Travel Mexico Hotels

The individual resorts each have a limited amount of beachfront space, with the bulk of their footprint along waterways amid the mangroves. Fairmont was the first to open, and it’s the largest, more geared toward group business and families.

More exclusive is the quite beautifully designed Rosewood, all earth tones and organic shapes, which has some fabulous rooms that open directly to the beach and many more that face the canals; although the former are most sought-after, I really liked the latter, which are extremely private and have a feeling reminiscent of safari camps I’ve stayed at in the African bush.

The newest addition to the development is Banyan Tree, the company’s first Latin American property, which is an Asian-accented fantasyland that makes nice use of the waterways and has generously sized rooms with private courtyards and pools. Technically not in Mayakoba but right next door is the Mandarin Oriental, which is a little less explicitly Asian in design than Banyan Tree and has a very good restaurant, some interesting large-scale art and awesome beachfront rooms; I stayed in one of the duplex suites with a rooftop pool overlooking the sand, which I loved. As in Cancún, the drop in demand here has made for some really attractive rates.