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Many of the staff are third-generation employees who remember not only your name but whether you prefer your margarita made with tequila or mezcal (and which brand), and where you like your yoga mat to be set up in your room. The real treat, though, is to sit by the pool with a book and michelada, knowing that the Pacific is there waiting when you’re ready for your plunge.Īrriving at this spot on the very tip of the Baja Peninsula feels like coming home. Interiors have a Mexican 2.0 aesthetic that leans into local materials while executed in a sophisticated desert palette (lots of native wood, earth-toned woven throws and hanging tapestries, and creamy sandstone), and landscaping embraces native, drought-resistant plants like agave, flowering desert figs, and saguaros. And in a town where things can go from place-defining to cliché quickly, Montage gets it right. As impressive is the fact that all of the 122 guest rooms, suites, and casas (not just top-tier rooms) have ocean views, expansive terraces with daybeds, dining areas, and outdoor showers-just the sort of breezy indoor/outdoor setup you want on a beach holiday. Located on 39 quiet acres of beachfront between the overdeveloped hotel zones of Cabo San Lucas and San José del Cabo, Montage looks out on the serene, divinely swimmable waters of Santa Maria Bay. The tasting menu-only restaurant Bu’ul is more ambitious, with regional dishes like mamey fruit tartare topped with glazed escamoles and surprisingly tasty ant larvae, all of which will challenge (and wow) your palate. Seafood is the star at Maroma, showcased at the rooftop raw bar and at casual restaurant, Kaban. Chef Jorge Vallejo of Mexico City’s top-ranked Quintonil oversees the menus, sourcing ingredients from on-site ka’anches, Mayan gardens.
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While your schedule in the Yucatán is packed with fitness classes and spa sessions, Maroma encourages time spent sipping margaritas by the infinity pool, as any Mexican resort should. True to the brand, Maroma’s bright spa remains deeply rooted in Mayan healing traditions (the temazcal ceremony, led by a local healer, is the real-deal, requiring a two-hour commitment). And let’s not forget its access to Riviera Mayakoba’s powdery beach. It has 70 neutral-palette suites, each with its own pool, terrace, and palm-shrouded outdoor rain shower. This may quite possibly be the only hotel in Mexico that combines the level of wellness travelers now hop planes for with the country’s trademark sugary beaches. Even the five nearby theme parks defy the big-build, thrill-ride stereotype, designed as they are to guide you through the indigenous natural surroundings and traditional culture. And the spa-built into the surrounding limestone like some kind of a nymphean grotto-beckons you to lie in a giant swinging bed and zone out before your spice-infused Mayan Journey in a private temazcal. Mercado de la Merced, Xcaret’s main restaurant, is a Wonka-esque explosion of authentic ceviches, sopas, asados, and Mexican sweets. The cheerfully embroidered cushions made by women in Chiapas, Yucatan-made rope hammocks, and floor tiles from Puebla in all of the 900-plus rooms wouldn’t be out of place in Tulum’s more boho-chic barefoot inns. But rather than swim-up bars teeming with sunburned masses in fluorescent wristbands drinking daiquiris, Hotel Xcaret Mexico has a vibe more like a boutique hotel (albeit one with seven pools). It’s hard to imagine that an all-inclusive along the Riviera Maya could be the first hotel in the Americas to win EarthCheck certification for sustainability.