ESENCIA
Riviera Maya, Mexico
With all the resort pyrotechnics up the coast, it's easy to overlook quiet, dignified hotels like Esencia, which still give you a taste of the area's original appeal. It was built as a winter retreat for an Italian duchess, not as a glamour-drenched resort with martini bars and air-conditioned cabanas. That contrarian spirit was actually the impetus for its transformation into a hotel in 2005--the duchess wanted to create an antidote to all the international slickness.
Her house has colonial echoes in its arched colonnade, mahogany shutters, and convivial living room. It contains seven guest rooms, five with full-on ocean views; her guesthouse holds two more big ocean-view rooms. The rest of the accommodations (there are 29 total) are in two-story buildings surrounded by jungle so dense I could plunge into my plunge pool au naturel. The prevailing sensibility is uncluttered: white plaster walls and floors, driftwood mounted as art, and splashes of color on cushions and bed runners.
Pleasures are simple: fresh pastries and coffee left on your deck at sunrise, gentle yoga outside, a sparkling white beach with chaises under curtained palapas. When I grew bored with shade-bathing, I could walk for miles before encountering clots of megaresort guests.
"We aren't a resort; we're more like a house," said the woman who escorted me to my room. There aren't big-hotel amenities. You walk to the beach instead of riding a cart. Staff learned my name by talking with me rather than Googling me beforehand. All of this resonates with Europeans, who comprised the majority of the guests, lustily smoking and drinking Pinot Grigio on the beach.
The spa, modeled on a Maya home, references the culture gracefully. Treatments use plants from the spa garden, mashed and mixed in the on-site apothecary. My therapist applied just as much pressure as I could take, and I left feeling wrung out but buzzing on endorphins, as after a good workout.
The restaurant likewise shows an affinity for the region. The chef is from Guatemala and emphasizes rustic Mesoamerican dishes like Yucatán chicken-lime soup and adobo-dusted fish steamed in banana leaves. Better yet, the staff is caring. As I shivered in an unseasonably cold wind at breakfast, a waiter offered me a wrap. Actually, it looked like a table runner--an improvisation that made me appreciate it all the more. --Ann Abel
THE DETAILS
$595–$1,995
Special Deal: The third or fourth night is free for much of 2011.
Contact: 877-528-3490, hotelesencia.com
Hix Island House
Vieques, Puerto Rico
Standing in my living room at Hix Island House, I could pick sugar apples from the tree outside. You get close to nature at this 13-room hilltop hideaway in the jungly interior of Vieques. Canadian architect John Hix, known for his earthcentric style, designed the four angular, raw-concrete buildings as sculptures absorbed and concealed by the landscape. You could also think of them as frames: Walls are missing, corners aren't square, and attention is constantly redirected to the greenery outside.
The gray palette of the cement walls, floors, counters, and tables is punched up by Marimekko spreads on the mosquito-netted beds, but eco-hip minimalism is the leitmotif. There's no sensory assault, only birdsong and the scent of night-blooming jasmine carried by trade winds. (Though there are a few tactile pleasures, such as the Frette linens and Sea Island cotton nightshirts.)
Minimalism defines the amenities, too. "Unplugged" is taken seriously. The loftlike rooms have no TVs, phones, or iPod docks. There's no air-conditioning, though breezes made August nights bearable. (There's also no glass or insect screen in any of the windows.) The front desk is staffed ten hours a day, and there's no housekeeping--I swept my floor and took out my trash--or room service. There's not even a restaurant, though rooms have full kitchens and are stocked with homemade bread and breakfast fixings.
There's a pool, but the only activity is a daily yoga class that's known as the best on the island. The teacher trained at New York's well-regarded Jivamukti, led solid classes that suited students of various skill levels, and after class, picked limes and knocked a papaya off a tree for me to take back to my room.
Hix's deeply laid-back vibe is very much in keeping with Vieques' sleepy boho character. The island, seven miles east of mainland Puerto Rico, has seen remarkably little development since the U.S. Navy left in 2003. It still has only about 300 hotel rooms (more than half at the splashy new W resort), winding one-lane roads (with two-way SUV traffic), wild horses, and uncrowded white beaches, many of them in a protected wildlife reserve.
There are swankier places to stay in Vieques--that W, for one, and some lavish rental villas--but Hix Island House is a reminder that less really can be more. "Here, our guests welcome a divergence from their mundane urban/suburban life," says Hix. "A milieu of contrast, for me, is the very essence of re-creation." --A.A.
