeat takers not uncommon. So committed have some of Mandarina’s students become that the club is considering a tournament just for players who took their first lesson there.
“Most people come at it in a way that they feel like, ‘Oh my God, polo is going to be so fast and it's going to be impossible,’” Mejía says. “Yes, it's very hard, but once you get on the horse, a lot of people can catch on to it.”
Plans to expand the offerings at the club promise to attract a new set of horse-lovers. When we talk, Mejía has just returned from the Mexican national showjumping championships in the central state of Queretaro, where he held meetings about bringing the sport to Mandarina.
A Greg Norman-designed golf course is also being built on Mandarina land next to the polo field. (Rosewood Mandarina, the hotel group’s fourth Mexico property, will open down the coast in April with access to the Mandarina activities, which also include tennis and pickleball clinics and miles of jungle mountain bike paths.)
Back on the polo field, with my offside forehand in good shape, I ask to try a trot, one gait closer to the 35 miles per hour that professional players can reach in matches. This will require picking up a new posture, Rogelio explains: posting, rising and falling from the saddle in sync with the horse’s quickened rhythm.
It’s the most out of place I’ve felt so far. As Dorado begins to speed up, I’m tossed into a jagged bounce. Attempting to post, I tense my core and slip into the up-down, up-down of his stride. I can sense Dorado’s growing enthusiasm. This is my first taste of the oneness of mind that the best polo players have with their horses.
Instinctively, Dorado guides me towards the polo ball downfield and squares me up for a crack: not my best, but I’m certainly getting better.
With the lesson over, and a slight soreness warming my forearm, Dorado is back resting at the stable as the sun starts to set. In scrubby pastures nearby, ponies too young to begin their polo training graze lazily.
For me, a golf cart is waiting to whisk me down a dirt path, over a boardwalk that cuts through a lagoon, and up to Allora, Mandarina’s Italian restaurant wedged up against the waves. I’m back in the wild part of Mexico, but maybe a hair more refined.
All images courtesy of One&Only Mandarina / Mandarina Polo & Equestrian Club
