Five of the wedding resorts on this coast carry a five-star rating, and they divide into two groups that behave so differently it’s worth understanding before you compare a single price. Three sit in Nuevo Vallarta, close to the airport, running on all-inclusive or near all-inclusive terms. Two sit out on the Punta de Mita peninsula and charge for rooms, with food and drink billed separately across the week.
That distinction matters more than any difference in the rating itself. A nightly rate that looks higher can end up costing less across five nights with sixty guests, and a rate that looks reasonable can climb once everybody’s dinners are on it. Riviera Nayarit is one of the few wedding destinations where both models sit side by side at the top of the market.
Below are all five, what each brings to a wedding, and where the real cost sits. Our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists can model the total for your guest count rather than the headline rate for your destination wedding.
Best 5-Star Destination Wedding Venues at Top Riviera Nayarit Resorts
All five five-star wedding properties on the coast, three in Nuevo Vallarta and two on the peninsula.
1. Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit
Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit handles the widest range of ceremony formats of any luxury property here: Jewish, South Asian, civil, and symbolic. It’s medium-sized and family-friendly, in Nuevo Vallarta.
Breadth like that reflects a kitchen and a wedding team used to being asked for things rather than offering a menu. For couples whose requirements are specific, whether dietary, religious, or structural, that flexibility is worth more than square footage. The location also keeps transfers short, which matters when guests arrive on many different flights.
Learn more about Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit and get a free quote today >>
2. UNICO 20°105° Hotel Riviera Nayarit
UNICO 20°105° Hotel Riviera Nayarit is the coast’s only five-star adults-only, all-inclusive, medium-sized hotel, and it handles Jewish, South Asian, civil, and symbolic ceremonies.
All-inclusive at this level is the thing to pay attention to. Your guests’ food and drink for the week sits inside a rate you can quote them up front, which removes the single biggest source of uncertainty when people are deciding whether they can afford to come. Adults-only narrows the guest list, so that’s the question to settle before anything else.
Learn more about UNICO 20°105° Hotel Riviera Nayarit and get a free quote today >>
3. Marival Distinct All-Suites & World Spa – Handwritten Collection
Marival Distinct All-Suites & World Spa – Handwritten Collection is the five-star property with the best venue range on the coast. Mozzamere Beach holds 500, the Terrace takes 80 at sunset, and the Insú Sky Bar seats 80 on the roof.
Five hundred guests on sand at a five-star property is genuinely unusual, and it means a large wedding doesn’t have to trade down in standard to fit everyone in. It’s family-friendly, suite-based, and handles Jewish, South Asian, civil, and symbolic ceremonies, which makes it the most versatile of the three Nuevo Vallarta luxury options.
Learn more about Marival Distinct All-Suites & World Spa – Handwritten Collection and get a free quote today >>
4. Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita
Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita is medium-sized and family-friendly out on the peninsula, handling civil and symbolic ceremonies.
The peninsula is the draw and the trade-off in one. You get seclusion, a quieter stretch of coast, and a setting that feels removed from the resort strip, in exchange for roughly an hour from the airport for every guest arriving and leaving. It’s a room-rate property rather than an all-inclusive, so build food and drink for the week into any comparison before judging it against a package.
Learn more about Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita and get a free quote today >>
5. The St. Regis Punta Mita Resort
The St. Regis Punta Mita Resort is medium-sized and family-friendly at the end of the peninsula, with civil and symbolic ceremonies.
It sits at the quietest point on the coast, which is precisely why couples choose it and precisely why some don’t. For a smaller wedding where the week is meant to feel private and unhurried, the setting does something the Nuevo Vallarta properties can’t. Like its neighbour, it charges for rooms rather than running all-inclusive.
Learn more about The St. Regis Punta Mita Resort and get a free quote today >>
More Information for Planning Your 5-Star Destination Wedding in Riviera Nayarit
Luxury works differently on this coast than it does in Cancun or Los Cabos locations. Here’s what our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists flag.
5-Star Destination Wedding Venues Appeal
Service ratio is what you’re actually paying for. More staff per guest means faster bars, better-timed courses, and a coordinator who isn’t running three weddings that weekend. On the day itself, that’s the difference guests notice even if they couldn’t name it.