THE DETAILS
$175–$310
Take Note: The remote location means all guests must rent cars.
Contact: 787-741-2302, hixislandhouse.com
Casa Harb
San Andrés, Colombia
How's this for an offbeat travel mashup: a luxury boutique hotel that channels Southeast Asia, owned by a Colombian of Lebanese descent, on a tiny island 140 miles east of Nicaragua. Oh, and the island conjures up Jamaica with its dreadlocked Rastafarians and red-yellow-and-green beach bars. And then there's this: According to local lore, there's buried pirate booty hereabouts, from the time when Henry Morgan used the San Andrés Archipelago as a base for plundering Panama.
Casa Harb makes a compelling case for globalization and offers an appealing contrast from the laid-back, reggae-soaked culture outside its walls. Jak Harb transformed his father's quietly grand home into a five-suite hotel in 2006, aiming to replicate the lodgings he'd fallen in love with in Thailand, Malaysia, and the Philippines.
Much of the bamboo furniture was made by Filipino designer Kenneth Cobonpue. Harb brought back an artful collection of seashells from Siargao, silks from China, vessels from Burma, carved panels from Bali, dinnerware from Thailand, and silver from Vietnam--and two original Keith Harings from New York; he knew the artist. The Balinese daybed by the pool is almost inviting enough to compensate for the hotel's lack of direct beach access. Service approaches Asian attentiveness, though little English is spoken. Even the hotel's menu strikes Thai notes, with tom kha gai soup along with seviches and sea-food stews, all of it tasty.
San Andrés' main draw is diving. The archipelago is the site of the world's third-largest barrier reef and part of a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. The water is warm and gin-clear, with an average visibility of 100 feet. It holds some 57 species of colorful coral as well as spiny lobsters, eagle rays, black crabs, and sea turtles. Most of the reef's 273 species of fish seemed to be right underneath my dive boat when I plunged in.
A caveat: San Andrés Island is about seven miles long and two miles wide, and home to at least 70,000 people, plus South American and Canadian tourists--forget about seclusion. The town center at the northern tip of the island is an unappealing jumble of all-inclusive high-rise hotels, duty-free shops, and boisterous nightclubs. Casa Harb is far enough away to be quiet, and if you aren't diving, your best bet during the day is to head to the sleepy south end or hire a catamaran to one of the surrounding cays. The Sea of Seven Colors is so striking you don't mind sharing. --A.A.
THE DETAILS
$410
Getting There: The island is a two-hour flight from Bogotá or one hour from Panama City.
Contact: 57-8-512-6348, casaharb.com
Cayo Espanto
Belize
This serene four-acre, seven-villa private island's not-so-serene name, which comes from the Spanish word for "frightening," is due to its long-ago reputation as a home to mischievous spirits. But with its cosseting of clientele and languid Yucatán vibe, Cayo Espanto could calm even the most high-strung visitor.
Owned by American serial entrepreneur Jeff Gram (Mazda Miata accessories, mail-order marketing, and real estate), the island sits a few miles from rapidly developing Ambergris Cay, Belize's top tourist destination, but psychically it could not be further away. Each open-air villa sits at the azure water's edge, and the surrounding palms provide maximum privacy. You could easily spend a weekend here and not see (or hear) another soul--except the staff--even if the place is full.
The resort's solitude and peace alone would merit the price of admission. But Cayo Espanto also has service down cold, from seamless airport transfers to excursions that allow for spontaneity. The dive master and boat captain during our stay, German, took me to deeper waters to suit my level of experience; was able to switch a waterskiing outing to a tubing one without missing a beat; tolerated several schedule changes; and during our Day at Sea, shifted plans from bird-watching to swimming with manatees--a decision for which we were most grateful. He also prepares a mean seviche.
Each villa is assigned a houseman, who brings breakfast, lunch, dinner, and periodic refreshments, and is reachable via walkie-talkie. (Rooms have no phones.) Early one morning, a staff member even went to the mainland to purchase toiletries we'd forgotten to pack.
