Rosewood Mayakoba

Rosewood's Riviera Maya flagship sits inside Mayakoba, a low-rise development carved through mangrove and freshwater lagoons where guests are ferried to their doors by electric boat rather than buggy. Every suite comes with its own plunge pool and shaded terrace, and the larger beachfront lagoon suites feel closer to standalone villas than hotel rooms.

The headline draw is Sense, a spa built on its own island in the middle of the lagoon and reached only by water, alongside a long quiet beach that is unusually calm for this coast. Dining runs from open-fire Mexican cooking to a beachside seafood grill, and there is a golf course shared with the neighbouring resorts.

It works well as a base for the wider peninsula: cenotes, the Tulum ruins and the Sian Ka'an biosphere are all within reach, but the resort is self-contained enough that many guests never leave the property.