Fairmont Mayakoba

As the Riviera Maya’s first environmentally conscious golf-and-spa complex, the Fairmont Mayakoba is an eco-friendly alternative to the monolithic resorts clustered along the Caribbean coast of the Yucatán Peninsula. One of four hotels in the huge Mayakoba development that’s just a 50-minute drive south of Cancún, the Fairmont sits on 50 acres full of preserved swamps, freshwater lagoons, and canals, and that include a 700-foot-long white-sand beach. There are all the standard resort amenities: five swimming pools, four restaurants—and an aesthetic that pairs thatched roofs and green-and-red fabrics with slatted wooden doors and cool marble floors. The Fairmont combines them with biologically sensitive initiatives such as a Greg Norman–designed golf course certified by Audubon International, and wooden walkways designed to preserve indigenous mangrove forests.

Room to Book: Take a tour through the Sian Ka'an nature preserve, a UNESCO World Heritage site in which guests can take a dip in a cenote, one of the area's ancient spring-water-filled sink holes.