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The Riviera Maya is a difficult destination to resist
And once you're there why not sample 5 resorts in 5 nights?
By: Mary Gostelow
For those in the know, Mexico's Riviera Maya is a natural magnet (shown, a view at Rosewood Mayakoba).
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For those like me, making their first visit, it is a revelation, says Angela Cobban. I flew into the sparkling new airport at Cancun, on Mexico's Atlantic coast. Forty minutes non-stop drive south along north-south Highway 307, I arrived at Riviera Maya. The road runs parallel with the seashore, but roughly a mile inland from in it, the linking land sliced, so to speak, into quite narrow strips. Here, on the strips, are the resorts. In most cases you probably want to be able at least to see the ocean to the east, but because of that land division, this is not always possible. Elsewhere, jungle overtakes water as the most desirable view.
Now I must admit that not everyone would want to do this WOW.travel itinerary, namely five resorts in five nights. From north to south along the coast, the ones we sampled are Maroma, an Orient-Express property; Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya, Rosewood Mayakoba, Fairmont Mayakoba and The Tides Riviera Maya, each within 15 minutes' drive from its neighbors. Yes, there are obviously other beautiful luxury resorts in this packed-full destination, which of course is a compelling reason to return.
Maroma, is a marvelously home like adults-only Mexican resort. It looks like a white-adobe hacienda that just grew, which indeed is what happened. In 1995 architect Jose Luis Moreno built the original house, which has since been ravaged by a hurricane, rebuilt and extended. Stay here for a sense of Mexico's past, and to be in a casa right on the beach. Inside, you have hand-hewn beams, Mexican artifacts; you have a sense of place. You feel as if you are staying in a luxurious private house, its gardens tended by a legion of passionate gardeners. You will enjoy the walkways, through bougainvillea tunnels and past casitas, taking you to a flower-shaped pool, perhaps to the Kinan spa and the outdoor organic Cilantro restaurant. Most repeat guests will certainly end up, by early evening, at Freddy's bar, right on the sand and run by Freddy himself. A few yards away is the Maya Temazcal, sweat lodge, found at all resorts here - Maroma's is half-submerged in the sand. GM Federico Echaiz runs this 65-room luxury resort, and we recommend suite 62, upstairs in the two-floor Sian Nah, House of Heaven, building: it has a private front terrace, an indoor gym, a side terrace with plunge pool and a flat rooftop for sunbathing.
For the best water views at the 128-room Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya, which only opened a few weeks ago, you and the kids might want to be right on the beach - but we stayed one tier back, thus avoiding the incredible winds which tend to happen for the first few months of every year. We were, instead, in 613, a 680sq ft Palafito room, one of four in a two-up, two-down configuration in a square-topped white box rising on stilts out of the lagoon just inland from the coast. Highlights are arriving at your room by raised boardwalk, being in an all-white interior with just a few color highlights, and, if you are upstairs, like us, you can walk up to your private rooftop terrace. This is the art hotel: 613 has a wall hanging that is a framed melange of blue water colors, with underneath a rope. Elsewhere, enjoy going into the Art Courts, six tennis court-sized areas surrounded by villas, each area having a strategic conceptual art statement. One has a series of different shapes of solid blocks that does perhaps look a little like Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum in Berlin: the others are similarly evocative.
GM Patrick-Denis Finet, whom we first met in Chiang Mai some years ago, is a historian and dance fanatic, and you can see the sense of movement in this resort. This is the only one of the resorts covered that has, for instance, a 'statement' front desk, in the form of a 100-yard open-sided flat roof structure reached by nine stone steps from the car drop-off. This is the only one of the quintet that has a one-mile highway, with a non-stop succession of golf carts plying the stone path between that reception and the beach. There is a signature restaurant, in a circular space with a copper roof that looks remarkably like a beret shape (apparently it is in fact supposed to be a jellyfish) but if you want to eat-in, enjoying your lovely room and its views, we suggest the kobe beef burger with foie gras topping.
