Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach Cancún Resort & Spa

This doyenne of luxury resorts is outdone only by the view it commands from every room: a 270-degree sweep of bay where the roiling Caribbean meets the placid Bahía de Mujeres. The building’s angular, salmon-colored profile, rising 11 stories high, is a tad jarring next to its relatively understated neighbors, but the vast atrium lobby is an oasis of stained-glass skylights and green marble in the middle of the entertainment district. In all 602 suites, guests can lounge on their balconies in upholstered chairs; inside, whitewashed furniture and pastel earth tones play up natural light. The solicitous staff (the pool bartender remembers guests from two years earlier) mitigates the potentially daunting effect of the hotel’s sheer size. Outdoors, nature and artifice deck it out for swimmers: a multi-tiered, 800-foot pool winding through exotic blooms competes with a north-facing beach of white sand.