Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya

Mandarin Oriental The Hotel Group es una cadena con má de 10,000 habitaciones alrededor del mundo, en los lugares más exclusivos y grandes centros de negocios, todos sus desarrollos tienen carácterísticas de gran lujo y una personalidad oriental, sin embargo en la Riviera Maya las bondades del lugar logran una espléndida fusión donde sobresalen toques de la Cultura Maya y el estilo propio de la región.Hablar de habitaciones en palafitos y decoración blanca y lineal no alejan en lo absoluto de un sofísticado y ostentoso concepto . Condé Nast Traveller lo recomienda como uno de los destinos más románticos para una Luna de Miel:

Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya

Between Cancún and Playa del Carmen is the Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya, one of the most recent openings and the most hotly anticipated. Dazzling white in the Caribbean sunshine, the company's first Mexican resort is a temple to sleek minimalist design, or rather 128 temples. It is ideal for people looking for a luxury beach holiday, rather than anything specifically Mexican, and it attracts smart couples from Mexico City, groups of friends from California and New York and extended society families from Miami. At the relaxed beachfront seafood restaurant, Ceviche Cha Cha Cha, I spot the resort's young Mexican owner-architect, who bears more than a passing resemblance to George Clooney, sampling the exquisite sushi with his two young children. They look as though they're on a break from a Ralph Lauren fashion shoot.

Accommodation is arranged in themed, discreet clusters between swathes of untouched mangroves alive with warblers and hummingbirds. The Grand Selva Suites have been built around 'art courtyards' with modern installations by local artists, while the Cenote and Laguna Rooms sit on the water's edge of cenotes and lagoons around the property. Room layouts vary between clusters, though the interior design is pretty much the same throughout. Then there are the Beach Bungalows and, most impressive of all, an enormous, three-bedroom Presidential Suite with an L-shaped infinity pool and a spa-treatment terrace on the roof. Inside, vast beds in clouds of white linen, cream marble counters and cool, polished granite floors are offset by bright works of art, shag-pile rugs in colours such as burnt orange, and coffee tables made from thick slices of rich-red tree trunks.

The spa, inspired by the elements of water, air, fire and earth, is a low-rise compound of relaxation areas and heat and water-therapy rooms, with individual treatment palapas (thatched huts) dotted around the garden. I try the two-hour Mayan Tzolkin Ritual, which begins in the Mandala herb garden, where I'm left to potter about sniffing the leaves of the various plants - lavender, spearmint, rosemary, lemongrass - until I find one I like. The plant is then incorporated into a foot-bathing ritual, body scrub and massage. There is a steady stream of golf buggies ferrying guests around the spacious property, as there is quite a distance between, say, the reception and the beach. It takes a day or two before I persuade my butler Oscar not to send a beach buggy to collect me for dinner every night, especially when I'm going to Aguamarina, an excellent Mexican restaurant not far from my suite. Eventually I convince him that I actually enjoy walking for five minutes in the cool of the evening, the delicious sea breeze in my hair.

Mandarin Oriental Riviera Maya: Km288 Cancún-Playa del Carmen (00 1 800 526 6566;www.mandarinoriental.com). Doubles from US$583

By Francesca Syz: this article featured in the November 2008 issue of Condé Nast Traveller magazine

Hoy es un gran día para mostrarte lo mejor de México.

Juan Carlos Bonilla.