The Mantra was absolutely amazing! Clearly, a former Cipriani property, it truly lived up to everything we had heard about. The rooms were clean, reasonably spacious, and highly functional. The pool was gorgeous, the spa is fabulous (albeit a bit farther from the rooms than we expected), and the service was excellent! The casino is fun to go to ... the grounds are extremely well kept...The concierge staff was very helpful, in particular! Their suggestions regarding restaurants, etc. was right on! They were polite, friendly, helpful, everything one would want in a top resort. There are only two "downsides" to this hotel. The first is that it attracts a bit too many people from New York. There was one couple there with their kids who were so unbelievably annoying and loud and insulting ... it embarassed me to tell people I was from NYC...The only other downside of this hotel is that it is somewhat out of the way....we ended up renting a car to visit other towns, such as Punta del Este. Having said that, there were advantages to renting a car... restaurants such as Los Negros (we thought it was the best restaurant in the area), for example, would be too far (or pricey) to reach by taxi...and driving around really allow us to learn the lay of the land, visit more places, etc. If we were to go back to the Punta del Este region, we would not hesitate to stay at the Mantra once again!