Rosewood Mayakoba is on the 1,605-acre Mayakoba development being masterminded by Juan-Miguel Villar Mir, Chairman of the Spanish construction giant Obrascon Huarte Lain SA, OHL, www.ohl.es. Its Greg Norman-designed 18-hole El Camaleon golf course has already hosted a PGA tournament, and another course is planned. Eventually there will be hundreds of privately-owned residences and villas, but right now there are two operating hotels, the Fairmont and the Rosewood.
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Rosewood Mayakoba is the destination is for sleek sophisticates: GM Pablo Graf told us that OHL wanted this luxury resort to be high-tech modern-Maya. Kids and their elders alike are intrigued by the arrival process. Once you get to the resort, you are escorted down to a landing stage and taken to your room by lanchita, an electric boat that glides along waterways flanked by dense mangrove. The 128 rooms here are in sleek minimalist stone buildings - and all rooms have their own private pool. Suite 605 is right on the beach - from the arrival boat, you have a 20-yard walk along a path with well-raked sand all around. As everywhere on this trip, there was a Nespresso machine and the minibar here added Starbuck's Frappuccino. Memories from Rosewood Mayakoba include Sense Spa, on its own private island among the lagoons that interweave with the mangroves in this entire area, and watching a room service order being delivered to the main pool area - a waiter carried four trays stacked above each other, two holding food in a tray with sides, the others to be upturned to form tables for those orders.
At the 401-room Fairmont Mayakoba, run by GM Ian Robinson, you are also escorted to your room aboard a lanchita - as long as the wind is not blowing too much. This is the luxury family resort for kids of all ages. While the other resorts on this lightning trip deliberately eschewed color in favor of natural stone and thatch, here there is a riot of color, from the saffron-colored main buildings to the painted-on warpaint of the employees dressed in Maya costume when you arrive. Yes, this is deliberately folksy, but not over the top. There is so much to do at the Fairmont, so many activities you lose count. One highlight here is definitely the 'see one, steal one' bicycle program. I was given a bike, free, and warned about the anything goes concept. Sure enough, after I came out of the gym attached to the enormous Willow Stream spa someone had nicked my bike. No worry, I looked for another one to replace it. I am told that kids love the waterchutes and play areas here. For me, I loved being right on the sandy beach, in villa 904, with my personal infinity-edged 25-foot pool high above the sand, and I really appreciated having a full breakfast served at four o'clock (pre-dawn, by far) before I had to leave.
If, after all this water, you want a jungle experience, head for adults-only The Tides Riviera Maya. This is - different. It only has 30 rooms, and all, apart from the presidential suite, are the same - namely, no-one else can see you as your thatched hut is hidden in 20 foot high trees and undergrowth, but never mind, you have a luxury bed, every high-tech thing you can think of (including underwater headsets) and, on your terrace, there is an eight-foot curvilinear plunge pool. Like every other resort covered here, wireless internet is taken for granted, and food and service will be - the best. But, thanks to The Tides GM Julian Smaldoni, you have a few extras here.
When you first arrive, a shaman in Maya costume does a welcome rite, after which you are offered tastings - sorry, whiffs - of about half a dozen fabulous locally-made soaps. Your choice, say bright green lemongrass or chocolate-studded chocolate, is then sliced off, for use in your outdoor shower. During your stay you can head for secluded areas in the forest, set aside variously for painting, writing or reading - all materials supplied. You can dine where you want, perhaps main poolside, or on the beach or even on what, by daylight, is a poolside double-lounger, its strings hung from four living palm trees. Oh yes, and The Tides has one of the world's best boutiques (on a par with One&Only Reethi Rah's, in The Maldives, that is to say, designer-stuff that you really want, and need, to buy).
So, every one of these resorts has all the basic mod-cons, wireless internet and flat-screen televisions, highest level of bedding and superb, and friendly, service, and great food - honestly, after eating guacamole in Mexico one never wants the world-wide package stuff ever again. One note of warning: wine is exorbitantly expensive, with the remarkably good local Valle de Guadalupe wines annoyingly raising their prices to match imported wines, subject to 45% import tax (paying $15 for a somewhat-mean 'glass' of local white wine did, admittedly, grate). But, that notwithstanding, I wholeheartedly recommend heading for Riviera Maya - what more can one say?
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