The second thing is flexibility. Luxury properties tend to say yes more often, which matters if your wedding has requirements rather than preferences, whether that’s a chuppah, a mandap, a specific dietary standard, or an unusual timeline. Four of these five handle more than two ceremony formats.
The honest caution is that five stars doesn’t automatically mean more capacity. Three of these properties are medium-sized and two of them run comparatively few venues, so if your guest list is large, check the specific numbers rather than assuming the rating covers it. The biggest ceremony spaces on this coast are at four- and 4.5-star resorts.
Riviera Nayarit Destination Wedding Cost
The average cost of a destination wedding in Riviera Nayarit is $10,215 all-in for the couple, covering the wedding package, accommodations, airfare, and add-ons. Hotel costs average roughly $299 per person per night over a typical five-night stay, with airfare from $200 to $800 per couple. Couples marrying here average 45 guests.
These averages reflect real spend data from couples who booked their destination wedding with our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists.
A five-star wedding sits above that figure, though by less than people expect once the model is accounted for. The variable that moves it most is whether the property is all-inclusive. At the peninsula resorts, food and drink for a week sit on top of the room rate, and with a full guest list that’s the number worth modelling before anything else.
Riviera Nayarit Destination Wedding Packages
Complimentary and deposit-only wedding packages are widely available with a qualifying room block, running roughly $1,350 to $5,000 at entry tier, $5,500 to $7,000 mid-tier, and $7,500 to $14,000 and beyond for full productions.
Those tiers describe the all-inclusive properties. Room-rate resorts tend to price weddings case by case rather than from a package menu, so ask for a full written quote covering venue, catering, and service charges before comparing one against a package figure. The two aren’t directly comparable without that work.
Riviera Nayarit Destination Wedding Travel Information
Licenciado Gustavo Diaz Ordaz International Airport serves the coast with direct flights from most major US and Canadian cities. Nuevo Vallarta is 25 to 40 minutes from the terminal and Punta de Mita roughly an hour.
That hour shapes the week more than couples expect. The peninsula gives you seclusion and takes it out of everyone’s travel day in both directions. Nuevo Vallarta keeps transfers short and sits closer to restaurants and marina life for guests who want to leave the property. The November to April dry season books out first at this end of the market, often a year or more ahead.
Riviera Nayarit 5-Star Destination Wedding Venue FAQs
Which 5-star resorts in Riviera Nayarit host weddings?
Five: Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit, UNICO 20°105° Hotel Riviera Nayarit, and Marival Distinct in Nuevo Vallarta, plus Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita and The St. Regis Punta Mita Resort on the peninsula.
Are the 5-star resorts in Riviera Nayarit all-inclusive?
Not all of them. UNICO 20°105° is an adults-only all-inclusive, while Four Seasons Punta Mita and The St. Regis Punta Mita charge for rooms with food and drink billed separately. Ask which model applies before comparing rates, because it changes the week’s total considerably.
Do you need a 5-star resort for a luxury wedding?
Not necessarily on this coast. Several 4.5-star properties here have larger venues, more of them, and handle more ceremony formats. Five stars buy service ratio and flexibility rather than capacity, so match the rating to what you actually need.
Get Ready to Plan a 5-Star Destination Wedding in Riviera Nayarit
Two very different versions of luxury sit on the same coastline: all-inclusive and close to the airport, or secluded on the peninsula with everything priced separately. Choosing between them is mostly a question of how many people you’re bringing and how you want their week to be billed.
Fill out our online wedding planning form, and one of our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists will model the real total for your guest count at each of them.
About the Author
Maggie Sabin
Maggie started as the SEO Manager at DestinationWeddings.com in 2024, where she works to drive organic traffic and conversions while creating meaningful, SEO-optimized content for the website. Previously, Maggie's career spanned from Human Resources & Recruitment to teaching at international schools for almost 10 years. Maggie spends her free time traveling, learning new languages, reading non-fiction books, working out, going to the beach and spending time cuddling her dog, Lola!