Espanto also offers excursions--to the mainland for Maya ruins and to a "blue hole" off the coast, the scuba diver's holy grail. Indeed, the diving throughout the area (a 180-mile-long reef runs the length of Ambergris Cay) affords spectacular and diverse experiences. But those who abhor physical activity will also find themselves extremely comfortable. The staff will provide a fishing pole so you can pursue the elusive bonefish, which populates the shallows surrounding the island. You can cast with one hand while nursing an Espanto Wave (rum, curaçao, amaretto, and triple sec with pineapple and lime juices; it tastes quite a bit better than it sounds) with the other. Indeed, while I was underwater, my companion pondered strategic moves from the hammock to the private plunge pool and back, forgoing the habit only when the time came for an in-room massage and another Wave.
Cayo Espanto's recently opened one-bedroom villa, Casa Solana, sits on a point on the southwestern part of the island and provides the resort's finest sunset views. Three sides of the casa are open, and while its cross breezes were lovely, it felt a bit more public than the other accommodations, as it isn't shrouded by palms. We preferred Casa Ventanas, built at the end of a dock extending about 150 feet offshore, which, with its vaulted ceiling of Belizean cabbage bark, felt like the world's most luxurious houseboat. We also loved Casa Estrella, a comfortable two-bedroom, two-story, two-balcony affair that afforded such spectacular views that it was hard to leave, even to simply go outside. Given the lure of the extraordinary natural diversity just a few feet away, that's high praise indeed. --LORRAINE CADEMARTORI
THE DETAILS
$1,295–$2,395
Contact 888-666-4282, aprivateisland.com
GeeJam
Port Antonio, Jamaica
It Ain't About Golf," say the staff T-shirts at Geejam, a slogan that transcends the obvious--the place is perched like a pirate's lookout on a steep seafront hillside--as a statement of attitude. Starting with its goofy name and hip version of luxury, Geejam has the genius of being able to hold several contrasting thoughts and moods in harmony. The miniresort's centerpiece is a professional recording studio with travel-poster views that has attracted guests like Gwen Stefani (whose band, No Doubt, recorded the album Rock Steady there) and Grace Jones. (During my stay it seemed to be attracting photo shoots with modelly singers like flypaper.) But the studio is routinely available by appointment to regular-old guests (they can make you happen, brah), and the showbiz insidery-ness doesn't distance a staff that pampers little kids and indiscriminately dusts civilians with star treatment.
Geejam occupies a privileged six acres on Jamaica's northeastern coast, where the rain forest–covered mountains above legendary spots like Frenchman's Cove and the Blue Lagoon all but tumble into the sea. The resort is a modest scattering of buildings tucked away in an artfully cultivated jungle setting where the horticultural names alone knock you out: parrot heliconia, soursop, ginger rose. Down below lies a private, gated cove of white sand and turquoise water and easy-does-it snorkeling spots.
Geejam is the brainchild of founding partner Jon Baker, a British-born hip-hop record producer (Gee Street Records) based in New York and Jamaica. There were only four accommodations when I visited (18 more are planned) and an outsize level of service. Wander out to the beach and a cooler and stack of towels appear within moments; inquire about activities and one of the personable drivers turns up to whisk you off to splash in a nearby waterfall or raft on the Rio Grande (with a linger-awhile crawfish-and-coconut and jerk-chicken beach barbecue). On my last morning I awoke at 5:30 to find a warm pot of coffee, fruit, and fresh-baked bread already placed on my terrace.
I holed up in the Drum & Bass Suite beneath the main recording studio, a kind of home design–magazine version of a cliff dwelling, with its Philippe Starck bathtub, multiparticipant steam shower, and white-on-white bedroom looking out over the Caribbean. Open the folding wall of Brazilian cherrywood-framed window panels and the sprawling, crescent-shaped deck becomes an extension of the room.
Meals and social life center on the Bushbar, a burnished wooden tree house platform carpentered around a pair of centuries-old fig trunks. You could imagine a house party breaking out here almost by accident. I sat down for dinner beside the railing, mojito in hand, and tucked into a tangy onion bisque and spicy lobster pasta. As I waited for dessert, Albert Minott, the seventysomething lead singer of Baker's new/old act, the Jolly Boys, tuned up a few feet away. He plays mento music, a reggae and ska precursor with a slower-paced, clipped, chugging sound. Minott would ultimately launch into a stately "Ring of Fire," and do it proud. But just at that moment the counterpoint between the tree frogs and the blender behind the bar was spot-on perfect. --RICHARD NALLEY
THE DETAILS
$655–$1,895
Contact: 888-4GEEJAM geejamhotel.com